The Japanese Blue Note CD LT series - awesome stuff!!

The awesome Blue Note LT series from Japan is now complete. This superb series shows exactly how to do a reissue series on physical CD in the year 2012. Budget price - the conversion is about $10 each. Highest production standards - from the artwork, through to pressing, all the way to the mastering, which is clearly from original analog tapes supervised by Michael Cuscuna (who provides brief new notes to each title) and done by a Japanese mastering engineer whose work here is simply outstanding. Let's face it - the LT series of Blue Notes has never got a whole lotta love. They came on LP with average pressings, and subpar sound for the most part, at least nowhere near the original BN RVG sound. The cover art was universally despised, being such a great departure from the 'classic' BN look. And at the time, many considered this to be a series of leftovers, a barrel scraping exercise to wring a last round of profits by United Artists from their acquisition of Blue Note. Subsequent reissues have done little to re-evaluate these titles, and they have never been reissued as a comprehensive series - until now.

This really is the way to do a reissue campaign. Three big batches of titles a month apart gives us the ability - in fact, implores us - to re-evaluate the LT series as a whole. And in doing so, these titles for the most part come to life again under a whole new light. 

The fact is that I have always had mixed feelings about unreleased sessions and tracks surfacing, it all too often seems that the right decision was the original one and there were good reasons the sessions didn't get released in the first place. That is true of many of the titles here. But at the same time, understanding that, it also becomes clear that a whopping number of these sessions have huge merit musically and historically.

Larry Young's "Mothership" is a stone classic, for me the very best Larry Young record. It features Lee Morgan and the outstanding, seldom recorded tenor of Herbert Morgan, it is Young's last BN session, and his most straight ahead date very much in the vein of mid period Coltrane. Smoking hot. I previously had the domestic BN Connoisseur edition which this mastering easily tops. Totally and urgently recommended.

Jackie McLean appears several times in the LT series, "Vertigo" is an incomplete 1963 session supplemented with an earlier track, here the title track is one of Jackie's best in  his extensive discography, the title is descriptive as it is not a head/solos/head piece, but a very well laid out vertigo-inducing set of cell like riffs and developments, stops and starts with solos weaving in and out of the angular theme. Despite having some superb playing and great writing, the session didn't yield enough for an entire album - maybe due to how challenging the title track must have been - hence its laying in the vaults until the LT issue. Donald Byrd, Hancock, Tony Williams - a rare appearance of Byrd in front of Williams - worth it just for the title track. More McLean - Consequence is a '65 session with Harold Mabern, Lee Morgan and others that likely never came out as Jackie had moved on to more 'new thing' material, yet this is a session that ranks up with his best - might even be better than a lot of his stuff of that era. 

Speaking of Lee Morgan, Sonic Boom is a session that most notably features the only appearance of Fathead Newman on BN, sticking to tenor, obviously BN were looking for another boogaloo hit from Lee and bringing Fathead on board was probably aimed at stimulating that, but with the caliber of musician on board here, that wasn't going to happen. Sure, it does have some of that vibe happening, but Fathead is such a complete player that the date is elevated to a deeper hard bop one, and likely this one sat around the vault as BN issued Lee records that they thought might have another  'Sidewinder'. A fine date, made important due to Fathead.

Morgan's "Infinity" with McLean is a another great date ignored at the time purely due to how much Lee material BN had in hand. McLean appears, a superb Reggie Workman on bass. Essential, as is Lee Morgan's "Taru" with has Bennie Maupin on tenor and in much in the same vein as "Sonic Boom" but a bit funkier, and Maupin is still today an under-appreciated tenor man. The remastering here subtly exceeds my previous go-to 88.1 Japanese remastering, which is still very fine.

Wayne Shorter's "Soothsayer" and "Etcetera" are both remastered here so well that they come across almost as new records. Etcetera I always considered to be second rate Shorter, although the Music Matters vinyl went a long way to changing that. But this edition takes it all the way, if not to classic status, but to the level of being a fine quartet date, the previous Connoisseur version had watery, wimpy sound that here has power, dynamics, a full tonality. It roars, where it used to whimper. A transformation, as is "Soothsayer" where the RVG is easily exceeded with more natural sound, more organic, warm tone  and ease with the series' characteristic deep transparency, full dynamics and rhythmic integrity.

Donald Byrd with Pepper Adams on baritone can never be less than stellar. "The Creeper" is a late BN Byrd date that brings back Pepper, along with Sonny Red's alto and Chick Corea, for a straight ahead hard bop date that updates the classic Byrd/Pepper combo and sums up the era while pointing ahead, particularly with Miroslav Vitous making a very rare BN appearance. Great tunes, and the band is on fire. An essential, and very unique, date.

The remastering on these is simply outstanding in every respect. Clearly original tapes have been used, and the mastering is very sensitive to representing the fidelity of the tapes and the BN vibe. While I find the original BN McMaster CD's to be lacking in transparency, with little air or bloom and a rather dull, flat sound, now with this series we are at the other spectrum - vibrant, full-throated, open, very analog-like sound. These titles are sonically transformed and can now be heard as faithfully to the tapes as digital allows, for the first time.

One exception to that may be Hank Mobley's "A Slice Of The Top", where I felt the sound was not quite up to the rest of the series. I find it a bit flat, a bit artificial or un-natural sounding, not bad by any means, but something less open and dynamic, almost like a copy tape several generations down has been used. It may well be that what I am hearing is simply what the tape represents. It's not my favorite Mobley anyways, and the LT series has "Thinking Of Home" in sound that again far exceeds the sole domestic CD issue, and "Third Season", with a rather out of place sounding Sonny Greenwich on guitar, again a major sonic upgrade. Thinking Of Home is late BN Mobley and likely considered less marketable as it is less formulaic than usual from BN, and Third Season, while featuring some great tunes and Lee, Spaulding solos of intense power, was probably left in the vault due to the Greenwich experiment not working out. But looking at it again with such fabulous sound, there is much to recommend.

There is no bad Harold Land, and "Take Aim" is no exception. This is a no-name quintet that is a really fine late hard bop date that surely should have been released at the time. Just as Andrew Hill's "Dance With Death" is a superb date featuring Joe Farrell, and is just as important as any of Hill's earlier BN stuff, and even if it isn't "Smokestack" or 'Judgement", this is a fine series of challenging yet accessible tunes with great playing, and an unusual for BN cast of characters. Never sounded so good. Totally recommended.

Stanley Turrentine gets a mixed bag in the LT series. "New York Shuffle" is a grab band of larger band Turrentine which is enjoyable yet far from essential or memorable. "In Memory Of" is a '64 session with Hancock, Blue Mitchell, Curtis Fuller and the under-appreciated Otis Finch on drums that is again not essential, but a great band and a thoroughly enjoyable session. The mastering gets Turrentine's tone exactly right. Blue is not really the right foil for Turrentine, but this is very unique, so is recommeded, as is "Mr. Natural", which has something of a legendary status in Japan, primarily I suppose because it has Elvin Jones in a very rare appearance behind Turrentine, as well as Lee and Tyner. It is another case where Elvin is the wrong guy for Turrentine, but looking back, it is very interesting and compelling as a one-off. Great tunes and playing by all. Turrentine is challenged to go a bit further with Elvin than he did in more typical settings. Interesting. Recommenmded.

This is simply a superb series that brings a barrel full of records back to life in superb sound, the best 16bit digital today can possibly be, and at a deep bargain price. This is the way it should be every time - no skimping on the packaging, production or sonics - just a price aimed at putting fantastic music in as many hands as possible. There is no excuse, get as many of these as you can - and like everything else issued in Japan, these will only be around for a very short time.