If you haven't heard them, do it. This is the best these titles have ever sounded and ever will. If you have the 45, particularly those repeated from the Analogue Productions 45 rpm series, well, yes - you need to get these, and hopefully you have a used record store in your area to ease your pain. They completely invalidate the sonics of the AP BN series.
However, Soul Station was done in 45rpm by Music Matters, not AP, and sounds good at 45. Why, then, would the same company and the same team (admittedly now sans Hoffman) do a double dip and reissue Soul Station yet again?
The reason is - because they can do it better. And not just better - way better, so way that it justifies the double dip, which double dips rarely do.
And this one is overwhelmingly justified.
I don't need to tell you about the music. It is probably Mobley's greatest record, one of the top 20 Blue Notes in history, and probably Blakey's finest moment on record. Being anchored by the light touch and incredible swing of Wynton Kelly and the big bottom of Paul Chambers is a dream combo.
So to the sound - it is organic. The earlier MM 45 was less so, favoring a more delineated sound, that maybe has more transparency - but here, it sounds as a whole. The sense of 'harmonic inner timing" is here to a much greater extent than before. And the tonality - that is a whole different matter. The sheer brassiness of Mobley on this date, the swings, the dips, the slurs, the swoops - the sheer range of his sound, and his burnished tone - all here, right out in front. There are no speakers, just this huge ornaic sound straight out in space ahead of you. Blakey bombs and shimmers, the metal hits, the shimmying of the cymbals, the big swooshes, the drama of Blakey all perfectly represented like the day in Hackensack they recorded it. A monster record, and all I can add is - the previous MM was great, and I listened to it and enjoyed it. The new MM I can't stop playing.
On to a Music Matters 45 I had inexplicably overlooked. Actually, a record I have totally ignored until I had the idea come to me that I should pick up the MM45.
The music is an amazing set of varied tunes, not the typical blowing formula or uptempo/ballad/uptempo a side formula so often used in this era. This is a beautiful, almost autumnal record, from a unique voice. I came to Thad via the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band recordings of the 70's, the greatest big band operating in the 70's, way past the end of the big band era. Thad always marched to his own beat, even against the tides of the times, and that is no less the case in the late 50's on The Magnificent Thad Jones.Thad has been somewhat diminished historically, overshadowed by his brothers Hank and Elvin. Undeserved, but understandable as his body of work as sole leader is quite small.
Magnificent Thad Jones is a treasure. The sonics here, mid-50's, are astonishing. Barry Harris' piano actually sounds like a real piano, unlike a lot of RVG recordings of the ear. Thad sounds amazing, with a huge, wide open tone - I can hear echoes of dixieland in Thad, echoes of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, and a very unique harmonic voice, very advanced, always swinging. The fourth track, where Billy Mitchell's tenor lays out, is a masterpiece of advanced ballad playing that is so stunning, and at times the sound so incredibly beautiful, it is not just a one track masterpiece. It sums everything that came before, and points ahead as a roadmap to free jazz, without ever losing the song. Incredible.
This may be one of the very best pre-1960's Music Matters Blue Notes, so don't miss a completely unique, unforgettable record. The cover alone is worth the price.
Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder. Done by Analogue Productions on 45 rpm, now done by Music Matters at 33 rpm. In every way, the 33 supersedes the 33. Again, the AP 33 sounds like they thought it was a Barry Manilow record, not a hard bop record with boogaloo swing. The MM 33 has what is now becoming apparent will be the signature sound of this new series - completely organic, holistic sound, incredible transparency but not clinical, transparency to source and the holistic analog signature of the master tape, astonishingly low noise floor, a massive big sound with floor crushing timing.
Of course, The Sidewinder is an essential record. Morgan's trumpet, coming back after a lengthy drug related layoff, has a confidence and swagger, and a new maturity. Joe Henderson is massive and skirts the edges of his sound. Billy Higgins throws up a wall of shimmering cymbals. It's all here, and I daresay, an original could not possibly sound this good. This is the definitive Sidewinder, despite a sense for a few seconds - seconds only - with the opening bars (the bass figures) that there is a slight wobble in the master tape, which is immediately dispelled when the horns come in. I only mention it as the AP did not have that slight sonic hesitation at the start, which says that the MM 33 comes from the true, one and only, authentic master tape. Obviously a well used master given the popularity of Sidewinder - but still one capable of giving up glorious sound in the right hands - which are the hands that brought the Sidewinder to life once again, via Music Matters.
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