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Collecting Blue Note Jazz

I have decide to start building up a collection of Blue Note Jazz LPs, of which I have very few. What is the best way to go on what can be a sizeable investment. I am willing to spend for great music/sound quality, but cost is a factor, especially when originals are so expensive. I see many options, of which standouts include:
1. New Music Matters 45 RPM reissues.
2. Original Pressings ($$$)
3. Affordable but relatively early reissues (e.g. Blue Label, Liberty Pressings..maybe from the 70's or even early 1980s)
4. Just buy SACDs, since the LPs will not sound that great anyway.
The website www.dccblowout.com touts hot stampers. As I understand it, this site recommends shunning recent reissues and buying perhaps five or more original LPs or reissues (e.g. Blue Label) and keep the best sounding of the lot, while selling the rest. I've noticed that none of the Blue Note LPs I have so far offer sound quality on par with my LPs by the Contemporary Records label. Any recommendations? I have a pretty decent system for both LP and digital. Any advice would be much appreciated - Mark
mcmprov
jj2468
280 posts
 
My experience with vg+ vinyl is very similar to Grimace's report. Like a b+ insurance company rating, it often means its a "D" or an "F".

Having said that, I've found a lot of really nice NM and NM- records on eBay in the range of $5.00 to $15.00 or so. If you are in SoCal, I also recommend Atomic Records. They are on the web too, but save their more expensive stuff for eBay.
ed13
3 posts
 
Don't count on being able to find a good copy by only buying 5 versions of an album. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. I buy multiple copies of my favorite albums, clean them and try to find the best sounding copy. This can get expensive and time consuming.

I also like the P.T. Barnum approach of the Hot Stampers. I have about a dozen and purchased another this week. The sound is simply amazing on some of these. I easily have over 1000 albums but only listen to about 100 of them on a regular basis. I didn't spend the time and money to put a system together to listen to OK albums, I want to hear the best.
mcmprov OP
57 posts
 
I only aspire to own 500-600 albums in total, all of which I listen to enough to know pretty well, but not too well. I want to focus on getting the best sounding LP, with great music. If they don't sound great, might as well get a much more convenient digital version. Beyond this number, I think LPs get unwieldly to organize, store, and maintain quality control (for sound quality and condition). With Blue Notes, it might theoretically be easier to find a "hot stamper", since fewer LPs pressed in the first place and maybe superior quality control. Anyway, I'm just getting started with this BN collection. I'll experience a bit with all of the approaches and report back my findings. Even if I pick up a few sonic duds along the way, the music on this label seems maintain a very high level of quality.
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
all records, especially vintage ones, have been affected by their enviroment, and time itself. the best way to start..certainly the most cost effective.. would be the new re-issues(as expensive as they are, mint originals with mint covers can run hundreds of dollars each). as far as 'hot stampers', i think that ia juat a record thats an 'opened survivor'...nothing more. you might want to focus on jazz in general or else you'll miss some wonderful and creative music..bill evans, miles davis, charles lloyd, dave bruebeck, and tons of great verve, atlantic and columbia stuff....good luck.
mothra
110 posts
 
well...If you are buying for value originals or second pressings of valuable titles are still the way to go as we do not know in the long run which reissues will increase in value.

As for sonics, old blue note 1500 series stand up pretty well to wear and tear and are cut hot especially in the midrange. This is a sound that new reissues do not have. You may like this or you may not.

Just to own the music is a wonderful thing. Almost any copy will be rewarding. If you have the funds some of the more expensive reissues can be good. In spite of the complaints about classic label stuff, they do put out a lot of records that sound decent and are very expensive in original state.
The MM stuff has already ben discussed here.

In general remember, that much of the really clean original blue note stuff went to japan and has been traded heavily since the 60's. NM copies rarely see the light of day unless they were under someone's bed.

For my money the best value in blue notes are early king pressings. At times I have found them to be very close to originals.
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