Buying Bluenotes

The albums I mostly associate Coltrane with are on the Atlantic and Impulse labels. "Coltrane Sounds", "Giant Steps", "Live at the Villiage Vanguard", etc. Classic, landmark albums to be sure, and are essential listening IMHO. Monk, was on CBS and Riverside (I think). The fact they are not on Blue Note should not disuade you from buying this great music.

The music and artists on Blue Note are some of my favorites. It's the hard bop style of music we're talking about, and there are so many great and well recorded albums. Rudy Van Gelder was the legendary engineer on these albums.

A very brief list to get things rolling:

Moanin; A Night in Tunisia Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
The Real McCoy McCoy Tyner
One Flight Up; Go Dexter Gordon
Adams Apple; Speak No Evil Wayne Shorter
Song for My Father Horrace Silver
Lee Way Lee Morgan

Best,
Max

PS. There is a great historic DVD from the Jazz Icon series. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers group filmed live in Belgium in 1958, one month to the day after recording their landmark album "Moanin". The quality is excellent!

and quite a few blue note LPs come with cd copy as well, just the thing for the ipod or car

Thanks guys. What versions should I be looking at for my price range or do I need to up it?

There have been (and continue to be)numerous re-issues of the popular BN catalog. Have a read of this article:

http://kleene.ss.uci.edu/~rmay/Bluenote.html

and for further reference on different labels

http://ronpenndorf.com/labelography.html

Personally - the 90s BN 'Top Ten' and some of the United Artists,Liberty, King and Toshiba vinyl re-issues have been the best value

Good read. Interesting about the history of Blue Note with the corresponding label reissues. Thanks for the link, Brilliant.

"For those currently starting a Blue Note collection, or seeking to increase their holdings, I would suggest buying the current top ten release, which are a real bargain; I've seen them as cheap as $12.99."

That's a good list.
Regarding sound quality, there is a definite difference between the early releases and latter reissues.
I have a fairly early McCoy Tyner "Real McCoy" bought in the early 1970's. It's worn, and unfortunately has suffered some basement flooding/mildew. Picked up the latest album last year, and (to my ears) the original is so much better. . . the CD is far worse.

Max

Thanks Brill, I'll have a read

Those titles that Max recommended you are great for starters. He is also right that the earlier McMaster discs do sound better for the most part.

I am a big Blue note fan and probably have about give or take a bob or two 900 albums from their catalogue.

Is there anything you have heard from the Blue Note catalogue that you like. If so I can recommend others that you may like.

You can email me on m.leemacpherson@tesco.net

quote:

Collecting Blue Note Jazz

I am familiar with Arthur Salvatore's site, a great suggestion for LPs with top notch sound quality, and equipment recommendations as well. He has a ton of recommendations, but leans heavily towards classical, with just a handful of mostly offbeat Jazz titles, and no Blue Notes.