Blue Note "two-fers".

[slide_advantage_redoux]

Are those old Blue Note "two-fers" particularly collectible? I have a few different ones in my collection, and nearly every one of them were cut outs.

Are any of them harder to come by? Just wondered.

[JohnS]

Those with the beige coloured covers? If they are not they ought to be. Nicely produced, intelligent notes and great music. Pressing quality wasn't always that great. I like 'em.

Edited November 10, 2005 by JohnS

[sidewinder]

I'll second John's comments. Have most of them - sound OK to quite good (typical BN late 70s quality). Really excellent notes - many of them by M Cuscuna. At the time they were like 'mana from heaven'.

[RDK]

That series will always be dear to me. That's where I first heard Monk! It was like a first kiss...

[BruceH]

I'll second John's comments. Have most of them - sound OK to quite good (typical BN late 70s quality). Really excellent notes - many of them by M Cuscuna. At the time they were like 'mana from heaven'.

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I'm also a big fan of the series. I started buying them around 1980 and they helped get me into a lot of good music!

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, they are great - especially the amount of previously unreleased stuff on there. I can't think any are particularly "rare" although the Hill was in some demand for a while.

[jazzhound]

Are those old Blue Note "two-fers" particularly collectible? I have a few different ones in my collection, and nearly every one of them were cut outs.

Are any of them harder to come by? Just wondered.

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Not collectable cause most of the unreleased stuff was released in Japan which are better pressings and bring money. These BN's are destined to stay cheap which allows newbies into vinyl to get into the music.

I just happened to discover a Prestige two fer called Sonny Rollins mastered by Rudy Van Gelder and in mono. Has different tracks except for two than the Saxophone Colossus later two fer and includes some early stuff that smokes. One track was so straight ahead in a modern rhythmic sense it brought to mind McLaughins playing with Tony Williams Liftime. Interesting enough the labels say stereo but RVG scratched out the ST prefix in the matrix numbers and kept it mono. thanks Rudy! sounds great!

[sidewinder]

Indeed ! That 'Sonny Rollins' Prestige twofer was my intro to Mr Rollins and still sounds excellent in the mono. It was originally bought for me as an Xmas gift from relatives and I still actually have a note for them actually apologising for the mono ( it was the 1970s ).

Can't beat side 3 (I think thats the one) with 'Valse Hot' and other material by the Brown/Roach group. Stonkin !

[jazzbo]

These and the Prestige twofers. .. wow. . . great series that introduced me to many great albums!

I still remember being FLOORED by the Lateefs!

[mikeweil]

Same here - good introduction to much great music. Always kept them until I had better sounding or more complete CD issues.

With the Andrew Hill Mosaic Select the last of these have been made available on CD ... the end of an era, definitely.

[JohnS]

Indeed ! That 'Sonny Rollins' Prestige twofer was my intro to Mr Rollins and still sounds excellent in the mono. It was originally bought for me as an Xmas gift from relatives and I still actually have a note for them actually apologising for the mono ( it was the 1970s    ).

Can't beat side 3 (I think thats the one) with 'Valse Hot' and other material by the Brown/Roach group. Stonkin !

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If we are getting off topic with Prestige, The Arista Savoy doubles were pretty neat too. Good Lateef as well.

[danasgoodstuff]

Ah yes, he says knowingly, "the 'paper bag' series..."

Edited November 11, 2005 by danasgoodstuff

[Jim R]

Some of the "Blue Note Reissue Series" twofers had the light brown covers (I'm another who first encountered some great music that way... Rollins' "More from the Vanguard", Wes' "Beginnings", etc), but some had those weird "extreme magnification" photo covers... black with multicolored dots. I know there are scans of the brown ones at Gokudo... can't remember if the other type are there. I'll have to look. Anyway, I still have the Stanley Turrentine twofer with a lot of material (arranged by Duke Pearson in the late 60's) that hasn't been reissued since (not on CD). I remember having a Dexter twofer from this series, but it was all stuff that had been out on his BN albums (all of which I bought later).

Apparently the designer of this other twofer series was named Bob Cato.

[Jim R]

There's more here: http://gokudo.co.jp/Record/BlueNote5/index.htm

Edited November 11, 2005 by Jim R

[Stereojack]

There's more here:  http://gokudo.co.jp/Record/BlueNote5/index.htm

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The big difference between this series and the brown cover series is that these were basically "best of" compilations of mostly available material aimed at the newbie, while the brown cover series consisted of unreleased sessions or newly compiled rare material, aimed at the more experienced jazz fan.

[Jim R]

Jack, that was my recollection as well (in general). The Dexter twofer was an example. The odd thing is, much of the material on the Turrentine had its only release (afaik) on that twofer. And it's really good, IMO. I never had many of the others (JOS, Hubbard, Corea, etc).

[felser]

Jack, that was my recollection as well (in general).  The Dexter twofer was an example.  The odd thing is, much of the material on the Turrentine had its only release (afaik) on that twofer.  And it's really good, IMO.  I never had many of the others (JOS, Hubbard, Corea, etc).

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If I remember correctly, I think that was also the case with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis in that series. The other series had light brown at first, and then dark brown later on, I think with smaller cover photos than on the light brown ones if I remember.

[Bill Nelson]

Yes, overall the brown paper BN two-fers were superior in their selections.

All of these are must-have classics, many with some previously unreleased tracks.

Here are the brown paper titles from 1975-76, which weren't in print very long:

BN-LA 451 Paul Chambers/John Coltrane - High Step

BN-LA 453 Sam Rivers - Involution

BN-LA 456 Lester Young - The Alladin Sessions

BN-LA 457 Jackie McLean - Jacknife

BN-LA 458 Cecil Taylor - In Transition

BN-LA 459 Andrew Hill - One for One

BN-LA 460 McCoy Tyner - Cosmos

BN-LA 461 Gil Evans - Pacific Standard Time

BN-LA 472 Chick Corea - Circling In

BN-LA 475 Sonny Rollins - More From the Vanguard

BN-LA 506 Elvin Jones - The Prime Element

BN-LA 507 Fats Navarro - Prime Source

BN-LA 521 Johnny Griffin/Coltrane/Mobley - Blowin'Sessions

BN-LA 529 Paul Horn - In India

BN-LA 530 The Jazz Crusaders - The Young Rabbits

BN-LA 531 Wes Montgomery - Beginnings

BN-LA 532 Gerry Mulligan/Lee Konitz - Revelation

BN-LA 533 T-Bone Walker - Classics of Modern Blues

BN-LA 579 Thelonious Monk - The Complete Genius

BN-LA 591 Art Pepper - Early Art

BN-LA 632 Jean-Luc Ponty - Canteloupe Island

The producer of these was Michael Cuscuna, with some by Pete Welding. Charlie Lourie was Project Director of the Blue Note Reissue Series. (The sharp-eyed observer will see a pattern here.)

You got it, dude. Most of these became complete Mosaics -- save Montgomery, Rollins, Ponty, Horn, and Tyner.

The presence of 'Dr.' Jive Butler was nowhere to be found.

The micro-dot sets never grabbed me -- visually or aesthetically. Maybe I'm a sucker for plain brown paper and the grain of its texture.

[JSngry]

Some of the "Blue Note Reissue Series" twofers had the light brown covers (I'm another who first encountered some great music that way... Rollins' "More from the Vanguard", Wes' "Beginnings", etc), but some had those weird "extreme magnification" photo covers... black with multicolored dots.  I know there are scans of the brown ones at Gokudo... can't remember if the other type are there.  I'll have to look.  Anyway, I still have the Stanley Turrentine twofer with a lot of material (arranged by Duke Pearson in the late 60's) that hasn't been reissued since (not on CD).  I remember having a Dexter twofer from this series, but it was all stuff that had been out on his BN albums (all of which I bought later).

Apparently the designer of this other twofer series was named Bob Cato.

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Those were the first releases of "The Blue Note Reissue Series", and the only ones to bear that cover design. It was a one-shot release, as the series name was then transferred to the "paper bag" two-fer series (great name, btw, never heard it before!) and then to a release (or two?) that had the same concept, format, and design, only with "slick" covers. (Ironically, perhaps, the cheaper looking covers have been much less susceptable to wear than have the slick ones). It was in this second wave of "The Blue Note Reissue Series" that the concept of issuing previously unissued sessions came to the fore (the Turrentine from the first series notwithstanding - that album in no way advertised its contents, and it wasn't until just a few years ago that I found that out, much to my chagrin...).

The two-fer then evolved into the single-album LT/"Rainbow" series (the actual series title was "Blue Note Classic"), which, along with the last few Horace Silver albums, were the last gasps of Blue Note until the label was rebirthed in 198?.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Cuscuna & Lourie viewed both the twofer & the LT series as a sort of "stealth" operation, a way to get as much unreleased stuff out of the vault as they could in as little time as possible. The LT series in particular focused on this, although it too contained a few straight reissue items, iirc. What I do know is that the first few releases got a lot of fanfare, and after that, little if any. By the time the LT series began, it was to the point where you bought 'em when they came out (and knowing when that was going to be required, in these parts anyway, having a contact at a record store to give you the heads up) or else you'd not see them again. literally.

Edited November 12, 2005 by JSngry

[sidewinder]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Cuscuna & Lourie viewed both the twofer & the LT series as a sort of "stealth" operation, a way to get as much unreleased stuff out of the vault as they could in as little time as possible.

Yes, I think that was it - get as much of this stuff out there before the bean-counters cottoned onto it. I detect the strong presence of Charlie Lourie behind the session selections of the 'paper bag' issues and - of course - the similarity with Mosaic.

When I first saw these they were on display in a window of a small provincial music shop as scarce US imports. An incredible sight - considering how little in the way of BN imports there had been in the UK around the mid-70s. Particularly remember seeing that great Jazz Crusaders double and the Gil Evans and Wes sets in that display.

That Turrentine 'technicolour yawn' twofer by the way is really excellent. Some very nice Duke Pearson mid-sized group material on one of the LPs. There's also another Turrentine compilation in the 'brown bag' series with small group material.

Edited November 12, 2005 by sidewinder

[JSngry]

A technicality - the Turrentine was one of the ones that had the white-bordered, slick-paper cover. But yeah, great set!

[sidewinder]

Yes - that's true. The Lee Morgan 'Procrastinator' also came in that design. I don't think these were ever marketed for sale in the UK other than specialist imports, I picked up my copy in North America.

[danasgoodstuff]

For what it's worth, I first heard the "paper bag" and "rainbow" series nicknames from collectors in the twinn cities when I lived there in the late '80s/early '90s. They schooled me in many ways and to them great thanks...

[Dan Gould]

.  Anyway, I still have the Stanley Turrentine twofer with a lot of material (arranged by Duke Pearson in the late 60's) that hasn't been reissued since (not on CD). 

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So, was this stuff from Always Something There and The Look of Love?

Or is it possible there's BN Stanley I don't have?

Enquiring minds need to know!

[Chuck Nessa]

.  Anyway, I still have the Stanley Turrentine twofer with a lot of material (arranged by Duke Pearson in the late 60's) that hasn't been reissued since (not on CD). 

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So, was this stuff from Always Something There and The Look of Love?

Or is it possible there's BN Stanley I don't have?

Enquiring minds need to know!

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Among other things, it includes the rest of the titles from the New Time Shuffle sessions.