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Blakey Just Coolin' review


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4 hours ago, JSngry said:

What's up with nobody noticing the real historical significance of this release - the first Blakey BN record to be released in a very stealth Unipack throwback package, on the CD. Sly!

Just received mine today and noticed that.  I like it! (the packaging, haven't listened to the music yet).

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11 hours ago, JSngry said:

Amazon delivers in a big hurry...yeah, this one cleaned up real nice! I actually envy people hearing this for the first time, w/o having heard the "backstory" of the full session!

Whew! I thought I might have to give you $15 if you didn't like it. 

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8 hours ago, david weiss said:

Whew! I thought I might have to give you $15 if you didn't like it. 

No man, I was on record form the beginning saying that a judiciously selected and edited production would make for a good-enough record, and sure enough, it has. Nicely played on all counts!

That original session..."frantic" comes to mind. But if you don't know that music, then then this makes for a very good B+/A- Messengers record at a time when we've not had one for a good long while, and may never have another one, at least not a studio date.

As for that & , I've been meditating on it and have concluded that it's an ass. If the packaging is a stealth Unipack, that & is a stealth Grandassa model.

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On 7/18/2020 at 3:57 PM, david weiss said:

I thought I'd try to clear a few things up for you....

The CD was mastered by Bernie Grundman. I thought he did a great job. I don't know when, but at some point, the master takes were chosen and an order was assembled and the CD and LP were mastered from that source but I believe the order as it was originally assembled, was changed for this release. 

Also, the full session that was circulating among some of you was not from the Blue Note vaults, A second machine was run at the same time and at least in this time period, at a slower speed and in mono. These were copies made for Alfred Lion to take home and listen to. These tapes have a different home now and this one got out somehow and circulated. The sound quality is fine but it is in mono. I listened to these as well as at one point, we were contemplating adding bonus tracks to this release. I have to say that while I am a fan of mono, when I first heard the stereo masters, this record sounded a whole lot better to me, it kind of came to life. Some of this is Grundman's mastering of course. And yes, to me Lee is the star of this session, he sounds great. When I first told Cuscuna I thought the date was not bad, he said, aw, you're just a trumpet player, meaning, I assume, that I was just taken in by Lee's playing. 

I guess I am still confused. The takes that were chosen were from the Blue Note vaults, it is only the alternates that were considered but not used that were from Alfred's tapes, or even the issued takes were from Alfred's tapes? Alfred had never gotten as far as deciding which ones he considered to be Master Takes, correct? He just shoved the session aside as fast as he could?

Edited by bertrand
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30 minutes ago, bertrand said:

I guess I am still confused. The takes that were chosen were from the Blue Note vaults, it is only the alternates that were considered but not used that were from Alfred's tapes, or even the issued takes were from Alfred's tapes? Alfred had never gotten as far as deciding which ones he considered to be Master Takes, correct? He just shoved the session aside as fast as he could?

Per the Blue Note discography project these were the master takes. This is how I assembled my CDR.

Edit to add: I just noticed "Just Foolin'"

blakey.jpg

Edited by Dan Gould
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Hmmm. So Alfred went as far as picking master takes, apparently. Why would he have done that if he hated the session?

Foolin' is a typo. The copyright deposit says Coolin', and that's what Hank called it when he recorded it as a leader.

Edited by bertrand
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Picked this up today. Its a decent enough date, but even without hearing the original tapes you can hear why it went unissued. Glad its out and happy to have it. Lee was on point, while Hank seemed a bit off. Only spun twice ao far but not much stands out aside from Lee and a reminder of how much I've always enjoyed Hipsippy Blues. 

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9 hours ago, gmonahan said:

Yeah, well, I like the music but hate the packaging. It's cheap, cheap, cheap.

 

 

 

gregmo

The packaging is awful.  The CD is packed so tight in there it’s going to be scratched. Fortunately, I have sleeve protectors that I purchased from CD Japan. 

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4 minutes ago, Brad said:

The packaging is awful.  The CD is packed so tight in there it’s going to be scratched. Fortunately, I have sleeve protectors that I purchased from CD Japan. 

Me too.  Not a ton of scratching on my end but as often happens with these mini LP packages the corner tore slightly when I removed the disc. I keep the inner CD sleeve just sticking out slightly so I can pull the disc slightly.

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11 hours ago, Brad said:

The packaging is awful.  The CD is packed so tight in there it’s going to be scratched. Fortunately, I have sleeve protectors that I purchased from CD Japan. 

If also do that for a lot of new releases packaged in this flimsy way. I bought a bunch of mini paper sleeves at Micro Center, kinda look like LP sleeves from the days of yore.

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54 minutes ago, bertrand said:

If also do that for a lot of new releases packaged in this flimsy way. I bought a bunch of mini paper sleeves at Micro Center, kinda look like LP sleeves from the days of yore.

Makes you long for digi packs. 

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46 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Jeez for me this packaging is such a non-issue. I know how to handle cds. At least they didn.t charge us 15 or 16.

Not a huge issue with me. I had no trouble getting it out. It's just the cheapness of it that irritates me.

 

 

 

gregmo

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I dig the thinness. . .I have very crowded shelves. And if they had done a jewel case they probably would have charged two to four dollars more! There's a shift towards paper packaging as an environmental move. . . probably a bit less ecologically damaging. And cheaper to produce.

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54 minutes ago, gmonahan said:

Not a huge issue with me. I had no trouble getting it out. It's just the cheapness of it that irritates me.

 

 

 

gregmo

How old are you, man? Just wondering if you have any Unipak LPs? It was Blue Note standard there for a while, plenty of classics came in it. It's  even "cheaper" than this is!

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50 minutes ago, JSngry said:

How old are you, man? Just wondering if you have any Unipak LPs? It was Blue Note standard there for a while, plenty of classics came in it. It's  even "cheaper" than this is!

Sorry but I can’t remember any BNs using these in the past. Can you point to an example or two. 

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