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Blue Note in the 80s & early 90s


montg

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Some original Blue Note artists (Turrentine, Jimmy Smith, Hubbard) and new artists (e.g., Ralph Peterson and Bobby Watson) recorded in the early days after Blue Note was reactivated. It's mostly all out of print now--I haven't heard much of it since I really didn't begin listening to jazz until the mid 90s. I'm curious if any of the 80s and early 90s Blue Note stuff holds up well and would be worth reissuing.

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Absolutely!

Bobby Watson's "Post-Motown Bop" is one of his 2 or 3 best albums.

I'm also inordinately fond of Jack Walrath's "Master of Suspense" and "Neohippus."

Michel Petrucciani's "Power of Three" is a masterwork. McCoy Tyner's "Revelations" might also be one.

The albums from Ralph Peterson and Geri Allen, all very fine, came from the Somethin' Else label in Japan. Maybe they'll be reissued over there.

But the others, from BN/USA, might be in an undeserved reissue limbo for a long, long time.

Alas, some of the titles probably DO deserve to be in reissue limbo. The Hubbard and Turrentine titles were big disappointments.

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The Hubbard solo stuff may have been so-so, but the two co-led with Woody Shaw were wonderful and have already had their deserved reissue.

Totally agree on the excellence of the Geri Allen, Ralph Peterson, Jack Wlarath & Bobby Watson titles already mentioned.

The Adams/Pulllen Quintet and Pullen solo are about to be Mosaic-ed...

I'm also quite fond of an allstar jam thing they did called New York Stories which featured young lions such as Watson, Redman, Hargrove(?), etc. and Danny Gatton as the ringer.

I think the two Don Grolnick(sp?) BN's would fit this criteria as well.

So, I guess the short answer is "yes"...

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In addition, the George Adams solo recordings--two lyrical recordings focusing on standards and traditional American Songs, and his brilliant final recording, Old Feeling.

The three superb Don Pullen and the Afro-Brazilian Connection CDs, and Pullen's final recording, combining American Indian music and jazz.

Then there was the series of John Scofield/Joe Lovano quartet recordings.

The Jack Walraths and Hubbard/Shaw recordings have been noted.

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I have a couple of Renee Rosnes releases and I rate them among my favourite Blue Note's. Great compositions featuring such sidemen as Joe Henderson and Wayne Shorter. They definitely deserve reissue.

True Renee story.

I was at the jazz fest in Pori, Finland and had the opportunity to meet and hang with Renee and Billy Drummond. We were outside and it started to sprinkle at which point I couldn't resist saying "when it's Renee, it's Pori". She laughed politely and moved away. Billy gave me the evil eye. Lord help me, I just couldn't stop myself.

BTW, their set was killin'.

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The 2 excellent Grolnick cd's have been reissued too in the double time series (but oop again).

How about the 2 Vince Mendoza (Capitol/Manhattan) releases? OK a bit fusionesque for the pure jazz fan maybe but I rate them amongst my top 20 cd's ever (for what that's worth).

Cheers,

Reinier

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Second the Tony Williams's (when will 'Tokyo Live' be re-released?) also any of the Bobby Watson Horizons and Geri Allen 'The Nurturer'. All very good.

Big thumbs up too to one of my favourites of this vintage - Ralph Peterson's 'Introducing the 'Fotet'. Just love that band !

And not forgetting the Andrew Hill 'Eternal Spirit' and 'But Not Farewell' either. :wub:

Second that recommendation for Joe Chambers 'Mirrors' too. Sad that he didn't do a follow-up for BN.

Edited by sidewinder
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The Grolnicks are indeed excellent! As is the Chambers. But as they both were OOP fast, I don't think we'll see them soon again.

How about the two Bennie Wallace's? I have one on LP ("Bordertown"), and it seems the other one is even better.

While I have the old version of the Shaw/Hubbard 2CD set, I'd certainly welcome a new release of those - with a few alternates, and studio chatter etc, please!

ubu

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How about the two Bennie Wallace's? I have one on LP ("Bordertown"), and it seems the other one is even better.

Yeah! Get someone on this asap! With Blue Note going all pop you might think that these excellent forrays into the blues w/ Dr. John, Stevie Ray etc... might warrant an easy print ad for a nice price twofer!!

bordertown.gif

twilittime.jpg

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Besides some of those mentioned -

Tony Williams

Bennie Wallace

Bobby Watson

Don Grolnick

Renee Rosnes

New York Stories

Andrew Hill

Ralph Peterson

I would say these:

Steve Maskowski

Kenny Burrell Guitar Band with Rodney Jones and Bobby Broom

Sherman Irby

Greg Osby

Geoff Keezer

Mark Shim

Edited by mikeweil
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Man, I had no idea there was so much interesting material from this period. A revelation to me. Enough, I should think, to keep M. Cuscuna busy for a good long while. Here's hoping he get's really creative with the Select concept and gets some of this out.

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The Kenny Cox lps.

These were done around the late '60s or early '70s.

Geez, looks like '68 & '69....glad you pointed that out. What was I ever thinkin'?

Yeah, if I hadn't been too lazy, I would have gone downstairs to the "archives" to check on the dates, but I do remember having purchased them over 30 years ago. They are very good dates in a Miles late '60s vein. However I doubt that they'll ever see the light of day on CD as all the players are relative unknowns.

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