2009 Connoisseurs

[Dan Gould]

I completely agree; starting with Pacific Jazz reissues that have never been reissued here or in Japan.

I thought that was what Mighty Quinn was going to be all about with the Pepper Adams, Don Ellis, etc material? Have they shifted gears?

Maybe those reissues were so successful they decided to stop.

You know what they say about too much success.

[Late]

You know what they say about too much success.

Stanley Crouch starts following you around.

[AndrewHill]

Offer limited quantities of material for first time reissues. The West Coast Classics series is what I would want to see more of. Nearly all of them had been previously unavailable (Mulligan, Picture of Heath to the contrary).

If selling CD's is becoming more of a collectors' or niche market, then appeal that audience.

The WCC's were a rare opportunity to get a lot of PJ sessions that were largely unavailable in cd form at the time (as you have already pointed out); a Conn series of the West, if you will. But you see how quickly those disappeared, and that's what I believe was the beginning of the demise of the PJ material, sans the remastered Baker disks that came out a while back. Otherwise, don't hold your breath for any substantial material in the near future (sans the Gil Evans set that came out last year in the conn series and the Booker that came out earlier than that, but notice that these discs carry the BN label and not Pacific Jazz label too; a sign of their unmarketable appeal).

PS: Picture of Heath was not a WCC, but a reissue of The Playboys, which already saw cd issue. POH, had a new photo of the band that replaced the racey photo of a model covering her breasts with two hand-puppets; perhaps the reason for the new cd reissue, which apparrently is going OOP too.

[ghost of miles]

I finally got around to listening to the Bobby Hutcherson HEAD ON Connoisseur last night. Damn!! :excited: And the three lengthy bonus tracks were aces too. Grateful that BN chunked this one out in last year's batch.

[mtodde]

I like the idea of the dual LP/CD release however the CD versions are going to be the same RVG remasters that are out there. I've been replacing mine with Ron McMaster versions wherever possible...the LPs have been remastered by Ron so they'll at least have a good start but I'm not sure how the pressing quality will be.

If you don't have a title $22 isn't too bad for the CD & LP but if you've already got the CD you'd be better off spending $11 more to get a good reissue from Classic Records...just my opinion...some folks love the current RVGs but I think Rudy has become deaf.

[gmonahan]

It'll be interesting to see what Cuscuna selects for the 2009 batch. The series has been going since 1994! Hard to believe. I can't really think of that many Blue Note titles that haven't seen CD issue at one time or another — U.S. or Japan, single disc or Mosaic — that might be in this new batch. I suppose we'll eventually see Tyrone Washington's session (the TOCJ works for me though) sans trainwreck. Personally, I'd be more interested in what could be excavated from Pacific Jazz, Colpix, United Artists, Solid State, and any other associated arcane labels.

Otherwise, though I have the respective Mosaics, I'd welcome the aforementioned Rivers and McLean titles.

Maybe someday Cuscuna will put out an Art Hodes Blue Note Mosaic Select. I'd be all over that.

He did it already, back in the day, with the now out-of-print #114 The Complete Art Hodes Blue Note Sessions (4 CDs or 5 LPs)

Kind of doubt they'd do it again. I guess Blue Note could do it, but I don't know that it would sell much.

greg mo