Blue Note never-ever titles

[felser]

3 hours ago, cliffpeterson said:

Ezzthetics is based in Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU. Reputedly Switzerland copyright laws do not align with the EU copyright laws such that Ezzthetics can legally remaster (from lps, of course) and reissue music that is in Switzerland's public domain. 

And that label tends to do a really bad job at it, so often lopping tracks from classic albums, and reissuing parts of two classic albums together on one CD (their "Revisited: from.... t..." series.  There is value when they include two full albums, and I like their design, but I wish the label would think.  I thought everyone learned their lesson when MCA was doing that nonsense 35 years ago.

[clifford_thornton]

I would assume the abbreviated reissues are a way to get around any claims. They're just PD/grey market comps. Currently avoiding the label with the exception of remastered Coltrane bootlegs and Ayler I didn't have.

[T.D.]

On 6/8/2025 at 3:05 PM, felser said:

And that label tends to do a really bad job at it, so often lopping tracks from classic albums, and reissuing parts of two classic albums together on one CD (their "Revisited: from.... t..." series.  There is value when they include two full albums, and I like their design, but I wish the label would think.  I thought everyone learned their lesson when MCA was doing that nonsense 35 years ago.

 

23 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

I would assume the abbreviated reissues are a way to get around any claims. They're just PD/grey market comps. Currently avoiding the label with the exception of remastered Coltrane bootlegs and Ayler I didn't have.

I had figured ezz-thetics dropping tracks from CD reissues was just a way to fit 2 LPs on 1 CD. Interesting theory about the PD claim fiddle. 

I also avoid those dodgy ezz-thetics reissues on ethical (IMO) grounds, but do own 2 (Ayler and Marion Brown) purchased used on this forum. 

Edited Monday at 07:35 PM by T.D.

[colinmce]

The Ayler ones at least are official releases, and definitely the best of what he's put out in that vein. The rest is widely available elsewhere. Releasing stuff as commonplace as the Miles Prestige and Monk Five Spot recordings is laughable to me, and seems like a waste of both time and resources. 

[felser]

I have the Noah Howard and the Clifford Thornton, both of which were very helpful.  Also the Horace Silver live one, which is the best collection of that material.  Strange approach as the parent label, Hat Hut, is certainly not a PD label.

[Joe Harley]

https://store.bluenote.com/collections/uhq-cds?utm_campaign=745902_06.12.25_Blue Note Records_June 2025 Newsletter_Full List_231870_US&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dotmailer&dm_i=4YWU,FZJI,2623W4,2KFX2,1

[bertrand]

Joe, thanks!

Do you know anything about this list of titles that were never, ever going to come out on CD which allegedly circulated in the Blue Note Offices in the 90s?

Edited 21 hours ago by bertrand

[felser]

There Andrew Hill and McCoy Tyner titles that came out on the 1970's brown  paper bag vault issues (Tyner - Cosmos, Hill - One For One) that have only been on Selects, not on individual CD's, correct?

[JSngry]

48 minutes ago, felser said:

There Andrew Hill and McCoy Tyner titles that came out on the 1970's brown  paper bag vault issues (Tyner - Cosmos, Hill - One For One) that have only been on Selects, not on individual CD's, correct?

One Andrew Hill CD came out, Pax.

 

 

[Holy Ghost]

14 minutes ago, JSngry said:

One Andrew Hill CD came out, Pax.

 

 

👍

[bertrand]

Three of the four tracks on the second LP of Cosmos, those recorded 7/21/70, were bonus tracks on the CD version of Asante. And the entire Cosmos 2-LP set was released in Japan.

Another orphan session is the Elvin Jones date with Lee Morgan. That was in the Elvin Jones Mosaic only, and also in Japan as part of a reissue of the 2-LP Prime Element set.

The 5 other tracks from Cosmos should come out as a US CD. Not raising my hopes.

Bertrand.

 

[felser]

7 hours ago, bertrand said:

Three of the four tracks on the second LP of Cosmos, those recorded 7/21/70, were bonus tracks on the CD version of Asante. And the entire Cosmos 2-LP set was released in Japan.

Another orphan session is the Elvin Jones date with Lee Morgan. That was in the Elvin Jones Mosaic only, and also in Japan as part of a reissue of the 2-LP Prime Element set.

The 5 other tracks from Cosmos should come out as a US CD. Not raising my hopes.

Bertrand.

 

Thanks, I certainly agree with you on Cosmos.  The Elvin Jones Prime Element came out on CD in Japan a couple years ago.  I eagerly grabbed it and finally sold off my Elvin Mosaic box, now having everything on CD.  Waiting and hoping for the McLean High Frequency on CD so I can sell off the McLean Mosaic box, and the McLean HIpnosis on CD so that I can sell off the Moncur Mosaic Select.  Seems like the Japanese are our best hopes for this, as the BN USA business model seems more concerned with new listeners than with lifelong fans like us.

https://www.discogs.com/release/25315255-Elvin-Jones-The-Prime-Element

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I think Blue Note's business model is to make money and to do that in today's music market, vinyl is it. I don't and can't blame Blue Note for the CD market's slow death.

I actually blame the loudness wars and the audiophile market more than anything. Far too many never accepted that a CD can sound better than an LP, no matter what people do to show them this. Once the overly-loud CDs started appearing, it was the foothold these people needed to say, "See! CDs sound like shit," never mind that it was the result of shitty mastering and not the digital medium.

The latest kerfuffle over Mobile Fidelity using hi res DSD files as their masters for LPs showed that this mistaken disdain for all things digital is never going to go away. Even though these LP releases were pretty much universally lauded by everyone who heard them, the dyed-in-the-wool audiophiles are still howling over being fooled and are now claiming that they sound terrible. The emperor has no clothes.

[Son Of Ice Bag]

2 hours ago, felser said:

Thanks, I certainly agree with you on Cosmos.  The Elvin Jones Prime Element came out on CD in Japan a couple years ago.  I eagerly grabbed it and finally sold off my Elvin Mosaic box, now having everything on CD.  Waiting and hoping for the McLean High Frequency on CD so I can sell off the McLean Mosaic box, and the McLean HIpnosis on CD so that I can sell off the Moncur Mosaic Select.  Seems like the Japanese are our best hopes for this, as the BN USA business model seems more concerned with new listeners than with lifelong fans like us.

https://www.discogs.com/release/25315255-Elvin-Jones-The-Prime-Element

Don't forget Hutcherson "Inner Glow". But I would not sell the Mosaic Select: I like the booklet.

[JSngry]

If Tone Poet uses gatefold covers, why couldn't they do two-fers of these orphaned tracks?