Collecting Blue Note Jazz


I have decide to start building up a collection of Blue Note Jazz LPs, of which I have very few. What is the best way to go on what can be a sizeable investment. I am willing to spend for great music/sound quality, but cost is a factor, especially when originals are so expensive. I see many options, of which standouts include:
1. New Music Matters 45 RPM reissues.
2. Original Pressings ($$$)
3. Affordable but relatively early reissues (e.g. Blue Label, Liberty Pressings..maybe from the 70's or even early 1980s)
4. Just buy SACDs, since the LPs will not sound that great anyway.
The website www.dccblowout.com touts hot stampers. As I understand it, this site recommends shunning recent reissues and buying perhaps five or more original LPs or reissues (e.g. Blue Label) and keep the best sounding of the lot, while selling the rest. I've noticed that none of the Blue Note LPs I have so far offer sound quality on par with my LPs by the Contemporary Records label. Any recommendations? I have a pretty decent system for both LP and digital. Any advice would be much appreciated - Mark
mcmprov

Showing 1 response by mothra

well...If you are buying for value originals or second pressings of valuable titles are still the way to go as we do not know in the long run which reissues will increase in value.

As for sonics, old blue note 1500 series stand up pretty well to wear and tear and are cut hot especially in the midrange. This is a sound that new reissues do not have. You may like this or you may not.

Just to own the music is a wonderful thing. Almost any copy will be rewarding. If you have the funds some of the more expensive reissues can be good. In spite of the complaints about classic label stuff, they do put out a lot of records that sound decent and are very expensive in original state.
The MM stuff has already ben discussed here.

In general remember, that much of the really clean original blue note stuff went to japan and has been traded heavily since the 60's. NM copies rarely see the light of day unless they were under someone's bed.

For my money the best value in blue notes are early king pressings. At times I have found them to be very close to originals.