September 19,
2007
Music Matters to These Guys
The buried
treasure for those who frequent garage sales in search of LPs are jazz titles from the
'50s and '60s, especially from Blue Note Records. Some Blue Note LPs command big money on
the used market because their sound quality is considered definitive. But a new music
label is working to challenge this notion, reissuing classic Blue Note titles on
super-quiet 180-gram vinyl in the most authentic way possible.
Music Matters is the creation of industry
veterans Steve Hoffman, Kevin Gray, Joe Harley, Ron Rambach and Michael Cuscuna. Not
satisfied with producing just another series of reissues, the Music Matters team decided
to create LPs that would improve upon the originals in terms of musical fidelity,
pressing noise, and packaging quality. Each will be a 45 spread over four sides, and the
gatefold packaging will use the original cover artwork and include unpublished pictures
from the recording sessions. Such attention to detail doesn't come cheap -- $50 per title
-- but once you see what an original mint copy of Hank Mobley's Soul Station or
Dexter Gordon's A Swingin' Affair costs, you'll think these two-LP sets are more
than reasonable.
The product of first-generation analog master
tapes, the Music Matters reissues have a refined sonic pedigree. Collectors and
audiophiles prize the mono versions of Blue Note LPs for their supposed sonic
authenticity, but, as the Music Matters team discovered, the mono tapes were often derived
from the stereo masters. Therefore, many of the reissues will be in stereo, not mono. From
the Music Matters website:
"To our collective surprise, when listening to the master tape, the stereo was
greatly preferred to the (summed) mono." The audio equipment used for mastering and
playback is some of the finest available, right down to the isolation products, which come
from Silent Running Audio.
Music Matters has an ambitious schedule planned:
six initial releases, then two titles each month through 2009. There will be 63 titles in
all, and they comprise a cross-section of the most important music from the golden age of
jazz.
Look for the first six titles -- Art Blakey's The
Big Beat, Horace Parlan's Speakin' My Piece and Us Three, Kenny Drew's Undercurrent,
Lou Donaldson's LD+3, and Hank Mobley's Soul Station -- later this year
and in early 2008. Only listening will tell for sure, but the Music Matters reissues have
all the outward signs of being the finest LPs available and becoming collector's items
themselves. Maybe it's time to hold a garage sale of your own.
...Marc Mickelson
editor@soundstage.com
