Blue Note Japan 75th Anniversary The Masterworks

Ornette Coleman - At The Golden Circle Stockholm (1965) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD TYCJ-81037 rel 2013} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 514 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 177 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 223 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit 192 kHz remaster
© 1965, 2013 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | TYCJ-81037
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. Ornette Coleman's 1965 trio with bassist David Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett is easily the most underrated of all his bands. Coming off the light of the famed quartet in which Don Cherry, Eddie Blackwell, and Charlie Haden shone, anything might have looked a bit dimmer, it's true. But this band certainly had no apologies to make. Coleman was deep into creating a new approach to melody, since Haden and Cherry had honed his harmonic sensibilities.

Jimmy McGriff - Black Pearl (1971) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD TYCJ-81098 rel 2014} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 259 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 91 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 306 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24bit 192kHz remaster
© 1971, 2014 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | TYCJ-81098
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Jazz Funk / Hard Bop / Organ

Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. One of the most hard-hitting Jimmy McGriff albums of the 70s – a raw live date recorded in Newark – and a set that's a perfect bridge between the sharp soul of his Sue Records sessions and his later funk to come! The whole thing's got a gritty vibe the really recalls the sound of a Hammond combo in a small club back in the day – a sense of recording that's different than the usual Blue Note record, and we mean that in a good way! Future Groove Merchants Fats Theus and O'Donel Levy are both on the record – the former on tenor, the latter on guitar – and Jimmy gets plenty of room to really open up and soar on the Hammond. The group also features the lesser-known Ronald White on trumpet and Joseph Morris on alto – and titles include "In A Mellow Tone", "Groove Alley" and "Man From Bad" – and a nice cover of "Ode to Billie Joe"!

The Three Sounds - Hey There (1961) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD UCCQ-5096 rel 2015} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 501 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 183 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 252 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit 192 kHz remaster
© 1961, 2015 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | UCCQ-5096
Jazz / Post Bebop / Soul Jazz / Hard Bop / Piano Trio

Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. Wonderful work from the Three Sounds – a tight little combo who weren't out to break any rules in jazz, but who made some excellent albums for Blue Note in the early 60s! The groove here is hard-edge soul jazz piano at its best – similar to early Les McCann work of the same vintage, with a strong sense of rhythm on the left hand, and some wonderfully complicated lines on the right – an early example of the genius of Gene Harris.

Jack Wilson - Something Personal (1966) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD UCCQ-5122 rel 2015} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 280 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 104 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 206 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit 192 kHz remaster
© 1966, 2015 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | UCCQ-5122
Jazz / Hard Bop / Soul Jazz / Jazz Funk / Piano / Vibes

Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. A real treasure through and through – one of the most unusual Blue Note albums you'll ever hear, and a set that's one of the best-remembered from the team of pianist Jack Wilson and vibist Roy Ayers! Long before Roy struck out on his own in the world of funky soul, he worked often in the 60s with Wilson – and the pair have this unique way of blending vibes and piano that's completely fresh, and still unmatched all these many years later!

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - The Freedom Rider (1961) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD UCCQ-5105 rel 2015} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 400 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 127 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 177 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit 192 kHz remaster
© 1961, 2015 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | UCCQ-5105
Jazz / Hard Bop

Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. The final recording by this edition of The Jazz Messengers (featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Jymie Merritt and drummer/leader Art Blakey) finds the group consolidating their year-and-a-half of experience into yet another exciting document. Blakey's unaccompanied drum feature on "The Freedom Rider" is full of drama while the rest of the program (two compositions apiece by Morgan and Shorter) makes this last chapter for this particular band quite memorable.

Lonnie Smith - Turning Point (1969) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD UCCQ-5127 rel 2014} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 237 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 86 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 168 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit 192 kHz remaster
© 1969, 2015 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | UCCQ-5127
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Post Bop / Organ

Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. A stone killer from organist Lonnie Smith – one of his completely cooking early albums for Blue Note, and a hard-burner all the way through! Smith's working here with a really great group that includes Idris Muhammad on drums and Melvin Sparks on guitar – both of whom give the album a really heavy bottom, and almost make the set feel like one of those classic Prestige jammers from the same time.

Ornette Coleman - Love Call (1968) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD TYCJ-81095 rel 2014} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 329 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 126 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 230 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit 192 kHz remaster
© 1968, 2014 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | TYCJ-81095
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. Bonus tracks. The other half of the New York Is Now session, which is, in a sense, ridiculous. Blue Note issued two records when they really had one. There were two dates, April 29 and May 7, 1968. Half the tunes from this volume and half from New York Is Now were recorded at each session. The CD versions contain all of the alternate takes and unreleased cuts of both days. Here, Coleman with Dewey Redman and the rhythm section of Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison work through Coleman's melodic conceptions and harmonic constructs on five numbers, with alternate takes making up two more.

Lee Morgan - Delightfulee (1966) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD UCCQ-5073 rel 2014} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 469 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 161 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 228 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit 192 kHz remaster
© 1966, 2014 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | UCCQ-5073
Jazz / Hard Bop / Soul Jazz / Trumpet

Features SHM-CD format and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. As Lee Morgan's career moved from hard and post-bop to soul-jazz, Delightfulee serves as a further bridge in a half-and-half fashion. Four of the seven cuts feature his potent quintet with a young and emerging tenor saxophonist, Joe Henderson, as his front line mate, McCoy Tyner ever brilliant on piano, and Billy Higgins firing up the rhythm as only the drummer could. The remainder of the date consists of tracks orchestrated by Oliver Nelson featuring an 11-piece ensemble. There are two selections that feature versions of compositions with both configurations.

Ornette Coleman - The Empty Foxhole (1966) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD UCCQ-5121 rel 2015} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 249 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 92 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 167 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit 192 kHz remaster
© 1966, 2015 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | UCCQ-5121
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. One of our favorite Ornette Coleman albums of the post-Atlantic 60s years – a set that still hangs onto some of the bold rhythmic conception of his previous records, but also points the way towards his freer jazz modes to come! The group's a trio – with really tremendous work from Charlie Haden on bass, able to match Coleman's energy with effortless ease, and really getting a lot of room to leave his mark on the music – plus the very young (10!) Denardo Coleman, who plays drums here with this stark, simple style that's not only completely unique, but which also leaves a lot of open room left for Haden and Ornette to really stretch out. Ornette plays his usual alto, plus trumpet and violin – and titles include "Good Old Days", "The Empty Foxhole", "Zig Zag", and "Freeway Express".

Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch (1964) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD TYCJ-81013 rel 2013} (24-192 remaster)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 371 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 132 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 231 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit 192 kHz remaster
© 1964, 2013 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | TYCJ-81013
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Post Bop

Reissue. Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. Includes an alternate take of "Hat and Beard" and a track for the first time in the world. Out to Lunch stands as Eric Dolphy's magnum opus, an absolute pinnacle of avant-garde jazz in any form or era. Its rhythmic complexity was perhaps unrivaled since Dave Brubeck's Time Out, and its five Dolphy originals – the jarring Monk tribute "Hat and Beard," the aptly titled "Something Sweet, Something Tender," the weirdly jaunty flute showcase "Gazzelloni," the militaristic title track, the drunken lurch of "Straight Up and Down" – were a perfect balance of structured frameworks, carefully calibrated timbres, and generous individual freedom.