Another fascinating part of the Blue Note legacy was revealed by Don Was in an interview that is in the Qobuz Magazine. He has been the leader of the brand now according to the article for almost 15 years. He said that he interviewed RBG early on and asked him how to best preserve the sound and legacy of Rudy's work for the label. Rudy told him among other things that the sound of the lacquer changed within four days of being cut. So Rudy told Don to forget about trying to preserve the original sound of Blue Note records. He said just do the best job possible to capture what exists on the tape. Which of course is what Kevin Gray and Joe Harley do, first for Music Matters and now for the Tone Poet series. Interestingly enough even the recent Classic Series Blue Notes sound exceptional.
Compared Tone Poet to Mosaic
This might interest some people. The new copy of Hank, by Hank Mobley Sextet on Tone Poet just arrived last week. The sextet: Donald Byrd, trumpet; John Jenkins, alto; Hank Mobley, tenor; Bobby Timmons, piano; Wilbur Ware, bass; Philly Joe Jones, drums. Originally released in 1957, new release dated 2026, but received 12/2025. Anyway this is a terrific hard bop record in the best Blue Note tradition. Originally recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, remastered by Kevin Gray and Produced by Joe Harley. I thought it might be fun to compare the vinyl Tone Poet with the Mosaic release of 2022, which is on CD.
For vinyl playback: VPI HW-40 w/SoundSmith Hyperion set up using AnalogMagic, Conrad Johnson ART Phono.
For digital playback: Luxman D-10X
Amp, line stage, speakers, wires etc. were the same for both.
Well some interesting differences and similarities. First the Mosaic set used the mono master, whereas the Tone Poet set used the stereo master. With that said the two masters were made simultaneously so there were no differences in performance. The overall tonality of two were exactly the same. That surprised me. Overall I found that I liked the mono recording better. I was amazed that there was no real difference between the analog and the digital versions that I could discern. They were equally great and I would be happy to own either. The difference I heard was more to do with what the recording engineer did and it is clear that Rudy V.G. was more adept or more comfortable with mono and lavished more attention on it to get it right. I also think that Kevin Gray must have done everything possible to capture the sound of the original mono master. The two recordings are remarkably transparent. Later recordings in the Mosaic set are in stereo and if there is interest and if I have a duplicate in vinyl of another record, let me know and I will endeavor to do a follow up.
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No it did not. Where do you get that idea from? The Tone Poet of this album is mono, mastered from the mono original tape. As for the Blue Notes RvG recorded simultaneously as mono and stereo, Joe and Kevin often bring up both at Cohearent, and decide which sounds better for remastering as a Tone Poet. But if it's mono it comes from a mono tape, and if stereo it comes from the stereo tape. There are no mono fold-downs from stereo masters in the entire Tone Poet series, period. |
@dwette My ears is where I get that idea from my friend. Let me be clear the Tone Poet is a stereo record. |
No sir, Tone Poet "Hank" is mono. I have a photo from Joe showing the tape box they used, clearly marked as Mono. He tells me anyone who thinks otherwise, "needs to adjust their system if they think they are hearing stereo." There have been times Joe and Kevin have pulled up stereo tapes from this dual mono/stereo recorders era, and liked the stereo better, so that's what they mastered. "Sonny Clark Trio" (ST-81579) is a good example. "Hank" is not one of them. |
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