STACK #202 Aug 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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DonWas in-studio

Two of the 14 titles in Blue Note's Tone Poet vinyl series available at JB this month: Joe Henderson's State Of The Tenor Vol 1 (1985) and Stanley Turrentine's Hustlin' (1965).

From this month on, lauded veteran LA jazz label Blue Note will release a series of vinyl reissues plucked from their incomparable archives; these 14 gems cover some of the most astonishing hard bop and soul-jazz ever recorded, from pioneering pianist Horace Silver to Hammond organ genius Dr. Lonnie Smith to tenor saxophonist StanleyTurrentine. These delectable slices of wax were selected, remastered and packaged under the eagle eye of Blue Note President and veteran producer DonWas, and the man for whom the series takes its name, master curator Joe 'Tone Poet' Hurley. Be sure to read the full Q&A with Don online at stack.com.au. Words Zoë Radas DONWAS on the TONEPOETVINYLSERIES

goofball-proofed conditions. Don’t worry about them. When doomsday ultimately rolls around and mankind self-destructs in a cauldron of flame and pestilence, cockroaches and the Blue Note master tapes will survive and rule the Earth. The production-quality theme of this series most definitely was “no compromise”!Why did you feel this was the only way forward for theTone Poet reissues? I got very involved in our 75th Anniversary vinyl reissue series in 2014. We did the best we could but we were unable to match the level of quality experienced in the audiophile versions that Joe was making at Music Matters. We took a lot of heat from our listeners, and decided to improve the experience for them. There’s no single magic trick that Joe performs... there are like a dozen actionable items, from the mastering, plating and pressing through to creating the tactile feel of the deluxe gatefold sleeves. Joe Harley is the maestro of this – his mission with the Tone Poet series is to apply his talent and knowledge to make the best possible records without cutting any corners...

through a spinning album they were mesmerised! We sat around watching the turntable spin like we were gathered around a campfire. One of the great virtues of vinyl is that listening to music becomes a communal, action-verb experience.

Blue Note has produced a gobsmacking behind-the- scenes video for theTone Poet vinyl reissues, in which we get a peek into every bit of the process. At one point, Joe 'Tone Poet' Hurley says: “A stylus dragging through vinyl? It

We sat around watchig the turntable spin like we were gathered around a campfire

In that video we also get to see yourself and Joe look over

shouldn't work at all. And yet, it does.” Do you hold a similar awe for the way phonographic playback works? It’s so crazy, isn’t it? I’ve studied the science behind the development of the LP – from Eduard Scott through Edison to Peter Goldmark – and it still blows my mind that humans were able to conceive and realise such a wild concept. I love to watch it in action too; the first time I showed my kids a stylus riding

the shelves of Blue Note master tapes, scrawled with [label founder] Alfred Lion's original handwritten annotations and all. Do these precious shelves live in a fireproof stacker?! Thankfully, all of our master tapes have been well taken care of and protected over the decades. They are in great shape. They live in guarded, climate controlled, fireproofed and

Continue reading the full Q&A online atstack.com.au

AUGUST 2021

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