Midnight Blue

Review is for the new 2021 Kevin Gray cut of this excellent recording by Kenny Burrell (part of the Blue Note Classics Series).Just a super outstanding performance from the band. Unfortunately, my copy was poorly pressed and full of what sounds like electronic glitches throughout. Very sad and extremely disappointing. The pressing is a total mess. What a shame, as everything else about this recording is wonderful.The only good news is that I purchased it from Amazon, which has an exceptional return policy - thank goodness and Thank You Amazon.

When I first ordered and received the 75th Blue Note Series is was a complete disaster. Poor pressing ,scuffed and noisy vinyl. I tried again with the same result. Went to Music Matters the to pay the price and it was sold out again and again. Then I bought some Euro trash vinyl is was quiet and looked great but the sound was flat sounding. It was like listening to a Bose speaker no highs no lows.This new 80 series version sounds so much better despite on side1 and the 2nd and 4th track distortion. This is one of the best Jazz albums of all time and it deserves to be issued with the highest standards. I commend Blue Note for trying again . Its my opinion it should have been issued as a Tone Poet with more attention to detail but you can't have everything. I have been collection vinyl since 1970 so it's not my first rodeo.Just got my new copy from Amazon quickly I might add. As they are sold out now 9/7/21 . The 2nd copy sounds much better the vinyl appears to be quieter. The distortion on the first copy on Side 1 on the 2nd and 4th tracks is greatly diminished. Is it perfect well nothing's perfect but it is 50% better than my pre-order copy. Thanks Amazon for the quick turn around cause now there is a 1 to 2 month wait.

This is a great jazz album by Kenny Burrell and a beautiful recording/mastering job by Blue Note. I can't believe we are able to get these at such a great price point.Unfortunately my copy was a miss on quality control from the pressing plant that Blue Note uses. As another reviewer here (Tony H.) stated, I had several instances of electronic "glitches" which were most apparent on tracks A1 and A2. I could also see (as reviewer Johnny Utah pointed out) that there were several areas where the grooves looked almost routed out and which produced noise even after a wet cleaning of the record.Not Amazon's fault and they easily accepted my return. Unfortunately for me, there are no replacements in stock so I am out of luck on getting another copy at this time.This hasn't put me off purchasing Blue Note Classic series albums. I ordered this same Kenny Burrell from a brick and mortar store as a gift for a friend and checked it out to see if it had the same issues as my copy... it didn't. It was absolutely clean and sounded great as I'm sure the vast majority of copies are.

This is the purest vinyl I've ever heard and I've been a vinyl listener for over 60 years. However...this pressing has a flaw: on tracks 1 & 2 there are several spots where there is a distorted, "ripping" sound, it is not a pop or crackle like you normally hear on vinyl. I exchanged my first album and the second one has the same defects. I'll probably keep this one because the album, as a whole, is a real prize and has sonic purity. It's a shame that this issue was not caught after pressing. I'm afraid to exchange this one because the next one will be defective. I still recommend it, it's an awesome album.

Most of the record is a true pleasure to listen to. But I'm ultimately disappointed that my copy of Midnight Blue also suffers from the "zips" in tracks A1 & A2, which are well documented in other reviews. If not listening closely, you really don't notice them (I think there are just 2 or 3), but buyers of this pressing expect a record without manufacturing flaws. The product quality control people at Blue Note should be embarrassed they let all these copies out. It is otherwise a very fine remaster of a great record. They should repress this piece and do it right.

This review is for the new 2021 Kevin Gray cut of this excellent recording by Kenny Burrell - part of the Blue Note Classics Series.The material is great and has well deserved classic status. The all-analogue cut by Kevin Grey sounds great. Better than any other copy I have - that is when the pressing defects don't ruin it. Two different copies I bought had no-fill so bad as to make them unlistenable. Hopefully Optimal (the German record company that pressed this) will take a little more time and care on the second pressing.

I did experience some of the pressing-related distortion others have mentioned, but it's not bad enough that it ruins the album. Most of the time it sounds perfectly fine, just a little fuzz here and there. My system is pretty good but not super-audiophile or anything. The remastering itself is terrific. I waited a long time for this, as it's always been one of my favorite Blue Notes (and probably Burrell's best, full stop), so it's a little disappointing that it's not quite perfect. I have a bunch of the 80s/Classic Vinyl series, and this is the first time I've had a real issue. Hopefully, the QC isn't starting to slip.

For this price, just buy it! Seems there are pressing issues with the BNCS, but I’m very satisfied so far with the records that I have purchased and at this price with KG mastering I’ll take the chance any given day. I also own the AP 45RPM and I got to say, the BNCS Midnight Blue 33.3RPM sounds very, very good.

This review is for the brand new 2021 Kevin Gray cut of this masterpiece from K.Burrell.This launched at the same time as BN reissue of Idle Moments from Grant Green... my copy of that is perfect which is not often the case with these Optimal (sub?) pressings.As can be seen this one is sadly a total write off of non-fill defect and in fact the entire 1st track of side one is basically grooves that havent been cut and set correctly leading to the most horrid constant ripping sounds and impossible to hear the likely excellent mastering of KPG. Of course im eternally grateful to Amazon for picking up the label and plants slack but this is sold out already so a long wait ensues for a clean exhange copy.What fun the modern vinyl game has become! Basically a lottery nowEDIT: 2nd copy exhibits non fill to both sides as well, not as horrificly as the first but still quite unacceptable. Shame.EDIT: 3rd attempt is flawless. Thanks for making it happen Amazon and making zero fuss over the inevitable returns of Optimal's sub-optimal pressings.

Another Blue Note Classic release with noise/non fill issues that render this sublime album unplayable. The pressing plants are all struggling to cope with the resurgence of vinyl and I fear quality control is suffering. This is not Amazon's fault. The records are sealed and they have no control over the quality. I will return this copy to see if I can get a better copy. This problem does not seem to affect Tone Poets, just the Classic Series , so I assume it's the pressing plant that is causing the issue

The first copy I received of this LP was very poor, despite a near perfect side 1. Nasty scraping noises on side 2 track 1 (Wavy Gravy), a visible scratch on the next track and various other all too audible imperfections. The replacement arrived from Amazon yesterday. Visually perfect, with a few entirely liveable clicks, but still the same nasty scraping noises on Wavy Gravy. Very disappointing, especially when I compared the sound of the vinyl with that of my 1999 CD copy: essentially, there is no comparison. The CD sounds veiled and muted, the vinyl is dynamically alive with a fantastic sense of presence. Could I live with the defects? Sadly, I thought not. However (and I have no idea what possessed me, other than sheer desperation), I decided to attack Wavy Gravy with my Zerostat (which my wife dismisses as snake oil). I think I must have zapped the track maybe twenty or thirty times, and the result is ... liveable, I think. The scraping noises on the track are greatly reduced.I’ve never seen any mention of this anywhere, but I have had experience of localised static once before on an LP (Santana, Abraxas, Back To Black), which caused enormous distortion on one track. I didn’t have a Zerostat to hand at the time, but I found some other way to tackle the issue (using various brushes, if I remember rightly), eliminating the distortion and making the LP playable.As goes the Blue Note 80 and Classic Series, I have (seemingly unlike some people) had great success with them so far, with only one or two returned out of around thirty purchases (unlike the 75 series, which I simply gave up on). So, maybe a turn away from my good luck was overdue when both Midnight Blue and Idle Moments turned up simultaneously and both were faulty. The replacement for Idle Moments is near perfect, apart from one click (annoyingly about three seconds into the start of Bobby Hutcherson’s solo on the title track), but Midnight Blue is certainly not perfect; however, I think that, thanks to my serendipitous use of the Zerostat, it may at least be acceptable. Maybe, with another couple of dozen zaps, it might even qualify as quite good. Anyway, I’m going to try that before I ask Amazon for a second replacement. I don’t want to give up on this LP though because, beyond the pressing plant imperfections, it sounds so good - absolutely magnificent - demonstration quality in fact.I don’t know if there’s any connection here but the early Blue Note 80 issues did suffer from appalling levels of static, making it almost a tug-of-war effort to prise them out of their paper inner sleeves. Since Blue Note’s European pressing plant has changed their inner sleeves from plain paper to paper lined with plastic (someone must have pointed out the static problem to them, but not me), the later 80 issues and Classics have generally come without any significant static charge.UPDATE 26/12/21 - and no, the scraping noises didn’t lessen any further over time. I have deducted a star accordingly. Three stars was hopeful in the first instance, two remains generous now. I never bothered to return the LP as the problem with this pressing seemed to be pretty much the universal experience (pun intended). As it is, the record is bearable to listen to (assuming I don’t listen too closely) on a Rega P1 with an AT VM95E stylus through my secondary system with MA Bronze 2 speakers, but on my main set up of P3, AT VM95ML and B&W 705S2 ... well, that’s just a horrible experience. Since buying this LP I’ve also picked up a few more Blue Notes. A couple were excellent, Jimmy Smith’s Home Cookin’ and (especially so) The Prophetic Herbie Nichols, but then I purchased The Bill Charlap Trio’s Street Of Dreams just before Christmas; superb sound but horrendous scraping noises through the last two tracks on the second side - I didn’t even bother trying to get a replacement copy for that, just went for the CD instead. This sort of constant QC problem? It’s not acceptable for buyers, not fair on retailers and is bad business that causes reputational damage to the record company.

It took me three copies, all with pressing flaws, to get a decent one that was listenable. Aside from the now notorious quality control issues with some of the earlier Blue Note Classic Series releases (it was even worse with the entire 75th anniversary series being blighted with poor pressings), the actual music itself is a joy. At this price, if you're lucky/determined enough to get a decent copy, this makes for a great introduction to Burrell's music. His Tone Poet offering, "Introducing..." is also exceptional; much higher production quality, albeit at a slightly higher price. Fingers crossed, QC issues seem to have been sorted with more recent releases so we should be able to buy in confidence and concentrate on the calibre of the music than defects with the vinyl.

After reading the numerous reviews regarding issues with the pressing quality and the superb Kevin Gray mastering being spoilt, I thought I would take a chance in the hope that the pressing issues would now be resolved. I received my copy this morning and when I looked at the vinyl, side 1 had two feelable scratches running concencentric to the grooves, as the record was fully sealed it obviously left the pressing plant like this and is clearly down to quality control at Optimal as stated in the numerous negative reviews.The little sample I did play sounded great due to Kevin Grays sublime mastering and its a great pity that the record has to be returned :(For any UK buyers purchasing via Dodax UK, just be aware that they are shipping from the Netherlands and that the returns have to go back there. I need to pay the return shipping but my understanding is that they will add the cost to my refund.