Whole History of Blue Note Unissued Master Series by King Record Japan!
I have talked about King Record Blue Note Unissued Master Series many times. But this time, I just wanted to recap the whole history.
They released those unknown, great sessions and titles in 3 parts from 1978 to 1981.
In part 1, they released ONLY 7 TITLES, namely
Art Blakey At Renaissance Club GXF 3021
Jackie McLean Hipnosis GXF 3022
Lee Morgan All-Star Sextet GXF 3033
Lee Morgan Sextet GXF 3034
Stanley Turrentine Jubilee Shouts GXF 3035
Chick Corea Circlus Vol.1 GXF 3036
Chick Corea Circlus Vol.2 GXF 3037
In Part 2 and 3, they released more than 20 titles. I assume...In the Part 1, they kind of tested if this kind of series could attract the customers and they succeeded, confidently proceeded to Part 2 and 3.
Another interesting thing.
If you look at OBI of the 7 titles in Part 1, it is really identical to the ones of usual GXF and GXK series, FAT WIDE BLUE OBI.
See that?
The 1st one is Lee Morgan All-Star Sextet in the Part 1 of Blue Note Unissued Master Series and the 2nd one is GXK Series of Kenny Burrell Midnight Blue.
In the Part 2 and 3, OBI was changed drastically. Part 2 OBI is blue in color but the blue color is quite different and the design also changed a lot.
See the difference right?
When it comes to Part 3, the color of OBI changed from blue to gold.
That is OBI. What about serial?
In Part 1, they used GXF as you can see the list st the top. In Part 2, still they used the GXF. In Part 3, they used GXK with gold OBI.
In between Part 2 and 3, they also reissued some of the titles (which were popular in Part 2) in Part 2 titles with GXK serial too.
This is the whole history of Blue Note Unissued Master Series by King Record.
As I stated in the video, the Part 1 titles, especially with OBI are becoming hard for you to find on the market nowadays. I believe the number of the copies pressed at that time is not that big...
