From Tower Records Japan's website, the release schedule for their new series of Blue Note SACD reissues. There is no information provided about sources (master tapes vs. 24/192 files) or mastering engineers. Robert Vosgiens' DSD downloads of some of these albums became available this year at North American vendors, and many BN titles have been released in all-analogue transfers on BN Classic Vinyl and BN Tone Poet. I have the BN Classic Vinyl LP of "Out to Lunch!" remastered by Kevin Gray, and the Vosgiens DSD download. It would be useful to have more technical details about this new group of Tower Japan BN SACDs.

TOWER RECORDS JAPAN
BLUE NOTE SA-CD HYBRID SELECTION
Upcoming releases:

First release on Wednesday, September 25, 2024

①Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers / Moanin' (1958)
②The Amazing Bud Powell / The Scene Changes, Vol.5 (1959)
③Cannonball Adderley / Somethin' Else (1958)
④John Coltrane / Blue Train (1958)
⑤Sonny Clark / Cool Struttin' (1958)

2nd release on Wednesday, October 23, 2024

①Lee Morgan / The Sidewinder (1964)
②Hank Mobley / Dippin' (1966)
③The Horace Silver Quintet / Song For My Father (1964)
④Herbie Hancock / Maiden Voyage (1965)
⑤Eric Dolphy / Out To Lunch! (1964)

3rd release: Wednesday, November 20, 2024

①Sonny Rollins / A Night At The "Village Vanguard" (1957)
②Kenny Burrell / Midnight Blue' (1963)
③Herbie Hancock / Speak Like A Child (1968)
④Wayne Shorter / Juju (1965)
⑤Bobby Hutcherson / Happenings (1967)

The fourth release will be released on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, with all titles being released on SACD for the first time.

①Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers / Mosaic (1961)
②Sonny Rollins / Newk's Time (1959)
③Lee Morgan / Vol.3 (1957)
④Horace Parlan / Us Three (1960)
⑤Jackie McLean / Demon's Dance (1970)

Well Mark, the machine translation from the Tower Records site says this - "The latest remastering in 2024 based on DSD transferred from the US original master tape ・ CD layer is also newly PCM from DSD master."

I'm hoping to collar a person fluent in reading Japanese to translate the information on the Obi. from one of these releases for a more exact read.

According to the liner notes, the first 13 releases in this series (so, up to and including "Speak Like A Child," are new 2024 remasters based on DSD transfers created in 2017 from the original master tapes. The remaining 7 titles (from "Juju" on) will be newly converted to DSD from US analog master tapes. CD layers are all also newly converted to PCM from the DSD masters. I assume that's from the newly remastered material from the DSD, but it's not clear. There are no mastering or remastering credits whatsoever.

Andrew Midgley, thanks for the further information about the upcoming releases. Could you post a link to the source?

Despite the reluctance of the label to cite the mastering engineer, there is reason to be optimistic that the upcoming Tower Japan SACDs will have good sound quality. I can vouch for all of the 2017 Vosgien DSD downloads in my library, and as I mention in the brief review of Lee Morgan: Candy, the SHM-SACD and Vosgien's flat transfer DSD appear identical.

Juju, Happenings, Newk's Time and Mosaic were issued in 24/192 a decade ago, and more recently issued in Blue Note's Classic Vinyl LP series. Demon's Dance was not released in hi-res but came out on a BN Tone Poet LP. For the LP releases, all of those titles were sourced from original master tapes, remastered and cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearant.