Joe Harley (Blue Note Tone Poet)

Joe Harley oversees some of the best jazz vinyl rereleases around as producer of Blue Note’s acclaimed Tone Poet series. Harley picks the titles, and, as he did with the much-coveted Music Matters series, he preps each release with ace mastering engineer (and recurring Caropop guest) Kevin Gray. Here Harley reflects on how he went from growing up (and playing drums) in Nebraska to preparing audiophile versions of albums he loves. What criteria does he use in choosing the Tone Poet albums? How do he and Gray work together? Has the mastering process changed given that more listeners own high-end audio systems now? How do Harley and Gray evoke such three-dimensional soundstages? How did he get the nickname the Tone Poet? And does he still get excited the first time he hears an original master tape of one of these classic recordings?