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Empyrean Isles from 1964 is the best of Hancock's Blue Note albums and an outstanding example of modal jazz But beyond that, it's simply one of the finest pure jazz albums ever made, right up there with Kind of Blue and Love Supreme What helps makes it so great is not just the phenomenal musicians and the flawless performance, but... -
A saxophonist of striking originality, Sam Rivers arrived fully formed on his debut album Fuchsia Swing Song recorded for Blue Note in 1964 Though a strong avant-garde undercurrent flowed through his music, Rivers kept a foot planted firmly in post-bop and the blues on this impressive set of originals including his stunning ballad...
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The brilliant pianist and composer Andrew Hill debuted on Blue Note in 1963 with a flurry of creativity and maintained a prolific recording output through the end of the decade that left several stunning sessions unreleased in the vaults Recorded in 1968, but not released until 1980, Dance With Death was Hill’s 10th Blue Note...
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Kansas City born trumpeter Carmell Jones signed to Pacific Jazz soon after his arrival in Los Angeles in 1960 and began what seemed sure to be a promising recording career with his accurately titled 1961 debut The Remarkable Carmell Jones featuring Harold Land, Frank Strazzeri, Gary Peacock, and Leon Pettis This stereo Tone Poet...
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Like Django Reinhardt, Horace Parlan did the impossible and turned a disability into an advantage Stricken with polio as a youth that left him with a partially paralyzed right hand Parlan became a major jazz pianist who developed a highly original rhythmic style By the time he recorded the classic Speakin' My Piece in 1960, he had...
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Jackie McLean's slightly acidic tone on alto can be instantly identified He perfectly symbolizes the intensity, passion, excitement and urgency of New York in the 1960s Born in 1932 and part of the musical generation that matured in the shadow of Charlie Parker, McLean served his apprenticeship at the very top, recording with the...
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ScoLoHoFo—the supergroup made up of guitarist John Scofield, saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Al Foster—first played together as a band in 1999, but the musicians’ associations stretched back decades and this masterful 2002 album of originals brims with comradery This 2LP stereo Tone Poet Vinyl...
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Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket In November 1960, trumpeter Donald Byrd brought his quintet into the Half Not Cafe in New York City to record this soulful, swinging and highly enjoyable live set of hard cop featuring Pepper Adams (baritone saxophone), Duke Pearson (piano), Laymon Jackson (bass) and Lex Humphries...
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San Francisco is the perfect introductory album to American jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson Featuring his right-hand man Harold Land on reeds, the duo’s style takes a step forward from their previous post-bop and hard bop sound that didn’t sweep records off the shelves, into more commercial jazz fusion territory, without...
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Guitarist Grant Green was prolific on Blue Note through the early-60s recording more than 20 hard bop and soul jazz sessions as a leader forthe label between1961-1965 By the time Green returned to the label in 1969 his musical style had evolved to wholly embrace jazz-funk as first heard on his album Carryin’ On As the decade...
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Newly-remastered for vinyl as part of an overall Blue Note 75th anniversary vinyl reissue campaign spearheaded by current Blue Note Records President, Don Was Belonging in every jazz collection, volume one of Thelonious Monk's 1947 10" Genius of Modern Music features the first sessions Monk recorded as a leader In 1956 Blue...
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Trombonist J J Johnson took the language of bebop and adapted it to his instrument winning the admiration of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker After playing on Miles Davis’ first Blue Note session, Johnson led several dates in 1953–54 that were compiled on the 12” LP The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Vol 1 featuring...
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Donald Byrd’s dynamic 1973 live recording Live: Cookin’ with Blue Note at Montreux gets its first-ever official release today on what would have been the legendary trumpeter’s 90th birthday In July 1973, Blue Note Records headed to Montreux, Switzerland to showcase several of the label’s stars at the Montreux Jazz Festival...
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Grachan Moncur III's Evolution is a Blue Note essential Recorded in 1963, the album was the first by the trombonist and released on the Blue Note label Moncur is joined by Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, Bobby Hutcherson, Bob Cranshaw, and Anthony Williams Newly remastered for vinyl as part of an overall Blue Note 75th anniversary...
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Saxophonist and composer Charles Lloyd has been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary At 84, he remains at the height of his powers and as prolific as ever As a sound seeker, Lloyd has perhaps found no greater manifestation than on his Trio of Trios project, which encompasses three albums in different trio settings The...
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Trumpeter Blue Mitchell had been a sideman on Blue Note sessions led by Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Smith, Jackie McLean, and appeared on numerous classics as a member of the Horace Silver Quintet before he began recording his own leader albums for the label Following The Thing to Do and Down With It, Mitchell headed back into Rudy Van...
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Having teamed up on two prior Pacific Jazz recordings, trumpeter Chet Baker & alto saxophonist Art Pepper continued their fruitful collaboration with the supremely swinging 1956 album Picture of Heath (which was originally released as Playboys until Hugh Hefner objected) The sextet for the session was brimming with top talent...
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In Andrew Hill, Alfred Lion believed he had found another pianist and composer who had as unique and important a voice as Thelonious Monk Hill debuted on Blue Note in 1963 with a staggering burst of creativity that produced four classic albums—Black Fire, Smoke Stack, Judgment!, and his masterpiece Point of Departure—over a...
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Revival: Live at Pookie's Pub is a thrilling previously unissued live recording of Elvin Jones’ quartet that captures the legendary drummer’s emergence as a bandleader at a little-known club in New York City where he had a weekly residency after leaving John Coltrane's band in the late 1960s Featuring Joe Farrell on tenor...
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10 years ago in 2012, Robert Glasper changed the game After several acclaimed Blue Note albums with his acoustic trio (Canvas, In My Element) that solidified his Jazz cred while hinting at his Hip-Hop leanings, the visionary pianist went all in with Black Radio, an album that laid out a new paradigm for creative music, reaching...
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Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson had a profound influence over the sound of Blue Note Records in the 1960s, with his distinctive vibes elevating a wide range of all-time classics from Grant Green Idle Moments to Eric Dolphy Out To Lunch His fifth Blue Note session as a leader, 1966’s album Stick-Up! found Hutcherson in the company...
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Tenor saxophonist Harold Vick was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and played with R&B bands coming up before working as a sideman with soul jazz organ greats including Jack McDuff and Big John Patton Vick made his first Blue Note appearance in April 1963 on Patton’s Along Came John, and a month later Alfred Lion brought...
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The second installment of Charles Lloyd’s Blue Note trio series is here, pairing up the legendary saxophonist with a regular collaborator, pianist Gerald Clayton, and a new associate, guitarist Anthony Wilson Although Trios: Ocean doesn’t pack a wallop like the inaugural chapter did (Trios: Chapel features guitarist Bill...
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The great tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine imbued every single note he played with a depth of feeling and soulfulness that still reverberates today Turrentine made his Blue Note debut in 1960 and had been a stalwart of the label for the better part of a decade when he entered Rudy Van Gelder's studio in August 1968 to lay down...
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Alfred Lion and Max Margulis established the BLUE NOTE label in 1939, with photographer Francis Wolff becoming involved shortly afterwards The caliber of the musicians that recorded for Blue Note coupled with its stylized cover designs has made it one of the most legendary jazz labels of all time From the dozens of classic albums...
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The first thing that strikes you about Kenny Burrell’s second Blue Note album, simply titled Kenny Burrell (BLP 1543) and released as part of Blue Note’s fabled 1500 series, is the cover, which features an illustration by Andy Warhol, the first of three Blue Note covers the soon-to-be famed artist collaborated on with designer...
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Grant Green was Feelin’ The Spirit on this deeply soulful 1962 date that is a sibling of sorts to the great guitarist’s sanctified 1961 album Sunday Mornin’ Feelin’ The Spirit, which was the 13th album the remarkably prolific artist recorded during his first two years on the label, found Green interpreting a set of five...
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On September 15, 1957, John Coltrane went into Rudy Van Gelder’s living room studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, and recorded his first great masterpiece: Blue Train It would be the legendary saxophonist’s sole album as a leader for Blue Note, a locomotive 5-track album fueled by the bluesy title track that featured a dynamic...
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On September 15, 1957, John Coltrane went into Rudy Van Gelder’s living room studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, and recorded his first great masterpiece: Blue Train It would be the legendary saxophonist’s sole album as a leader for Blue Note, a locomotive 5-track album fueled by the bluesy title track that featured a dynamic...
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BACK IN PRINT! This album by the American jazz, soul and R&B saxophonist was recorded in 1963 and originally released in 1965 And now it's back on...
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Recorded in 1960 and first released in 1961, this fine album by the quintet surrounding American jazz pianist Freddie Redd is now availabe again on...
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Until the emergence of Larry Young, Blue Note’s Hammond B3 organ tradition was firmly rooted in Soul Jazz, having been established by B3 trailblazer Jimmy Smith and soulful players the likes of Big John Patton and Baby Face Willette However, Young brought an entirely new perspective to the instrument by placing it in a more...
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Wayne Shorter had already set a high bar over the course of his first several Blue Note albums, which included all-time jazz classics including Night Dreamer, JuJu, and Speak No Evil, but 1966’s Adam’s Apple featuring Herbie Hancock on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums immediately joined the ranks of the...
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Lou Donaldson had already been at the helm of seven Blue Note sessions by the time he made his undisputed masterpiece Blues Walk in 1958 The alto saxophonist quickly became a fixture on the Blue Note scene after he first played on a Milt Jackson date in 1952 with sideman appearance on sessions led by Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey,...
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Extension was the last of 3 unique Blue Note sessions led by the singular saxophonist George Braith in the early 1960s The album was rooted in soul jazz—with Grant Green on guitar, Billy Gardner on organ, and Clarence Johnston on drums—but Braith’s adventurous spirit led the music into unexpected realms on memorable...
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One of the finest pianists and composers of the hard bop era, Sonny Clark seemed to arrive fully formed on his supremely swinging debut album Dial “S” for Sonny recorded for Blue Note in 1957 Clark assembled a top-flight sextet for the occasion with Art Farmer on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Hank Mobley on tenor...
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The deeply soulful Louisiana-born tenor saxophonist Don Wilkerson made his Blue Note debut in 1962 with Preach Brother!, an under-recognized soul jazz classic and a hidden gem of the Blue Note catalog Wilkerson had joined Ray Charles’ band in the mid-1950s and played on several of the soul legend’s classic Atlantic sides, the...
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The 2022 return of Ronnie Foster to Blue Note Records is an event of synergistic quintessence, completeness, and cool The organ great’s dynamic new album, Reboot, arrives upon the 50th anniversary of his 1972 Blue Note debut Two Headed Freap, which featured his memorable tune “Mystic Brew” that would later reach the ears of...
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Sometimes good things come in threes That seems to be part of the principle behind Charles Lloyd’s current recording project, Trio of Trios The album trilogy will feature the revered saxophonist in three different trio settings The first installment, Trios: Chapel, features guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan and is...
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Despite having performed on several of the most revolutionary avant-garde jazz records of the 1960s, including Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz and John Coltrane’s Ascension, Freddie Hubbard’s own albums tended to hew closer to the mainstream Perhaps no other single album captures the trumpeter’s awe-inspiring breadth of...
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Born in Mississippi, Gerald Wilson spent formative years in Detroit before launching a celebrated career as a trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader After moving to Los Angeles, Wilson signed with Pacific Jazz and in 1961 began a decade-long run of spectacular recordings including 1962’s Moment of Truth The action-packed...
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BACK IN PRINT! Here's an exact repro vinyl reissue of a classic 1958 album by jazz legend Sonny...
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Organist Ronnie Foster has collaborated with many greats over the course of his career from George Benson to the Jacksons to Stevie Wonder who brought the organist in to record on his seminal album Songs In The Key Of Life But Foster first caught the ear of Blue Note Records co-founder Francis Wolff with his standout performance...
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Organist Brother Jack McDuff came to Blue Note in 1969 and made one of the most ambitious albums of his career with Moon Rappin’, which was released in 1970 and featured five funky, spaced-out originals including “Oblighetto,” which would later be sampled by A Tribe Called Quest as the foundation of two of their classic hip...
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Vibraphonist and composer Joel Ross returns with stunning conviction on The Parable of the Poet, an expansive album-length suite composed by Ross The album embodies his collaborative spirit and finds him exploring new territory with his eight-piece Parables band featuring Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone, Maria Grand on tenor...
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It’s a sign of the sheer volume of top-notch hard bop that Blue Note was recording in the 1950s-60s that a supremely swinging date like Hank Mobley’s 1957 album Curtain Call would sit in the vaults unreleased until 1984 Mobley himself was in the middle of a particularly prolific streak that year with the tenor saxophonist...
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Norah Jones’ seminal debut album Come Away With Me became a global phenomenon, reaching #1 in 20 countries, selling nearly 30 million copies, and sweeping the 2003 GRAMMY Awards The 20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition captures the emergence of a singular talent and the full story of the making of this now-classic album In...
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Jackie McLean’s 1960s Blue Note output is a fascinating body of work, especially viewed with the benefit of hindsight In between recording 2 venturous modernist sessions—Let Freedom Ring and One Step Beyond—that would set the tone for the alto saxophonist’s future explorations, came the seemingly more conventional and...
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