Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label, established in 1939 by
Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly
afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and
the blues. Originally dedicated to recording
traditional jazz and small group swing, from 1947 the label began to switch its
attention to modern jazz. While the original company did not itself record
many of the pioneers of bebop, significant exceptions are Thelonious
Monk, Fats Navarro and Bud Powell. Historically, Blue Note has principally
been associated with the "hard bop" style of jazz, but also recorded
essential albums in the avant-garde and free styles of jazz. Horace Silver,
Jimmy Smith, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, Grant Green, Hank
Mobley, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, and Jackie McLean were among the label's
leading artists. During its heyday, the 1950s and 60s, the photography and
graphic art of Reid Miles created a series of iconic album covers, often
incorporating session photos by Wolff, which added to Blue Note's artistic
reputation. The label is currently owned by the
Universal Music Group and in 2006 was expanded to fill the role of an umbrella
label group bringing together a wide variety of then EMI-owned labels and
imprints specializing in the growing market segment of music for adults.
History = Early years =
Lion first heard jazz as a young boy in Berlin. He settled in New York in 1937,
and shortly after the first From Spirituals to Swing concert, recorded
pianists Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis in 1939 during a one-day session
in a rented studio. The Blue Note label initially consisted of Lion and Max
Margulis, a communist writer who funded the project. The label's first releases
were traditional "hot" jazz and boogie woogie, and the label's first hit was a
performance of "Summertime" by soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, which Bechet
had been unable to record for the established companies. Musicians were
supplied with alcoholic refreshments, and recorded in the early hours of the
morning after their evening's work in clubs and bars had finished. The label
soon became known for treating musicians uncommonly well - setting up recording
sessions at congenial times, and allowing the artists to be involved in
all aspects of the record's production. Francis Wolff, a professional
photographer, emigrated to the USA at the end of 1939 and soon joined forces
with Lion, a childhood friend. In 1941, Lion was drafted into the army for two
years. Milt Gabler at the Commodore Music Store offered storage facilities
and helped keep the catalog in print, with Wolff working for him. By late
1943, the label was back in business recording musicians and supplying
records to the armed forces. Willing to record artists that most other labels
would consider to be uncommercial, in December 1943 the label initiated more
sessions with artists such as pianist Art Hodes, trumpeter Sidney DeParis,
clarinetist Edmond Hall, and Harlem stride pianist James P. Johnson, who was
returning to a high degree of musical activity after having largely recovered
from a stroke suffered in 1940. = Lion and Wolff embrace bebop =
Towards the end of the war, saxophonist Ike Quebec was among those who recorded
for the label. Quebec would act as a talent scout for the label until his
death in 1963. Although stylistically belonging to a previous generation, he
could appreciate the new bebop style of jazz, the creation of which is usually
attributed to Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
In 1947, pianist Thelonious Monk recorded his first sessions as a leader
for the label, which were also the Blue Note debut of drummer Art Blakey, who
also recorded his first session as leader for the label at this time. Lion
recorded several Monk sessions before he began to release the resulting sides.
Monk's recordings for Blue Note between 1947 and 1952 did not sell well for some
years, but have since come to be regarded as the most important of his
career. Other bebop or modernist musicians who recorded for Blue Note
during the late forties and early fifties were pianist Tadd Dameron,
trumpeters Fats Navarro and Howard McGhee, saxophonist James Moody and
pianist Bud Powell. The sessions by Powell are commonly ranked among his
best. J. J. Johnson and trumpeter Miles Davis both recorded several sessions for
Blue Note between 1952 and 1954, but by then the musicians who had created bebop
were starting to explore other styles. The recording of musicians performing in
an earlier jazz idiom, such as Sidney Bechet and clarinettist George Lewis,
continued into the 1950s. = Hard bop and beyond =
In 1951 Blue Note issued their first vinyl 10" releases. The label was soon
recording emerging talent such as Horace Silver and Clifford Brown. Meanwhile,
Milt Jackson and the Jazz Messengers recorded for Blue Note. The Milt Jackson
Quartet session was a one-off, but Blakey's various groups recorded for the
label extensively, if intermittently, for the next decade. Rudy Van Gelder
recorded most Blue Note releases from 1953, after Lion and Van Gelder's mutual
friend, saxophonist and composer Gil Melle, introduced them. A difference
between Blue Note and other independent labels was that musicians were paid for
rehearsal time prior to the recording session: this helped ensure a better end
result on the record. Producer Bob Porter of Prestige Records once said
that "The difference between Blue Note and Prestige is two days' rehearsal.
When the recording industry switched to 12" LP in the mid-1950s, Blue Note was
in difficulties. Their catalog on the now outmoded 10" LP now had to be
recreated on the newer format. Lion contemplated selling out to Atlantic at
this time, an option which was not acted upon. A musician who was to become one
of the label's best sellers was discovered. Jimmy Smith, the Hammond
organist was signed in 1956, and performed on the label's first 12" LP
album of new recordings. The mid to late 1950s saw debut
recordings for Blue Note by Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Herbie Nichols, Sonny Clark,
Kenny Dorham, Kenny Burrell, Jackie McLean, Donald Byrd and Lou Donaldson.
Sonny Rollins recorded for the label in 1956 and 1957 and Bud Powell briefly
returned. John Coltrane's Blue Train, and Cannonball Adderley's Somethin' Else
were guest appearances on the label. Blue Note was by then recording a
mixture of established acts and artists who in some cases had recorded before,
but often produced performances for the label which by far exceeded earlier
recordings in quality. Horace Silver and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
continued to release a series of artistically and commercially successful
recordings. The early 1960s saw Dexter Gordon join
the label. Gordon was a saxophonist from the bebop era who had spent several
years in prison for narcotic offences, and he made several albums for Blue Note
over a five-year period, including several at the beginning of his sojourn
in Europe. Gordon also appeared on the debut album by Herbie Hancock - by the
mid 1960s, all four of the younger members of the Miles Davis quintet were
recording for the label, and Hancock and Shorter in particular produced a
succession of superb albums in a mix of styles. Carter did not actually record
under his own name until the label's revival in the 1980s, but played double
bass on many other musicians' sessions. Many of these also included Freddie
Hubbard, a trumpeter who also recorded for the label as a leader. One of the
features of the label during this period was a "family" of musicians who would
record as sidemen on each other's albums without necessarily being part of the
leader's working group. The early 1960s also saw three major
Blue Note recordings by pianist/composer Freddie Redd, one of which - The
Connection - went on to be a major international success as the score for
the eponymous film. In 1963 Lee Morgan scored a significant
hit with the title track of The Sidewinder album, and Horace Silver did
the same the following year with Song for My Father. As a result, Lion was
under pressure by independent distributors to come up with similar
successes, with the result that many Blue Note albums of this era start with
a catchy tune intended for heavy airplay in the United States.
At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters were
located in New York City, at West 61st Street, and at 47 W 63rd Street.
= The avant-garde = Although many of the acts on Blue Note
were recording jazz for a wide audience, the label also documented some of the
emerging avant-garde and free jazz players. Andrew Hill, a highly
individual pianist, made many albums for the label, one featuring
multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy. Dolphy's Out to Lunch! is perhaps his
best-known album. Saxophonist Ornette Coleman released two albums recorded
with a trio in a Stockholm club, and three studio albums. Pianist Cecil
Taylor recorded a brace of albums for Blue Note, as did trombonist Grachan
Moncur III, and saxophonist Sam Rivers, drummer Tony Williams, vibraphonist
Bobby Hutcherson and organist Larry Young also recorded albums which
diverged from the "hard bop" style usually associated with the label.
Saxophonist Jackie McLean, a stalwart of the label's hard bop output since the
late 1950s, also crossed over into the avant-garde in the early 1960s, whose
notable avant-garde albums included One Step Beyond, Destination Out and on
trombonist Grachan Moncur III' s "Evolution"
Though these avant-garde records did not sell as well as some other Blue Note
releases, Lion thought it was important to document new developments in jazz.
= Cover art = In 1956, Blue Note employed Reid Miles,
an artist who worked for Esquire magazine. The cover art produced by
Miles, often featuring Wolff's photographs of musicians in the studio,
was as influential in the world of graphic design as the music within would
be in the world of jazz. Under Miles, Blue Note was known for their striking
and unusual album cover designs. Miles' graphical design was distinguished by
its tinted black and white photographs, creative use of sans-serif typefaces,
and restricted color palette, and frequent use of solid rectangular bands
of color or white, influenced by the Bauhaus school of design.
Though Miles' work is closely associated with Blue Note and has earned iconic
status and frequent homage, Miles was only a casual jazz fan, according to
Richard Cook; Blue Note gave him several copies of each of the many dozens of
albums he designed, but Miles gave most to friends or sold them to second-hand
record shops. A few mid-fifties album covers featured drawings by an
as-yet-little-known Andy Warhol. Some of his most celebrated designs
adorned the sleeves of albums such as Midnight Blue, Out to Lunch!, Unity,
Somethin' Else, Let Freedom Ring, Hub-Tones, No Room for Squares, Cool
Struttin', and The Sidewinder. = Lion and Wolff retire =
Blue Note was acquired by Liberty Records in 1965 and Lion, who had
difficulties working within a larger organization, retired in 1967. Reid
Miles' association with the label ended around this time. For a few years most
albums were produced by Wolff or pianist Duke Pearson, who had filled Ike
Quebec's role in 1963, but Wolff died in 1971 and Pearson left in the same year.
George Butler was now responsible for the label, but despite some good albums,
the commercial viability of jazz was in question, and more borderline and
outright commercial records were made. At the end of the 1960s, the company
headquarters were moved to 1776 Broadway.
= Revival and ownership history = In 1979 EMI purchased United Artists
Records, which had absorbed Liberty Records in 1969, and phased out the Blue
Note label, which lay dormant until 1985, when it was relaunched as part of
EMI Manhattan Records, both for re-issues and new recordings for which
Bruce Lundvall was appointed. Some artists previously associated with Blue
Note, such as McCoy Tyner, made new recordings, while younger musicians such
as Bennie Wallace, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Greg Osby, Jason Moran and
arranger–composer Bob Belden have established notable reputations through
their Blue Note albums. The label has also found great commercial success with
the vocalist Norah Jones, and released new albums by established artists on the
fringes of jazz such as Van Morrison, Al Green, Anita Baker and newcomer Amos
Lee, sometimes referred to as the "male Norah Jones". Two of the leading
trumpeters of the 1980s Jazz Resurgence, Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard
signed with the label in 2003. Hip-hop producer Madlib recorded Shades of Blue
in 2003 as a tribute to Blue Note with samples earlier records on the label.
Blue Note has pursued an active reissue program since the mid-1980s revival. and
Michael Cuscuna has worked as freelance advisor and reissue producer. Some of
the original Blue Note's output has appeared in CD box sets issued by Mosaic
Records. Blue Note Records became the flagship jazz label for Capitol Jazz,
and was the parent label for the Capitol Jazz, Pacific Jazz, Roulette and other
labels within Capitol's holdings which had possessed a jazz line. The "RVG
series", Rudy Van Gelder remastering his own recordings from decades earlier
began around 1998. In 2006, EMI expanded Blue Note to
create the Blue Note Label Group by moving its Narada group of labels to New
York to join with Blue Note, centralizing EMI's approach to music for
the adult market segment. The labels newly under the Blue Note umbrella are
Angel Records, EMI Classics and Virgin Classics, Narada Productions, Back Porch
Records, Higher Octave Records, and Mosaic Records. As of June 2007, Bruce
Lundvall, founder of Manhattan Records, as President/CEO of the Blue Note Label
Group, was at the time reporting directly to Eric Nicoli, then Chief
Executive Officer of EMI Group. In 2008, the Blue Note 7, a jazz septet,
was formed in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records. The
group recorded an album in 2008, entitled Mosaic, which was released in
2009 on Blue Note Records/EMI, and toured the United States in promotion of
the album from January until April 2009. The group consists of Peter Bernstein,
Bill Charlap, Ravi Coltrane, Lewis Nash, Nicholas Payton, Peter Washington, and
Steve Wilson. The group plays the music of Blue Note Records from various
artists, with arrangements by members of the band and Renee Rosnes.
Following the acquisition of EMI by Universal, Don Was became President of
Blue Note in January 2012, after an appointment as CEO a few months earlier,
in succession to Bruce Lundvall. Lundvall, who stood down in 2010, became
Chairman Emeritus In May 2013, Blue Note Records partnered
with ArtistShare to form a label called "Blue Note/ArtistShare". The Blue
Note/ArtistShare partnership was forged by ArtistShare founder Brian Camelio,
Bruce Lundvall, and Don Was. After Universal Music Group took over
EMI, Decca Records took over distribution of Blue Note.
Legacy There has been much sampling of classic
Blue Note tracks by both hip hop artists and for mashing projects. In 1993, the
group Us3 designed the entirety of its debut album upon samples from classic
Blue Note records. In 2003, hip-hop producer Madlib released Shades of Blue:
Madlib Invades Blue Note, a collection of his remixes and interpretations of
Blue Note music. Pete Rock, J. Dilla, and DJ Spinna have likewise been
involved in similar projects. In 2004, Burning Vision Entertainment created the
video for Helicopter Girl's "Angel City", using the art from numerous Blue
Note LP sleeves to startling effect. In 2008, hip-hop producer Questlove of The
Roots compiled Droppin' Science: Greatest Samples from the Blue Note Lab,
a collection of original Blue Note recordings sampled by modern-day hip-hop
artists such as Dr. Dre and A Tribe Called Quest.
Discography Subsidiaries
Angel Records Manhattan Records
Narada Productions Notes
References Cook, Richard. Blue Note Records: A
Biography. ISBN 1-932112-10-3. Cuscuna, Michael & Ruppli, Michel. The
Blue Note Label: A Discography. ISBN 0-313-31826-3 [2nd ed 2001]
Marsh, Graham & Callingham, Glyn. Blue Note: Album Cover Art. ISBN
0-8118-3688-6. Marsh, Graham. Blue Note 2: the Album
Cover Art: The Finest in Jazz Since 1939. ISBN 0-8118-1853-5 [US edition]
Wolff, Francis, et al. Blue Note Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff. ISBN
0-7893-0493-7. External links
Blue Note at 60 Blue Note Official Site
Blue Note Discography A video interview with Bruce Lundvall on
Blue Note Records