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Blue Note Records Beyond The Notes
By
Director: Sophie Huber
Run Time: 111 minutes
Eagle Rock Entertainment
2019
Blue Note fans will love this film. It is an unblemished, 360-degree, feel-good feast for the eyes and the ears. Intended by director Sophie Huber to make sense to newcomers to jazz, Blue Note Records Beyond The Notes does not offer any arcane new perspectives on the label. It is instead a loving trawl through Blue Note's history and an affirmation of its continuing relevance.
The film dives deep into the label's audio-visual archive, with an emphasis on the 1950s and 1960s, and also gives a platform to the modern roster of artists, musically and in conversation. There are on-point interviews with label veterans

Lou Donaldson
saxophone1926 - 2024

Wayne Shorter
saxophone1933 - 2023

Herbie Hancock
pianob.1940

Robert Glasper
pianob.1978

Ambrose Akinmusire
trumpetb.1982

Derrick Hodge
bassb.1979

Kendrick Scott
drumsb.1980

Marcus Strickland
clarinet, bass
Don Was
bassb.1952
Alfred Lion
producer1908 - 1987

Rudy Van Gelder
various1924 - 2016
Also as you would expect, Francis Wolff's photographs, some familiar, some not, figure large in the film. So, too, does rarely seen performance footage of artists including

John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967

Art Blakey
drums1919 - 1990

Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991

Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982

Clifford Brown
trumpetb.1930

Lee Morgan
trumpet1938 - 1972
The specially filmed performance footage of Robert Glasper and his contemporaries, included as bonus features, is wonderful. As the Blue Note All Stars, Glasper, Akinmusire, Hodge, Scott and Strickland are filmed in the studio recording Glasper's "Bayyinah" and, augmented by Shorter, Hancock and

Lionel Loueke
guitarb.1973
Huber takes care to present Blue Note not as a museum piece but as a living entity. A Tribe Called Quest rapper


Kendrick Lamar
vocals
Terrace Martin
saxophoneTags
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