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Celebrating Blue Note Records 75th With Delicious Vinyl

By Mark Corroto
April 16, 2014
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Everything old is new again. Except of course for the timeless music of Blue Note Records which celebrated its 75th anniversary this year. The recordings Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff produced starting in 1939 have been collector's items since day one. While much of the label's music has been re-released in digital format, CDs and in iTunes, current chief Don Was decided to celebrate the 75th by compiling a list of 100 Blue Note Records to be released as remastered vinyl LPs. While half the fun of this list is arguing which other titles should have been included on the list. Note to Was: What about

Johnny Coles

trumpet
1926 - 1997

" data-original-title="" title="">Johnny Coles Little Johnny C (1963)? These old school LPs scrap the alternative and additional tracks format favored by most reissues to deliver the music in the same manner as the original listening experience, with full album artwork and readable liner notes, that you can read before standing up to flip Side 1 to Side 2. Or, maybe just listen to Side 1 again.

Meade "Lux" Lewis
Melancholy / Solitude
1939

Might as well start at the inception of Blue Note Records with Alfred Lion's first release, BN 1. A record collector himself, he persuaded two pianists,

Albert Ammons

piano
1907 - 1949

" data-original-title="" title="">Albert Ammons and

Meade Lux Lewis

piano
1905 - 1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Meade Lux Lewis to record a couple of duets and series of solo sides in January 1939. Lewis had made his name in Chicago playing boogie-woogie, but Lion convinced him to focus on the blues. The two sides that were Lion's inaugural pressing of just 50 records were at 78 RPM, the custom of the day, but pressed onto 12 inch discs to allow "Melancholy" to clock in at 4:02 and "Solitude" at 4:08. The re-release is available as a limited edition Record Store Day edition 12" vinyl.

"Melancholy" lopes along via Lewis' blues locomotive rhythm. This piece of improvised music displays the emergence of what would later be the Blue Note sound. Where an artist like

Fats Waller

piano
1904 - 1943

" data-original-title="" title="">Fats Waller was encouraged to record silly and gimmicky songs with a ta-da component, Lion delves deeper into the heart of the music, and therefore the soul of the musician. Lewis amplifies his blues with piano flourishes, but nothing ostentatious or flamboyant. Same for "Solitude," a bar-closing blues replete with smokey notes and spiller gin. The first consumers of Lion's discs must have thought they found an entrance into another world.

John Coltrane
Blue Train
1957

Except for the posthumously issued recordings with

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk, Live At The Five Spot Discovery! (Blue Note, 1993) and At Carnegie Hall (Blue Note, 2005), Blue Train is the only recording

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane made for Blue Note as a leader, and reportedly it was his favorite record.

Coltrane, in 1957 was already a star on the rise. He had gained attention with

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' 1955 Quintet, begun a lengthy association with the Prestige label, and would sign on for a lengthy gig at New York's Five Spot as Monk's apprentice. Although he would work as a Blue Note sideman on recording dates by

Paul Chambers

bass, acoustic
1935 - 1969

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul Chambers,

Johnny Griffin

saxophone, tenor
1928 - 2008

" data-original-title="" title="">Johnny Griffin, and

Sonny Clark

piano
1931 - 1963

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonny Clark, this session from September was a true hard bop gem. The sound, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, is excellent and the band (unlike sessions for Prestige) had a couple days practice to prepare.

By 1957, Lion and Alfred Wolff had establish the sound of Blue Note. That year they recorded 47 sessions. Coltrane chose a fine cast from Blue Note's stable of sidemen. Both bassist Chambers and drummer

Philly Joe Jones

drums
1923 - 1985

" data-original-title="" title="">Philly Joe Jones were members of Miles Davis' Quintet and pianist

Kenny Drew

piano
1928 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Drew, trumpeter

Lee Morgan

trumpet
1938 - 1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Lee Morgan and trombonist

Curtis Fuller

trombone
1934 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Curtis Fuller were steeped in the hard bop genre. Of the five compositions, Coltrane wrote four, plus the Mercer/Kern "I'm old Fashioned." Listening to "Moments Notice," and "Lazy Bird" you can discern the genesis of Trane's revolutionary chord changes that are fully realized in 1959 with the piece "Giant Steps." Professionals as they were, this was no blowing session, the music is sprite and concise.

Eric Dolphy
Out To Lunch
1964

Fifty years after the release of Out To Lunch and the question remains; where would

Eric Dolphy

woodwinds
1928 - 1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Eric Dolphy have taken jazz if he had not died from the complications of diabetes four months after making this masterpiece? 1964 was a turning point for creative music with

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane's Love Supreme (Impulse!),

Albert Ayler

saxophone, tenor
1936 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity (ESP), and

Andrew Hill

piano
1931 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Andrew Hill's Point of Departure (Blue Note) which Dolphy was a contributor along with bassist

Richard Davis

bass, acoustic
1930 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Richard Davis and drummer Anthony Williams, who later preferred

Tony Williams

drums
1945 - 1997

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Williams.

Dolphy was admired by his outward peers, playing and recording with Coltrane,

Ornette Coleman

saxophone, alto
1930 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Ornette Coleman, and he was also a featured soloist with

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus' bands. His introduction of the bass clarinet to jazz and the flute to the New Thing created multiple possibilities for creative music.

Besides Davis and Williams, Dolphy recruited trumpeter

Freddie Hubbard

trumpet
1938 - 2008

" data-original-title="" title="">Freddie Hubbard and vibraphonist

Bobby Hutcherson

vibraphone
1941 - 2016

" data-original-title="" title="">Bobby Hutcherson to round out his quintet. Hubbard, whose hard bop horn could be heard with

Art Blakey

drums
1919 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers was also a a contributor to Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (Atlantic, 1961). Davis and Williams would go on to contribute to

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' bands and Hutcherson became a fixture at Blue Note.

Out To Lunch contained five original compositions that come across as fresh today as they did in 1964. Except back then, it felt as if musicians required a license to play out. Dolphy's music is explorative, yet it maintains a harmonic center. His tribute to