The book on Blue Note is by Richard Cook "Blue Note Records. A Biography". Its a good read with lots of info. on the recordings. I would have liked a bit more on the business side and details of changes in recording techniques by the label over time, but you can't have everything. There's probably another book out there with that.
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Tom
I read that book some while ago and was a little under-whelmed. The new publication looks wonderful and has some great photos in it but the narrative is extremely lightweight. Someone like Bluesnik could have made a far better fist of it. I felt that the criticism was almost non-existent with every featured release seeming to have been a masterpiece. It doesn't really address your quest for technical information on recordings but the marketing / business side if considered although not in depth. It's odd that the same author's earlier book on Verve was a far more broad-minded and considered book which even took on left wing politics and popular influences. His latest effort seems almost like sales puff for the label - it has worked in my case as I've bought little else since reading the book back in the winter.Comment
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Next up, Hank Mobley's "No room for squares." It is quite revealing as I've been a bit under-whelmed with some of his other records. There is consistent tenor playing but it is difficult to dismiss the idea that some of the playing is a bit comfortable and the compositions not all that original. I was introduced to Mobley through "Workout" which was smoking but never really appealed. "Roll call" is standard-fair Hard Bop with Wynton Kelly on an out of tune piano being the most interesting soloist.
Listening to Dorham's "Whistle stop" has made me reconsider Mobley as he is like another musician on this. I've been listening to "No Room for squares" today which includes two groups, the second of which is a so/so band with Herbie Hancock and the rather over-ripe trumpet of Donald Byrd. However, I think that the other group with Andrew Hill on piano is a revelation. This is probably the most "progressive" record I've heard Mobley on and the appearance of Andrew Hill is like a missing ingredient compared to Mobley's other two records. It is like an added piece of spice or herb that enlivens a familiar recipe and the stark modalism of Hill makes a perfect foil for the smooth, roundedness of the tenor. I had no idea that they had recorded together and the combination does seem very incongruous. Added to this, Philly Joe Jones' drums are perfection.
In my opinion, some of the best jazz occurs when a "wild card" musician is thrown into the mix with more traditionally rooted band-members. I'm thinking of Charlie Christian with BG, Prez with Basie, Dolphy with Oliver Nelson or even Ornette with Jackie McLean. In this instance, the music works really well, especially on the title track.
I'd also like to throw in a bit of a curved ball. I'm always dismayed by the negative remarks about Buddy rich's drumming with Bird but this record offers a more unusual combination. There is clearly a generational difference between Hill and Jones yet the piano solo on the title track sounds even better where the straight-down -the -line swing of Jones contrasts with Hill's desire to go off on a different tangent. No different from Bird and Rich, Vive la difference.Comment
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I was given Joe Henderson's "Page One" as a part of a birthday present and have been hugely impressed with this record. The writing is exceptional but "La Mesha" is is probably the finest ballad I've heard on a Blue Note record. Copies of "In n out" are going for serious money on Amazon - shame as this would complete by Henderon / Dorham Blue notes. This is the most inspired trumpet / tenor partnership on the label and produced a body of music which still seems contemporary in 2015. I've always been a fan of "Out thing" but "page One" is in the same class.Comment
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Promoted to listen again to "In n Out" for the first time in ages and what a stunning record. Glorious feel to it and "Punjab" must be one of the most attractive tracks they cut. Love Kenny's playing on this and the entire album. He and Joe fit so well together but contrast perfectly.Originally posted by Ian Thumwood View Post
BN.,Comment
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Thanks for all the BN suggestions. I'm listening to some of them on Qobuz - Page One at the moment.SteveComment
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I see there are Blue Note-themed programmes showing on BBC4 this coming Friday and Saturday:
Friday 29th 8 pm
Wynton Marsalis Plays Blue Note
A performance by Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with its musical director Wynton Marsalis, recorded at the Royal Hall in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Blue Note record label in June 2014.
Saturday 30th 7 pm
Blue Note: a Story of Modern Jazz
An exploration of how Blue Note Records - the label that was home to such greats as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins - helped bring jazz into the mainstream.
Well, that's what RT says!Comment
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Is anyone else watching this?
Wynton can still certainly play when he's being a creator rather than a curator, in Keith Tippett's wonderful phrase. But the arrangements are stock, however well they are presented.
Prince Harry is taking a solo on baritone.Comment
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I went to hear this band at Basingstoke when they toured the Blue Note music and what was represented was about 1/3rd of the concert. The best chart they played was Freddie Redd's "The Thespian" which wasn't featured tonight. I believe that the repertoire differed across the venues on the tour.
I don't totally agree about the writing being "stock" as Ted Nash's charts were actually really good. A lot of the others were pretty standard but the problem is that the solos are generally pretty dull and the performances drag on. The rhythm section also seems at odds with the more progressive stuff like Hancock's "Riot." They also messed around a lot with the form on "Un poco loco" which includes a vamp during the drum solo which doesn't exist in the original , from recollection. The writing on the Powell piece was also good.
Marsalis's reverence for Blue Note seems a bit perverse but I believe that there were in excess of 50 charts produced of repertoire associated with the label. There were several Silver numbers as well as some Monk too when I went to the gig. Quite how "Lou Donaldson's "Blues walk" merited inclusion baffles me as I've always felt he was the most derivative of all the artists on that label in his slavish Bird imitations. Wynton does a good job of keeping so great writing from the past in the repertoire which is good but it is difficult to see quite why Donaldson's music is worthy of chronicling. I don't dislike his music but don't take too seriously. The most disappointing aspect was that Marsalis didn't programme any Herbie Nichols which is more worthy of performance or een Andrew Hill. No outing for music from tenor titan Fred Jackson's epoch- making "Hootin' and tootin'" either - the Soul jazz's answer to " A love supreme."Comment
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WM's problem may be down to his hostility to "the avant garde" making it difficult for him to know where to draw the line on whom to include or exclude from the Blue Note songbook.Originally posted by Ian Thumwood View PostComment
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This was part of a wider discussion I had with a couple of my friends after the rehearsal last night insofar that the current stock of the "avant garde" has never been lower. Too many of the younger acts seem to safe and the jazz too comfortable. I can't quite place where Marsalis is coming from as I suspect that he is in to some of the more advanced jazz acts and was maybe previously sounding off against some of the skronk produced in the 1960's. Listening to Andrew Hill's "Compunction" tonight, you are easily reminded of the reluctance of younger musicians to follow on from this.Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
In Marsalis' favour, he is always mindful of jazz's Black heritage which, to my ears, so many younger white players seem eager to disinherit. I approve of his notion of jazz as Black Classical Music but just wish that more artists these days would endeavour to make a connection with the music's roots as opposed to plunging for a "cleaner" European approach. Generally , the artists in Blue Note made music that was worth listening to and that had a visceral integrity. I think the best of today's artists are those who still maintain a "shock" element or display an element of vocalisation within the instrumental styles which clearly defines the music as not Western European. There is a multitude of ways this might be done and still produce music that is clearly jazz. Can't see Marsalis leading this orchestra in 30 years time performing an ACT label retrospective.Comment
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Saw the concert and also the Blue Note documentary last night. I enjoyed them both and have copies. I am not a musician.SteveComment
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The Blue Note documentary was ok but it looked about twenty years old and some of the comments about the contemporary scene seemed a bit old-fashioned. Interesting to see that Reid Miles didn't like jazz - I already knew that he didn't actually meet Rudy Van Gelder until fairly recently. It ticked all the boxes but made the same mistake of so many other books / documentaries in giving the impression that there weren't many other labels at that time as dedicated to producing jazz. I suspect "Commodore" must have been the earliest example of a label specifically catering for jazz fans and perhaps more on the ball then than the sophomore Blue Note label. Didn't actor Billy Crystal's father have some involvement with Commodore?Comment
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For years I thought that if Hank Mobley (say) had a Bluenote record date, he would virtually run it in terms of picking sidemen and material. I've only realised more recently that Alfred was much more proactive in putting sessions together and favouring his chosen ones. - one of the reasons Grant Green shows up (not always usefully) so often on other people's dates. Mobley said the reason he recorded with Herbie Hancock was that Alfred wanted at least one player there who was "straight".
There's an interesting interview with Jack Walrath where he says that even Van Gelder had input, refusing to record stuff from Herbie he didn't think would fit,
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