Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. 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 famous soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, which Bechet had been unable to record for the established companies. 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. 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 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, Under Miles, Blue Note was known for their striking and unusual album cover designs.

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-1950s album covers featured drawings by a then-unknown 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 retires; Wolff dies

Blue Note was acquired by Liberty Records in 1965 and Lion, who had difficulties working within a larger organization, retired in 1967.

Revival and ownership history

thumb|1969 advertisement after Blue Note was acquired by [[Liberty Records|316x316px]]

In 1979, EMI purchased United Artists Records, which had absorbed Liberty Records in 1968, 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). 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 (guitar), Bill Charlap (piano), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Lewis Nash (drums), Nicholas Payton (trumpet), Peter Washington (bass), and Steve Wilson (alto saxophone, flute). 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, Blue Note Records is now operated under Capitol Music Group, while Decca Records took over UK distribution of Blue Note.

Modern era

Blue Note has seen a continuity in releases from older artists such as Shorter, Charles Lloyd, Louis Hayes, and Dr. Lonnie Smith. In 2019, the imprint announced the launch of a vinyl reissue series of classic titles, with releases selected and produced by Grammy-nominated producer and jazz expert Joe Harley. The series, named the "Tone Poet series" in honor of Harley, reissues several titles each year from the Blue Note catalogue. In 2020, Blue Note released the debut of South African artist Nduduzo Makhathini, called Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds. It was named one of the "Best Jazz Albums of 2020" by The New York Times, and was followed by In the Spirit of Ntu in 2022, and uNomkhubulwane in 2024.

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.

Notable issues of critical assessment

Publishing rights

Any artist who records a song written by another artists is required to pay the statutory royalty to the copyright owner. A royalty is a usage-based fee paid by a licensee (the party wanting to use the copyrighted music) to a licensor (the owner of the copyrighted music). From the 1930s through the 1960s it was commonplace for a songwriter to sign over the rights to his/her work to a company — usually the record label for which they were recording — as part of the terms of the recording contract. Unfortunately, few musicians of this period had sufficient knowledge of US copyright laws or the proper advocator legal advice to ensure they would receive the royalties for their compositions. As a result, whenever any of their pieces were recorded, broadcast, telecast, etc., it was the record company that profited — and the writer received nothing. The majority of jazz musicians fell victim to this practice in that period. Andrew Dowd writes: "The example that still haunts me (and probably always will) is the famous tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley. He recorded countless albums for the storied label Blue Note from 1955 to 1970 (many of them classics) yet he died alone and penniless in a tiny Philadelphia apartment in 1986"

Donald Byrd

Trumpeter Donald Byrd recorded for Blue Note Records, 1959-1967. He encouraged fellow musicians to always retain the publishing rights to their own music and to always negotiate their recording contracts as a standard practice.

Herbie Hancock

According to Tom Cotter: "Hancock credits Byrd with giving him one of the most important pieces of advice of his career – not to give away his publishing rights. When Blue Note offered Hancock the chance to record his first solo LP, label executives tried to convince him to relinquish his publishing in exchange for being able to record the album, but he stuck to Byrd's advice and refused, so the meeting came to an impasse. At this point, he stood up to leave and when it became clear that he was about to walk out, the executives relented and allowed him to retain his publishing. Thanks to Santamaria's subsequent hit cover version of "Watermelon Man", Hancock was soon receiving substantial royalties".

Steve Swallow

During an interview by Ethan Iverson, double bassist Steve Swallow revealed the following about the 1965 Pete La Roca "Basra" LP session: "Another song on the date is my piece, ‘Eiderdown,’ which is actually the first recording of one of my compositions. It’s also the only tune of mine that I don’t own. Alfred Lion snatched it right out of my hands. After the date had been done, I got a phone call from Alfred and he said, ‘Oh, by the way, “Eiderdown,” who is publishing that?’ I had no idea what he was talking about. I said, ‘Gee, I don’t know.’ Alfred said, ‘No problem.’ He then proceeded to offer me this ‘wonderful’ deal. He would publish it for me and take care of everything and I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. I was so grateful. ‘Gee, Alfred. Thank you so much.’ I haven’t been able to get that tune back after all these years. Blue Note sold it, it’s gone around, and some big conglomerate owns it now. I keep trying to buy it back because it has been recorded fairly often. That’s another kind of Blue Note story. It is a great blessing to jazz that Blue Note existed, but on the business side they were also sort of gangsters."

Lee Morgan and Grant Green: high volumes of unreleased recordings

Based on the number of recording dates held, Grant Green and Lee Morgan were the most prolific Blue Note recording artists in the 1960s. It has been conjectured for many years that as the label's major heroin addicts, Green and Morgan would come to Al Lion for "an advance". At his discretion, Lion would then respond by arranging an "ad-hoc" recording session — paying the standard base arrangement at the time: one four-hour rehearsal and one subsequent four-hour recording session. The artists were paid for their time and Lion now owned an LP's worth of recorded music — including the publishing rights — to be used solely at Blue Note's later discretion. Both Green and Morgan were used far more than any other guitarist or trumpeter as participants at other Blue Note sessions during this same period (roughly, 1961-67). Once Al Lion left Blue Note (August 1967), there were no more of these ad hoc recording sessions.

Notable participating musicians who did not record as leaders, 1965-1968

From 1955 to 1964, Al Lion was relatively prolific in signing quality artists to recording contracts with Blue Note — many of whom were new to the recording industry.

During 1955-59, Lion signed multi-LP contracts with the following artists — all of whom would develop into the high-profile artists that would define Blue Note records into the early 1960s: Art Blakey, Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Dorham, Curtis Fuller, Freddie Hubbard, Thad Jones, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Duke Pearson, Horace Silver, and Jimmy Smith.

During 1960-64, Lion signed multi-LP contracts with the following new artists (many of whom had no prior recording contracts) — all of whom would develop into high-profile artists that would further define Blue Note records throughout the 1960s: Grant Green, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, John Patton, Sam Rivers, Wayne Shorter, Stanley Turrentine, Tony Williams, and Larry Young. The following established artists were also signed: Dexter Gordon, and Blue Mitchell. Yet, by the following November 1966 session for Boss Horn, which would be Corea’s last with Mitchell, he had already written two pieces that would quickly become jazz standards: "Tones For Joan’s Bones" and "Straight Up And Down". Both pieces had made such an impact at the session that arranger Duke Pearson’s glowing accolades, writer Nat Hentoff’s exuberant critique, and quotes from Corea himself would dominate nearly half of the liner note content. In 2005, writer Bob Blumenthal further offered: "Chick Corea, the pianist and composer of the two final tracks, had received his first significant exposure in the jazz world on Mitchell’s The Thing To Do and Down With It! The present album [Boss Horn] served similar notice regarding his talents as a composer, and heralded Corea’s arrival as a major voice in music". By this time, however, Corea was under contract with Atlantic and in two weeks would himself lead his first session as a leader — including his own recordings of his compositions here (Duke Pearson himself would also record both in 1967 and 1968).

On the surface, the excitement and success surrounding the November 1966 recording session suggests not having previously extended a contract to Corea was a missed opportunity for Lion. Though in his defense, Corea’s unique talents were not fully on display to Lion until the November 1966 date. To further underscore Lion’s presumed unknowingness regarding Corea’s emerging talent, one can only wonder: had Lion not replaced Corea for the January 1966 session, what compositions Corea would have brought to that session — and would they have received similar acclaim? In the end, given Liberty’s practice of favouring established artists to new talent, it’s unknown if lobbying from Al Lion and others would have persuaded Liberty management to sign Corea at that time.

Woody Shaw

Shaw first came to Blue Note by way of Horace Silver’s The Cape Verdean Blues session (October 1965), and from 1965-1968, he would participate in the recording sessions of Andrew Hill, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Tyrone Washington, and Larry Young — at times contributing his own memorable compositions.

Shaw may have been passed over given overarching stylistic similarities to Freddie Hubbard. That said, Hubbard left Blue Note in 1966 seemingly indicating there was a viable vacancy for another trumpet artist — which stylistically would have been a good fit for Shaw and Blue Note at that time.

Documentary films

  • Julian Benedikt: Blue Note – A Story of Modern Jazz. Documentary film, Germany 1996.
  • Eric Friedler: It Must Schwing! The Blue Note Story. Documentary film, Producer: Wim Wenders, Germany 2018.
  • Sophie Huber: Blue Note Records - Beyond the notes. Documentary film, Switzerland, 2018.

Discography

Subsidiaries

  • Angel Records
  • Manhattan Records
  • Narada Productions

Notes

References

  • Cook, Richard. Blue Note Records: A Biography. .
  • Cohen, Frederick. Blue Note Records: A Guide for Identifying Original Pressings. .
  • Cuscuna, Michael & Ruppli, Michel. The Blue Note Label: A Discography. [2nd ed 2001]
  • Marsh, Graham & Callingham, Glyn. Blue Note: Album Cover Art. .
  • Marsh, Graham. Blue Note 2: the Album Cover Art: The Finest in Jazz Since 1939. [US edition]
  • Wolff, Francis, et al. Blue Note Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff. .
  • Blue Note Discography
  • A video interview with Bruce Lundvall on Blue Note Records
  • NAMM Oral History Interview with Dr. Ruth Lion October 20, 2003