NEW YORK, JULY 24, 2006 - EMI Music's legendary jazz label Blue Note Records has begun releasing ring tunes featuring riffs from some classic recordings by legendary artists including Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey and Chet Baker. Part of a new program called “The Best of Blue Tones", this marks the first time these tracks have been made available for the mobile platform, and it will give jazz fans an opportunity to personalize their mobile lives with the classic jazz tracks they know and love.

“Jazz fans of any age can be part of the mobile music phenomenon now. 'The Best of Blue Tones' lets fans use classic recordings like 'Dat Dere', 'Straight no Chaser' or 'My Funny Valentine' to jazz up their phone and express their personality," said Bruce Lundvall, President of EMI Jazz & Classics. “It's also a great example of how we continually keep the Blue Note vault relevant."

Lundvall worked closely with members of the Blue Note team to personally select the first installment of ringtones, even helping to identify the unique hook that should be used for each track.

“We've only just scratched the surface of the classic Blue Note catalog with this first batch," said Jeff Zakim, Director of New Media for Blue Note. “Jazz buffs are in for a real treat as this is just the first of many ringtones we plan to make available."

Founded in 1939, Blue Note built one of the most distinctive jazz catalogs throughout the 1950s and 60s, due to the impeccable A&R instincts of founder Alfred Lion who signed many of the giants of the music when they were still unknowns, and the crystalline sound quality engineered by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder.

Blue Note was consistently on the cutting edge of jazz, starting with the label's early bebop recordings of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Clifford Brown, and going on to define the now-famous “Blue Note Sound" with the incomparable hard bop sessions of Art Blakey and Horace Silver, the funky jazz hits of Lee Morgan and Herbie Hancock, and the grooving soul jazz of organists Jimmy Smith and Lonnie Smith. Blue Note also now oversees the great Pacific Jazz catalog, which is home to classic cool jazz recordings by such west coast musicians as Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan.

The following classic Blue Note tunes are starting to be made available to major carriers in the US and will be made available internationally shortly as part of “The Best of Blue Tones" program:

Artist - Track Title
Art Blakey - Dat Dere
Art Blakey - Moanin'
Clifford Brown - Daahoud
Clifford Brown - Joy Spring
Herbie Hancock - Cantaloup Island
Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man
Blue Mitchell - Fungii Mama
Thelonious Monk - Straight No Chaser
Lou Donaldson - The Blues Walk
Lou Donaldson - Aligator Boogaloo
Hank Mobley - The Turnaround
Kenny Burrell - Chitlins Con Carne
Chet Baker - My Funny Valentine
Gerry Mulligan - Bernie's Tune
Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
Miles Davis - Move
Ornette Coleman - Broad Way Blues
Ronnie Laws - Always There
Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack
Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin'
Lonnie Smith - Son Of Ice Bag
Bobby Hutcherson - Ummh
Freddie Hubbard - Crisis
Horace Silver - Song For My Father