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13
Album Review

Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder

Read "The Sidewinder" reviewed by Greg Simmons


Legend tells us that 1964's The Sidewinder was the album, and indeed the song, which saved Blue Note Records at a time when the label was struggling financially. Dashed off to fill some tape, at the end of the recording session, it peaked at number 25 on the Billboard charts—almost unheard of for a hard-bop record—stabilizing the label's finances as well as providing Lee Morgan with steady royalties for the remainder of his tragically abbreviated life. Although the ...

21
Album Review

Wayne Shorter: Adam's Apple

Read "Adam's Apple" reviewed by Greg Simmons


In all the perpetual hubbub surrounding Blue Note records from the 1950s--the aggressive opinions and stratospheric prices--it's sometime easy to forget that the label released really high quality music all the way through the 1960s, and some of the recordings from the later years of the decade are every bit as worthy of attention as the legendary 1500 series dates. Case in point: Wayne Shorter's Adam's Apple, a quartet date recorded in 1966 when Shorter was a mainstay ...

8
Album Review

Grachan Moncur III: Evolution

Read "Evolution" reviewed by Greg Simmons


One of the more unusual records in Music Matters series of Blue Note Records reissues is Grachan Moncur III's avant-garde classic Evolution, released here on a 45 rpm double LP. The Music Matters Blue Notes are among the highest quality jazz vinyl available, with fanatical attention to sound, packaging, and pressing quality, here doing serious justice to true milestone performance. Recorded on November of 1963, the date features the horns of Jackie McLean and Lee Morgan, as well ...

6
Album Review

Duke Pearson: WAHOO!

Read "WAHOO!" reviewed by Greg Simmons


Duke Pearson occupied an unusual position within Blue Note Record's roster of artists. In addition to recording as both leader and sideman he also served as the label's A&R man, following in the footsteps of Ike Quebec. Pearson also served as the arranger on many albums, including sessions--Stanley Turrentine's Rough 'n' Tumble, comes to mind--where other pianists took over the keys. Pearson's own WAHOO! carries an exuberant title for what turns out to be a pretty laid back ...

3
Album Review

Hank Mobley: Hank Mobley

Read "Hank Mobley" reviewed by Greg Simmons


During the 1950s and '60s Hank Mobley was an especially prolific musician. In addition to many dates as a sideman, his string of 26 or so records under his own name for Blue Note certainly makes him the one of, if not the label's productivity champion. Most of his dates are excellent performances, yet somehow his name has faded from the public conscious. Jazz people know him of course--we thrive on even the smallest esoteric historical details, after all--but Mobley ...

6
Album Review

Thad Jones: The Magnificent Thad Jones

Read "The Magnificent Thad Jones" reviewed by Greg Simmons


It's all about the swing. Featured in the Count Basie Orchestra, one of the hardest swinging bands ever, Thad Jones had more swing in his little toe then most musicians will ever dream of. Even when he slowed the tempo he still swung, and his second date as a leader for Blue Note Records, The Magnificent Thad Jones, swings more at mid-tempo than almost any record I know. The rhythm on this record is a relentless pendulum: It swings left; ...

6
Album Review

Kenny Clarke: The Golden 8

Read "The Golden 8" reviewed by Greg Simmons


The first time I dropped a needle on a Music Matters 33 rpm test-pressing of Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland's The Golden 8 I was surprised to hear something quite unusual: a Blue Note record that was clearly not recorded in Hackensack. With only a few exceptions, most Blue Note records of the 1950s and 60s were recorded in Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio with a unique sound that many listeners can pick out in just a ...

465
Album Review

Kenny Dorham: 'Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia

Read "'Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia" reviewed by Matt Marshall


There's a thickness to the sound of this 1956 Kenny Dorham set as reissued by Music Matters on two 45-rpm records--a density that blows from the speakers and settles in the room like smoke. Which is to say the fidelity of the Music Matters product proves itself as strong on live recordings as it has on their Blue Note studio reissues. Here, the club acoustics are palpable, requiring only the cracking of a favorite beverage to complete the scene.

Not ...

362
Album Review

Hank Mobley: Hank Mobley

Read "Hank Mobley" reviewed by Samuel Chell


Count yourself fortunate to get your hands on this session, originally released on Blue Note, and not simply for the incredibly hip photo of Mobley on the cover (though I'll admit that's what initially hooked me). On this Toshiba EMI International reissue, the liner notes are in Japanese, the audio is merely “good" (undoubtedly a Van Gelder remastering would provide more presence to both piano and drums), and the front line is probably unknown to many listeners. But in terms ...


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