The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff - Hardcover

Cuscuna, Michael; Lourie, Charlie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0847819124 ISBN 13: 9780847819126

Publisher: Rizzoli, 2001

Synopsis

From 19411965 Francis Wolff took thousands of photographs during the rehearsals and recording sessions that made Blue Note Records the world's most famous jazz label. This book presents over 200 of those intimate photographs and the text details the history of the label and the fascinating stories behind some of its most legendary recordings. A valuable reference section includes biographies of the artists and the names and dates of the sessions at which the photos were taken.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Cuscuna was an FM disc jockey and music journalist before turning his attention to producing new recordings and reissues. He has produced Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Bonnie Raitt, and McCoy Tyner, among others. He is also a consultant, producer, and reissue director for Blue Note Records, which was reactivated in 1984. He has served as consultant on the film Round Midnight, Ken Burns' JAZZ, and Columbia's Miles Davis reissue series.

Charlie Lourie was a professional woodwind player and saxophonist in the greater Boston area before moving into the music industry. He was a marketing executive at Columbia Records, a director of marketing for Blue Note Records and a director of jazz and progressive music at Warner Bros. Records. In 1982 Lourie and Michael Cuscuna founded Mosaic Records, a direct-mail label dedicated to reissuing classic jazz recordings in definitive, limited-edition boxed sets.

Reviews

In 1939, Wolff (1907?-1971), a professional German photographer, came to the U.S. and became partners with Alfred Lion at Blue Note Records, an innovative new recording company producing masterpieces by talented young jazz musicians such as Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, John Coltrane and many others. Wolff managed the company's business affairs, and he also attended recording sessions, taking thousands of informal photographs of individual musicians at work. Some of these photographs appeared on Blue Note album covers and later in booklets offered with reissues of classic jazz recordings produced by Mosaic Records, which Cuscuna and Lourie founded in 1982. Most of them, however, were never seen by the public, and many of the over 200 duotone photographs in this large-format volume, beautifully designed by Schnider, are here reproduced for the first time. Intimate and unposed, these portraits reveal Wolff's genius for capturing the musicians' various moods and their joy in music-making. The brief but lucid text outlines the history of Blue Note Records and its relationship to its artists, adding to the appeal of this stunning book.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When Alfred Lion, founder of Blue Note Records, retired in 1967, his partner, Frank Wolff, presented him with the label's photographic archive as a keepsake. It fit into a single carton. For 19 years it remained unopened, until Lion gave it to the owners of the Blue Note masters, Mosaic Records, to illustrate their reissues. Wolff, a lifelong jazz aficionado, fled Germany in 1939 and met up with his old friend Lion in New York. In addition to managing Blue Note's business affairs, he photographed 28 years of Blue Note sessions. The results are spectacular. Many of the giants of the period, including Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock (who writes the introduction), Jimmy Heath, and Art Blakey, are captured in mid-note, or in silent contemplation, seemingly unconscious of the photographer's presence. This is the crowning feature of the work: the practice of genius is captured in its essence. Each photograph is listed by subject, album being cut, album headliner, site, and year. An index of featured artists and their Blue Note work is included. Recommended for all photography collections. Essential for all jazz collections.?Adam Mazmanian, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rizzoli
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0847819124
• ISBN 13: 9780847819126
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 204