Blue Note Records: The Biography - Hardcover

Cook, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1932112103 ISBN 13: 9781932112108

Publisher: Justin, Charles & Co., 2003

Synopsis

Blue Note Records is more than just a label. It is the heart of jazz. This book, chronicles the life of the most famous and influential jazz label of them all.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Cook is the co-author of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD and is currently the editor of Jazz Review. He has been writing about jazz and other music for more than twenty-five years and makes his home in west London.

From the Inside Flap

"Blue Note records are designed simply to serve the uncompromising expression of hot jazz and swing, in general. Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression. By virtue of its significance in place, time and circumstance, it possesses its own tradition, artistic standards and audience that keeps it alive. Hot jazz, therefore, is expression and communication, a musical and social manifestation, and Blue Note Records are concerned with identifying its impulse, not its sensational and commercial adornments." from a flyer for one of Blue Note s early releases, dated May, 1939.

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Blue Note Records is arguably the single most recognizable record label in the history of recorded music. To millions of jazz fans around the world, Blue Note is more than a business, more than a back catalogue of extraordinary music, even more than an exciting sound and a distinctive look. It is the heart of jazz. It is Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Kenny Burrell, and the ubiquitous Art Blakey s Jazz Messengers all making their most significant early recordings under the auspices of the Blue Note genius.

Blue Note Records: The Biography chronicles the life of the most famous and influential jazz label of them all.

Here is the detailed history of the label from the beginning days in 1939 when two German immigrants, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, began recording and releasing the hot jazz that they loved. It s all here, from the development, to the rise, fall and rebirth. From Sidney Bechet to Norah Jones, Richard Cook examines life behind the scenes and a parallel analysis of all the major records released throughout Blue Note s history.

The pioneering label of jazz s golden age, Blue Note Records is still a conspicuous arbiter of style that continues to have influence. Richard Cook captures the subtle art of Rudy van Gelder s distinctive, oft-imitated recording techniques, Francis Wolff s invaluable jazz photography, and Reid Miles cool, trend-setting album designs which together set the standard that became and continues to be the classic symbol of the best in jazz.

Reviews

Now a division of Capitol Records, Blue Note was a pioneer in jazz's golden age, serving as a breeding ground for legends such as Sidney Bechet, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Kenny Burrell, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins and Horace Silver. In this landmark book, jazz writer Cook (co-author of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD) presents a history of the label, from its 1939 start producing hot jazz and swing records to its current projects, which include releasing Norah Jones's top-selling 2002 record, Come Away With Me. Eschewing tales of boardroom politics and pages of record reviews for an overall picture of how Blue Note's "mystique grew up, and how it endures," the book is more than just the chronicle of a company. It shows how far jazz, and, by extension, popular music, have come in the past 60-odd years.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Justin, Charles & Co.
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1932112103
• ISBN 13: 9781932112108
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288