“An extraordinary library of possibilıties” BLUE NOTE: AN 80TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
In 1939, ALFRED LION and FRANCIS WOLFF, two German-Jewish immigrants living in New York, started a record label, Blue Note, devoted to jazz. Over the ensuing years, Blue Note became home for artists such as THELONIOUS MONK, ART BLAKEY, HORACE SILVER, HERBIE HANCOCK and WAYNE SHORTER – sonic revolutionaries whose profound and innovative music continues to exert a far-reaching influence across the spectrum of 21st-century music. To celebrate the label’s 80th anniversary, we have asked Blue Note’s storied admirers to nominate their favourite albums from the label. Our illustrious panel includes veteran aficionados like ROBERT WYATT, JOHN McLAUGHLIN and MICHAEL CHAPMAN alongside younger voices such as KAMASI WASHINGTON, NUBYA GARCIA and SHABAKA HUTCHINGS, who are boldly reconfiguring jazz for today’s audiences. We hear from current label signings NORAH JONES and CASSANDRA WILSON and incumbent Blue Note president DON WAS – as well as members of the OH SEES, WILCO, ROXY MUSIC and DAVID BOWIE’s Blackstar band of crack New York jazzers. But first, to introduce our survey, here’s SONNY ROLLINS, the venerable jazz saxophonist who recorded his first Blue Note session in 1949… SONNY ROLLINS: “Alfred Lion was a conscientious fellow who really loved the music. He wouldn’t interfere with anything, that I knew of. He respected the artist and what they were doing. I can’t remember him making any pronouncements. He must have said something at times but all I remember is that he was very conscientious and sincere. When you went to record at Blue Note you knew it was all business. His partner Frank Wolff photographed me quite a bit. He got great shots and it was wonderful working with them. They were both very serious people, who loved the music and were respectful of the artist.
“He trusted the talent because he loved jazz and when he thought something sounded good, generally he was right. He knew what the public would accept during this great period for jazz. His producer Rudy Van Gelder could get that iconic sound. Rudy was serious too. I didn’t have a close relationship with Rudy: I did my work, he did his work and it was like that, a mutual respect.
“When I recorded Freedom Suite for Riverside in 1958 a lot of people in the business resented me making a racial statement. Alfred wasn’t like that. He was very fair-minded, certainly not a racist. He couldn’t be, surrounded by that talent. In that period there used to be a restaurant in Harlem, a great restaurant called Surprise Rotisserie, and in the window they had the beef going round on the barbecue. One day I was in Harlem and there was Al and Frank sitting in Surprise Rotisserie eating. Somebody had told him about it and he was clearly comfortable being around black people. He knew about persecution. He had to leave Germany just before the political scene got too uncomfortable.
“I remember one time I did a record for him and in appreciation for doing that he gave me the publishing rights to one of my songs. In those days, record people automatically kept publishing rights for themselves – that was how things were done.
Labels were meant to keep artists in the dock as much as possible. Alfred wasn’t trying to do it for an economic reason, he just appreciated me and the music and it was a way to say thank you.
“That was the feel of the place. The integrity, the honesty and the realness.
Alfred and Frank were very real. When you went in, you knew there was no jive, it was real, real,
