Blue Notes Records: The Biography - Softcover

"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.

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.