Blue Note Record company and Label

Blue Note Record company and Label

The company was established in New York in 1939 by Alfred Lion, and was one of the first to use 12-inch 78 r.p.m. discs to accommodate longer pieces. Blue Note's earliest sessions produced records now acknowledged as classics, by such musicians as Sidney Bechet, Earl Hines, Albert Ammons, and Meade "Lux" Lewis. Lion was soon joined by another executive, Francis Wolff, and during the 1940s the company established an important catalogue of traditional jazz and swing; James P. Johnson, Art Hodes, Edmond Hall, Sidney Bechet, Ike Quebec, and Tiny Grimes were among the musicians who recorded for the label. Artists and repertory were directed by Quebec, who was responsible for Blue Note's being among the earliest to record the work of bop musicians; items by Thelonious Monk are particularly notable.

The company expanded its operations in the LP era, and began to concentrate on styles that were then contemporary, though it also reissued some earlier material on album. From 1953 the recording engineer Rudy van Gelder supervised most of Blue Note's sessions, and he is particularly associated with the company's close involvement in the late 1950s and early 1960s with soul jazz and hard bop. This is represented on numerous albums by, among others, Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, Stanley Turrentine, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Donald Byrd, Johnny Griffin, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, Freddie Hubbard, and Quebec.

After Quebec's death in January 1963 his position was taken by Duke Pearson: later that year Blue Note was purchased by the company Liberty. The policy continued much as before; musicians who began recording for the company at this time include Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, and Bobby Hutcherson. Lion retired in 1967; Wolff and Pearson continued to direct the company until Wolff's death in 1971. After this Blue Note began recording a considerable amount of jazz-rock and more commercially-oriented music; Byrd's album Black Byrd (c. 1972) became the company's best-selling album to that date. In 1975, under the direction of Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie, systematic reissue of the back catalogue began; in the 1980s reissues (including much previously unreleased material) appeared on Mosaic.

The connection with Liberty meant that Blue Note records were distributed throughout the world by EMI. Independent reissue programs were instituted in various countries, including France and Japan. In 1980 EMI purchased Liberty, thus also acquiring Blue Note; control of the label passed in 1985 to Manhattan, a subsidiary of Capitol. A new publicity campaign and revival of promotion began in 1985, under the direction of Cuscuna and Bruce Lundwall. In addition to an internationally coordinated reissue scheme, the company began making new recordings again. These included items by such younger musicians as Stanley Jordan, Bobby McFerrin, and Michel Petrucciani, as well as albums by established musicians, among them Tyner, McLean, Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Don Pullen, and George Adams.