5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Blue Note Records

New York Times

05-02-2025

This month, we look at the legacy of Blue Note Records, perhaps the best-known label in jazz, with its instantly recognizable blue-and-white vinyl center labels and decades-long run of landmark albums, some of which have become cornerstones in the genre.
Founded in 1939 by the German American record executive Alfred Lion and the writer Max Margulis, Blue Note began as a passion project for Lion, who visited the recently opened Café Society club to talk about recording music with the pianists Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons. Soon after, Lion paid the artists to play in a Manhattan studio, later pressing up the music from the session and releasing it as the first album ever on Blue Note Records.
Over the next decade, Blue Note would become the most prolific label in jazz, releasing albums from future legends like Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey and Bud Powell. Then the label hit its stride in the '50s: Records from Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins and Lou Donaldson came in rapid succession, helping solidify Blue Note as the go-to label of the moment. Now, 86 years into its run, as a label still releasing straight-ahead jazz but also jazz-meets-hip-hop-and-funk, Blue Note truly needs no introduction.
Below, we asked 14 musicians and writers to name a favorite song to introduce someone to the Blue Note catalog. Listen to the playlists below the article, and don't forget to leave your own picks in the comments.
Wayne Shorter, 'Speak No Evil'
In February 1971, temperatures dropped below zero in Ann Arbor, Mich. I was a 19-year-old college dropout — draftable and without a car or job. My life was veering off track but there was one ritual that always provided comfort, direction and hope: turning down the lights and listening to Wayne Shorter's Blue Note masterpiece, 'Speak No Evil.'
Elvin Jones's drumming was sophisticated, swinging and just a shade too rambunctious in the best Detroit MC5 kind of way! Even at 26 years old, Herbie Hancock clearly knew more about harmony than anyone on the planet. Ron Carter's graceful, solid approach to the low end transcended music and was applicable to every aspect of life. Freddie Hubbard glided coolly over ice like Gordie Howe. I could relate to all four of them.
But it was Wayne's solo that really spoke to me. I heard words — not notes or a saxophone. I pictured us walking down Main Street — Wayne offering brotherly advice about ducking, diving and grooving in the face of adversity. By the end of the song, I was back in touch with who I was, what my dreams were and how to make them real. What more can you ask of music?
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Sonny Rollins, 'Striver's Row'
Blue Note's albums are mystical to me, revelations that awakened my inner world. It seemed a miracle that this catalog of music even existed — lightning in a bottle. For me, if there's any record that represents that auspiciousness, it's Sonny Rollins's 'A Night at the Village Vanguard.'
It was practically a divine accident. The double bassist Wilbur Ware and the drummer Elvin Jones were not at the gig! Rollins invited Ware down at the last minute, and Ware ran into Jones on Seventh Avenue along the way. They sat in for the night set and never left the bandstand. No rehearsal, no preparation, no epilogue — the trio never recorded again.
This album, particularly the night set, is the blueprint for a saxophone trio. Each person brings forth their distinct individualism, is equally active in the rhythmic dialogue, and plays with such wit, intelligence and delight. 'Striver's Row,' named for Sonny's Harlem neighborhood, is based on the changes of Charlie Parker's 'Confirmation,' but with a completely improvised melody. A perfect metaphor for the next generation of Bird's torchbearers. The creative climax for Rollins in the 1950s, and the first ever album recorded in the hallowed halls of the Village Vanguard. Pure synchronistic joy.
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Lee Morgan, 'Party Time'
Lee Morgan made so much great music in his brief lifetime that it's only natural that some of it lay in the vaults and wasn't released until years after it was recorded. That said, it still feels criminal that the sessions that produced his album 'The Procrastinator' waited a decade to see the light of day. The session featured Morgan with a Hall of Fame collection of sidemen: the saxophonist Wayne Shorter, the vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, the pianist Herbie Hancock, the bassist Ron Carter and the drummer Billy Higgins.
My favorite track is 'Party Time.' It's a loose, grooving song that doesn't completely let go as did 'The Sidewinder' or other Morgan finger-poppin' hits. The solos — first Shorter, then the leader, and then Hutcherson — are opaque rather than Morgan's usual bright and edgy sound. When I interviewed the great trumpeter Dave Douglas in 2002, he told me that Morgan was the only trumpet player that scared him with the ambition of his solos. Here, Morgan, who struggled with addiction throughout his adult life, sounds as if he'd scared himself and was gradually pulling back from the abyss. It's a party, but more a moment of relief rather than a celebration.
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Rachelle Ferrell, 'Autumn Leaves'
Rachelle Ferrell reaches beyond what singing intended. In 1995, Blue Note released her debut album, 'First Instrument,' and it was appropriately named, calling attention to the voice as an inseparable figure in jazz that highlights the body as the blueprint for music technology. The song on 'First Instrument' that epitomizes her mastery for me is 'Autumn Leaves,' one of the most recorded songs in jazz history. Ferrell's hands on parts of the standard render it illegible. She stutters, stunts and stages a layered sonic signature that introduces the world to what it means to personify jazz. Relying on every part of the body, 'Autumn Leaves' in her care is colorful and textured. The physicality of her voice requires an unlearning of what we've in the past called a song. Ferrell demonstrated to listeners in real time what happens when the mouth dances with the tongue, pushing her six-octave range through and past the spaces in her teeth.
Too often, women vocalists are not taken seriously for their innovative approaches to traditional jazz, which shape and redefine the genre. Rachelle Ferrell arranges, composes, sings and writes lyrics that reckon with the multitudes of jazz possibilities. 'Autumn Leaves' is a case study in compositional excellence.
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Robert Glasper, 'Afro Blue'
'Black Radio,' the long-running Robert Glasper Experiment series on Blue Note, is built on metaphors of flight. 'Like the aviator's black box, black radio holds the truth and is indestructible,' Angelika Beener writes in the first album, from 2012. And, on Glasper's flip of the Mongo Santamaria standard 'Afro Blue,' the Experiment cruises, as if at altitude.
Glasper's early Blue Note discography plays with the duality of pushing forward and leaning back. 'In My Element,' his debut, veered between these axes, and an instrumental representation of that duality — acoustic trio versus electric Experiment — became an entire concept album, 'Double Booked.'
On 'Afro Blue,' you feel a sense of relief, as Glasper, rather than partitioning his voice, finds a synthesis that's deep and comfortable. Santamaria's polyrhythmic triple time becomes a down-tempo four; Chris Dave's skittering drums provide a J Dilla-ish frame, while the guest vocalist Erykah Badu floats through the lyrical idyll written by Oscar Brown Jr. It turned out to be a milestone; 'Black Radio' was a critical and commercial success, and Glasper found a laid-back sound and textural role that he'd play in myriad future projects. In the moment, though, 'Afro Blue' felt only like an exhale.
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Donald Byrd, 'Chant'
This song feels like catching peak fall foliage — rich, vibrant and unforgettable. It's the car ride to your grandmother's house after a marathon church service, knowing the best Sunday supper is waiting for you … like a rainy day off, ducking in and out of cozy bookshops and cafes … or flipping open The Book and landing on just the psalm you need.
'Chant,' from Donald Byrd's 'A New Perspective' (1964), is my favorite track in the Blue Note catalog … at least today. This album is a trailblazer, effortlessly weaving jazz and gospel in ways that still feel fresh. Featuring the eight-voice Coleridge Perkinson Choir, the music ascends to something sacred.⁣⁣
⁣⁣On 'Chant,' Byrd's warm, lyrical trumpet floats above a dreamy cast of musicians: Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Donald Best (vibraphone), Butch Warren (bass) and Lex Humphries (drums).⁣⁣ ⁣⁣In the original liner notes, Byrd described his vision to create a 'modern hymnal that approached spiritual-like pieces with respect and pleasure.' And that's exactly what this song invokes: reverence for life and impenetrable joy.
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Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, 'Moon River'
No Jazz Messengers, no Blue Note. It's like that. When one thinks of the careers that were born from the Messengers (or Art Blakey's 1954 Quintet) and who recorded for the label, during or after their stint with the master drummer Blakey — Horace Silver, Lou Donaldson, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Donald Byrd, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean and more — that's the heart and soul, the meat and backbone, of the Blue Note identity. Blakey's contributions as a de facto A&R department for the label were invaluable.
'Moon River' is from 1963's 'Buhaina's Delight.' From the outset one knows it's the drummer as leader, with dramatic press rolls, shifting accents and Blakey's signature high-hat pulse. What the band does with a gentle Johnny Mercer ballad (which debuted in the '61 film 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' sung by Audrey Hepburn) is quantum reinvention: mood and music into pure energy. This was one of the engineer Rudy Van Gelder's favorite Blue Note recordings, and being co-architect of the label's sound, he should know. He later included it on a collection called 'Perfect Takes,' stating that recording Blakey was 'like trying to record a team of runaway horses.' Van Gelder found a way.
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Madlib featuring M.E.D., 'Please Set Me at Ease'
The ethereal vibraphone and harp intro on 'Please Set Me at Ease' is immediately arresting as it's sampled from different chords and overlaid, meaning there are so many colors going on that its beauty is almost jarring. From there our heads nod back and forth with the crack of the boom-bap, but never robotically, because of Madlib's wonky percussion.
Some people think of Madlib as an unfathomable alien from outer space, but to me Madlib is undoubtedly human — the most human. His beats are never quantized, almost falling over themselves with their humanity. His samples are tangible, taken from vinyl and tape, layered with fingers on MPCs and the instruments around him in the room to create an illusion of an incredible performance happening live in your head. He becomes the whole band.
His hands have touched every part of his productions. To me his music is organic and real — late-night conversations at kitchen tables through the haze of incense and joints being shared. It's humanity. Messy and wonderful. Jarring and beautiful. He and the Mizell brothers, who created the original version with Bobbi Humphrey, have shaped my own music more than they'll ever know.
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Grachan Moncur III, 'Evolution'
On Dec. 21, 1963, the trumpet great Lee Morgan was at Van Gelder Studio recording 'The Sidewinder,' his gliding, grooving soul-jazz earworm and surprise Blue Note pop hit. It says a lot about the label's breadth that exactly one month prior, on Nov. 21, both Morgan and the bassist Bob Cranshaw were in the same room laying down a profoundly different Blue Note title track: an eerie and unforgettable slab of sound art slated for the debut by the trombonist-composer Grachan Moncur III, one of three outside-the-box classics that Moncur, the alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and the vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson collaborated on during that year.
More sonic environment than tune, 'Evolution' sets hovering, ominous drones against elegiac solos from McLean, Morgan and Moncur, with the drummer Tony Williams providing spare, march-like commentary using only his snare. Decades later, Moncur would note that the piece was recorded the day before President Kennedy's assassination, remarking that 'it felt like the same thing that I was feeling from the world at that particular time.' The funereal parallel feels apt: Easily transcending jazz, or any other readily definable genre, 'Evolution' remains a heavier and more haunting listen than most metal you could name.
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Bobby Hutcherson, 'Avis'
'Medina' is one of the first vibraphone albums I heard as a teenager that felt really cutting-edge to me. There was something rugged, experimental and virtuosic about it. It's not often you get all of those things in one album. It's from a 1969 recording session that wasn't released on Blue Note until 1980. Bobby Hutcherson really goes for it in all of his recordings and performances, and you can feel that energy on this recording. I always love how dynamic and exciting Bobby's playing started to get around this time period. He's stretching all over the instrument, rolling into single notes to build momentum on tunes like 'Avis,' showcasing bebop, arpeggiated and chromatic lines on 'Dave's Chant,' grooving hard with repetitive rhythmic ideas on 'Ungano,' and then he gets really sensitive and melodic on tunes like 'Come Spring.' There's never a boring moment. He's the blueprint for so many modern vibraphonists (including myself), and this record showcases that. Joe Chambers also sounds incredible here, and it's great to see his compositions come to light on this recording.
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Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, 'Pensativa'
'Pensativa,' originally a Clare Fischer composition, takes on a whole new life when Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers do their thing with it! This particular recording is arranged by Freddie Hubbard, and the all-star band featuring Blakey, Wayne Shorter, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, Reggie Workman and Freddie makes this song all its own. What stands out to me most about this recording is how melodic everyone is playing. I don't think I've ever heard Wayne Shorter play like this before — he sounds like a soul singer! So right out of the gate, Freddie phrases the melody with so much swagger that it's hard to just get through the melody without replaying the song. The groove that Art and the rhythm section hold down makes you want to dance, and then — the horn solos! Freddie plays one of the most melodic solos I've ever heard. It feels as if he inspired Wayne to continue on in this super-melodic fashion, because Wayne then plays one of the most melodic solos I've ever heard him do. If you listen closely, you can even hear Art Blakey yell to Wayne, 'Blow your horn!' I just love the rawness and joy in this recording. They truly captured some magic during this session.
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Clifford Brown, 'Easy Living'
The Blue Note catalog archives the genius of Black American music. For me, growing up on remote Vancouver Island, Blue Note albums were jazz bibles that I played along with religiously. Spinning these records infused our rainforest living room with the sounds of New York, launching me into imagination spaces that propelled my lifelong trumpet journey.
This song was originally from the film 'Easy Living,' a screwball comedy about a girl who has a fur coat drop on her head, and it was made famous by Billie Holiday. This version of Clifford's takes me to a simpler time when things were not necessarily better for all, but there was ease.
The orchestration sets up a blanket of calm for the band while 'Brownie' pristinely picks the perfect notes. The song itself is not so easy. Its expansive, interval-based shapes combine with a vibe that can't be faked and a twisty, contradictory lyric. The bright side: It's all about giving, being happy to love selflessly. The tragic side: Being ruled by someone without the same return investment in heart.
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Donald Byrd, 'My Ideal'
I love this 1967 recording of one of my favorite standards, 'My Ideal' from Donald Byrd's 'Slow Drag,' because of Byrd's phrasing and how Cedar Walton plays and accompanies the soloists. I first heard this while studying at Oberlin in Ohio, where Byrd taught on the faculty in the '90s and helped set up the jazz program. I love the pace on this take and all the solos, especially the Detroit saxophonist Sonny Red's and the way he weaves between changes with these soulful, angular phrases. Recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., this song is one of my favorites from Donald Byrd and the late-60s Blue Note releases.
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Grant Green, 'Maybe Tomorrow'
My favorite offering from Blue Note Records comes from the unsung hero Grant Green: the jazz guitarist's arrangement of 'Maybe Tomorrow,' from his 1971 album 'Visions.' The thoughtfulness behind Green's playing, the fluttering arpeggios from the piano, and the sweet, subtle notes occasionally sung by the vibes all tell a story drenched in duality. The track is solemn but hopeful. Steady but ever-changing. Green seemingly suspends time for 4 minutes and 56 seconds, teaching listeners the graceful balancing act between control and freedom. Like many hip-hop heads, I first heard this song after it was sampled by the producer Like for Kendrick Lamar's record 'Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst.' What I didn't know, though, was that the tune was originally written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, with music by Quincy Jones, for the 1969 film 'John and Mary.' Hearing the song in its original state deepened my appreciation for the care that Green generously took with it. What rings true for the iterations of this song also rings true for Blue Note as an entity. Blue Note has always had a knack for highlighting music that stands the test of time. For that, I am grateful.
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