Blue Note

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'Joy'All', the fifth solo album from Jenny Lewis and follow up to 2019's critically acclaimed 'On The Line', finds the singer-songwriter embarking... 

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Alfred Lion’s inspired idea to pair tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine with The Three Sounds—the trio featuring... 

Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was at the peak of his powers throughout the early 1960s as he produced a staggering run of hard bop classics including... 

Recorded in 1955 for producer Tom Wilson’s short-lived Boston-based label Transition Records, Byrd’s Eye View was trumpeter Donald... 

Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson was a defining feature of the sound of Blue Note Records throughout the 1960s, equally at home in... 

The crystalline sound of Bobby Hutcherson’s vibraphone was an essential element of a broad range of Blue Note albums throughout the... 

Following the release of his 1965 masterpiece Maiden Voyage, the brilliant pianist Herbie Hancock wouldn’t record his Blue Note... 

Melissa Aldana’s 2nd Blue Note album Echoes Of The Inner Prophet is a musical voyage to explore the depth of the spiritual... 

Guitarist Bill Frisell’s new double LP Orchestras documents two inspired concert-hall engagements arranged by Michael Gibbs for Frisell’s long-standing... 

The Saxophone Colossus Sonny Rollins had already recorded three Blue Note studio dates for Alfred Lion—Sonny Rollins, Sonny... 

Taylor on bass, and Roy Brooks on drums. The core of the band had been together since 1959 and recorded hard bop classics like Finger... 

The precocious and prodigious drummer and composer Tony Williams had already joined the Miles Davis Quintet and participated in numerous landmark... 

Guitar virtuoso Julian Lage returns with Speak To Me, his remarkable 4th release for Blue Note Records following his acclaimed album View... 

Blue Note legends like Grant Green, Horace Silver, and Jimmy Smith often looked to the church for musical inspiration, but trumpeter Donald... 

The legendary trumpeter Miles Davis was still near the beginning of his storied career when he cut the three sessions that comprise his Blue... 

Acclaimed vibraphonist Joel Ross returns with his remarkable fourth Blue Note release nublues, an album of blues and ballads as refracted through... 

Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean’s 1960s output ran the gamut from hard bop to the avant-garde with his 1964 post-bop dates It’s Time! and... 

Following sideman appearances with pianist Horace Parlan in the early 1960s, Booker Ervin cut two stellar Blue Note records as a... 

On March 8, nine-time GRAMMY winning singer, songwriter, and pianist Norah Jones will release her ninth solo studio album Visions, a collaboration with... 

Unsettled by the state of the world in 2020, Charles Lloyd began conceiving of a musical offering in the form... 

Two months after recording what would become his hit record The Sidewinder, trumpeter Lee Morgan returned to Van Gelder Studio in... 

Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson capped off his run of five sublime 1960s Blue Note leader dates with his 1966 classic Mode for Joe, an... 

Miami-born trumpeter Blue Mitchell had a soulful, swinging style that was equally at home in jazz, R&B, and funk settings. Mitchell been... 

The acclaimed Cleveland-born saxophonist Joe Lovano came to Blue Note Records in 1990 and over the next 25 years became... 

The incomparable trumpeter Clifford Brown’s star was just starting to ascend when he recorded two sessions as a leader for Blue Note... 

The amazing bebop piano genius Bud Powell made his most enduring recordings as a leader for Blue Note and was a catalyst for moving... 

After his six years with the seminal John Coltrane Quartet, the master drummer Elvin Jones signed with Blue Note in 1968 and began building... 

Alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson hadn’t recorded for Blue Note since 1963 when he returned to the label in 1967 and began a new chapter... 

Grant Green began his lengthy and prolific Blue Note career with the 1961 release of his debut album Grant’s First Stand, a stellar soul... 

Sonny Rollins first appeared on a Blue Note recording session in 1949 as part of Bud Powell’s Modernists during a period when the saxophonist... 

The trio of guitarist Grant Green, organist Larry Young, and drummer Elvin Jones had a unique alchemy from the first time they... 

McCoy Tyner looked towards Africa on his stunning 1970 album Extensions, a far-reaching exploration of Black identity that marked the masterful... 

In addition to appearing as a sideman on dates led by Kenny Burrell, Freddie Hubbard, and Jackie McLean, tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks recorded... 

1964 was a pivotal year in the musical life of Wayne Shorter. Early in the year the saxophonist was still a member of Art Blakey & The... 

How ‘bout another film? After Rollin', here’s Truffaz again with Clap!, the second installment in his cinema stories, repeating the miracle of... 

Kenny Burrell had been recording for Blue Note less than a year when he entered Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack, New Jersey studio in February... 

The Chicago-born pianist and composer Jack Wilson enjoyed a wide-range of musical associations including work with the likes of Dinah Washington, Sarah... 

The 1961 album Mosaic marked a pivotal moment in the story of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers with the drummer welcoming the... 

In addition to boasting one of Reid Miles’ greatest album cover designs, Hank Mobley’s 1963 album No Room for Squares is also... 

Jackie McLean’s music weaved in and out of the avant-garde throughout the 1960s with the brilliant 1963 inside-out dates One Step Beyond... 

Herbie Nichols was one of the most original pianists and composers in Jazz history. Blue Note founder Alfred Lion considered him... 

It’s a testament to Jimmy Smith’s volcanic creativity that the Hammond B3 organ firebrand recorded not one but two soul jazz classics—Midnight... 

The Horace Silver Quintet of 1959 was a hard bop juggernaut featuring the great pianist and composer with trumpeter Blue Mitchell, saxophonist... 

Between 1964-1967 the legendary saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter created a treasured and... 

Blue Note’s roster of Hammond B3 organists was a vibrant and varied bunch that ran the... 

Acclaimed saxophonist Joshua Redman makes his Blue Note debut with where are we, his first-ever vocal project which features vocalist Gabrielle... 

The intrepid free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor produced some of his best work for Blue Note Records, including his explosive 1966 label... 

The precocious and prodigious drummer and composer Tony Williams had already participated in numerous landmark Blue Note recordings including... 

Just two months after recording his exceptional sextet date Cornbread, the prolific trumpeter Lee Morgan was back in Van Gelder Studio in November... 

Perhaps the perfect starting point for a reappraisal of Duke Pearson’s underrated career is his fantastic and aptly titled 1967 album... 

There may not be a more apropos album title in all of recorded music than tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec’s 1961 classic Heavy Soul. The session... 

One of the funkiest and most creative organists of all time, Dr. Lonnie Smith was first brought into the Blue Note fold by alto saxophonist Lou... 

The supremely swinging pianist Sonny Clark hit the Blue Note scene in 1957 with a burst of creativity recording three albums in... 

Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley had been recording for Blue Note for a decade when he made his excellent 1965 album A Caddy for Daddy... 

More than a dozen albums into his Blue Note tenure, Donald Byrd’s 1967 date Slow Drag would be one of the last pure hard bop sessions that... 

The great pianist McCoy Tyner made his Blue Note debut with The Real McCoy in 1967 soon after departing John Coltrane’s quartet and... 

Stanley Turrentine is at his blues-drenched best on Comin’ Your Way. This session from 1961 features the magnificent rhythm section... 

Recorded in 1963, The Kicker was actually vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson’s first session as a leader for Blue Note, but for reasons lost... 

Grant Green’s Nigeria is an under-recognized gem in the guitarist’s remarkable Blue Note catalog. Recorded in 1962, but not first released until... 

The release of pianist Robert Glasper’s acclaimed Blue Note debut Canvas in 2005 signaled the arrival of a singular new voice in... 

The sound of Blue Note Records has been embedded in hip-hop since the music’s early days with artists like A Tribe Called Quest, De La... 

The legendary trumpeter Miles Davis was still near the beginning of his storied career when he cut the three sessions that comprise his Blue... 

The prodigiously talented trumpeter Theodore “Fats” Navarro was a bebop innovator whose career was cut tragically short... 

Acclaimed French trumpeter Erik Truffaz returns to Blue Note with an album that adds his unique touch to music featured in his favorite films... 

The brilliant arranger, composer, and pianist Gil Evans had already collaborated with Miles Davis on Birth of the Cool... 

The prodigious trumpeter Freddie Hubbard debuted on Blue Note in 1960 and produced an astounding run of recordings over the first half... 

Acclaimed GRAMMY-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello makes her Blue Note Records... 

Under-recognized trumpeter Johnny Coles recorded only one album for Blue Note but 1963’s Little Johnny C is a little-known treasure of... 

Jamaican-born trumpeter Dizzy Reece was a fixture of the London jazz scene before moving to New York City in 1959 where he recorded his... 

Following the success of Chet Baker’s much-loved vocal debut Chet Baker Sings on Pacific Jazz in 1954, producer Richard Bock... 

Though it wouldn’t first be released until 1980 as part of the LT Series, Stanley Turrentine’s Mr. Natural is a standout recording... 

Saxophonist and composer Walter Smith III enters a new era of his band leading career with his remarkable Blue Note debut return... 

The Kansas City born trumpeter Carmell Jones was quickly signed by Pacific Jazz soon after his arrival in Los Angeles in... 

The brilliant pianist and composer Andrew Hill debuted on Blue Note in 1963 with a flurry of creativity and maintained a prolific recording... 

Herbie Hancock debuted on Blue Note in 1962 and quickly established himself as both a remarkable pianist and a brilliant composer with... 

A saxophonist of striking originality, Sam Rivers was born in Oklahoma and exposed to music from an early age by his pianist mother and... 

On March 17, guitar virtuoso Julian Lage will release The Layers, a stunning companion piece to his acclaimed 2022 album View With A Room. The... 

Pianist Horace Parlan is perhaps best known for his work with Charles Mingus on the bassist’s seminal 1959 albums Mingus Ah... 

Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean was already a veteran of the NYC jazz scene by the time he began recording as a leader for Blue Note in 1959. In... 

Guitarist Grant Green was prolific on Blue Note through the early-60s recording more than 20 hard bop and soul jazz sessions as... 

The musical partnership between vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson— a Blue Note stalwart since his arrival on the New York jazz scene... 

Trumpeter Donald Byrd was just 2 years into his 2 decade long Blue Note recording career when he brought his quintet in... 

ScoLoHoFo—the supergroup made up of guitarist John Scofield, saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Al Foster—first played together... 

Blue Note Records has announced a first-ever official release of... 

Thelonious Monk was a little-known figure on the New York City bebop scene when Blue Note founder Alfred Lion discovered and... 

Trombonist J. J. Johnson took the language of bebop and adapted it to his instrument winning the admiration of... 

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On September 15, 1957, John Coltrane went into Rudy Van Gelder’s living room studio in Hackensack, New Jersey and... 

On September 15, 1957, John Coltrane went into Rudy Van Gelder’s living room studio in Hackensack, New Jersey and recorded his... 

Trumpeter Blue Mitchell had been a sideman on Blue Note sessions led by Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Smith, Jackie McLean, and appeared on... 

Though he first appeared on Herbie Hancock’s 1963 album My Point of View, trombonist Grachan Moncur III’s first true Blue Note introduction... 

Bill Frisell convenes a new line-up of musical friends on his third Blue Note album Four, which features the acclaimed guitarist with Greg... 

Revival: Live at Pookie's Pub is a thrilling previously unissued live recording of Elvin Jones’ quartet that captures the... 

Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson’s 1966 album Stick-Up! found him in the company of a new band line-up with Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Herbie... 

Tenor saxophonist Harold Vick was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and played with R&B bands coming up before working as a sideman with... 

The great tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine imbued every single note he played with a depth of feeling and soulfulness that still... 

In 2012, Robert Glasper changed the game. After several acclaimed Blue Note albums including Canvas and... 

Saxophonist Joe Lovano signed with Blue Note Records in 1990 and over the next 25 years became one of the most recorded artists in... 

4-time GRAMMY-winning producer Larry Klein, who produced Herbie Hancock’s GRAMMY Album of the Year winning release River: The... 

Until the emergence of Larry Young, Blue Note’s Hammond B3 organ tradition was firmly rooted in Soul Jazz, having been established by B3 trailblazer... 

Wayne Shorter had already set a high bar over the course of his first several Blue Note albums, which included all-time jazz classics including... 

Blue Note Re:imagined returns in 2022 with a new 16-track compilation featuring fresh takes on music from the illustrious Blue Note... 

Blue Note Re:imagined returns in 2022 with a new 16-track compilation featuring fresh takes on music from the illustrious... 

What Kinda Music is an astonishing collaboration between two artists of very different disciples, and one of the most... 

The deeply soulful Louisiana-born tenor saxophonist Don Wilkerson made his Blue Note debut in 1962 with Preach Brother!, an under-recognized soul... 

Between September 1963 and March 1964, the singular New York City-born saxophonist George Braith recorded three Blue Note sessions that introduced... 

Guitarist Julian Lage (“one of the most dazzling improvisers around”—NY Times) returns with a stunning new album View With A... 

The 2022 return of Ronnie Foster to Blue Note Records is an event of synergistic quintessence, completeness, and cool. The organ great’s dynamic... 

Drummer and composer Kendrick Scott presents Corridors, a striking new album that finds the Houston-born drummer and composer paring down... 

Charles Lloyd has long been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. For more than 6 decades the legendary saxophonist... 

Lou Donaldson had already been at the helm of seven Blue Note sessions by the time he made his undisputed masterpiece Blues Walk in 1958. The... 

The first thing that strikes you about Kenny Burrell’s second Blue Note album, simply titled Kenny Burrell (BLP 1543) and released as... 

Brother Jack McDuff was already a well-established and prolific organist who led his own soul jazz bands throughout the 1960s when... 

Organist Ronnie Foster has collaborated with many greats over the course of his career from George Benson to the Jacksons to Stevie... 

In the early 1960s, the great composer, arranger, and bandleader Gerald Wilson began recording... 

One of the more remarkable albums in Freddie Hubbard's formidable Blue Note oeuvre, Breaking Point! was recorded... 

Hank Mobley was famously called the “middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone” with a round sound and an incredible rhythmic lightness on... 

Trombone Shorty returns with Lifted, his first album in 5 years and the follow-up to his Blue Note debut Parking Lot Symphony, featuring special... 

It’s a sign of the sheer volume of top-notch hard bop that Blue Note was recording in the 1950s-60s that a supremely swinging date like... 

Jackie McLean’s 1960s Blue Note output is a fascinating body of work, especially viewed with the benefit of hindsight. In between... 

20 years ago, on February 26, 2002, a hard-to-categorize album by an unknown 22-year-old singer, songwriter, and... 

20 years ago, on February 26, 2002, a hard-to-categorize album by an unknown 22-year-old singer, songwriter, and... 

One of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz, Cassandra Wilson made her artistic breakthrough with her visionary 1993... 

The brilliant pianist and composer Geri Allen came out of Detroit’s fertile jazz scene, eventually moving to New York where she became... 

Vibraphonist and composer Joel Ross returns with stunning conviction on The Parable of the Poet, an expansive album-length suite... 

Vibraphonist Milt Jackson appeared on a number of Blue Note sessions throughout the bebop era in the late 1940s and early 1950s... 

In the late 1940s, Blue Note founder Alfred Lion became enthralled with the modern sounds of bebop and began recording several of the new... 

Pianist & composer Gerald Clayton explores the impact and abstraction of time on his ravishing 2nd Blue Note album Bells On Sand, which... 

The Detroit born alto saxophonist Sonny Red made only one album as a leader for Blue Note, but Out of the Blue remains a gem of the catalog... 

Grant Green had already recorded a prolific 10 sessions of classic hard bop and soul jazz for Blue Note over a 2-year span by the time... 

GRAMMY-nominated saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana joins the Blue Note Records family with the release of 12 Stars, her debut album... 

At 27 years old, tenor saxophonist and composer Joe Henderson was already in his full artistic stride by the time he made Inner Urge, his... 

In May 1968 when he entered Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to record his album ¡Caramba!, trumpeter Lee Morgan was still... 

Joe Pass’ For Django, recorded for Pacific Jazz in 1964, has long been considered a classic of the jazz guitar repertoire with Pass paying tribute... 

Stanley Turrentine’s 1966 soul jazz classic Rough ‘N Tumble finds a deep and bluesy groove that doesn’t let up from start... 

The innovative hard bop of Jackie McLean began to evolve and take on a harder edge as the early-1960s progressed. Inspired... 

Cornetist Don Cherry first rose to prominence as part of the revolutionary Ornette Coleman Quartet that turned... 

Iconoclastic saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman shook the jazz world when he arrived at... 

London-based Jazztronica duo Blue Lab Beats make their full-length Blue Note Records debut with Motherland Journey, an album years... 

Alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins follows-up his acclaimed debut Omega (NY Times Best Jazz Album of 2020) with another striking album... 

First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings is a thrilling previously unreleased... 

The Indianapolis-born trumpeter Freddie Hubbard introduced his prodigious talent on Blue Note Records with a run of remarkable albums... 

Many great Blue Note artists have hailed from the jazz hotbed of Detroit over the course of the... 

The Incredible Jimmy Smith was a self-taught keyboard virtuoso who gave up the piano in 1954 in favor of the Hammond B3 organ, setting up... 

Following his 1968 Blue Note debut On Broadway, Hammond B3 organist Reuben Wilson returned to Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in March 1969 to... 

Donald Byrd’s 1975 fusion classic Places and Spaces was the culmination of the legendary trumpeter’s vibrant latter Blue Note years. Byrd... 

The timeless 1960 hard bop classic The Big Beat was the album that first introduced one of the greatest line-ups of... 

Bobbi Humphrey was one of the most prominent stars on the Blue Note roster of the 1970s. The flutist debuted on the label in 1971 with... 

At 27 years, Horace Silver’s tenure as a Blue Note recording artist was the longest of any artist in the history of... 

Blue Note Records has announced a December 3 vinyl release of Breathe, the acclaimed new album by NEA Jazz Master Dr. Lonnie Smith. The... 

In February 1964, Eric Dolphy assembled a formidable quintet of modern jazz visionaries with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Bobby Hutcherson on... 

Even by the high-water marks set by Herbie Hancock’s tremendous 1960s Blue Note output, 1965’s Maiden Voyage remains one of the... 

Pianist Duke Pearson recorded his Christmas album I in 1969 with Bob Cranshaw on bass and Mickey Roker on drums, as well as percussionist Airto... 

By the time he recorded GO! in 1962, Dexter Gordon had already lived several lifetimes in jazz. He was among the first to adapt the language of... 

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The soulful and elegant pianist Sonny Clark brings his A-game to My Conception, a program of all-Clark originals recorded in 1959 but... 

Time and troubles seem to melt away during the 15 enrapturing minutes of Idle Moments, the opening track of Grant Green’s sublime 1963... 

Guitarist Kenny Burrell debuted on Blue Note Records in 1956 and over the following 7 years made a series of excellent albums for the... 

Jimmy Smith was a self-taught pianist who abandoned the instrument in 1954 in favour of the Hammond B3 organ, renting a... 

Conrad Yeatis Clark, otherwise known as Sonny Clark, was in many ways the quintessential hard bop pianist. Possessed of an enviable lyrical... 

Three giants of West Coast Jazz came together in this deeply swinging session recorded for the Pacific Jazz/World... 

On October 15, 1965, tenor saxophone master and composer Wayne Shorter recorded The All Seeing Eye, a brilliant and ambitiously multi-layered... 

Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley had already led nine dates for Blue Note Records by the time he arrived at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio on... 

More than any other album in the canon of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, 1958’s Moanin’—featuring the great drummer... 

After making a striking appearance on Joel Ross’ KingMaker, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins delivers an expansive opus about the Black... 

Dream team collective featuring Robert Glasper, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Terrace Martin, Derrick Hodge,Taylor McFerrin & Justin Tyson release... 

Johnny Griffin had been kicking around in R&B bands for years before his Blue Note debut in 1956. And what was "introduced" was... 

The line-up of drummer Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers shifted in 1961 with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard replacing Lee... 

Blue Note Re:imagined presents classic Blue Note tracks, reworked and newly recorded by a selection of the UK scene’s most exciting young... 

One of the enduring mysteries of Blue Note history is that superb sessions such as Dexter Gordon’s Clubhouse (recorded in 1965) remained unreleased... 

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This sleek and beautifully paced Lee Morgan album was recorded in 1966 but shelved until 1984 for unknown reasons. In addition to the trumpeter, the... 

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1964 was one of the most momentous years in the musical life of Wayne Shorter. Early in the year the saxophonist was still a member of... 

A decade into his recording career, pianist Horace Silver made the album that would endure as the crown jewel of a catalog that... 

The simmering groove of the 10-minute opening title track of Duke Pearson’s magnificent 1968 album The Phantom sets the stage for one... 

On his second Blue Note album Smoke Stack, pianist and composer Andrew Hill used an unusual line-up of two bassists (Richard Davis and Eddie... 

Jimmy Smith revolutionized the use of the Hammond B-3 organ in jazz during the mid-1950s. Arguably his finest recorded moments came during... 

Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard burst upon the Blue Note scene in June 1960 with his auspicious debut album Open Sesame. Within 6 months Hubbard... 

Grant Green's debut album, Grant's First Stand, still ranks as one of his greatest pure soul-jazz outings, a set of killer grooves laid... 

Art Taylor was one of the greatest drummers in modern jazz who propelled the bands of Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Donald... 

A never-before-released studio album by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack, New... 

On 1964’s Into Somethin’—his first album for Blue Note—Larry Young made it abundantly clear that he had his own unique approach to... 

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By the time drummer Pete La Roca recorded his debut album Basra in 1965 he had already appeared on 9 Blue Note sessions as a sideman and spent... 

Drummer Tony Williams had a long, fruitful relationship with Blue Note Records starting in the 1960s when he appeared on numerous post-bop... 

Flutist Bobbi Humphrey found wide success with Blacks and Blues (1973), her breakout third album for Blue Note, working with the... 

Just 2 days after saxophonist Dexter Gordon recorded his classic album GO! in August 1962 he brought the same quartet with pianist Sonny... 

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The legendary NYC jazz club Birdland was sacred ground for drummer Art Blakey who... 

After a prolific 5-year run from 1961-1965 when he made more than 20 great hard bop & soul jazz albums for Blue Note, guitarist Grant Green took... 

“We’d like for you all to help us get in the groove, let your hair down, and come on and get in the music with us,” says... 

On his debut album Takin’ Off—recorded and released in 1962—jazz legend Herbie Hancock arrived fully formed at the helm of an impressive... 

For his third Blue Note album Inventions & Dimensions (1963), pianist Herbie Hancock began moving away from the modernist hard... 

Drummer Art Blakey recorded Indestructible—his final album for Blue Note—in 1964 with a powerful sextet line-up... 

Recorded in April 1964, In ‘N Out falls square in the middle of the formidable run of five classic Blue Note albums that launched tenor... 

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