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The Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was’ admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley, a.k.a. the “Tone Poet,” on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.
Extreme attention to detail has been paid to getting these right in every conceivable way, from the jacket graphics and printing quality to superior LP mastering (direct from the master tapes) by Kevin Gray to superb 180g audiophile LP pressings by Record Technology Inc. Every aspect of these Tone Poet releases is done to the highest possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. This is IT.
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Following the success of Chet Baker’s much-loved vocal debut Chet Baker Sings on Pacific Jazz in 1954, producer Richard Bock...
Stanley Turrentine is at his blues-drenched best on Comin’ Your Way. This session from 1961 features the magnificent rhythm section...
Though it wouldn’t first be released until 1980 as part of the LT Series, Stanley Turrentine’s Mr. Natural is a standout recording...
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...
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...
Hank Mobley was famously called the “middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone” with a round sound and an incredible rhythmic lightness on...
Trumpeter Blue Mitchell had been a sideman on Blue Note sessions led by Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Smith, Jackie McLean, and appeared on...
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...
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 first thing that strikes you about Kenny Burrell’s second Blue Note album, simply titled Kenny Burrell (BLP 1543) and released as...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Iconoclastic saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman shook the jazz world when he arrived at...
The soulful and elegant pianist Sonny Clark brings his A-game to My Conception, a program of all-Clark originals recorded in 1959 but...
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...
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...