Blue Note Classic Series

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

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

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... 

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... 

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... 

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... 

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

In Andrew Hill, Alfred Lion believed he had found another pianist and composer who had as unique and important a voice as Thelonious Monk. Hill... 

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

Following the success of Jimmy Smith, Blue Note expanded its stable of Hammond B3 organ whizzes in the 1960s with several master practitioners of... 

Charlie Hunter’s 1995 Blue Note debut Bing Bing Bing! was a groove-heavy tour-de-force that announced the arrival of a... 

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

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... 

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... 

One of the finest pianists and composers of the hard bop era, Sonny Clark seemed to arrive fully formed on his supremely swinging debut... 

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... 

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... 

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 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... 

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... 

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... 

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... 

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... 

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... 

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... 

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... 

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... 

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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... 

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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... 

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...