March 2, 2026
Blue Note Records has announced the April 24 release of a special Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of The Complete ‘Round About Midnight At The Cafe Bohemia by trumpeter Kenny Dorham. Produced for release by Joe Harley, the 3-LP vinyl set is all-analog and cut directly from Rudy Van Gelder’s original master tapes by Kevin Gray. Pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, the LPs come packaged in a deluxe tip-on trifold jacket which includes a booklet with never-before-seen photos by Francis Wolff and an in-depth essay and track-by-track annotation by Syd Schwartz. The collection will also be released as a 2-CD set and is available for pre-order now on the Blue Note Store.
“Dorham at the Cafe Bohemia has always been one of my favorite live sessions on Blue Note,” says Harley. “It’s not just a live date, it’s a document of communion—band, audience, and Rudy Van Gelder, all conspiring to catch lightning in a bottle. Every time I drop the needle, I’m reminded why we chase these moments in the first place.”
The great unsung trumpeter was a vital part of the early Blue Note story appearing as a sideman on bebop dates by Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey as well as foundational hard bop sessions with Horace Silver and as a founding member of The Jazz Messengers. In fact, just six months after The Jazz Messengers cut their landmark namesake live recordings at the Cafe Bohemia, Dorham brought his own sextet into the fabled New York City jazz club in May 1956 to record his maiden live recording date under his own name.
Dorham’s sextet for the engagement was a formidable unit with J.R. Monterose on tenor saxophone, Kenny Burrell on guitar, Bobby Timmons on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Arthur Edgehill on drums. Presented in full, the set list was comprised of originals by Dorham, Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie, as well as choice Great American Songbook standards.
