Recorded in 1964 immediately after leaving the Miles Davis Quintet, Sam Rivers’ Fuchsia Swing Song is one of the more auspicious debuts the label released in the mid-’60s. Rivers was a seasoned session player (his excellent work on Larry Young’s Into Somethin’ is a case in point) and a…
Madlib received a rare opportunity with unfettered access to the storied Blue Note archives and permission to use them as he wished for a remix/interpretation album released on Blue Note itself. The result, Shades of Blue, is really more of a Yesterdays New Quintet album, but Madlib’s name is…
Joe Lovano’s third album featuring his Us Five quintet, 2012’s Cross Culture, furthers the adventurous collective aesthetic the saxophonist developed on 2009’s Folk Art and 2011’s Bird Songs. Once again working with drummers Francisco Mela and Otis Brown III, pianist James Weidman, and bassist Esperanza Spalding, Lovano also employs…
During Neville’s five decade recording career, he has displayed a chameleon-like ability to perform, collaborate and contribute to a wide range of genres. From the funky soul and R&B cuts with the Neville Brothers to a triple platinum, Grammy winning duet with Linda Ronstadt in 1989, “Don’t Know Much”…
José James has already established himself as a trailblazer for his intoxicating blend of jazz, hip-hop, R&B and electronica from his previous three albums. His 2008 debut The Dreamer and its 2010 follow-up, BlackMagic – both produced by the world-renowned DJ Gilles Peterson – transformed the Minneapolis-born, New York-based…
Happy Frame of Mind finds Horace Parlan breaking away from the soul-inflected hard bop that had become his trademark, moving his music into more adventurous, post-bop territory. Aided by a first-rate quintet — trumpeter Johnny Coles, tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin, guitarist Grant Green, bassist Butch Warren, drummer Billy Higgins…
Without a Net is Wayne Shorter’s first Blue Note recording date since August 26, 1970, when he recorded Moto Grosso Feio and Odyssey of Iska. That’s nearly 43 years. Shorter has pursued many paths since then, as a member of Weather Report, and as a bandleader. This quartet was…
Magnetic marks Terence Blanchard’s return to Blue Note Records after an eight-year sojourn in which he wrote and performed large scale works for film, and cut smaller group offerings for Concord. He utilizes his fine live band in the studio here — tenor saxophonist Brice Winston, drummer Kendrick Scott,…
For Robert Randolph & the Family Band, the three year break after 2010’s somewhat stilted-sounding We Walk This Road was well deserved. By Randolph‘s own admission, their 280 date-per-year touring pace had taken its toll: playing music, let alone trying to find time to create it, had become a…
Bassist and composer Derrick Hodge’s life thus far has been spent absorbing, studying, and playing all kinds of music: from gospel and classical to hip-hop, Philly, and neo-soul; from post-bop and modern jazz to cinema music. Live Today, his debut for Blue Note, reflects his career experience — working…