by Pico
In 1939, German immigrant Alfred Lion founded Blue Note Records along with Max Margulis as a label dedicated to signing and recording jazz and blues artists.
Over the years, this label became a central part of jazz history itself, as it became the home for seminal recordings by Thelonius Monk, Bud Powell, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano and the just-deceased Freddie Hubbard, amongst an enviably large roster of other notables.
To commemorate seventy years of this iconic label, current label owner EMI Group released a CD this week by The Blue Note 7, an all-star tribute band consisting of members of the current generation of jazz lions.
The Blue Note 7 album is called Mosaic, a carefully chosen collection of eight songs which the group felt salutes the label and some of its most vital musicians.
The songs range from the overly familiar (Herbie Hancock’s “Dolphin Dance”) to the less obvious but still solid choices (Silver’s “The Outlaw”). The features pianist and musical director Bill Charlap (pictured at right), as well as drummer Lewis Nash, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, flute player Ravi Coltrane, alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, bassist Peter Washington and guitarist Peter Bernstein.
The renditions given by these seven are clean and virtually flawless, but lack much of the edge and imagination of the original versions.
Nonetheless, there are some fine individual performances here and there, such as Bernstein’s perfectly played, graceful lines on the Grant Green staple, “Idle Moments,” for instance.
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Wonderful to see the JAZZ respect!
Check me out Daddy-0!