Jazz /
Spring
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Tony Williams Spring represents the drummer-composer at a crucial moment in his artistic trajectory. By 1965, Williams had already participated in landmark Blue Note sessions - Herbie Hancock's Empyrean Isles, Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch, Andrew Hill's Point Of Departure, Jackie McLean's One Step Beyond. Despite barely being in his twenties, he had already established himself as a musician capable of listening at the highest level, responding to ensemble dynamics …
Unity
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Unity is one of the great organ records precisely because it refuses to behave like one. Larry Youngbrings the Hammond into a post‑bop, modal context alongside Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, and Elvin Jones on drums. The tunes – including originals by Young and his bandmates – are harmonically rich and structurally intriguing, offering the soloists wide latitude. Young’s playing is astonishing: he voices chords in unexpected clusters, sp…
Life Time
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Life Time, Tony Williams upends expectations of a drummer’s debut, convening shifting ensembles that include Sam Rivers, Bobby Hutcherson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Gary Peacock. Rather than a showcase of drum solos, the album is a series of explorations in texture, space, and form. Williams’ playing ranges from explosive to whisper‑soft, but always with an acute sense of placement: each cymbal stroke, roll, or accent is structural, not ornamental. The o…
The All Seeing Eye
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On The All Seeing Eye, Wayne Shorter expands his canvas to a large ensemble that includes Freddie Hubbard, James Spaulding, Grachan Moncur III, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Joe Chambers, Alan Shorter, and Gene Bertoncini. Conceived as a musical cosmology, the album uses layered brass and reeds, intricate voicings, and shifting rhythmic underpinnings to explore themes of creation, judgement, and human frailty. Shorter’s own solos rise out of dense textures rather t…
Speak No Evil
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Speak No Evil, Wayne Shorter fronts a quintet of Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Herbie Hancockon piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. Shorter’s compositions are haunted and luminous: melodies that are instantly memorable yet subtly elusive, harmonies rich with unresolved tension, forms deceptively straightforward. His tenor lines slide between inside and outside, often stating a theme in stark tones before twisting it into ambiguous shapes. The ba…
Search For The New Land
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Search for the New Land shows Lee Morgan in a more reflective, exploratory mood, joined by Wayne Shorter on tenor, Herbie Hancock on piano, Grant Green on guitar, Reggie Workman on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. The compositions stretch out over modal frameworks and evocative themes that suggest journeys as much inward as outward. The band plays spaciously yet intently, building tension through dynamics and texture more than sheer speed. Morgan’s tone is full …
Evolution
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Evolution documents Grachan Moncur III stepping out as a composer‑leader with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto, Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. The pieces blend post‑bop structures with freer approaches to metre and harmony, resulting in music that feels constantly tilted yet never topples. Moncur’s trombone leads themes that are by turns mournful, eerie, and boldly declamatory; the band responds with solos…
Total Eclipse
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Total Eclipse, Bobby Hutcherson leads a band featuring Harold Land on reeds, Chick Corea on piano, Reggie Johnson on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The tunes are more expansive, the structures less immediately obvious; the interplay between vibes and saxophone often feels like a conversation unfolding on the spot. Even brighter passages seem to carry a shadow, a lingering sense of unresolved tension that Hutcherson’s solos trace without trying to dispel. Cor…
Oblique
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Oblique deepens Bobby Hutcherson’s quartet explorations with Herbie Hancock on piano, Albert Stinson on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The inclusion of harpsichord as well as piano opens up unusual timbral possibilities, allowing chords to glisten, clatter, or hang in space in unexpected ways. Hutcherson favours tunes that sidestep predictable resolutions, keeping the listener pleasantly off balance and heightening attention. The group plays with chamber‑like s…
Happenings
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Happenings, Bobby Hutcherson pares things back to a quartet with Herbie Hancock on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The transparency of the setting throws every gesture into relief: a single vibraphone note, a piano chord, a cymbal swell can tilt the whole mood. The tunes hover between impressionistic and singable, their harmonies unfolding slowly, their rhythms shifting between gentle propulsion and suspended drift. Hutcherson’s tone is…
Dialogue
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Dialogue finds Bobby Hutcherson at the centre of a forward‑looking sextet: Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Sam Rivers on reeds, Andrew Hill on piano, Richard Davis on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The compositions are exploratory, blending post‑bop, free jazz, and avant‑garde impulses into structures that encourage risk‑taking. Hutcherson’s vibes oscillate between delicate, bell‑like patterns and sharply articulated lines, often bridging Rivers’ angular statements…
Dance With Death
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Recorded in 1968 but long unreleased, Dance with Death showcases Andrew Hill with Charles Tolliver on trumpet, Joe Farrell on saxes, Victor Sproles on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. Hill’s themes are knotty yet singable, his rhythms subtly displaced, his harmonies rich with ambiguity. He sometimes sketches skeletal frameworks at the piano, sometimes erupts into dense, percussive passages, while the horns and rhythm section navigate shifting tempos and unexpect…
Point Of Departure
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Point of Departure, Andrew Hill convenes a dream ensemble: Eric Dolphy on alto, bass clarinet, and flute, Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Richard Davis on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Hill’s compositions bend conventional form with asymmetrical phrases, overlapping lines, and harmonies that hover between centres, creating a sense of forward motion as much psychological as rhythmic. Each soloist finds personal routes through these land…
Inner Urge
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Inner Urge finds Joe Henderson pushing his quartet – McCoy Tyner (piano), Bob Cranshaw (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums) – into more intense and complex territory. The title track’s driving rhythm and restless harmonic motion set the tone for a session where the stakes feel higher and the edges a bit sharper. Henderson probes motifs, worrying them from different angles, unafraid of jagged contours or sudden leaps. Tyner’s dense voicings and rolling left hand, Crans…
The Prisoner
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** The Prisoner is one of Herbie Hancock’s most ambitious large‑ensemble works, featuring Johnny Coles and Thad Jones on trumpet/flugelhorn, Garnett Brown and Jack Rains on trombones, Joe Newman on bass trombone, Hubert Laws and Romeo Penque on reeds, Tony Studd on tuba, Ron Carter on bass, and Grady Tate on drums, among others. Written in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the music uses orchestral textures to explore themes of oppression and …
Speak Like A Child
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Speak Like a Child, Herbie Hancock opts for subtler shades with an unusual front line of Thad Jones on flugelhorn, Peter Phillips (or Jerry Dodgion) on alto flute, and Jackie McLean on alto sax, supported by Ron Carter on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. Carefully voiced harmonies create a soft‑focus glow around lullaby‑like themes that harbour unexpected harmonic turns. Hancock’s piano is restrained and lyrical, often leaving wide spaces around simple phrases,…
My Point Of View
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** My Point of View shows Herbie Hancock widening his palette with a larger band: Donald Byrd on trumpet, Garnett Brown on trombone, Hank Mobley on tenor, Grant Green on guitar, Chuck Israels on bass, Tony Williams on drums, and Patricia “Patty” T. on vocals on one track. The writing is richer and more layered, from soulful vamps to waltz‑like lyricism, yet unified by Hancock’s sense of structure and colour. The horns are given space to develop ideas; Green’s guitar…
City Lights
Tone Poet, the series created in 2019 to mark the 80th anniversary of the blue label, continues its releases. The Blue Note vinyl reissue collection was created with the intention of celebrating the musical and sonic journey of the great artists who have travelled their creative path in the grooves of the label's great albums, helping to make the brand a legend. The series stems from Don Was's (President of Blue Note) admiration for the exceptional reissues for true audiophiles produced by the i…
Tonight At Noon
"Tonight At Noon" compiles tracks from two earlier recordings sessions: one session from 1957 with Jimmy Knepper on the trombone, the drummer Dannie Richmond, Saxophone player Shafi Hadi and the pianist Wade Legge, which were released on the album "The Clown" (Atlantic 1260). The second session took place in 1961 with Booker Ervin and Roland Kirk on the saxophone, Knepper, the bassist Doug Watkins, Mingus at the piano and Richmond on the drums, and was released on "Oh Yeah" (Atlantic SD 1377).
T…
Percussion Bitter Sweet
August 1961. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Max Roach - the man who reinvented jazz drumming alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s, the co-leader with Clifford Brown of the definitive hard bop quintet until tragedy struck in 1956 - enters the studio with something to say. Something that cannot wait. Something that demands a new language.
The year before, Roach had recorded We Insist! Freedom Now Suite for Candid Records, a searing response to the Civil Right…