75 years of Blue Note: the golden years with Ashley Kahn (1/5) – Music France

What other label so entrenched jazz in the imagination, in the legend? Established in 1939 by Alfred Lion , a German Jewish immigrant to New York for the love of jazz (there brought back the 78s he had earned by the sweat of his brow in an unhappy first stay ) Blue Note has contributed decisively to the jazz cultural legitimacy. How and why

Four factors would be decisive:
– artistic direction : the choice by Alfred Lion of creative artists (composers and improvisers) of foreground, almost all African Americans: Sidney Bechet, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Smith …
– photographs by Francis Wolff immortalized in black and white square format timeless icons taking on the appearance of heroes stood still like statues by the frequent use of the cons-diving
-. typography and staging (rather than layout) of sided 30cm by Reid Miles , graphics inventions, his choice of colors: a summit of the twentieth century applied arts
– the sound of Rudy Van Gelder , the highest quality and a “signature” in the development of instruments and equality before the dynamic rendering that we listen as if it was set among musicians.

Four musketeers whose association has less chance (Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff were longtime friends in Berlin) as a perfect alchemy. Who were ing tools? We thought it was the sound of an era … This is the sound of jazz! An unstoppable cocktail rooting, innovation, flame and expressive power. This is the explanation of this mystery Blue Note that we picked up in New York with two of the finest connoisseurs label: Ashley Kahn, and for the second week of May 12 to 16, Michael Cuscuna

.

Lecturer at New York University, writer (we owe him two reference books, making of “Kind Of Blue” by Miles Davis and “A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane) , journalist and lecturer and Ashley Kahn is preparing a book on the history of Blue Note, Something Else , which will be released in 2015.

This book preview some of the secrets of the “family” for the first week centered on the decade from 1955 to 1966, the Heads of timeless works from John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy for unique albums considered the tops of their careers or series lee Morgan, Horace Silver and Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers … So many stills on a bunch of masterpieces as well as the ups and downs of the following year and the rebirth of the label with a new generation.