Blue Note Records 70th Anniversary - On Tour

Overview

To mark the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records, the premier label in jazz, an all-star band featuring some of the finest musicians today will travel the world celebrating this rich catalog of music. Led by Blue Note Records artist and pianist, Bill Charlap, the group will explore classic tunes by Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, and many others.  The tour, which began in Seattle on January 8th and finally arrives in Worcester on April 1st, has been called one of the top concerts of the year by presenters in Seattle, Kansas City, Nashville, and many other cities after triumphant performances.

Related Sites

• Blue Note Records web site
• Bill Charlap page at Ted Kurland Management web site
• Ravi Coltrane official web site
• Peter Bernstein official web site
• Lewis Nash official web site
• Nicholas Payton official web site
• Peter Washington page on All About Jazz
• Steve Wilson official web site

Program

Alfred Lion launched BLUE NOTE Records, the premier label in the history of jazz, in 1939. At the end of that year, Lion's childhood friend Francis Wolff caught the last boat out of Nazi-controlled Germany bound for America. He found employment at a photographic studio and joined forces with Lion at night to continue Blue Note and together, for almost the next 30 years, they recorded the greatest artists in jazz - Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Eric Dolphy, Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Dorham, Cannonball Adderley, and many others.

Blue Note's catalog of music features an impressive array of legendary performances and a core list of "must-have" releases that indelibly marked the history of jazz.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Blue Note legacy, an all-star band featuring some of the finest jazz musicians today will travel the world throughout 2009. A new CD will be recorded in the spring of 2008 and released in conjunction with the commencement of the tour in January 2009.

About the Artists

This group is a 7-piece jazz band comprised of the top musicians in the NYC jazz scene.  They will be performing "classic" compositions from the 1960's Blue Note Records period by such legendary composers as Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, Bud Powell, Horace Silver, and many others.  The members of the band, all leaders in their own right, have written new arrangements for this tour and perform them as a group.  This is not a jam session or a concert where the musicians take very long solos and perform "unstructured" music.  Thsi program is melodic, groovy, swinging, and hip.  The band performs beautiful ballads and upbeat exciting tunes.  They have earned multiple standing ovations night after night on this tour.