Set of 14 CDs re-releases tunes spanning 60 years of jazz culture

Published: Friday, January 29, 1999

Friday, January 29, 1999

MUSIC: 'Blue Note Years' focuses on contributions by artists to blues history

By Brent Hopkins

Daily Bruin Staff

When discussing the immense package that comprises "The Blue Note Years," it is difficult to find the proper starting point. To single out any particular artist as the best would do a disservice to the wealthy catalog of talent featured in this seven double-disc set, which features a comprehensive view of Blue Note Records' 60 years in the jazz business.

It is a veritable explosion of music, lasting well over 15 hours and featuring all aspects of jazz. Packaged simply, but tastefully, with both historical backgrounds to the songs and priceless pictures of the musicians at work, the box is as visually appealing as it is sonically pleasing.

Arranged chronologically, the set begins with Blue Note's formative years. Created by German immigrant Alfred Lion in 1939, Blue Note was born as an attempt to find pure, true music.

"Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression," read the label's first press release, signifying the approach with which Lion and partner Francis Wolff would take when developing records.

What began simply as a medium for swing and hot jazz musicians grew into one of the premier outlets for musical creativity of the 20th century.

Blue Note's first artists were boogie-woogie pianists. Meade Lux Lewis - whose energetic, pounding rhythms are also credited as one of rock 'n' roll's precursors - is featured on the first disc, "Boogie Blues & Bop." Playing unaccompanied, his stroll down the ivories as he keeps a rock steady left-hand rhythm is both fascinating and enjoyable to listen to.

While it could stand alone as an excellent piece of music, Lewis' "Chicago Flyer" is a standout, because it illustrates both elements of the classic era of jazz which Blue Note began in, and a faster, more exciting brand of music yet to come.

The next extension of boogie-woogie was bop, and disc two illustrates its development with gusto. Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and the inimitable Miles Davis all turn up here, each showing a different facet to this rebellious streak of jazz. Bop arose as a challenge to the more commercial swing music that dominated late '40s jazz, with a harsher, more dissonant sound replacing the danceable rhythms that were previously the rage.

Monk's irregular, jumbled compositions ("Well, You Needn't," "Round Midnight" and "Criss Cross") are the prime examples, displaying a convoluted beauty. They don't have the sweet melodies found in most popular music, but Monk's innovative genius makes them pleasurable at the same time.

The first two discs only cover the first 15 years of Blue Note's history, but they are some of the best. Following them is "The Jazz Message," two discs covering just a brief, although incredibly influential five-year period. On this, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly enter the picture. Though they only add one song apiece to the first disc of the set, their contributions cannot be ignored.

Coltrane's "Blue Train," a free ranging masterpiece is cited by critics and fans alike as one of the classics of jazz. Adderly, a Miles Davis compatriot, offers "Autumn Leaves," a stunningly haunting creation that ensnares listeners with its complex and passionate horn solos.

Out of all the seven sets of discs, "The Jazz Message" is the best in terms of listening. Whether used as an auditory background while relaxing after dinner or intensely scrutinized, it offers an incredible range of music. Even lesser known numbers, such as Lee Morgan's "I Remember Clifford," a tribute to label mate Clifford Brown, are gripping and powerful.

This is certainly not meant to imply that any of the other discs are sub-par. All offer something valuable, in radically different ways.

"Organ and Soul," representing 1956-67, focuses on a more blues-based groove, completely removed from any of the collection's other work. "The Avant Garde," is the most adventuresome work to be found, borrowing from classical music in an attempt to broaden the horizons of jazz.

Though the compositions tend toward the bizarre, they do showcase some fascinating experimentation, as well as individual instrumental virtuosity. Eric Dolphy's "Hat and Beard," a salute to Monk's earlier forays into new frontiers, features a jarring clarinet that can actually be painful to listen to, but is still impressive from a technical standpoint, nonetheless.

Finally, a fitting way to round out this staggering compilation is "Blue Note Now As Then," which features the label's top contemporary artists covering past favorites. Hearing Cassandra Wilson smolder through the standard "Joshua Fit The Battle Ob Jerico" (CQ) reminds listeners that Blue Note's original philosophy is not dead.

The artists of today are taking the music on which they have built their careers and breathing new life into it. This is the "genuine expression" that Lion and Wolff originally sought, and it sounds just as good today as it did 60 years ago, if not better.

Blue Note

Jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson is featured on the cover of his album, "Our Thing," in October 1963.

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