Blue Note Essentials

Blue Note Essentials

By the mid-1950s, Blue Note Records was already synonymous with the rise of bop and the reframing of jazz as a genuine art form. But when the label’s founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff began working with audio engineer Rudy Van Gelder and graphic designer Reid Miles, Blue Note’s sound and visual identity really came into focus. Known colloquially as the Blue Note 1500 series (in reference to the releases' catalog numbers), the nearly 100 LPs that the label cut between 1955 and 1958 have long been trophies of the jazz vinyl collecting world. Together these albums from the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, and tons of other jazz legends represent not only some of the music’s finest recordings but interjections in a broader conversation about design that also cemented the imprint as a bastion of American art. To celebrate Blue Note’s 80th anniversary, we’ve assembled a collection of songs from this incredibly vital period in the label’s history.

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