Blue Note

by Michael Cuscuna (Contributor), Francis Wolff

Black-and-white photographs oozing with cool immortalize the performances and offstage lives of more than 100 famed jazz musicians who forged Blue Note Records’ legendary reputation. Blue Note Records—cofounded in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff—is dedicated to recording the greatest musicians in jazz history. Wolff’s photographs taken from 1948–69 catch the stars in action: performing onstage, in recording sessions, or cutting stylish silhouettes around town. This curated selection includes jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Art Blakey, Ornette Coleman, Chick Corea, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, and many more. Each photograph is identified by subject, session or album being cut, and date; and the featured artists are indexed for easy reference. The intimate and candid photographs—often used to illustrate the label’s iconic album covers—recount the label’s dazzling seventy-five-year saga.

Genres: Music, Photography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Deidre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Blue Note. The commentary in the beginning of the book gives you the history of Blue Note Records. Blue Note was founded by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff. The pictures in the book are by Francis Wolff as well. The black and white photos in this book are beautiful. You can almost smell the cigarette smoke and hear the music in the recording studio. One thing though, I feel like this book is more for people who have been listening to jazz for a while. The book doesn’t give a lot of information about the photos besides the name and location. That might be great for the experienced jazz listener but for newbies like me you might have to do some research on all the legends pictured in this book.