More Blue Note Favorites, Courtesy of Downbeat
I did that post earlier today and mentioned that Downbeat had done a whole feature asking various artists about their favorite Blue Note records. I was able to dig up my copy of the magazine — I don’t have a subscription anymore, but I had purchased this one on the newsstand because of the cover. It was from March of 2009. The cover, as you can see, has Joe Lovano with his favorite Blue Note: Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Free For All, Blue Note 4170. It’s quite gratifying to see his picture with a vinyl pressing, and a mono vinyl pressing at that and perhaps even an original mono pressing. Inside, the magazine asked a variety of other jazz artists to name their favorite Blue Notes as well. Here are their replies:
Randy Brecker: Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland Volume 1, Blue Note 5037. They actually show the original 10-inch LP, but I imagine Brecker didn’t just single out the first volume, but the whole series.
Teri Lyne Carrington: Wayne Shorter, JuJu, Blue Note 4182
Branford Marsalis: Wayne Shorter, Speak No Evil, Blue Note 4194.
Nicholas Payton: Speak No Evil
David Sanchez: Speak No Evil
Greg Osby: Wayne Shorter, Schizophrenia, Blue Note 4297
Chris Potter: Wayne Shorter, Adam’s Apple, Blue Note 4232
Kurt Elling: Wayne Shorter, Night Dreamer, Blue Note 4173
Geri Allen: Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage, Blue Note 4195
Sean Jones: Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage
Terence Blanchard: Herbie Hancock, Speak Like A Child, Blue Note 4297
Uri Craine: Herbie Hancock, The Prisoner, Blue Note 4321
Matt Wilson: Eric Dolphy, Out To Lunch, Blue Note 4163
Dee Dee Bridgewater: Horace Silver, Song For My Father, Blue Note 4185
Dave Douglas: Horace Silver, The Cape Verdean Blues, Blue Note 4220
Bill Charlap: Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, Blue Note 1518
Christian McBride: Joe Henderson, Mode For Joe, Blue Note 4227
Steve Turre: The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 2, Blue Note 1506
Kenny Washington: Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588
Larry Grenadier: Sonny Rollins. A Night at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note 1581
Gary Bartz: Sonny Rollins, Volume 2, Blue Note 1558
Antonio Sanchez: John Coltrane, Blue Trane, Blue Note 1577
Ben Allison: Andrew Hill, Black Fire, Blue Note 4151
Mulgrew Miller: Freddie Hubbard, Ready For Freddie, Blue Note 4085
Robin Eubanks: McCoy Tyner, The Real McCoy, Blue Note 4264
Conrad Herwig: Larry Young, Unity, Blue Note 4221
Patricia Barber: Sheila Jordan, Portrait of Sheila, Blue Note 9002
Jason Moran: Bobby Hutcherson, Dialogue, Blue Note 4198
There were a couple of other they were weird and I didn’t include them. If you’re like me, you probably haven’t even heard of half the musicians that are quoted here. I will tell you my finalists:
Art Blakey Buhaina’s Delight
Art Blakey Blue Note 4003
Freddie Redd, Shades of Redd
Horace Silver, Blowin’ The Blues Away
John Coltrane, Blue Trane
Dexter Gordon, Our Man in Paris
Donald Byrd, A New Perspective
At this point, the very strong lean is toward Buhaina’s Delight, but I might put a few others on the turntable today, since it looks like it’s going to be a nice snow day in New York. But, at least I’ve narrowed the field to My Seven Favorite Blue Notes. For now, at least.
Blue Note Favorites. How can any Blue Note jazz “maven” forget the”Heavyweight Champion” Hank Mobley? Soul Station, Roll Call, 1568, Workout and all the others belong on Mt. Rushmore. Did the musicians forget about the great Lee Morgan? I suppose not being with us for 40 years deteriates ones legendariness.
Hey, Robert. Welcome to the site. You think it’s easy, huh? How about you pick one — just one?
Lots of love for Wayne Shorter in the DOWNBEAT lists… I’ve only heard SPEAK NO EVIL, and it’s a killer. I’m more familiar with his Jazz Messenger work. You can’t go wrong with any of those records.
Favourites from my collection:
Cannonball Adderley – Somethin’ Else
Grant Green – Idle Moments
Art Blakey – Moanin’
Lee Morgan – Search For a New Land
Duke Pearson – The Phantom
Ones I’m desperate to find 😛
Kenny Dorham – Afro-Cuban
Hank Mobley – Soul Station
Larry Young – Unity
So many great sounding LPs filled with great music. For me, in no particular order —
Silver — Blowin’ the Blue Away
Silver — Cape Verdean Blues
Drew — Undercurrent
Adderley — Somethin’ Else
Mobley — Soul Station
Soul Station !!
The Phantom !!
A Fickle Sonance !!
Unity !!
Idle Moments !!
Workout !!
Speak No Evil !!
A Fickle Sonance
Look Out !
The Phantom
Soul Station
Workout
Unity
Speak No Evil
Juju
Mode For Joe
Idle Moments
Maiden Voyage
Speak Like a Child
Are among my favourite BN Albums. Order of the list does not matter !!
in no particular order:
Art Blakey Moanin’
Cecil Taylor Unit Structures
Lee Morgan 4157 Sidewinder
Kenny Burrell 4123 Midnight Blue
Eric Dolphy 4163 Out to Lunch
Horace Silver Cape 4220 Verdean Blues
Horace Silver 4185 Song for my Father
Al: You’re 100% right. Arguably there are 30″classic” Blue Notes. Try to pick one from these ten: Mobley Soul Station Hubbard Open Sesame Brooks True Blue Sabu Paolo Freddie Jackson Hootin ‘n Tootin Lee Morgan The 3 C’s Candy, The Cooker City Lights Bud Time Waits McLean Swing, Swang Swingin Blakey Moanin
Out to Lunch
Cool Struttin
Blue Train
Undercurrent
One Flight Up
Go
Action Action Action
glad to see some serious Wayne Shorter representation above!
Speak No Evil, hands down.
contenders for second and third
WS -Schizophrenia
Larry Young- Unity
Joe Henderson – Mode for Joe
Honorary status…love it critically, but don’t listen often:
Out to Lunch
Nice to see ‘Scizophrenia’ getting some cred at last. That one is seriously under-rated !
oh and…
Hutcherson/Land – San Francisco.
Skirting the edges of material usually covered here, but still a nice record.
Oh,man. Asking a jazzhead for his ONE favorite Blue Note is a thankless task-or,as the former Prez(not Lester)might say “Can’t do it-wouldn’t be prudent!”,but I’ll try. For me,it’s a toss-up between Adams Apple and Cape Verdean Blues. With the killer original version of Wayne’s “Footprints” and an exuberant “El Gaucho”(what a groove the trio gets going during Herbie’s solo),this one gets a lot of spins,cd or otherwise. As for CVB,it’s a PERFECT example of what Al noted recently-how the best Blue Notes work as a UNIFIED concept:from design(what a cover),to sound,writing and overall conception. Having some of the best recorded work from Silver,Joe Henderson,Woody Shaw and JJ Johnson doesn’t hurt either. When was the last time you heard an album with this level of musicianship? Incidentally,”previously unreleased” sessions in the BN canon often don’t make it for me for that reason. They often don’t “jell” as a package,and the OVERALL level of playing can’t compete with the best of the best,which these two sessions represent. Few releases can.