Blue Note Records
Thinking about getting into jazz? There is no doubt that the blue note label is a wonderful place to start – spanning almost 75 years since being originally set up by Alfred Lion & Max Margulis, with a few dead years in the late 1970s – the label is a wonderful melting pot of modern jazz. It is one of relatively few labels from which one can choose any album or CD without hearing and be confident of a high quality enjoyable experience (the others are Impulse! ECM and ACT – I think).
I have recently being trying to work my way through (the little bit boring) Biography of Blue Note by Richard Cook and I realized how much I have enjoyed Blue Note recordings. They are extraordinarily popular and collectable. Indeed, labels such as Music Matters and Analogue Productions have ongoing series of Blue Note reissues on 45rpm for deep pocketed fans. Many of the soul jazz recordings from the late 1960s and 1970s were used for DJ samples during the 1990s dance boom. Virtually all of the recordings were made by Rudy Van Gelder, at his studio in New Jersey and feature iconic covers by Reid Miles. If you like Blue Note you should invest in the Cover Art coffee table book. Anyway, here is a list of my favorite classic and newish Blue Note recordings (sorry to connoisseurs if they are a little obvious). These are the recordings that I would happily drop $1000 for the whole 45rpm set! I find the modern blue note label a little slick for my taste, but there have been some terrific recordings, one of the greatest of which was “Without a Net” by Wayne Shorter which came out this year (where is the vinyl version EMI?).
My Favorite Classic Era Blue Note Records:
1. Something Else – Cannonball Adderley
2. Cool Struttin’ – Sonny Clarke
3. Soul Station – Hank Mobley
4. Song for my father – Horace Silver
5. Thelonius Monk – Genius of Modern Music
6. Blue Train – John Coltrane
7. Maiden Voyage – Herbie Hancock
8. GO! –Dexter Gordon
9. The Sidewinder – Lee Morgan
10. See No Evil – Wayne Shorter
11. Open Sesame– Freddy Hubbard
12. Page One – Joe Henderson
13. Point of Departure – Andrew Hill
14. Idle Moments – Grant Green
15. Unity – Larry Young
16. Midnight Blue – Kenny Burrell
17. Volume 2 – Sonny Rollins
18. Moanin’ – Art Blakey
19. Dialogue – Bobby Hutcherson
20. Back at the Chicken Shack – Jimmy Smith
There are many many more that I would recommend – but I am stopping at 20l
Modern Blue Note
1. Time on my hands – John Scofield
2. From the Soul – Joe Lovano
3. I can see your house from here – John Scofield & Pat Metheny
4. Combustication – Medeski Martin & Wood
5. Romance with the unseen – Don Byron
6. When the heart emerges glistening – Ambrose Akinmusire
7. Spirit Fiction – Ravi Coltrane
8. Without A Net – Wayne Shorter Quartet
audioexchange 
Beware of the Medeski, Martin, and Wood Combustication release. Bad pressing, I had to return it twice because the song “No Key Ano Ahiahi” was unplayable and had weird gushing noises, and pops/skips forward and distortion whenever bass drum would hit. Tried to clean good, and thought if I tried a second record it would be ok, but same problem in same spots. Very frustrating, also, the both records were filthy.