In celebration of the 80th anniversary of Blue Note Records in 2019, the Classic Series presents affordable, high-quality reissues in standard packaging that are mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany. The pressings are all-analog whenever an analog source is available, with Gray cutting directly from the Original Master Tapes.

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
• LP 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl
• All Analog Mastering
• Cut from the Original Master Tapes
• Cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
• Pressed at Optimal Media in Germany

The Classic Vinyl Reissue Series is the continuation of our acclaimed Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series, which was created in celebration of the 80th anniversary of Blue Note Records in 2019. The series presents affordable, high-quality reissues in standard packaging that are mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio and manufactured on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany. The pressings are all-analog whenever an analog source is available, with Gray mastering directly from the original master tapes. Blue Note Records has recorded the legends of Jazz and has traced the entire evolution of the music from the early days of Boogie Woogie, Hot Jazz and Swing, through the innovations of Bebop, Hard Bop, Post-Bop, Soul Jazz, Avant-Garde, and 70s Fusion, and into the vibrant sounds of Jazz’s many modern-day incarnations. The Classic Vinyl Series is curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman and is broad in its scope. The series reissues the best-known Blue Note classics from the 1950s and 60s, but also goes deeper, exploring the many different eras and styles of the legendary label’s eight-decade history with the aim of telling our story and fully representing the Blue Note motto: The Finest In Jazz Since 1939.

Until the emergence of Larry Young, Blue Note’s Hammond B3 organ tradition was firmly rooted in Soul Jazz, having been established by B3 trailblazer Jimmy Smith and soulful players the likes of Big John Patton and Baby Face Willette. However, Young brought an entirely new perspective to the instrument by placing it in a more adventurous post-bop context, an innovative approach that recontextualized its possibilities. Young had introduced these inclinations on his excellent 1964 Blue Note debut Into Somethin’, but with his 1965 album Unity he created a singular masterpiece with a cast of modernist jazz visionaries: trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, and drummer Elvin Jones. The apt album title expressed the undeniable synergy this unique quartet achieved. “Although everybody on the date is very much an individualist, they were all in the same frame of mood. It was evident from the start that everything was fitting together,” Young stated in the album’s liner notes. The program consisted of 3 distinctive originals by Shaw (“Zoltan,” “The Moontrane,” and “Beyond All Limits”), Henderson’s bluesy, hard-swinging “If,” and memorable versions of “Monk’s Dream” by Thelonious Monk and the standard “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise.”

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Musicians:

Woody Shaw, trumpet
Joe Henderson, tenor sax
Larry Young, organ
Elvin Jones, drums

Track Listing:

A1: Zoltan
A2: Monk’s Dream
A3: If
B1: The Moontrane
B2: Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
B3: Beyond All Limits

Click here to listen to samples on YouTube.com ♫