Blue Note Records Tickets

Blue Note Records
American record label, Blue Note Records, was founded by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis in 1939. Lion was of German descent, while having Jewish ancestry. Being born and raised in Berlin, Germany, he was introduced to jazz music in while he was in Berlin.

In 1937 Lion relocated to New York and met Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis in 1939 as he recorded their piano recording one day session in a rented studio. Initially the Blue Note Records was funded by a communist writer and consisted of Max Margulis and Alfred Lion.

Some of the initial released by the record label included good old traditional jazz and boogie woogie; however their first breakthrough hit was Summertime performed by Sidney Bechet.

Blue Note Records became known for treating the musicians amazingly well, as they used to provide the musicians with alcoholic refreshments and only held the sessions in the morning time that were often suitable to all the musicians. Blue Note Records also allowed the musicians to be involved in the records production in all aspects.

By the end of 1939, a childhood friend of Lion and a photographer by profession, Francis Wolff moved to USA and joined hands with Lion.

After Lion was drafted to army for two years in 1941, Milt Gabler who worked at the Commodore Music Store took care of the storage needs and kept the catalog in print. By the end of 1943 Blue Note Records was once again up and running and recording musicians.

Among Several other musicians, Saxophonist Ike Quebec was the one who recorded for the label, towards the end of war. Furthermore Quebec also scouted for talent for the record label, and continued his search until he died in 1963.

As the leader of the label, pianist Thelonious Monk recorded his first sessions for the label in 1947. Those sessions were also the first sessions of drummer Art Blakey with the Blue Note Records.

Although Monks releases between 1947 and 1952 were not considered a commercial success, but still he is remembered as the most important artist of the bebop era among other artists who recorded for Blue Note Records.

Some other artist who recorded for Blue Note Records include Fats Navarro, Tadd Dameron, Howard McGhee, James Moody and Bud Powell.

By 1951, Blue Note Records started recording for new talent such as the Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver, Milt Jackson, Herbie Nichols and Clifford Brown.

One of many significant difference among Blue Note Records and many other record labels operating at that time was that musicians were paid for their rehearsal sessions before they recorded the final version, this helped the label to produced better quality of music as compared to other record labels.

Dexter Gordon joined the Blue Note Records in the early sixties after he was released from imprisonment. He stayed with Blue Note Records for 5 years and recorded several albums for the label.

A major hit for the Blue Note Records came in 1963 when the title track of Lee Morgans The Sidewinder was released, followed by another hit by Horace Silver the very next year.