Referring to the hundreds of titles released by the label, an interviewee in Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz says simply, "Some sold a lot. A lot sold nothing." Either way, the Blue Note collection is distinctive, whether commercial triumphs like Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder, Horace Silver's Song for My Father, and Herbie Hancock's Cantaloupe Island, or one of the countless titles that never came close to making the charts. Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz is a tribute to founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, two refugees from Hitler's Germany who came to New York in the mid-1930s with a profound love for and understanding of jazz and its African-American creators. Lion and Wolff handled every detail of their business, ensuring that the quality of Blue Note releases was remarkably consistent, from the sound (both technically and stylistically) to the look of the covers. Director Julian Benedikt has assembled live clips (including performances by Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Hancock, and Freddie Hubbard), interviews, and archival materials to tell the Blue Note story, using—as in his excellent Play Your Own Thing (see pg. 95)—a skillful and poetic commingling of words, notes, and visual images. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Graham)
Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz
(1997) 91 min. DVD: $28.98. EuroArts (dist. by Naxos of America). Volume 23, Issue 3
Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz
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