Blue Note - Wow.

[percussion boy]

I was gonna put this in off-topic, but it's all Nazis and snake shit over there . . .

Anyway, I've been blown away lately by the number of great old Blue Note albums there are. Van Gelder's sound, the compositions, the solos, the rhythm sections.

What's scary is, it's not just a few artists or a few albums; the stuff that was unreleased for years and the people I never heard of (Grachan Moncur, Andrew Hill) are just as strong as the famous stuff like SPEAK NO EVIL and MAIDEN VOYAGE. And Freddie Hubbard -- Did Freddie Hubbard play a bad solo on any of those records?

Current faves:
Sam Rivers: POINT OF MANY RETURNS and CONTOURS
Herbie Hancock : SPEAK LIKE A CHILD
Andrew Hill: POINT OF DEPARTURE

Token engineering question: Did Rudy ever use limiters?

[b3groover]

Nobody really knows what Van Gelder used or uses because he's so secretive about his techniques and gear. I assume he must've used limiters, for sure on trumpet players (they can get so loud!), but I don't know that as a fact.

I really like the way he captured the Hammond organ. The low end is just killer, especially on vinyl.

There are a lot of jazz heads discussing Blue Note on my forums if you're interested.

[New Orleans Steve]

YES! YES! YES!!,

Your Subject line says it ALL Blue Note WOW. It is one of the most popular ones. But I use to lay this one on people who say, "OH, I don't like Jazz".
Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" Wait, that's not on Blue Note.
Nevermind

Steve

[@?,*???&?]

...and mostly all recorded at home in his parents house...would like to know more about he negotiated the rehearsals and where those took place...

[b3groover]

...and mostly all recorded at home in his parents house...would like to know more about he negotiated the rehearsals and where those took place...

He only recorded at his parents home in Hackensack up to 1959. He then built his own home/studio in Englewood Cliffs. He started recording for Blue Note in 1953. So the majority of Blue Note's recordings were made at Englewood Cliffs.

[Foot Foot]

Current faves:
Sam Rivers: POINT OF MANY RETURNS and CONTOURS

Wow somebody mentioned Sam Rivers.
I have been very priveledged to have Sam as a good friend. He lives here in Orlando. I just had him over to my house to record a track on an album by my friends band. I have always felt that Sam deserved a little more attenion from the Jazz community here in the U.S. than he gets.
A truly unique voice. His big band does a residency every Wed. night at a local bar here. What's funny is most people are unaware of his history. They just think he's an old guy who plays crazy saxophone.
Anyway, Contours is great as is Fuschia Swing Song and A New Conception (for his Blue Note recordings).
Worth a listen also.

[andrew embassy]

The track that got me into hip hop and jazz in the first place was Madlib's Uno Esta off Angles Without Edges. Since then I've been getting really into the work of Larry and Fonz Mizell, two producers who did a ton of stuff on Blue note; they wrote most of Donald Byrd's best Jazz/Funk/Fusion stuff, and much of Bobbi Humphrey's stuff. In my quest for all things Mizell I picked up the Bobbi Humphrey's Greatest hits (only Bobbi Humphrey they had at Jive Time - I'm hitting up Bop Street later tonight if I can) and lo and behold there's Uno Esta- blowing me away with how all the best parts of Madlib's version are right there. I had always assumed that Madlib had written it-

Anyway, I just thought it was appropos how the track that started it all for me ended up being written by the guy who would become my favorite producer in Funk and Jazz. The crazy thing is that if you look on Allmusic.com for Larry Mizell, he doesn't have a bio, doesn't have a picture, etc. The two of them worked in relative obscurity, and just RULED it.

[b3groover]

Current faves:
Sam Rivers: POINT OF MANY RETURNS and CONTOURS

Wow somebody mentioned Sam Rivers.
I have been very priveledged to have Sam as a good friend. He lives here in Orlando. I just had him over to my house to record a track on an album by my friends band. I have always felt that Sam deserved a little more attenion from the Jazz community here in the U.S. than he gets.
A truly unique voice. His big band does a residency every Wed. night at a local bar here. What's funny is most people are unaware of his history. They just think he's an old guy who plays crazy saxophone.
Anyway, Contours is great as is Fuschia Swing Song and A New Conception (for his Blue Note recordings).
Worth a listen also.

WOW! That's a great reason to come to Orlando!! (making a mental note) I completely agree with you... Sam Rivers has not been given his due.

[bassface]

Sam Rivers rules. Highly recommend the mosaic sam rivers box set.

[psychicoctopus]

Wasn't there a Rudy Van Gelder feature in TapeOp last year? I missed that issue but really wanted to read that article.

[b3groover]

Sent you a PM.

[bigtoe]

Andrew Hill: POINT OF DEPARTURE

that record rules...if you like that try eric dolphy's outward bound (riverside) if you haven't...whoa.

dunno about limiters but i have heard tape slap on a few Van Gelder records...Saxophone Colossus comes to mind...surprised me.

Sleep,

Mike

[subversive]

The track that got me into hip hop and jazz in the first place was Madlib's Uno Esta off Angles Without Edges. Since then I've been getting really into the work of Larry and Fonz Mizell, two producers who did a ton of stuff on Blue note; they wrote most of Donald Byrd's best Jazz/Funk/Fusion stuff, and much of Bobbi Humphrey's stuff. In my quest for all things Mizell I picked up the Bobbi Humphrey's Greatest hits (only Bobbi Humphrey they had at Jive Time - I'm hitting up Bop Street later tonight if I can) and lo and behold there's Uno Esta- blowing me away with how all the best parts of Madlib's version are right there. I had always assumed that Madlib had written it-

Anyway, I just thought it was appropos how the track that started it all for me ended up being written by the guy who would become my favorite producer in Funk and Jazz. The crazy thing is that if you look on Allmusic.com for Larry Mizell, he doesn't have a bio, doesn't have a picture, etc. The two of them worked in relative obscurity, and just RULED it.

I second that about the Mizell Bros. I think they were part of the Corp.
the songwriters/musicians that wrote the Jackson Five early stuff

[Piotr]

You absolutely must make a pilgrimage to the club in Mid-town, then...

[percussion boy]

Wasn't there a Rudy Van Gelder feature in TapeOp last year? I missed that issue but really wanted to read that article.

It was in #43. The writer did a good job of drawing him out, but basically Rudy's still on his secret agent trip and there's not much any interviewer can do about that. Rudy apparently thinks he'd lose work if he said, "I put a 47 over the rack tom, and a d-12 outside the kick," or whatever.

One of these days he's gonna pass on, without having taught anyone what he knows. What a waste.