Blue Note’s Tone Poet Series Goes Live With Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea

The first two albums in Blue Note Records’ 80th anniversary series of Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, by jazz greats Wayne Shorter and Chick Corea, are released today (8). Blue Note president Don Was brought in “Tone Poet” Joe Harley, the co-founder and co-producer of the much-admired Music Matters audiophile vinyl series, to produce this new series of 180 gram, audiophile vinyl re-releases.

The series will roll out through 2019, each title handpicked by Harley. They embrace lesser-known Blue Note classics, standout releases from the modern era and albums from other labels that are part of the Blue Note catalogue. Shorter’s Etcetera, first released on Blue Note in 1965, and Corea’s Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, issued by Solid State in 1968, open the Tone Poet Series. Another 1965 Blue Note set, Sam Rivers’ Contours, and Cassandra Wilson’s Glamoured (2003) will be the next pair of audiophile releases, on 15 March. Further release details can be seen below.

Harley’s essay entitled Blue Note, Tone Poetry and Audiophilia can be read here, in which he explains his “quest to capture the sound of those master tapes on vinyl and to allow listeners to know what it would sound like to actually be in Rudy [Van Gelder]’s living room in Hackensack or later in Rudy’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.”

The initial albums in the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, Wayne Shorter’s Etcetera, Chick Corea’s Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, Sam Rivers’ Contours and Cassandra Wilson’s Glamoured, can be bought here.

Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series:

8 February 
Wayne Shorter – Etcetera (Blue Note, 1965)
Chick Corea – Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (Solid State, 1968)

15 March 
Sam Rivers – Contours (Blue Note, 1965)
Cassandra Wilson – Glamoured (Blue Note, 2003)

26 April
Gil Evans – New Bottle Old Wine (World Pacific, 1958)
Joe Henderson – The State of the Tenor: Live at the Village Vanguard, Volume 2 (Blue Note, 1985)

31 May
Lou Donaldson – Mr. Shing-A-Ling (Blue Note, 1967)
Lee Morgan – Cornbread (Blue Note, 1965)

28 June
Baby Face Willette – Face To Face (Blue Note, 1961)
Dexter Gordon – Clubhouse (Blue Note, 1965)

26 July
Kenny Burrell – Introducing Kenny Burrell (Blue Note, 1956)
Andrew Hill – Black Fire (Blue Note, 1963)

6 September
Donald Byrd – Chant (Blue Note, 1961)
Stanley Turrentine – Hustlin’ (Blue Note, 1964)

25 October
Grant Green – Born to Be Blue (Blue Note, 1962
Tina Brooks – Minor Move (Blue Note, 1958)

15 November
Hank Mobley – Poppin’ (Blue Note, 1957)
Stanley Turrentine – Comin’ Your Way (Blue Note, 1961)

Format: UK English