Change (Makes You Wanna Hustle) Blue Note till it wasn't Blue Note anymore

[CJ Shearn]

OP ed I wrote. Enjoy https://medium.com/@cjshearn/change-makes-you-wanna-hustle-blue-note-until-it-wasnt-blue-note-anymore-377fcf18b9eb

[Rabshakeh]

Thanks!

[CJ Shearn]

9 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

Thanks!

My pleasure 

 

[Teasing the Korean]

Thanks for the read.  You open by saying that change is inevitable, and that Blue Note is nothing more than a brand now, both of which I agree with.  

Your central question then seems to be: "My concern is less savvy new fans, unlike veterans like myself will be lead to thinking it’s emblematic of what mssrs. Lion and Wolff brought us."

I would think that someone who buys a Roseanne Cash album on Blue Note will either (a) not be familiar with Blue Note; (b) not particularly care that it is on Blue Note; or (c) understand that Blue Note, as you wrote, is nothing nothing more than a corporate imprint.  Some people in the middle may legitimately wonder if Cash is trying to do a pseudo-jazz album.  In the era of YouTube and audio samples, they can answer that question within minutes if not seconds.  

Maybe the best thing would have been to put the brand to bed decades ago, and use it only for reissues, but even then, there would be disagreement about the cutoff date, based on all the Mizell-era albums I used to find in the dollar bin.  

My biggest issue with Blue Note is their compilation albums. These will often include recordings that were on Blue Note, Capitol, Liberty, World Pacific, Roulette, and probably others that I am forgetting, and may throw in a couple of more recent tracks that stick out like a sore thumb.  Talk about weakening the brand.

Edited July 10, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

There was a Roseanne Cash record on Blue Note? 

[Teasing the Korean]

3 minutes ago, JSngry said:

There was a Roseanne Cash record on Blue Note? 

That's what the article says.  

[mjazzg]

Two, you missed them...

https://www.bluenote.com/artist/rosanne-cash/

[CJ Shearn]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Thanks for the read.  You open by saying that change is inevitable, and that Blue Note is nothing more than a brand now, both of which I agree with.  

Your central question then seems to be: "My concern is less savvy new fans, unlike veterans like myself will be lead to thinking it’s emblematic of what mssrs. Lion and Wolff brought us."

I would think that someone who buys a Roseanne Cash album on Blue Note will either (a) not be familiar with Blue Note; (b) not particularly care that it is on Blue Note; or (c) understand that Blue Note, as you wrote, is nothing nothing more than a corporate imprint.  Some people in the middle may legitimately wonder if Cash is trying to do a pseudo-jazz album.  In the era of YouTube and audio samples, they can answer that question within minutes if not seconds.  

Maybe the best thing would have been to put the brand to bed decades ago, and use it only for reissues, but even then, there would be disagreement about the cutoff date, based on all the Mizell-era albums I used to find in the dollar bin.  

My biggest issue with Blue Note is their compilation albums. These will often include recordings that were on Blue Note, Capitol, Liberty, World Pacific, Roulette, and probably others that I am forgetting, and may throw in a couple of more recent tracks that stick out like a sore thumb.  Talk about weakening the brand.

The new Melissa Aldana is nice, as is the singles from the new Ronnie Foster, the first Gerald Clayton, Happenings was great as was Nduduzo Makathini (though the sound sucked) I look forward to streaming Clayton's new one.  I have to check out Immanuel Wilkins 7th Hand and see if I want to review.  So hard to keep up streaming new music. I got the files from them from the Ornette box and they sound terrific. Why not do a set like the Complete Morgan Lighthouse set there on CD so fans like myself who never owned the initial CD's could own them? Did the Lee set on CD do bad numbers? I love that set

They are shitting the bed with the new Charles Lloyd by releasing the three separate CD's but LP is getting a nice box set. It sucks because Lloyds 8 Souls I never investigated on CD or streaming because the complete concert was only available on LP. The Tone Poet masterings I dont understand why they can't be available streaming, AT LEAST when say inferior masterings like some RVG'S are still physically available. Perhaps the brand should have gone under after Lundvall was replaced by Don Was

Edited July 10, 2022 by CJ Shearn

[danasgoodstuff]

listening to Melissa A's 12 Stars as I type, I think Blue Note is doing about as well and is as Blue Notey as any time since the revival in the '80s and better than it was in the mid to late '70s.  In particular, they have fine young talent like Joel Ross, Immanual Wilens, and Johnathon Blake, and better yet they play on each other's records just like the old days.  As for possibly relegating non-'jazz' artists like Rosanne Cash or Al Green or Van Morrison or.... to a subsidiary label, I agree with Charlie Parker, 'there's no dividing line to art'.  I was happy to see DOMi & JD Beck signed, and Trombone Shorty, and most of the current roster as well.

[CJ Shearn]

5 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

listening to Melissa A's 12 Stars as I type, I think Blue Note is doing about as well and is as Blue Notey as any time since the revival in the '80s and better than it was in the mid to late '70s.  In particular, they have fine young talent like Joel Ross, Immanual Wilens, and Johnathon Blake, and better yet they play on each other's records just like the old days.  As for possibly relegating non-'jazz' artists like Rosanne Cash or Al Green or Van Morrison or.... to a subsidiary label, I agree with Charlie Parker, 'there's no dividing line to art'.  I was happy to see DOMi & JD Beck signed, and Trombone Shorty, and most of the current roster as well.

I like that balanced viewpoint actually. I will purchase  Makhathini's new one and have to check out the new Joel Ross. It is true like the old days they do play on each others records. I like what I heard from DOMi and JD Beck so far. I love Derrick Hodge as a player, and composer at times, "Over There" on Blanchard's Flow is great, but though I was kind in my review his last one didn't really stick with me after review  

[danasgoodstuff]

Thanks for being willing to put yourself out there and posting your article.

[CJ Shearn]

2 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

Thanks for being willing to put yourself out there and posting your article.

My pleasure. I almost want to send it to my contact Cem Kurosman there but to keep in the good graces of their promo list I probably shouldn't. 

2 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

Thanks for being willing to put yourself out there and posting your article.

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by CJ Shearn

[Brad]

My late boss who was a big jazz fan used to say that I only listened to the “dead guys” and by and large he was right. I don’t really listen to the current BN artists save maybe for Charlap. Does that bother me? Nope. Happy where I am. As a matter of fact don’t listen to a whole lot of BN anymore.

As you said it’s not really a label it’s a brand. 

[felser]

Some of the artists BN has recorded in recent years (Roseanne Cash, Suzanne Vega, etc.) are true heavyweights at what they do, but it's a million miles from jazz.  I have everything Suzanne Vega ever commercially released, and I file it in Pop.  To me, there were really three BN's - The Lion-Wolf/Liberty/UA BN (enough continuity in the UA period that I consider it the same label, especially considering the vault releases, though in other ways it was a very different label than what came before it.  Tough call.), the Bruce Lundvall relaunch era, and the Don Was era.   The Don Was era holds no appeal to me in jazz terms.  The Lundvall era had some good albums, but was a disappointment to me.  The craft was there, but the magic was gone.   There were still a lot of magical releases during the UA era, and much of it has aged surprisingly well.

[Rabshakeh]

3 hours ago, felser said:

Some of the artists BN has recorded in recent years (Roseanne Cash, Suzanne Vega, etc.) are true heavyweights at what they do, but it's a million miles from jazz.  I have everything Suzanne Vega ever commercially released, and I file it in Pop.  To me, there were really three BN's - The Lion-Wolf/Liberty/UA BN (enough continuity in the UA period that I consider it the same label, especially considering the vault releases, though in other ways it was a very different label than what came before it.  Tough call.), the Bruce Lundvall relaunch era, and the Don Was era.   The Don Was era holds no appeal to me in jazz terms.  The Lundvall era had some good albums, but was a disappointment to me.  The craft was there, but the magic was gone.   There were still a lot of magical releases during the UA era, and much of it has aged surprisingly well.

What do you see as the difference between Lundvall’s and Don Was’ approaches to signing artists? I have been reasonably pleasantly surprised by some of the recent crowd, mostly mentioned above.

[JSngry]

Don Is!

[felser]

9 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

What do you see as the difference between Lundvall’s and Don Was’ approaches to signing artists? I have been reasonably pleasantly surprised by some of the recent crowd, mostly mentioned above.

Lundvall re-signed a lot of the classic era artists and his new artists seemed closer to that musical sensibility .  Was went much further afield.

[Rabshakeh]

I like some of them a fair bit. The South African approach has been very successful I think. 

[danasgoodstuff]

15 hours ago, felser said:

Some of the artists BN has recorded in recent years (Roseanne Cash, Suzanne Vega, etc.) are true heavyweights at what they do, but it's a million miles from jazz.  I have everything Suzanne Vega ever commercially released, and I file it in Pop.  To me, there were really three BN's - The Lion-Wolf/Liberty/UA BN (enough continuity in the UA period that I consider it the same label, especially considering the vault releases, though in other ways it was a very different label than what came before it.  Tough call.), the Bruce Lundvall relaunch era, and the Don Was era.   The Don Was era holds no appeal to me in jazz terms.  The Lundvall era had some good albums, but was a disappointment to me.  The craft was there, but the magic was gone.   There were still a lot of magical releases during the UA era, and much of it has aged surprisingly well.

This seems so off to me that I hardly know where to begin, but the Lion-Wolf/Liberty/UA years are at least 3 or 4 very different things, and Nora Jones, Al Green, and Van Morrison all had albums on blue Note during the Lundvall years that are as far afield as anything Was has done.  There will never again be a label like BN during the Alfred & Francis years, but I think Don Was is doing fine with it now.

[Dub Modal]

Great read.

Streaming platforms give BN the ability to tie in legacy albums and artists to new ones and I think that’s why sublabels don’t and/or won’t exist. Their monthly playlists do just this, as do their (and Impluse as well) artist-selected playlists. Was seems to be taking a big tent approach and while I haven’t looked at BNs bottom line among other Universal products, it’s probably doing decent enough. 

[Teasing the Korean]

Is Blue Note still releasing digital compilations that include tracks from other Universal/EMI labels, but under the Blue Note banner?  They were doing this during the CD era.  I have no issues with combining tracks from different labels for a comp, but it is misleading to present that stuff as Blue Note. 

[CJ Shearn]

5 hours ago, Dub Modal said:

Great read.

Streaming platforms give BN the ability to tie in legacy albums and artists to new ones and I think that’s why sublabels don’t and/or won’t exist. Their monthly playlists do just this, as do their (and Impluse as well) artist-selected playlists. Was seems to be taking a big tent approach and while I haven’t looked at BNs bottom line among other Universal products, it’s probably doing decent enough. 

Thanks for reading! And as said above, four new Blue Note releases I will stream before purchase are Chapel, Reboot, and The Spirit of Ntu.  I also need to hear the first Julian Lage on the label before his new one.

[Dub Modal]

On 7/12/2022 at 6:07 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

Is Blue Note still releasing digital compilations that include tracks from other Universal/EMI labels, but under the Blue Note banner?  They were doing this during the CD era.  I have no issues with combining tracks from different labels for a comp, but it is misleading to present that stuff as Blue Note. 

I don’t think they’ve done any digital comps in near 10 years or more. Playlists have probably made them obsolete at this point. 

[Teasing the Korean]

8 hours ago, Dub Modal said:

I don’t think they’ve done any digital comps in near 10 years or more. Playlists have probably made them obsolete at this point. 

They are good for Starbucks customers, though.  

 

[Teasing the Korean]

Martin Denny is now a Blue Note artist.

Take that, Mosaic!

https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/exotica-suite-martin-denny-si-zentner-and-his-orchestra/dm9ewevdnf5ta