The Blue Note that will always stay
Well, the pullin’ of the CD collection is almost done. The same amount of CDs as the original Hoodlums - 1,500. It was just as painful as the first time. It was for a good cause. With my stuff and Kristian’s, and the rest of the stuff we collected over the past ten months, our customers are going to be impressed with the used selection.
Six hundred of my contributions were jazz, blues, and world. The last section I did was my Blue Note CDs. I love my Blue Note CDs. I have them in a special CD rack. They all have the same white spine, and there are 225 of them… and it makes me happy just to look at them.
Did I say there “are” 225? I meant there were 225. I didn’t want to do it. I had to do it. You can’t build a great section without Blue Note. Any good jazz fan knows that.
In case you aren’t a jazz fan… Blue Note is a label. I don’t mean “label” like the profit-driven’, customer-suing, high-pricin’ conglomerates of today - I mean a founded-by-jazz-lovers, independent label of yesterday. It purveys mainly hard-bop, a swinging, jamming type of jazz just meant for generally rockin’ tempo kind of guys like me.
Anyway, it took a long time - but when I was done - sixty of my beloved Blue Note CDs were in the box on the way to the store.
How will I cope? Starting September 20th, I will sell those Blue Notes to customers and get them hooked on the awesome power of hard-bop done right.
But for now I am going to make a list - because record store geeks like me love to make lists.
Here are sixteen Blue Note CDs that would NEVER leave my collection under any circumstances. Note: Don’t worry, we’ll have them at the store new… and they are priced to sell.
Cannonball Adderley - Somethin’ Else (recommended by the Eastside gang over a dozen years ago)
Art Blakey - Moanin’ (One of my first; one of the most obvious; one of the best. You’ve probably heard the title track).
Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue (That great groovin’ guitar on the intro - I can hear it in my head - so now I must play it while I type the rest of the list)
Donald Byrd - Live at the Half Note (I had it in my car to test it out, and on the way home Blaze at KJZZ played “Jeannine”. I looked at the CD on my passenger seat and knew it was destiny)
Sonny Clark - Sonny’s Crib (Sidemen: Coltrane, Byrd, Fuller, Chambers, Taylor… how could it not be great?)
John Coltrane - Blue Train (Coltrane’s only Blue Note album and some say his personal favorite. I always think of the scene in Singles where Campbell Scott is lying on the floor hating life, and the title track is blaring).
Lou Donaldson - The Natural Soul (There’s more than one Lou that will stay, but this is the tops)
Grant Green - The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark (The mighty Grant will always be my favorite Blue Note artist. The man can groove with a guitar like no one else.. oh, ok, Wes.)
Grant Green - Idle Moments (I just said he was my fave, so he gets two on the list. As it is, I could have put Blue Breakbeats or Live at the Lighthouse on here as well, as both were instrumental to my love of Blue Note. The Green section will always be stocked).
Freddie Hubbard - Open Sesame (I saw Freddie at Birdland. He was a bit nutty… but it was cool to see a legend. Many great albums… on many labels.).
Hank Mobley - High Voltage (Hank has more critically-acclaimed albums, but I couldn’t care less, because this one jams the most for me).
John Patton - Let ‘em Roll (Recommended by a customer in 1999, this has Grant Green on guitar… and it for me is the ultimate Hammond/Guitar delight. Except for the one sappy ballad… all Blue Notes have one… the other five songs just fly)
Wayne Shorter - Adam’s Apple (On Kurt Elling’s live CD, he calls Shorter “one of the three greatest composers of all time”. I don’t know who the other two are - or if I would go that far - but this CD will show you how good he is. The first song has given me twenty dollars of happiness by itself… with Wayne and Herbie just workin’ it).
Horace Silver - Song for My Father (Horace is my close second fave behind Grant. The fact that Steely Dan musically used the title track adds an extra dose of cool to this CD - but there are about nine Horace albums that I love)
Jimmy Smith - The Sermon (3 songs; fantastic players; recorded on my birthday - the day, not the year… I ain’t quite that old - it is obvious pick of many fine Jimmy CDs on Blue Note)
Stanley Turrentine - Rough and Tumble (see Steve’s picks on our Featured Music page).