Apr 8, 2025 1:23 PM
Blue Note Jazz Festival New York Posts 2025 Lineup
Blue Note Entertainment Group has unveiled the lineup for the 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York, featuring…
The three-LP set marks the first time Rollins’ complete recorded performances at the Village Vanguard on Nov. 3, 1957, will be made available in a single vinyl package. The collection is also available as a two-CD set and on all digital formats.
(Photo: Courtesy Blue Note Records)Blue Note Records has released Sonny Rollins’ A Night at the Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters, a special Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of the legendary tenor saxophonist’s tour-de-force live trio album. The expanded three-LP set, available via the Blue Note Store, marks the first time Rollins’ complete recorded performances at the Village Vanguard on Nov. 3, 1957, will be made available in a single vinyl package. The collection is also available as a two-CD set and on all digital formats.
Produced for release by Joe Harley, the vinyl is all-analog and cut directly from Rudy Van Gelder’s newly discovered and never-before-used original 7.5ips master tapes by Kevin Gray. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI, the three LPs come packaged in a deluxe tip-on trifold jacket that includes a booklet with never-before-seen photos by Francis Wolff; essays by esteemed critics Nate Chinen and Bob Blumenthal; an excerpt from Aidan Levy’s Rollins biography Saxophone Colossus that provides a behind-the-scenes account of the volatile circumstances surrounding the recording; and a new interview with Rollins reflecting upon the album in conversation with Blue Note President Don Was.
“I am thrilled with how this special edition of Sonny’s Village Vanguard masterpiece turned out,” said Harley. “For years, I had seen the famous photo of Rudy Van Gelder and Alfred Lion at this gig which showed a very visible Ampex 601 portable tape deck. I had always thought that perhaps it had been there as a safety to Rudy’s big 15ips Ampex deck, but then it hit me: Of course he didn’t bring the big, heavy pro deck downstairs at the Vanguard … how would you even get it down the stairs? Rudy had taken the 7.5ips tapes back to his studio and transferred them to his main 15ips deck to then be assembled and readied for mastering. So, thanks to the first-time use of the actual master tapes and a trove of newly discovered photos, you now have the best seat in the house.”
Rollins had already recorded three Blue Note studio dates for Alfred Lion — Sonny Rollins, Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2, and Newk’s Time — in the year preceding the Vanguard session, which would be Rollins’ first-ever live album, as well as the first-ever live album to be recorded at the iconic New York jazz club. The music was predominantly captured during the evening set featuring Wilbur Ware on bass and Elvin Jones on drums, with two pieces coming from the afternoon set featuring Donald Bailey on bass and Pete La Roca on drums.
“I was so involved in what I was doing,” Rollins told Was. “I was a young guy. Playing the music was paramount in my mind. That was the only thing I was thinking about: having fun and getting the musical vibe right. … I know it was a good record and I was completely happy playing with those guys: Elvin and, of course, Wilbur Ware. Everything just fit together perfectly.” DB
The Blue Note Jazz Festival New York kicks off May 27 with a James Moody 100th Birthday Celebration at Sony Hall.
Apr 8, 2025 1:23 PM
Blue Note Entertainment Group has unveiled the lineup for the 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York, featuring…
“I’m certainly influenced by Geri Allen,” said Iverson, during a live Blindfold Test at the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival.
Apr 15, 2025 11:44 AM
Between last Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Ethan Iverson performed as part of the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival in…
“At the end of the day, once you’ve run out of differences, we’re left with similarities,” Collier says. “Cultural differences are mitigated through 12 notes.”
Apr 15, 2025 11:55 AM
DownBeat has a long association with the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, the premiere…
“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Davis was a two-time Grammy winner for liner notes.
Apr 22, 2025 11:50 AM
Francis Davis, an august jazz and cultural critic who won both awards and esteem in print, film and radio, died April…
