Bill Charlap musical director, and piano
Peter Bernstein guitar
Ravi Coltrane tenor saxophone
Nicholas Payton trumpet
Steve Wilson alto saxophone
Peter Washington bass
Lewis Nash drums
Alfred Lion launched BLUE NOTE Records, the premier label in the history of jazz, in 1939. At the end of that year, Lion's childhood friend Francis Wolff caught the last boat out of Nazi-controlled Germany bound for America. He found employment at a photographic studio and joined forces with Lion at night to continue Blue Note and together, for almost the next 30 years, they recorded the greatest artists in jazz - Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Eric Dolphy, Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Dorham, Cannonball Adderley, and many others.
Blue Note's catalog of music features an impressive array of legendary performances and a core list of "must-have" releases that indelibly marked the history of jazz.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Blue Note legacy, an all-star band featuring some of the finest jazz musicians today will travel the world throughout 2009. A new CD will be recorded in the spring of 2008 and released in conjunction with the commencement of the tour in January 2009.
