1951 - Start of the 10" Long Player Era

Start of the 10” Long Player Era 

 

Michael Cuscuna – The Blue Note Label: Discography – Greenwood Press 

Because of the financial burden of creating artwork, Blue Note was slow and cautious moving from 78s into the 10” lp format. They did not begin issuing lps until late 1951. Likewise, they did not move from 10” to 12” until the end of 1955, well after most labels. But on other levels, the label was far ahead of everyone else. Album covers became a distinctive component in the Blue Note mix. Frank Wolff’s extraordinarily sensitive and atmospheric candid photos and the advanced designs of Paul Bacon, Gil Melle and John Hermansader gave Blue Note a look as distinctive as its beautiful Bauhaus record ads of the 40s. 

1941 Marketing Brochure

Richard Havers – Uncompromising Expression – Thames and Hudson 

The challenge for Blue Note was to re-tool its catalogue from 78-rpm releases to 10-inch LPs. To begin with the company simply did not have the funds to effect the change. Things were at a low ebb both for the label and for Lion. His marriage had failed and he had moved to New Jersey, no doubt trying to save money to keep the label afloat. In 1950, there were just two sessions overseen by Lion: one with Bechet, the other with McGhee. Reducing the number of recordings was probably another cost-saving measure while Blue Note made the switch from 78s to LPs, a switch that required the company's store of acetates to be put on to tape, from which an LP master could be made.  

1945 Advertisement for a show
at the Town Hall, New York

The new format brought with it the additional cost of creating individual album sleeves. These were more expensive than the plain, mass-produced, 78-rpm paper sleeves that were a one-size-fits-all solution. When Blue Note began releasing their 10-inch LPs in September 1950, they did so in two distinct series. The first, built on the Bechet sessions, was launched with Blue Note LP 7001 by Sidney Bechet and reflects traditional jazz. The second, the Modern Jazz series, had the same release date and the first title was Blue Note LP 5001 Mellow The Mood. It featured an odd mix of music by Edmond Hall, Ike Quebec, and John Hardee recorded between 1941 and 1945.  

The initial six albums, priced at $3.75, featured sleeves designed by a 27-year-old New Yorker named Paul Bacon. An avid jazz fan, Bacon worked in a small local advertising agency and had got to know Lion through the Newark Hot Club. Bacon's artwork for such albums as Thelonious Monk's Genius Of Modern Music was influenced by David Stone Martin, who designed for Clef Records, but with one notable difference. Bacon's sleeves sometimes included one of Francis Wolff's photographs of the artist; it helped them to stand out. 

1948 marketing for Sidney Bechet
and Thelonious Monk 10" sides

Michael Cuscuna – Blue Note Photos – Francis Wolff – Flammarion 

Blue Note’s entry into modern jazz prompted Max Margulis to step away from the label and sell his interest to Alfred. The label’s reputation for individuality, taste and excellence was already being recognised. But its financial condition was, at best, very fragile. In 91949, Columbia Records introduced the 10” long-playing record which could offer up to twelve minutes of music on each side, enabling a record to contain three or four selections per side rather than one. 78 singles came in individual generic sleeves; all the necessary information was on the record label itself. The 10” LP introduced the need for album covers with information and graphics. A paper sleeve no longer sufficed because a record label could not contain all the information about an album’s worth of music. This development offered all sorts of marketing opportunities, but it also tremendously upped the cost of doing business.  

1950 Marketing for BN 103 Art Hodes

Richard Cook - Blue Note Records: The Biography – Secker and Warburg 2001 

The problem for Lion and Wolff was that it was also bringing about a new set of costs. Producing 78s in plain sleeves was cheap. But the start-up costs of the new idiom brought in a whole extra set of charges. There were covers to print and design. sleeve notes to write, photographs to develop. Although the mighty Columbia corporation fanfared its first long-playing records 1948, Blue Note did not follow suit, releasing nothing on microgroove until 1951. 

P41. In 1951. they finally released their first vinyl issues, ten-inch LPs which were initiated as two distinct series. First, they commenced a Dixieland series with BLP.7001, which reissued tracks from Sidney Bechet sessions of 1949 and 1950. The companion series was headed 'Modern jazz'. and began, somewhat incongruously, with the not-so-modern music from the Ike Quebec, John Hardee and Benny Morton sessions of the mid-forties. In an amazing piece of prescience, that first LP was given the overall title Mellow The Mood — Jazz In A Mellow Which - however unwittingly - anticipated the almost obsessive marketing of jazz as a 'mood music' in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Design by Paul Bacon
Photo by Francis Wolff

P49. Lion and Wolff were patrons of their arts as well as record businessmen. In the 1940s, their trade advertising in Down Beat, the leading American jazz magazine, and their give-away flyers, sometimes suggested the feel of the great Bauhaus school of design. 'Industrial' blocks of type were a simplistic but effective means of demonstrating what they were selling with ‘Blue Note’ always the huge, predominant phrase. For their first series of ten-inch the company employed three designers to establish the look. Besides [Gil] Melle, they had John Hermansader and Paul Bacon. Each employed 'interesting’ typography, or simply fanciful design: for all the subsequent suggestion that Blue Note was blazing a trail in jazz design from the first, though, the ten-inch covers actually offer little evidence of any coherent strategy. The unifying factor was, a separate ingredient: the photography of Frank Wolff.  

Richard Havers – Uncompromising Expression – Thames and Hudson 

When the initial batch of Blue Note 10-inch LPs came out, the information on the back was fairly limited: mostly an indication of who played on which tracks and text promoting other releases. Soon enough, however, the concept of liner notes took shape in response to people wanting to know more than just the bare facts. Enter Down Beat’s associate editor Leonard Feather, who became the first liner-note writer for the label. [One could argue Max Margulis had performed this role fairly exhaustively back in the 1940s...] Some of the first notes he contributed were for a series of albums by Erroll Garner called Overture to Dawn, which Lion decided to release. These home recordings, made in the closing months of 1944 at the home of Timme Rosenkrantz, a Danish nobleman and jazz fan living in New York, are fascinating time-pieces that offer an insight into the outstanding musical mind of the then 21-year-old Garner. By the early 1950s, Garner was well established and had a big hit in 1955 with his song ‘Misty’, although sadly not for Blue Note. 

1945 - December 15

Jamming in Jazz - December 15 1945 

 

Program Notes Sunday Afternoon, December 15th, at 5:30 o’clock BLUE NOTE presents: JAMMING IN JAZZ with America’s Great Jazz Men ART HODES, piano; SIDNEY BECHET, Soprano Sax and Clarinet; SIDNEY DE PARIS, Trumpet; SANDY WILLIAMS, Trombone; ALBERT NICHOLAS, Clarinet; SANNY ALVIN, Drums; WELLMAN BRUAD, Bass Singing the Blues: “PIGMEAT” MARKHAM, COW COW DAVENPORT SIDNEY CATLETT, Drums; FRANKIE NEWTON, Trumpet; SAMMY BENSKIN, Piano; JIMMY SHIRLEY, Guitar; BILLY TAYLOR, Bass. Program Narration by FRED ROBBINS, M.C. of WOV’s “1280 Club”, 7:30-10 P.M Monday through Saturday ART HODES AND HIS HOT SEVEN: De Paris, Williams, Bechet, Hodes, Shirley, Braud, Alvin St. Louis Blues Shine Call of The Blues (add Albert Nicholas)

Royal Garden Blues Everybody Loves My Baby SIDNEY BECHET QUINTET: Bechet, Hodes, Shirley, Braud, Alvin Dear Old Southland SIDNEY CATLETT QUARTET featuring SAMMY BENSKIN: Newton, Benskin, Taylor, Catlett The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise FRANKIE NEWTON QUINTET: Newton, Benskin, Shirley, Taylor, Catlett All Of Me Blues My Baby Gave To Me ART HODES TRIO featuring ALBERT NICHOLAS: Nicholas, Hodes, Braud COW COW DAVENPORT singing the Blues: With Newton, Nicholas, Hodes, Shirley, Braud That Ain’t Right SIDNEY DE PARIS SEXTET: De Paris, Bechet, Benskin, Shirley, Taylor, Catlett Call of the Blues ART HODES Piano Solo Yancey Special Unspecified Blues ART HODES AND HIS HOT EIGHT: De Paris, Williams, Bechet, Nicholas, Hodes, Shirley, Braud, Alvin Royal Garden Blues Interval “PIGMEAT” MARKHAM singing the Blues: With De Paris, Williams, Bechet, Hodes, Shirley, Taylor, Catlett SANDY WILLIAMS AND HIS BLUE SEVEN: Newton, Williams, Nicholas, Hodes, Shirley, Taylor, Catlett Lowdown Blues JAMES P. JOHNSON Liza SIDNEY CATLETT SWING ENSEMBLE: Newton, Benskin, Shirley, Taylor, Catlett After You’ve Gone ART HODES AND HIS HOT EIGHT: De Paris, Williams, Bechet, Nicholas, Hodes, Shirley, Braud, Alvin Everybody Loves My Baby

The Jazz Record - January 1946

The Blue Note concert in Town Hall on December 15 struck a fresh note in jazz presentation. Several variations on currently established themes of jazz on stage were both noticeable and welcome.  

To begin with, there were some new faces. The "Americondon" (what sort of jazz jingoism is this, anyway?) mob has strutted about its roost for so long, and with such repetition of personnel, that jazz concert-goers were beginning to get the impression that no other jazz talent existed. Far from it. Very often that same jazz talent which appeared on the B.N. show has been penned up somewhere in Town Hall's back room, waiting for a chance to go on during one of the Condon shows. But for some obscure reason the wicket holding them back from the rodeo hasn't been raised so frequently for them as for others. Blue Note gave us an open-handed sampling of what can happen when these spirited jazzmen get a free field.  

Participants in the cocktail-hour show included Art Hodes and Sammy Benskin, piano; Sidney Bechet, soprano sax and clarinet; Danny Alvin and Sidney Catlett, drums; Wellman Braud and Billy Taylor, bass. Jimmy Shirley played an electric guitar with a green tassel on the handle, while Pigmeat Markham and Cow Cow Davenport came in for vocal interludes. Fred Robbins contributed a running narrative.  

Art Hodes and his Hot Seven (DeParis, Williams, Bechet, Shirley, Braud, Alvin) opened the show with a lively version of St. Louis Blues. It was an easy transition to Shine, and by the time Sidney Bechet had warmed up the tone of his soprano sax for a solo on that number, heads were bobbing and feet tapping in the audience. By way of encore, they gave Bechet a spotlight with his own quintet, which turned out to be the Hot Seven minus the other two horns. Dear Old Southland is a Bechet showpiece, and all of his customary technique was on hand for this workout.  

For the next selection, a Fifty-second Street delegation took over, with Big Sidney Catlett at the drums. Benskin, Taylor and Catlett ran through World Is Waiting For the Sunrise, making with the mop and sparkle that sets customers along Fred Robbins' 'Street 92, right here on the island" to tinkling their glasses with swizzlesticks. The glass-tappers were absent, however, and that provided a far better opportunity for Sidney to be heard. Drum virtuosity is out of place in solidly knit hot jazz, but it comes in as perfectly understandable showmanship when Catlett takes over. The only trouble with this sort of thing as an influence is that Catlett's capable work on long solos is so good as to inspire lesser drummers to diddle around interminably while bandmen sit on the stand and yawn and the customers wonder how late it's getting.  

Frankie Newton then came on to join this group with his latest addition to a long line of gadgets, this time a bass cornet. In size and formation, this instrument suggests a newborn tuba, and sounds like a cross between a valve trombone and a cornet. Frankie played All of Me, then shifted to his more familiar trumpet and felt-hat mute to run through Blues My Baby Gave To Me. I wish Frankie could feel, or appear to feel, that he likes to play trumpet, because when he does, he can play very well. As it is, his public performances are quite often only a tantalizing specimen of the music he can produce in surroundings that interest him.  

A pleasant, gem-clear moment came with return to the platform of the Hodes group, featuring the return to jazz of Albert Nicholas. Nick's clarinet has been in the closet for the past two or three years, but it seems to work just as well now as on that distinguished Victor Jelly Roll recording session of September, 1939. Although his volume is not quite up to its former level, Albert's tone and expression place him in the front rank of today's clarinetists. The audience was delighted with his playing; a father and son sat directly in front of me, and at the conclusion of Nicholas' selection, the father leaned down and said to his boy: "That's execution, son!” And the boy looked as if he might have a surprise or two for his music teacher when next lesson-time came around.  

Cow Cow Davenport is no new name to followers of record labels, but this Town Hall concert undoubtedly presented him to a wider audience for the first time. It's to be regretted that because of union snags he couldn't play piano for his own accompaniment, because his own boogie woogie keyboard work is highly talented and original. This noted composer, pianist and singer of blues dusted off the classic, That Ain't Right, running through a descriptive catalog of activities that someone believed should be confined to week-days. On Sundays, according to this song, it's not right to backbite, shimmy, play the blues, and get drunk, "when you got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday." I liked his description of a character as "too dog-gone dressed up to shout." Cow Cow has a very special talent for making the toughest possible statements in the gentlest manner.  

Sidney de Paris came on following Cow Cow for a session with his trumpet. Using a brilliant red mute, he played his Call of the Blues. In this selection and on this stage, he was heard to much better advantage than in night clubs, thereby confirming a rule with an exception. Sidney's sensitive, idea. filled choruses defy classification in any tight category, for although there's much straightforward, Armstrong-like statement of theme in his playing, there is also a tendency to lob some soaring stunt-note out over the audience.  

Art Hodes next with two selections, Yancey Special and a Blues suggesting Montana Taylor’s Detroit Rocks. Art has made this music his province more than any other white piano player. His playing reflects a serious temperament and a sincere effort to learn from his favorites. 

A Hot Eight consisting of De Paris, Williams, Bechet, Nicholas, Hodes, Shirley, Brand and Alvin next through a fast Royal Garden Blues to ring down the curtain on the first half. 

The big moment of the second half came right at the beginning with singing by Pigmeat Markham. Again, his work won't be classified. It's not altogether blues in the old tradition; it's gay singing stylized by Pigmeat's own great stage presence. Like a man on a wire, he dances through his numbers, taking a trick bow with one foot thrown 'way up over his shoulders at the conclusion.  

Sandy Williams and his Blue Seven appeared after Pigmeat, playing a Lowdown Blues that gave Williams a chance to slide around in a mellow manner, producing a tone that a cat might give off when licking cream, if a eat sing and if there were any cream available. 

The real surprise of the evening was James P. Johnson's unscheduled appearance. His sparkling version of the Gershwin evergreen, Liza, was a welcome solo bridge for the two concluding selections which followed. Catlett's ensemble with Newton leading on trumpet rendered After You’ve Gone, while the show ended with Everybody Loves My Baby in a version featuring Nicholas, de Paris, and Williams in the Hodes Hot Eight.  

The general impression created by the concert was that of a well-integrated, carefully planned presentation in which each performance grew naturally out of the one which had preceded it. The small band aspect of hot jazz was well preserved in that each group was carefully chosen and balanced. Variety and interest were maintained by spotting the different groups so as to avoid repetition of styles or content.  

There was no attempt at a super-colossal finale. In too many of this season's concerts, every man whose name has appeared on the program, plus a few who couldn't be squeezed in somehow prior to the last moment, gets out on the stage and blows, pounds and plucks for all he's worth on the last stretch. The effect is of little jazz blown up oversize; a big band that ought to go home and practice some more, if it really wants to be a big band. But that's not supposed to be the point of the "barefoot" concerts. Well, it wasn't the point of this concert, and no one tried it. It wasn't a barefoot bash; nor was it stuffy or pompous. The Hot Eight just rode through the last selection, the red velvet curtains rang down, and it was time to put on hats, gloves, coats, and go..

Art Hodes Editorial: 

Blue Note Records threw a concert at Town Hall that was successful, both musically and financially. Having taken an active part in both the planning and the playing, I’m in a position to know what a job this was. Why should Blue Note have become involved? Simply because they want to see what they believe in receive just recognition. 

* See the excellent Christer Fellers site: here