Blue Note “70th Anniversary Tour”

Bill Charlap, Piano/Music Director Ravi Coltrane, Tenor Saxophone Steve Wilson, Alto & Soprano Saxophones/Flute Nicholas Payton, Trumpet Peter Bernstein, Guitar Peter Washington, Bass Lewis Nash, Drums

The motto printed on all of its 78-inch, LP and now CD releases is “The finest in jazz since 1939.” That was the year Alfred Lion launched Blue Note Records, which remains jazz’s most storied label today. In fact, in June, the Jazz Journalists Association – an industry-peer body – named it as the 2008 “Label of the Year.”

Lion was soon joined by Francis Wolff, a photographer by trade who caught the last boat out of Nazi-controlled Germany bound for the United States. For 30 years the two recorded and documented the best jazz had to offer. Everything Blue Note Records produced – from the record covers to the lettering and graphics to the recordings themselves
was immediately identifiable – and often imitated.

The independent company's "clients list" included 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, many others. To this day Blue Note Records' catalog features a core list of "must-have-if-trapped-on-a-desert-island" releases that separately and cumulatively have signaled an indelible method to marking the history of modern jazz. It's a tradition that continues today. On the occasion of Blue Note Records' 70th anniversary and as a way to celebrate the label's birthday seven of today's most talented artists agreed to come together and give their all to the effort. As a result, a new recording is in place that will be released fall 2008. A major cross-country 50-date tour begins in January 2009. Both the recording and the tour reflect upon the label's tradition as the participants pay homage to the many jazz icons who preceded them. The "We Always Swing" Jazz Series is pleased to participate in what will no doubt be a significant, enjoyable and entertaining performance set in the Missouri Theatre. The festivities are further highlighted as each of the seven musicians has performed previously – on separate occasions – as part of the "We Always Swing" Jazz Series. The impeccable septet includes Bill Charlap as pianist and music director, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, alto and soprano saxophonist and flutist Steve Wilson, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, guitarist Peter Bernstein, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. Come hear these seven men interpret some of the genre's classic compositions originally created and recorded by the likes of Bobby Hutcherson, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Cedar Walton, Joe Henderson an d others. The Blue Note Records "70th Anniversary Tour" – surely a highlight of the 2008/2009 Jazz Series, surely a night not to be missed, surely a night to remember!

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