Blue Note HHV Records 472 Items

We are excited to present Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes’ “What Kinda Music” – an astonishing collaboration between two artists of very different disciplines, and one of the most unique and seamlessly original projects of its ilk to date.

Moving fluidly through sleek electronica, avant-garde jazz, vintage hip hop and so much more, Misch and Dayes take you on a journey that is by turns surprising and spontaneous, heady and head spinning, and nothing less than compelling – a singular vision which fuses the DNA of both musicians with spectacular results, as can be seen in the title track, which comes backed by a gorgeously atmospheric video by XX.

Even though the fundamental bones of this project came together very quickly, its actual provenance stretches back much, much farther back, with the pair not only growing up in the same area of South East London, but Misch actually seeing Dayes play on drums in the school talent show for the first time when he was roughly 8 or 9. They both kept tabs on each other – Misch becoming a fan of Dayes’ act Yussef Kamaal, Dayes clocking his videos in 2014 – but it was only when they met at a launch party for Misch’s debut LP “Geography” in 2018 that the proverbial creative sparks began to fly. “As a musician you’re always looking for contemporaries who can push you and challenge you and make you better”, says Dayes. “I instantly felt that with Tom – he was such a gifted musician, and so prolific”. That summer they decided to go into the studio together, jam a little, and see what happens, with no other expectation placed upon it.

As it turns out, the music came fast and furiously. Two initial tracks were suddenly followed by a handful of others, and the pair found themselves contemplating what to do next. “Pretty soon, we knew that something was gelling”, Dayes says. “It didn’t feel like a one-off collaboration, it felt like a body of work”. What made the pair click, according to Misch and Dayes, were the exact same factors that meant it shouldn’t, by all rights, work. Misch says, “Yussef comes from a more experimental background, and he has a lot of loose, crazy ideas. I know how to write a catchy melody, but with interesting chords and have a good understanding of popular song forms, so I think I streamlined those ideas and made them accessible”. And certainly, in “What Kinda Music” you can sense the DNA of both musicians, but fusing so effortlessly and beautifully that it creates something else entirely, the appropriately named “Lift Off” sending goosebumps with its jazz flecked crescendo, and “Night Rider” hynotising with its deeply mesmeric grooves. “I have a love for harmony and chords”, Misch adds. “Working with someone like Yussef, who has such a gifted sense of rhythm allowed a perfect balance”.

Throughout the record, there is an utterly joyful feel of two musicians at the top of their game sparking off one another, picking up ideas and running with them – zigging where the other zags, ebbing where the other flows, with Misch producing the majority of the record and both having a hand in the overall sound and feel of the record.

“Working with Yussef has actually changed the way I work as a musician”, Misch muses. “He’s pushed me and unlocked a more experimental part of me that I hadn’t really allowed myself to explore before. I think we really did impact each other in a fundamental way”. Dayes is similarly effusive in his praise for Misch. “A musician like him, who’s at the top of his game, he doesn’t need to do this”, he raves. “He can just keep doing the same thing and why not? He’s killing it. The fact that he’s so humble, that he’s so curious about everything and open to collaboration, speaks a lot to him as an artist, because it’s not easy finding musicians who want to collaborate. Something always gets in the way, whether it’s ego or their team or whatever. But with Tom it felt like the intention was purely creative, and that’s what made it exciting”. In fact, Dayes says that the intentions of the record go even deeper than just music. “Both our parents who’d never met each other before, are now best friends as a result of this, they now see each other more than we do! I’d like to think, in some small way, that this album has a similar impact for people too – everything feels so divided these days, it would be nice for people to hear the record and hear two very different musicians coming together and realise it doesn’t have to be that way”.

Following his excellent 1963 debut Evolution, trombonist Grachan Moncur III ventured even deeper into experimental waters on 1964's Some Other Stuff, a boldly avant-garde album featuring Moncur with a cohort of fellow explorers, including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Cecil McBee and Tony Williams. This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Stanley Turrentine's 1960 debut album Look Out! Announced the arrival of a deeply soulful saxophonist who imbued every note he played with feeling. Along with the tried-and-true rhythm section of pianist Horace Parlan, bassist George Tucker and drummer Al Harewood, Mr. T delivered a superb set of hard bop that commenced a decade-long Blue Note run. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Leo Parker was the first bebop baritone sax player and a member of Billy Eckstine's Unholy Four saxophone section with Dexter Gordon in the mid-40s. Sidelined in the '50s due to personal troubles, he made a tragically brief comeback in 1961 recording two Blue Note dates, including Rollin' With Leo months before he died. This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was on a serious roll when he recorded his 1960 album Roll Call, the follow-up to his classic Soul Station, which reconvened the same rhythm section of pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Blakey, with the addition of Freddie Hubbard on trumpet for an invigorating 6-song hard bop masterclass. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing housed in a deluxe tip-on jacket. A little-known tenor saxophonist deserving of wider recognition, Teddy Edwards made two Pacific Jazz albums, including 1960's Sunset Eyes, which was a showcase for his rich, powerful sound and featured a cast of musicians including pianist Joe Castro, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, drummer Billy Higgins, and others. This mono Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Horace Silver had been delivering hard bop classics for over a decade when he moved into more groovy territory in the late '60s on albums including, Serenade To A Soul Sister. Featuring two different quintets performing a set of Silver originals from the high-octane "Psychedelic Sally" to the groove waltz title track to the tender ballad "Next Time I Fall In Love." This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes.

The sound of Blue Note has been embedded in hip-hop through sampling and remixes since its early days but Madlib raised the bar when the DJ, producer, rapper and multi-instrumentalist invaded the Blue Note vaults for his 2003 masterpiece Shades of Blue, a visionary album featuring remixes and reimaginations of classics by Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, Ronnie Foster, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter and more.

“Madlib’s amazing remixes and re-imaginings of classic Blue Note tunes is aural cinema, … and in common with so many remixers and hip-hop artists he clearly loves the catalogue. The inventiveness of this record aside it is also as groovy as heck.” — Uncompromising Expression, Richard Havers

This new edition of the album “Shades of Blue”, a Madlib homage to the Blue Note label, is being released to mark the 20th anniversary.

Donald Byrd’s 1975 album Places and Spaces featuring the hits “Wind Parade” and “Dominoes” was the culmination of the great trumpeter’s fusion period.

It was the fifth consecutive Byrd album to be produced by visionary producer Larry Mizell, and the second to last session Byrd would cut for Blue Note, the label he had recorded for since 1958 that had followed him along his remarkable evolution from top-notch hard bop trumpeter to pioneer of R&B/Funk fusion.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Conrad Yeatis Clark, otherwise known as Sonny Clark, was in many ways the quintessential hard bop pianist. Possessed of an enviable lyrical flow and a wealth of inventive melodic ideas that unfurled with clarity and without fuss, Clark had a deeply rooted feeling for the blues.

After moving from his hometown of Pittsburgh to New York, Clark emerged as a ubiquitous presence on Blue Note starting in 1957. It was on his fifth Blue Note date as a leader that Clark arrived at his masterwork, Cool Struttin’, recorded in January 1958 with a top-shelf quintet featuring Art Farmer on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto saxophone, Paul Chambers on bass, and ‘Philly’ Joe Jones on drums. The album has only grown in stature as a timeless hard bop classic since Clark’s premature death at age 31 in 1963.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Guitarist, sonic explorer, and Wilco bandmember Nels Cline presents the debut recording by his Consentrik Quartet featuring Ingrid Laubrock on saxophones, Chris Lightcap on bass, and Tom Rainey on drums. Cline's fourth Blue Note album, Consentrik Quartet, features 12 evocative and far-ranging soundscapes composed by Cline.

Recorded in 1967, Hank Mobley's Third Season was a typically high-caliber hard bop outing by the tenor saxophonist with a 7-piece band, featuring James Spaulding (alto sax), Lee Morgan (trumpet), Sonny Greenwich (guitar), Cedar Walton (piano), Walter Booker (bass), and Billy Higgins (drums). This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Vinyl LP pressing. Tenor saxophonist Curtis Amy's second Pacific Jazz album, Groovin' Blue, was a hard-swinging date co-led with drummer Frank Butler that was also one of the earliest recordings to feature vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. Rounding out the band are trumpeter Carmell Jones, pianist Frank Strazzeri, and bassist Jimmy Bond. This stereo Blue Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket.

The sound of Blue Note had been embedded in hip-hop thru sampling & remixes since its early days but Madlib raised the bar when the DJ, producer, rapper & multi-instrumentalist invaded the Blue Note vaults for his 2003 masterpiece Shades of Blue, a visionary album featuring remixes & reimaginations of classics by Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, Ronnie Foster, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter & more.

This 2-lp Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition was mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing housed in a deluxe tip-on jacket. Recorded in Hollywood, California between two sessions in December 1956 and January 1957, Art Pepper's Modern Art for the Intro label featured his melodic alto saxophone flights atop cool jazz, bebop, and blues in the company of a quartet with Russ Freeman on piano, Ben Tucker on bass, and Chuck Flores on drums. This mono Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - "Like Someone In Love (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition)" - The 1960 edition of the Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers was one of the band's greatest line-ups with the drummer joined by trumpeter Lee Morgan, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymie Merritt. Opening with a sublimely swinging version of the title track, the rest of Like Someone In Love presented originals by Morgan and Shorter. Capitol Music Group; Blue Note; Jazz; Catalog Special Pkg:180g Heavy Vinyl. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition

Guitarist Kenny Burrell debuted on Blue Note Records in 1956 and over the following seven years made a series of excellent albums for the label that culminated with his masterwork Midnight Blue. Recorded in 1963, the album waded deep into the blues, conjuring an alluring late-night vibe with a profoundly soulful cast including tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, bassist Major Holley, Jr., drummer Bill English, and Ray Barretto on congas.
Burrell originals including “Chitlins con Carne,” “Midnight Blue,” “Saturday Night Blues,” and the stunning solo guitar piece “Soul Lament” set the tone for this timeless classic adorned by one of the all-time great Reid Miles cover designs.