Blue Note label announced the continuation of the Blue Note Classic series

The reputable label Blue Note (BN) has announced the completion of its Blue Note Classic series of reissues. This is classic jazz of the 50s and 60s – a continuation of the series, 16 discs of which have already been released.

The series will be replenished with more than a dozen albums in the styles of hard bop, soul jazz, avant-garde, post-bop, etc. These are performances by both well-known musicians and performers, whose names, according to Blue Note, can claim the epithet “rediscovered”.

Performers include Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, Jimmy Smith, Herbie Nichols, Don Cherry, Lee Morgan, Bud Powell and others.

Like the previous releases, all the announced ones were mastered by Kevin Gray. Their primary source were the original analog master tapes – only two albums will be issued from digital media, and this has already caused a certain dissatisfaction in the ranks of fans of purely analog vinyl.

The albums will be printed on 180-gram discs in Germany by Optimal. The release of the continuation of the series is scheduled for the period from early October 2021 – the second half of January 2022.

The Blue Note Classic editions rank right behind the Tone Poet series, which was continued at the beginning of the year, in terms of status and price. In this sense, the “classic” releases of the series differ, for example, in the standard envelopes, which makes production cheaper.

The average price for a BN Classic Series album in the US will be around $26.