Blue Note: Uncompromising Expression
- Jun 18, 2017
- 1 min read
★★★★★
Uncompromising Expression— a phrase taken from Blue Note Records’s original manifesto—is a beautifully designed and lovingly written celebration of the storied label, from its humble beginnings right up to its 75th anniversary preparations in 2014. This substantial book is appropriately bursting with co-founder Francis Wolff’s striking session photographs and graphic artist Reed Miles’s iconic album sleeves. With the bulk of the proceedings focused on Blue Note’s fifties and sixties heyday, and with author Richard Havers’s text chronicling the label’s history deftly woven into the mix, Uncompromising Expression is as finely balanced and richly captured as a Rudy Van Gelder recording. And, as you might expect from any book that pays tribute to a label that released more than 800 titles in its original independent incarnation (before selling to Liberty Records in 1966), we also get something of an introductory buyer’s guide, highlighting not just the biggest sellers or best-known albums, but those that served as important milestones for Blue Note in particular, or, as was often the case, for jazz in general. Aficionados will, of course, find themselves beaming at every turn of the page, but lovers of photography and design beyond the jazz world will also find much to enjoy in this stunner.
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