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During the 1950s and 1960s Blue Note issued a large number of influential jazz records by a large number of the finest players of the day, including jazz legends such as Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Wayne Shorter and Horace Silver.
Rudy Van GelderRudy Van Gelder is a United States Recording engineer specialising in jazz was born in 1924 in New Jersey. One of the legendary backroom figures in Jazz, Rudy Van Gelder started out as a hobbyist recording friends in his parents living room in Hackensack, recorded most Blue Note releases during this period, and his deft engeneering was, in its own way, as important and revolutionary as the music.Blue Note were also known for their striking and unusual album cover designs (usually photographed by Francis Wolff and designed by Reid Miles), which extended to the edge of the cover and which was often stained, featuring sans-serif typeface, and often a rectangular white title band.
Blue Note was acquired by Liberty RecordsLiberty Records was an United States based record label. It was started by Simon Waronker in 1955 with Alvin Bennett as vice-president, and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. In 1963, the label was sold to Avnet (an electronics corporation) for $12 million. in 1965. When EMIThe Electric and Musical Industries Ltd formed in March 1931 from a merger of the UK Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company/ HMV. In 1955, to replace the loss of its long-established licensing arrangements with RCA Victor and Columbia Rec purchased Liberty in 1979, it phased out the Blue Note label until 1985, when it was relaunched as part of EMI's Manhattan RecordsEMI Manhattan Records is a subsidiary of EMI Records. See also List of record labels Record labels., both for re-issues and new recordings.
The Blue Note catalogue and trademark are now owned by Capitol RecordsCapitol Records is a major United States-based record label, now part of the EMI Music Group. The company was founded by the songwriter Johnny Mercer in 1942. History Mercer founded Capitol Records with the financial help of movie producer Buddy DeSylva a, who have pursued an active reissue program in recent years. Some of Blue Note's output has appeared in CD Box sets issued by Mosaic RecordsMosaic records was an American specialist Jazz label, founded in 1983 by Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Louris to issue coherent Limited Edition Box Sets (innitially on LP) of Jazz Recordings by individual musicians, which had fallen out of print or suffered.