VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Blue Note Years - Hard Bop And Beyond (Blue Note)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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This two disc set, Volume 4 in Blue Note's 50th Anniversary series, is confined to a five year period, from 1963 to 1967, but it was a very fertile period for the great jazz label, and there's barely enough room to cover the ground. Producer Michael Cuscuna faces the Herculean task bravely, though, and does a remarkable job.

It's inevitable that with only 17 tracks to work with, a good many names don't appear on the track list. One of the remarkable things about Blue Note, though, was the incredible depth of the bands that recorded for the label, with almost any sideman capable of taking his place as the leader for the next session. Hence Kenny Dorham could take his place as Joe Henderson's trumpeter just a couple months after Joe Henderson recorded as Kenny Dorham's tenor saxophonist. And so on...

Thus, in addition to the remarkable set of leaders on the track list, this set includes great performances by the likes of Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Chick Corea, Al Foster, Junior Cook, Cedar Walton, Elvin Jones and many more. Whether Blue Note was such a great label because of such an incredible roster, or whether it attracted such an incredible roster because it was such a great label is a classic chicken and egg question. The fact is, Blue Note was (and is) a great jazz label, and much of the proof is found on Hard Bop And Beyond.

Track Lists:

Disc One: Dexter Gordon/Cheese Cake * Joe Henderson/Blue Bossa * Herbie Hancock/Cantaloupe Island * Blue Mitchell/Fungii Mama * Horace Silver/ Song For My Father * Pete LaRoca/Lazy Afternoon * Wayne Shorter/ Footprints * Kenny Dorham/Una Mas

Disc Two: Herbie Hancock/Maiden Voyage * Joe Henderson/Mode For Joe * Wayne Shorter/Speak No Evil * Freddie Hubbard/Hub-Tones * Hank Mobley/ No Room For Squares * Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers/Mosaic * Lee Morgan/Speedball * Bobby Hutcherson/West 22nd Street Theme * McCoy Tyner/Passion Dance

(C) 1998 - Shaun Dale