Kenny Burrell: Kenny Burrell (Blue Note Tone Poet series, Andy Warhol cover) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Blue Note Tone Poet series edition is a 180g mono pressing in a gatefold jacket, with Andy Warhol's original cover drawing. Burrell leads two sessions with Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford and Frank Foster.

This edition

• Blue Note Tone Poet series
• 180g vinyl
• Mono
• Gatefold jacket
• Andy Warhol cover art

About the album

Before he was famous for soup cans, Andy Warhol was a commercial illustrator doing the odd record sleeve, and Blue Note's Alfred Lion commissioned him for this one. Inside is a young Detroit guitarist, freshly arrived in New York, showing exactly why Lion signed him: warm tone, clean lines and a deep feel for the blues.

Two sessions make up the record. In May 1956 at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio, Burrell cut "Get Happy" with Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers, Kenny Clarke and Candido on conga, plus a solo "But Not for Me." In March, at Audio-Video Studios, he'd led a group with Flanagan, Oscar Pettiford and Shadow Wilson, with Frank Foster's tenor joining on "Cheeta," "Now See How You Are" and "Phinupi." "Moten Swing" and "How About You" swing easily, and this edition adds "Mexico City," caught live at the Cafe Bohemia.

Burrell went on to become one of the most recorded guitarists in jazz. Not many records can say both the artist and the cover artist ended up in the history books, and we've never sold one with a can of soup on it.

Also at Kops: more Kenny Burrell on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# B0033486-01), a reissue of the 1957 album.