Kenny Burrell: Midnight Blue (180g blue vinyl) [BLUE NOTE / EMI]

Why you'll love it

This Blue Note 85 pressing comes on 180g blue vinyl with an obi strip, mastered by Kevin Gray. NPR put Midnight Blue in its Basic Jazz Library as one of the great jazzy blues records.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Blue vinyl
• Mastered by Kevin Gray
• Blue Note 85 obi strip
• Pressed in Germany
• Stereo mix

About the album

Some records explain a label better than any history book. If anyone ever asks what 'the Blue Note sound' is, Jazz Improv magazine suggested handing them this one, and it's hard to argue.

Kenny Burrell's guitar is warm and bluesy, Stanley Turrentine's tenor is smoky, and Ray Barretto's conga gives the grooves a gentle sway, with Major Holley on bass and Bill English on drums. "Chitlins con Carne" struts, "Soul Lament" is Burrell alone, "Mule" lopes along, and "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" is pure late-night tenderness. Rudy Van Gelder engineered and Reid Miles designed the famous typographic cover. Alfred Lion produced the original session, Francis Wolff took the photographs and Leonard Feather wrote the liner notes, about as classic a Blue Note team as you'll find. Burrell wrote most of the tunes himself, sharing the credit on "Mule" with Major Holley.

Elvis Costello borrowed that cover for his 1981 album Almost Blue, the musical equivalent of a fan letter in a very good font.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 6511743), a reissue of the 1963 album.