In May of 1957, Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers went into the studio with Thelonious Monk to record a one-off album for Atlantic. The Jazz Messengers were a loose collective of young Jazz musicians, with a constantly rotating lineup to keep the music fresh and help launch new careers. In this iteration we find Art Blakey on drums, Thelonious Monk on piano, Johnny Griffin on tenor saxophone, Bill Hardman on trumpet and Spanky DeBrest on bass. -Blakey had recorded with Monk on various occasions, but this was the first time Monk sat in with the Jazz Messengers. This also marks Thelonious Monk’s only appearance on Atlantic Records. The result is a true meeting of the minds, a beautiful union of Monk’s melodies with Blakey’s unshakable sense of swing. This 65thAnniversary deluxe edition includes an extra disc ofunreleased outtakes, celebrating the most sensational jazz collaboration of the 1950s.

Gerald Wilson's 1962 album, Moment of Truth, features his dynamic big band on an action-packed 9-song set (7 of which were composed by Wilson) with highlights including the swaggering blues of the title track, the irrepressible Latin groove of "Viva Tirado," and a fleet-footed version of Miles Davis's "Milestones." Blue Note Tone Poet Series features all-analog, remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Recorded in May 1964, shortly after Hubbard left Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the quintet - with James Spaulding, Ronnie Mathews, Eddie Khan, and Joe Chambers - moves assuredly from free-form playing and modal jazz to the blues and balladry on this 6-song set of originals by Hubbard and Chambers. Blue Note Tone Poet Series features all-analog, remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

This release marks the first vinyl reissue of the jazz classic by master conguero Mongo Santamaría.  First released in 1976, Sofrito combines jazz with Afro-Cuban grooves, funk and soul. From the simmering blues of “Spring Song” to the devastating bass line of “O Mi Shangó” to the rousing groove of the title track, this set exemplifies the heady ambition of ’70s Afro-fusion at its most soulful. This edition features lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl.

Released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series celebrating 70 years of Contemporary Records, Saxophonist Art Pepper's first album "Meets The Rhythm Section" features Pepper's legendary sessions with the East Coast rhythm section for Miles Davis's quintet. Originally released in 1957 and recorded by legendary engineer Roy DuNann this new edition features ALL-ANALOG mastering from the original analog tapes by Bernie Grundman. It is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP and presented in a tip-on jacket.

Released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series celebrating 70 years of Contemporary Records, Saxophonist Benny Carter's Jazz Giant album features performances by Andre Previn, Shelly Manne, Barney Kessel and Ben Webster amongst others. First released in 1958 and recorded by legendary engineer Roy DuNann this new edition features ALL-ANALOG mastering from the original analog tapes by Bernie Grundman. The record is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP and is presented in a tip-on jacket.

Released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series celebrating 70 years of Contemporary Records, Four! highlights the timeless talents of Hampton Hawes (Piano), Barney Kessel (Guitar), Shelly Manne (Drums) & Red Mitchell (Bass). First released in 1958 and recorded by legendary engineer Roy DuNann this new edition features ALL-ANALOG mastering from the original analog tapes by Bernie Grundman. The record is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP and presented in a tip-on jacket.

Released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series celebrating 70 years of Contemporary Records, The Poll Winners brings togther the talents of Barney Kessel (Guitar), Shelly Manne (Drums) and Ray Brown (Bass). First released in 1957 and recorded by legendary engineer Roy DuNann this new edition features ALL-ANALOG mastering from the original analog tapes by Bernie Grundman. The record is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP and presented in a tip-on jacket.

Released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series celebrating 70 years of Contemporary Records, Saxophonist Art Pepper's classic big band album +Eleven features modern jazz classics by Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and more. First released in 1960 and recorded by legendary engineers Roy DuNann and Howard Holzer this new edition features ALL-ANALOG mastering from the original analog tapes by Bernie Grundman. It is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP and presented in a tip-on jacket.

Double vinyl LP pressing. Acclaimed vibraphonist and composer Joel Ross returns with his third Blue Note album, The Parable of the Poet, an expansive album-length suite comprised of seven evocative movements. The suite is performed by a dynamic 8-piece ensemble with Ross joined by Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone, Maria Grand on tenor saxophone, Marquis Hill on trumpet, Kalia Vandever on trombone, Sean Mason on piano, Rick Rosato on bass, and Craig Weinrib on drums.

Trombone Shorty returns with Lifted, his first album in 5 years and the follow-up to his Blue Note debut Parking Lot Symphony, featuring special guests including vocalist Lauren Daigle & guitarist Gary Clark Jr. An album that captures the energy of his legendary live shows, Lifted combines classic New Orleans sounds (funk, gospel, street rhythms, Mardi Gras Indian chants & second lines) with modern lyrics, melody & beats to create something fresh & unique. Part Jimi Hendrix, part James Brown and all New Orleans, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews is the bandleader and frontman of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, a hard-edged funk band that employs brass-band beats, rock dynamics & improvisation in a jazz tradition.

Sonny Red's, Out of the Blue, is a gem of the Blue Note catalog and deserving of much wider recognition. The alto saxophonist's lone album for the label was recorded in two sessions with Wynton Kelly on piano, Sam Jones and Paul Chambers on bass, plus Roy Brooks and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Blue Note Tone Poet Series features all-analog, remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Nearly sixty years after they first played together, Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal, longtime friends and collaborators, reunite with an album of music from two Piedmont blues masters who have inspired them all their lives: GET ON BOARD: THE SONGS OF SONNY TERRY & BROWNIE MCGHEE.

With Taj Mahal on vocals, harmonica, guitar, and piano and Cooder on vocals, guitar, mandolin, and banjo-joined by Joachim Cooder on drums and bass-the duo recorded eleven songs drawn from recordings and live performances by Terry and McGhee, who they both first heard as teenagers in California.

TAJ MAHAL & RY COODER - GET ON BOARD

Jazztronica duo Blue Lab Beats make their full-length Blue Note Records debut with Motherland Journey, an album years in the making that celebrates pushing boundaries, taking risks, and overcoming adversity. Following their appearance on 2020's Blue Note Re:imagined project and their 2021 EP, We Will Rise, this new album is a star-studded affair featuring the duo (producer NK-OK and multi-instrumentalist Mr DM) joined by collaborators including Ghetto Boy, Tiana Major9, KillBeatz and more.

Alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins follows-up his acclaimed debut, Omega, with another striking album featuring his remarkable quartet with pianist Micah Thomas, bassist Daryl Johns, and drummer Kweku Sumbry, plus appearances by flutist Elena Pinderhughes and the Farafina Kan Percussion Ensemble. It consists of an hour-long suite comprised of 7 movements that strive to bring them closer to complete vesselhood by the end, where the music would be entirely improvised and channeled collectively.

CD companion to the recent vinyl reissue of the third album from hugely influential British bluesman John Mayall, who gave a boost to a young Eric Clapton when Mayall asked Clapton to join his Bluesbreakers band! Having left the Bluesbreakers behind, Mayall originally released this solo album in 1980 and showed that he had the chops to stand on his own! This reissue revamps the artwork with vintage photos of Mayall in a gorgeous 4 panel digipak!

On Curtis Stigers's 2022 release, this multi platinum artist takes a look back with new versions of his international hits "I Wonder Why," "Never Saw A Miracle," and "You're All That Matters To Me," as well as "This Life," the theme song to the TV show Sons Of Anarchy, and (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding" from The Bodyguard soundtrack. Stigers revisits these classics and more, in his signature laid back, jazzy, bluesy style.

A few years ago, there were whispers around blues-rock dynamo Beth Hart's orbit about a glorious album of Led Zeppelin covers, meticulously put together by superstar producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance). The only thing missing was vocals. Beth's dynamically expressive singing, which spans honeyed delicate tones, sandpaper gritty soulfulness, and rattle-the-rafters high notes, would be the perfect fit. Yet, the Grammy-nominated blues-rock singer-songwriter was hesitant. "Heavy rock has a lot of screaming and yelling, and a lot of my anger had died down over the years. I was scared to reconnect with it for this Led Zeppelin album," Beth explains. "But a lot of things started coming up around the pandemic, and, as time went on, I felt willing to take that risk." The resulting 9-song album, 'Beth Hart: A Tribute To Led Zeppelin', produced by Rob Cavallo and featuring him as a guitarist, is an artistic feat-a viscerally rocking album that is both faithful and personal.The 'Beth Hart: A Tribute To Led Zeppelin' setlist is a perfectly-curated sampling of the band's majesty. The 9-track album features a mix of Zep essentials and fan favorites. Beth musters empathic emotionality on the album's elegant version of "Stairway To Heaven," conjuring the aching beauty of the timeless tune with her own dramatic flair. "I wanted to connect to the feeling of the original track. For me, I started thinking of a woman who lost her way, and was in a horrible loveless place," Beth recalls. Reflecting back on the album and it's epiphanic recording sessions, Beth says: "I was able to exorcise a lot of demons making this record. It was also just a really special experience creating with such amazing, compassionate, and respectful people as Rob, Doug, and my husband." She continues: "Art and music are about seeking the truth, and you need friends and people you trust around you when you do that. The overall experience just felt like being with family during very uncertain times."'Beth Hart: A Tribute To Led Zeppelin' is available everywhere Feb 2022

2022 release. There's nothing like the sound of a world-class bluesman getting back to business. Last October, when son of the late blues legend Luther Allison, Bernard Allison, returned to his old haunt of Bessie Blue Studios, Tennessee, to be greeted by fabled producer and career-long collaborator Jim Gaines, it felt like coming home. And when Allison fired up the amps, counted in the band and embarked upon his latest studio album, Highs And Lows, everything felt right with the world. "Just to be able to create music again after the pandemic," he says of that long-awaited rebirth, "was incredible."

2022 Release. Cheerfully bucking the traditional idea that self-titledalbums are only for artistsjust getting started, RickBraun marks a fresh newchapter in his career withRick Braun, a stylistically eclectic, ultra-funky/soulful and exoticatinged collection on his indie labelBrauntosoarus that celebrates30 years since Intimate Secretslaunched him to contemporary jazzstardom and made him one of thegenre's most influential artists andproducers.

Legendary drummer Simon Phillips returns with Protocol V, once again reimagining his adventurous jazz/fusion outfit. Instrumentation is expanded to a quintet format, including saxophone, launching the group into sonic territory familiar to fans of Chick Corea's Elektric Band in the late 1980s. Strands of DNA from other iconic artists like John McLaughlin, Tony Williams, Allan Holdsworth and Jan Hammer are woven throughout. Simon's impressive compositional skills are also on display, culminating in an 11-minute mini-suite called "The Long Road Home." Available as a beautiful 6-panel CD digipak! Protocol V is a must for Simon's devotees worldwide.

On his 2022 album, The Sun is Shining Down, Blues legend John Mayall teams up with a stellar cast to deliver a funky soulful affair punctuated by brass, violins, harmonica and electric ukulele. Special guests include, The Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell, fast rising roots rocker Marcus King, Americana icon Buddy Miller, Scarlet Rivera of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review, Chicago blues guitar mainstay Melvin Taylor and Hawaiian ukulele star Jake Shimabukuro. Also on hand are Mayall's longtime dynamic Chicago rhythm section of Greg Rzab on bass guitar and Jay Davenport on drums with Austin's multi-talented and charismatic Carolyn Wonderland on guitar. Recorded at Robby Krieger's (The Doors) Horse Latitudes studio with Grammy nominated Producer Eric Corne, The Sun is Shining Down is Mayall's 5th studio album for Forty Below Records, a fruitful partnership that began with 2014's A Special Life.

Eric Gales is a blues firebrand. Over 30 years and 18 albums, his passion for the music and his boundless desire to keep it vital has never waned, even when his own light dimmed due to his substance struggles. Throughout it all, he continued to reinvigorate the art form with personal revelation in his lyrics and bold stylistic twists in his guitar playing and songwriting.Five years sober, creatively rejuvenated, and sagely insightful, Eric is ready for the fight of his career. Aptly, he calls his masterful new album, 'Crown', out January 28th, 2022, on Provogue/Mascot label Group. Here, Eric opens like never before, sharing his struggles with substance abuse, his hopes about a new era of sobriety and unbridled creativity, and his personal reflections on racism. The songs are delivered with clarity and feature Eric's personal experiences and hope for positive change. In addition, the 16-track collection boasts his finest singing, songwriting, and his signature guitar playing that burns throughout. Produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, this is Eric at his most boldly vulnerable, uncompromisingly political, and unflinchingly confident.The 'Crown' album journey is exhilarating, and, much like Eric's life, winds through moments of victory and vulnera-bility. Along the way, Eric shares his story and his feelings through the majesty of the blues. He says: "When I play, the core is always the blues, and on this album, we go through a theme parkof the blues, exploring all kinds of blues. We visit the carousel, the bumper cars, the water rides, the concession stands, and we all come out with smiles."

Written partially in Nashville and partially in the Compton house Keb’ grew up in, Good To Be… weaves together past and present into a heartwarming tapestry spanning more than forty years of sonic evolution. Joined by a variety of collaborators, including country legend Vince Gill, famed producer Tom Hambridge (B.B. King, Buddy Guy), Darius Rucker, Kristin Chenoweth, and Old Crow Medicine Show, Good To Be…is a deeply cohesive and optimistic collection of music about appreciating what you’ve got, where you come from, and who you get to share it with.

"With incendiary guitar chops and raw, powerful vocals, fiery Texas blues rocker Carolyn Wonderland draws instant comparisons to fellow Texans Stevie Ray Vaughan and Janis Joplin." ::: Blistering guitarist, fire-breathing singer and gifted songwriter releases an exuberant and astonishing collection of songs, deeply rooted, yet fired by a rocker's sensibility. The Houston, Texas native just left blues great John Mayall's Blues Breakers as first female lead guitarist in a band whose previous lead players include Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Peter Green. Tempting Fate was produced by Dave Alvin, with guest appearances by Alvin, Marcia Ball and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. The tracks pit brilliant originals with revelatory versions of songs by Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, John Mayall and Billy Joe Shaver.

A deluxe digipak reissue of the landmark 1962 album from country blues legend, Lightnin' Hopkins!In addition to such notable tracks as the ultra cool title track "Mojo Hand," "Glory Be" and the novelty Christmas song "Santa," this reissue includes a slew of fantastic cuts recorded the same year including "Bring Me My Shotgun," "Last Night" and "Shake That Thing!"Includes all-new cover art and full lyrics!

Blues-rock legend Joe Bonamassa is back with a brand-new studio album, Time Clocks - produced by Kevin Shirley and recorded in NYC in March of 2021. Bonamassa introduces elements of prog and hard rock to intensify his signature blues-rock style. Joe's co-writers on this record include Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke), Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake), James House and Tom Hambridge who help elevate the storytelling to a whole new level.

Description: "Previously unissued live recording of drum legend Art Blakey with a classic line-up of The Jazz Messengers featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt captured on January 14, 1961 at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo during the band’s first-ever tour of Japan. Co-produced by Zev Feldman and David Weiss, the audio was newly transferred from the original ¼” tape reels."

Stacey Kent is a jazz singer in the mold of the greats, with a legion of fans worldwide, a host of honors and awards including a Grammy nomination, album sales in excess of 2 Million, Gold, Double-Gold and Platinum-selling albums that have reached a series of No. 1 chart positions during the span of her career. An interpreter of The Great American Song Book and beyond, Kent's music and influences span multiple genres, a testament to her "wandering, restless spirit" as an artist. Her long time songwriting collaborator is Nobel Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro.

Art Blakey's 1960 hard bop classic, The Big Beat, introduced one of the greatest line-ups of the Jazz Messengers with the legendary drummer joined by Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons, and Jymie Merritt. 3 of the 6 tunes were composed by Shorter, but the album is best-known for an unforgettable version of Timmons' enduring hit "Dat Dere." Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Optimal.

Long-considered Charles Mingus' masterpiece, The Black Saint And The Sinner Ladyrepresents high-water marks in both jazz composition and orchestration. An essential work in the history of jazz, this extended work has been performed as a ballet and features original liner notes by Mingus' psychotherapist. Verve's Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Pioneering rock n' roll singer/songwriter Dion delivers yet another powerful collection of timeless blues with Stomping Ground. It's the follow-up to his universally acclaimed Keeping The Blues Alive Records debut, Blues With Friends, from 2020. Dion has yet again enlisted the music world's most iconic and talented stars to bring his blues to life. Peter Frampton, Eric Clapton, Keb' Mo', Joe Bonamassa, Patti Scialfa & Bruce Springsteen, and more join Dion on this year's most heartfelt release.

Alternate cover w/ 8 bonus tracks.

"Woke up singing a dead man's song..." is the opening line from the Warren Haynes original "Heavy Load," a line of imagery that feels like the beginning of dirt. Blues. On this album, the iconic American band puts their unique musical stamp on an incredible collection of Blues covers and originals. Haynes, the leader of Gov't Mule, hails from a Southern rock tradition of scruffy virtuosity. Gov't Mule is Warren's show, and the Blues is the informing foundation, personal and universal.

This newly discovered live-recording of a performance of the Love Supreme suite is a revelation. Recorded at The Penthouse in Seattle on October 2, 1965, this recording transports the listener to a prime seat for piece of musical history. While not studio-quality audio, the power of the performance shines through. This version is also of the full suite and features an expanded band that includes the same Classic Quartet and Pharoah Sanders in his first official gig as part of Coltrane’s group.

The defining blues voice of his generation releases the eagerly-anticipated follow-up to his Grammy-nominated debut, 2019's Kingfish. 662 (the area code of his Clarksdale stomping grounds) is a powerful and personal album, a fiery coming-of-age record. The lyrics reflect Ingram's newfound maturity and how your roots inspire where you're heading. Musically, the record delivers a heaping helping of the deep, visceral Ingram guitar magic his fans love, fueling a combustible mix of molten blues rock, down home shuffles and soulful grooves.