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Rating: An absolutely necessary premise
You, who are a film-loving maniac, debaserite, have seen and will remember frame by frame «Some Like It Hot».
Fill in the blanks as needed and, to make it short, at a certain point there's Tony Curtis on the beach under the umbrella, disguised as Junior Shell, the sole heir of the gas empire, and he trips Marilyn Monroe just to strike up a conversation and, among other things, she tells him she plays the ukulele in a jazz band, but hot jazz eh, and he responds that, yes, some like it hot, hence the movie's title.
To show how much I know and to spread shovelfuls of culture left and right, here I write and here I deny that hot jazz is what was played by small bands in the Twenties, and no one knows if it’s hot because Louis Armstrong, here and there, sets up two bands, the Hot Five and the Hot Seven, which are History with a capital H, or if, on the contrary, someone invents this thing of hot jazz and Louis jumps at the chance.
Fact is that ...
Some Like It Hot
Alfred Lion and Franck Wolff, for example, are two of those who like hot jazz, they are both Berliners and nobody knows how they manage to hear that music playing on the other side of the world, which in this case is New York.
Anyway, after going through thousands of stories about coming face to face with those guys playing that wild music, the fact is they pawn everything they have and board the ocean liner and land in New York, where the action is, because hot jazz for those two is an irresistible siren call.
Except when they arrive at their destination, the temperature is a little cooler and instead of wild music, they find themselves dealing with dance music.
That is swing and big bands.
And for those two, who have crossed ocean leagues and leagues for hot jazz, this situation doesn’t sit well at all.
And they decide to do it their way, and then to hell with Glenn Miller, Sidney Bechet forever, and if those yokels have quickly forgotten about Sidney Bechet, we’ll take care of putting him back on track, we’ll make records for him, what does it take, let’s set up a record label, aren't we in the Land of Opportunities?
Said and done, here it is …
The Blue Note
Everyone knows this one, everyone, even those who don't even know how to spell jazz, it's like an old commercial, where there's Barilla, there's home, and maybe you generally dislike pasta, just like where there's Blue Note there's jazz, you know it too, with Elettra Lamborghini’s picture on your nightstand.
Those many who have no inkling what Impulse, Prestige, Riverside are, have at least heard of Blue Note, that’s guaranteed.
In short, these two Germans cook up from scratch, out of nowhere, the American record label that becomes the epitome of American music.
And it sounds strange, but in the history of Blue Note there are plenty of things that sound strange, like …
Davis and Coltrane
This is where things start to get a little more complicated, and I’m afraid you, with Elettra's picture on your nightstand, if you're not careful now, you’ll get lost along the way.
So, the two most famous jazz musicians in the world, who are they, ignoramus that you are?
Miles Davis and John Coltrane, obviously.
And their most famous albums, ignoramus you are and forever will be?
«Kind of Blue» and «A Love Supreme», of course.
And how do you explain that neither «Kind of Blue» nor «A Love Supreme» are scorched with the Blue Note brand?
And how do you explain, yet again, that the most prominent thing about Davis in the Blue Note house is his appearance on Julian “Cannonball” Adderley's «Somethin' Else»?
And how do you explain, sigh, that Coltrane plays «Blue Trane» and then leaves?
It can't be explained, or yes, it can absolutely be explained, even if Elettra's fan gets lost right here, so I greet him and carry on.
First Davis.
Who at one point decides to revolutionize music and invents modal jazz—incidentally, «Kind of Blue» is the Bible of modal jazz, more culture scattered aimlessly. Now, I am the sum of ignorance in musical technique and stop at power chords, so it's understood that I have no clue what modal jazz is, even though I quite like «Kind of Blue». Lion and Wolff, however, know what modal jazz is, but they couldn’t care less, because that modal jazz is beautiful and leaves them amazed but is also too distant from the hot jazz that drew them to New York and the Blue Note mission. So, amicably, to hell with Davis, who goes off to Columbia. And here someone argues that, well, Davis aligns himself with a multinational and Blue Note has no hope of branding «Kind of Blue», so to hell with Davis just because you can’t afford it, the tale of the fox and the grapes, to simplify and maybe even win back the Elettra fan; but I think the opposite, that Blue Note wouldn’t have recorded that album even if Davis begged them crawling at their feet. Because Blue Note has a mission, and Davis is not one of their missionaries.
Then Coltrane.
Who also at some point decides to revolutionize music and throws in religion, spirit, and so much beyond this world stuff and comes up with «A Love Supreme». Here the multinational vs. independent discourse doesn’t apply, the album comes out on Impulse which competes on equal terms with Blue Note. It’s just that Lion and Wolff don’t like that music, it’s not for them, I haven't read any quotes affirming this, but I would bet on it being true, they are two who attend sessions, sit in a corner, and if they like the played music, they start tapping their feet, then they start nodding their heads, and finally they jump up to dance, and that music—only that music that has this effect on them—ends up on a Blue Note record. That’s why «A Love Supreme» is on Impulse, and «Blue Trane» is on Blue Note, that’s all, it’s just a normal thing.
It’s not normal, actually, that at some point Blue Note starts recording …
Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and that absurd stuff that is free jazz
Because if Davis's modal jazz and Coltrane's spiritual ascensions aren't Blue Note materials, then when Blue Note cracks the door open to free jazz, you understand it’s over.
For instance, «Conquistador» by Taylor is from 1966, Lion leaves Blue Note and retires to private life the following year, Wolff stays alone pulling the cart until his death in 1971.
That it's over you can also tell from other signs, though, like that same year, 1966, Blue Note gives up its independence and sells to the multinational Liberty, the proud claim of intent «The finest in jazz since 1939» disappears from the logo in favor of a bureaucratic, depressing «A division of Liberty Records Inc.».
And the strange thing, but truly strange—I warned you from the beginning about how many oddities there are—you know what it is?
That in the end, Blue Note ends when it grabs in rapid succession the first and second huge commercial successes in terms of sales, which then are also the only two, «The Sidewinder» and «Song for My Father», by these two guys here …
Lee Morgan, Horace Silver (and the Blue Note family)
You know those trivial lists that from time to time pop up in magazines pretending to tell you a story in a few strokes, like «The 100 essential albums to understand jazz»? If you’ve read them, did you find any trace of Morgan and Silver? If you can't remember, I’ll answer for you: no. No, because they can’t even explain that success at Blue Note, they can’t fathom how, at the height of the free jazz era, two hard-bop survivors can achieve success.
And that success begins to eat away at Blue Note, and it’s the advent of Liberty, the opening to free jazz, Lion's departure, and Wolff's death, and goodbye Blue Note.
Yet after so many oddities, at least some beautiful consideration is in order.
And it is that success goes to Morgan and Silver, two pillars of Blue Note, two who make music anchored to tradition and won't drop the anchor even when it's convenient to drift with the current, and it’s this kind of people that make up Blue Note. I’ll simply mention Ike Quebec and Jimmy Smith, Rudy Van Gelder and Reid Miles, Art Blakey and Lou Donaldson, all people who are with Blue Note not because Blue Note gives them work, but because they share Blue Note’s mission, the ethics to use a big word, which in the end is nothing but …
Jazz with feeling, soulfulness and groove
And I won't even translate this, it’s what Lion and Wolff say, and in simple words, it means you listen to the music, tap your foot, nod your head, and then get up and start dancing, and that’s it, because, as I wrote above, I’m not fond of attempts to tell a story in a few words, even though I've often fallen into that, and for a top-notch story, I refer you to …
«Blue Note Records: The Biography.» by Richard Cook
It’s a very beautiful book, if only because it starts like this: «Companies don’t have their own mystique, but record labels do: it emanates from the covers, the inner sleeves, the thick vinyl records and the music that comes out when you spin them under a needle.» and it means a lot to those who feel it.
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