The culprit had Adolf Hitler and his cynical neurosis. When was elected chancellor of a coalition government in Germany in 1933, the future dictator was quick to assign their ideological mamporreros confidence, Hermann Göring, whom the phrase apocryphally attributes “when I hear of culture I reach my gun “, and Joseph Goebbels, the narcissist vicious in public was defined as” proud fighter “and in private was a pervert, who plotted plans for clean and alemanizar culture.
A few months later he was made the Reichsmusikkammer (California Department of Music) to decide what musical genres were admitted. Jazz, which the Nazis had only intended to “introduce obscenity in society” was considered entartete musik (degenerate music) and negermusik (black music). They banned it because, explained in public, was based on the “free use of the syncope” and “orgies battery”, both characteristics “artistically licentious” and generation of “indecent dance forms” . In one ethnographic curls delirium liked both the Nazis, attributed the invention of “modern jazz” to the “Jewish New York”.
Neighbor Marlene Dietrich
Alfred Lion (1908-1987) was a pure Berlin-born and bred strain in the bohemian district of the libertine red island , in the district of Schöneberg, just a few meters from the house actress Marlene Dietrich. Descended from Jews, but did not practice religion. If something really mattered were the jazz and swing , musical styles that ruled in the cabarets and dance halls of the Berlin nights twenties . In 1936, suspecting that his life was in danger and could be stopped by Jewish and degenerated , which erquivalía to death, managed to leave Germany.
presaged that jazz would be the soundtrack Allied twentieth century with Max Margulis (1907-1996), a teacher and activist left too hipster, they launched in 1939 a humble record company in New York. The project otr0 Jew escaped the Nazi Berlin photographer Francis Wolff (1907-1971), a friend since childhood joined Lion. The three worshiped the hot jazz , which was foreshadowed trunk would be born the soundtrack of the twentieth century and had some savings Margulis who was willing to invest in the project.
They paid musicians with ‘whiskey’
They called the Blue Note (literally, Blue Note, which also refers to the extra note on which is based the expressiveness of blues ) they began shyly and interruptions -Lion he enlisted in conscience to fight the Nazis in World War II, but in 1943 already had local and a small catalog but still not too intentional. Mixed the boogie woogie with versions of classics such as Summertime performed by soprano Sidney Bechet: The recorded at dawn because the study charged less and musicians were paid simply by Whiskey .
marked the musical and aesthetic direction of the boldest Music During the three quarters of a century that followed, the record which currently is no longer independent and belongs to lobby Universal, marked the musical and aesthetic direction of the boldest music and seal recorded basic disks figures like Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy and dozens more.
Playlist greatest hits
A more or less complete list the flagship artists Blue Note is housed here, the catalog editions seal has a very full entry into the English version of Wikipedia and is a playlist on Spotify from some of the biggest hits of the seal (requires registration .)
The company offered extraordinary jazz and was arbiter of what ‘cool’ The book Blue Note: Uncompromising Expression ( Blue Note: Free Expression commitments ), which refers to the artistic company motto attributed to Monk (“when I play seek express no obligation”) is the first to review in depth the musical history and . graph of the company, one of the most important twentieth century
The company, say the editors, Thames & amp; Hudson [400 pages and a PVP 48 pounds], not only must be taken into account by the “extraordinary jazz” that was circulated, but because they served for decades as “arbiter of what cool ” from the point of view of -designing book is profusely illustrated with 600 images -.
Minimalism, serif and Bauhaus
Although initially was Wolff cofounder who handled folders Blue Note, hiring in 1956 by designer Reid Miles (1927-1993), who came from the journal Esquire was fundamental. With a stylish minimalist palette, often in black and white or only one color plate, typography serif, use of geometric patterns based on the simple beauty of the Bauhaus and an artistic nod to serialism to always print so highlight the Reference catalog number on the cover.
Covers sounded in the store before the music sounded covers Miles, “seemed sound in the record store before the customer listen to music: they were abstract, innovative designs cool to sounds cool mediate the symbolic implications of typography and tones, “writes Felix Cromey in the book Blue Note. The Album Cover Art
‘Blue Train’, deep blue
Among the legendary designs Miles are Go , Dexter Gordon (1962), where dynamism is achieved by using different sizes of typeface, and Blue Train , John Coltrane (1957 ), perhaps one of the best jazz covers of all time, with a foreground of musician with tinted photo of a deep blue. The graph School Blue Note had a great influence on the disks of new wave English, especially in the exquisite label 4D.
Warhol signed to Blue Note designs before being ‘prima donna’ pop Despite the importance of the work of Miles to achieve give Blue Note corporate sense of a cool , the designer did not like jazz and sold in thrift stores copies of gift you sent the seal. Another artist who took his first steps on the record was Andy Warhol, who signed multiple decks for the record in the fifties, when doing commercial work and had not yet become a prima donna Pop Art .
