![]() His gift to the world is that he singlehandedly redefined what we have come to think of as “jazz photography.” His black and white shots usually lit with a single light source graced the covers of countless Blue Note records and they have helped define what we think of as the art of Blue Note. Wolff passed away on March 8, 1971, in New York City. That friend was the gifted photographer Francis Wolff, he like Lion was Jewish and the two men set about making Blue Note a marque of quality. Having escaped the Nazi regime in Germany in the early 1930s Lion found his way to New York and in 1939 he helped his friend from his teenage years escape Germany in the weeks after the outbreak of World war II. There is not a jazz fan in the world who does not agree that Alfred Lion and Blue Note succeeded in delivering on that promise. Hot jazz, therefore, is expression and communication, a musical and social manifestation, and Blue Note records are concerned with identifying its impulse, not its sensational and commercial adornments.” By virtue of its significance in place, time, and circumstance, it possesses its own tradition, artistic standards, and audience that keeps it alive. ![]() Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression. He founded Blue Note in 1939 with a view to releasing the very best in jazz records as was explained in the words of the company’s original press release, “Blue Note Records are designed simply to serve the uncompromising expressions of hot jazz or swing, in general. Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records, passed away on February 2, 1987, aged 78 years old.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |