Blue Note Records Continues 75th Anniversary Celebrations with Nationwide ‘Blue Note Authorized Dealer’ Retail Program

Continuing Blue Note Records’ 75th anniversary celebrations, a new Blue Note Authorized Dealers retail program has launched with select Record Store Day-affiliated independent music stores across the United States. Participating stores will carry a variety of Blue Note Records products, including exclusive new releases and special promotional items.

“It's impossible to overstate the beauty of the serotonin and dopamine rush that one experiences by browsing thru a REAL live Record Store!”

Each month, Blue Note Authorized Dealers will offer a new Blue Note release that will be exclusive to the participating stores for 90 days. The campaign’s first exclusive release, available now, is a 12-inch, 33 1/3 RPM vinyl single commemorating the late Marvin Gaye’s 75th birthday and Blue Note’s 75th anniversary. The single features Marvin Gaye and Donald Byrd’s recordings of “Where Are We Going” and “Woman Of The World” for Motown and Blue Note, respectively. Gaye’s Motown recordings – the single’s A-side -- are previously unreleased. The single was mixed by Larry Mizell, the original co-producer of all four recordings.

The next two Blue Note Authorized Dealer 90-day exclusive releases will be the first-ever 10-inch vinyl LP reissues of Thelonious Monk’s Genius Of Modern Music Vol. 1 on July 29 and Genius Of Modern Music Vol. 2 on August 26. These new LPs return the titles to their original 10-inch format, reflecting the original sequences and artwork. Both albums have recently been remastered under the guidance of Blue Note Records president Don Was, with an ear to providing a great listening experience that is true to Monk’s creative intentions.

In addition to these and other forthcoming exclusive first-look releases to be announced soon, Blue Note Authorized Dealers will offer other Blue Note releases, including a selection of titles from Blue Note/UMe’s extensive 100-album vinyl reissue series, which launched in March and is continuing with the release of five LPs each month. Click here for the full list of vinyl releases.

“It's impossible to overstate the beauty of the serotonin and dopamine rush that one experiences by browsing thru a REAL live Record Store!” says Blue Note Records President, Don Was. “Speaking as a music fan, I'm so grateful to the independent retailers who've kept this tradition alive. The history of Blue Note is inextricably interwoven with these incredible stores... It's a great honor and a very natural progression for us to partner-up with them in this uber-cool Authorized Dealership program.”

Blue Note recording artist Brian Blade is a proud supporter of the Blue Note Authorized Dealers network of independent music retailers. He says, "Back in the 1970s, there was a great record store on Kings Highway in my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana called SOOTO RECORDS. SOOTO was an acronym for 'Something Out Of The Ordinary' and that it truly was, especially to a sixteen year old music fan looking for those vinyl sides that held the secrets.

“I purchased my first Blue Note record at SOOTO, Wayne Shorter's JUJU, in 1986, 22 years after the album’s initial release.

“The great thing about SOOTO Record Store and every independent record store that I visit from Tokyo to Sacramento is that 'Something Out Of The Ordinary.' Whether it be the latest LP from a local artist or an original 45 pressing from 1961, the secrets are there on hand.

“I do appreciate the developing and ever-changing technology that allows us to listen in the car or on headphones riding the subway, but ultimately, as formats come and go, I still desire the tangibility and warmth of vinyl records for experiencing the closest point of origin to the master tape.

“I thank God for the folks who run and operate independent record stores. They are the audio librarians that slip me the secret while I wander through the aisles, not knowing what I'm looking for....The stylus is lowered and I am listening.”

Blue Note Records was founded on January 6, 1939, when a German immigrant and passionate Jazz fan named Alfred Lion produced his first recording session in New York City. Blue Note has gone on to represent The Finest In Jazz, tracing the entire history of the music from Hot Jazz, Boogie Woogie, and Swing, through Bebop, Hard Bop, Post Bop, Soul Jazz, Avant-Garde, and Fusion, and into Jazz’s numerous modern day incarnations under the leadership of Bruce Lundvall, who revived Blue Note in 1984, and the label’s current President, Don Was, who took the helm in 2012.

Record Store Day is managed by the Department of Record Stores and is organized in partnership with the Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS), the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and celebrates the culture of independent record stores by playing host to in-store events/performances, signings and special product releases on a global scale.

Record Store Day takes place annually on the third Saturday of April.