Blue Note Records brings exhibition to St Peter's as part of Cork Jazz Festival

Not only an icon of jazz music, the Blue Note record company is one of the world’s great record labels. Founded by German-Jewish emigrants to the United States in 1939, Blue Note was a visionary project, initially dedicated to recording traditional jazz music, it soon went with the times and began documenting and disseminating the more complex bebop style that was emerging in the 1940s through musicians like Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey and Charlie Parker, artists whose shadows are still cast over the modern jazz and music landscape.

Founders Alfred Lion and Max Margulis were soon joined by Francis Wolf. A photographer, Wolf’s images are foundational to the label’s brand. Throughout its life, the label has managed to move with the stylistic changes of the music it championed and although universally known for its most popularly successful recordings it has been unafraid to embrace more avant-garde approaches to the music. In many ways, it’s a record label’s label. 

Its bold and minimal visual aesthetic has not only been embraced by a variety of subsequent music labels, it can also be seen across a variety of media.

It’s something of a miracle, given the challenges faced by the recording industry, that Blue Note is still with us, as part of the Universal Music Group, but it is equally remarkable that it continues to be a vital outlet for music. When a beloved event like the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival comes around, its celebration of a certain style of music can have an intoxicating effect, tempting even the most casual of music lovers to explore the music a little deeper, perhaps even invest in a recorded example of the music. But where might one start on this journey? It can be a daunting prospect. But fear not! This year’s festival can answer that need. Along with We Got The Jazz and TheRecordHub.com, the festival is running a unique celebration of Blue Note Record titled 85 Years of Blue Note at St. Peter’s Church on North Main Street. As well as an immersive exhibition, it also features Blue Note’s first-ever pop-up store in Ireland, offering an array of exclusive merchandise and memorabilia.

Helping the curious make sense of it all are Kevin Long and Iain Snodgrass, founders of the first Blue Note pop-up shop in 2019 at the London Jazz Festival.  Between them they have decades of experience working in the record industry, but more importantly, they are passionate and deeply knowledgeable about jazz music and Blue Note and they transmit those qualities with ease.

“I think both Kevin and I would agree that Blue Note is almost a byword for jazz these days,” Snodgrass ventures. 

I sometimes describe it to people who don’t necessarily understand that Blue Note is like Hoover is to vacuum cleaner, almost. If you talk about Blue Note, people understand that you’re talking about jazz and that you’re talking about very specific genres of music. It has a heritage that rivals any other label. And also it seems to resonate, particularly around anniversaries.

Clearly, Snodgrass and Long are in Cork at the behest of Blue Note, but it’s remarkable to learn that even the president of such a huge and august organisation, Don Was, has made a statement to the effect that both the exhibition and shop will enable Cork to celebrate their 85th anniversary with panache!

But also, Snodgrasss and Long will be more than happy to talk to customers and visitors about jazz music from any label. But as this is such a significant landmark year for Blue Note, they are delighted to enthuse about the qualities that have made the label a byword for jazz as well as a certain style and attitude.

“I think over the decades they’ve always looked forward in the changing directions which they’ve had as a label,” says Long. 

So when they first started it was jazz of the day. Throughout the golden period for jazz, which some would say would be the ’50s and ’60s with the invention of bebop, post-bop, moving through that period.

“There was a period of the early ’70s when jazz was going out of fashion. It was a problem for the artists and for the labels because rock music was born, pop music was growing. And other genres. But what Blue Note did at that time under the reins of George Butler, who was running the label, he saw an opportunity taking some of those artists like Donald Byrd, for instance, to say, ‘okay. Let’s change our A&R direction. We’ve still got an audience out there. They’re just changing. 

There’s a new younger audience,’ and they moved towards the soul club, jazz funk side of things under the production leadership of the Mizell Brothers, who came into the label, and they continued the success during that period. The sound was just different. 

"So they were just continuously changing their sound. And like they’re doing now . You know some of the projects they’ve had in recent years. In the ’90s you had Us3, the Hand on the Torch album, which was a multi-million seller for Blue Note Records, and the interesting thing is that enabled Blue Note to give the label the power and the ability to sign Norah Jones, who was again a huge success. And that went on and it continues today with new and amazing artists.”

Snodgrass puts this whirlwind trip through the label’s history in more succinct terms “Blue Note shapes the landscape,” he declares.” It’s always been a little bit ahead of the curve. It helps to define the landscape of jazz going forward. And when there are dips in popularity it was Blue Note that were one of the labels that were sowing the way for the genre, as it were, and it continues to do that now.”

The pair understand that everyone visiting the shop will be coming from a different base in terms of their knowledge of jazz, but as broad music fans themselves, they are equipped to find the right album to set a customer off on their particular journey, depending on their own musical interests. And it goes beyond blithely suggesting they start with Miles Davis’ A Kind of Blue. Although, in fairness, you can’t go wrong there.

As well as stocking the biggest collection of jazz vinyl for sale ireland this weekend, St. Peter’s also hosts an exhibition, which includes a breakdown on a famous piece of Blue Note artwork, photography by Irish photographer B+ from Madlib’s Shades of Blue album, talks. Podcasts, Interactive video displays, unique items of merchandise, exclusive vinyl, as well as festival artist appearances.

“I’m looking forward just to meeting people,” enthuses Long. “These places become a community.”

85 Years Of Blue Note runs at the historic St. Peter’s Cork for the duration of the festival.

Open to public: Friday October 25 to Wednesday October 30 – 9:30am to 5:30pm