London-based Jazzman Records has released Spiritual Jazz 9: Blue Notes Part One & Two, a V/A compilation of works from the extensive archives of Blue Note Records. The 160-minute collection focuses on recordings captured between the early ’60s and the mid-’70s, and explores an important aspect of the label’s legacy, unearthing a wealth of spellbinding music in the process. Most of the sessions went down at the legendary studios of Rudy Van Gelder in New Jersey between 1964 and 1966, engineering the music with unique techniques that still sound full and vibrant today. 

The main artists across Spiritual Jazz 9: Blue Notes Part One & Two include Bobby Hutcherson, Pete La Roca, Wayne Shorter, Elvin Jones, Andrew Hill, Eddie Gale, Duke Pearson, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Booker Ervin, and Solomon Ilori. It is offered as a deluxe 2CD set, with each part pressed as gatefold 2LP sets. There is no digital version. 

The liner notes add: “The recordings compiled on this volume of the Spiritual Jazz series include many riches from these final years of a glorious era—the end of Blue Note’s greatest decade. They document the way that musicians working with the label responded and contributed to a period of dramatic social and sonic change, and they chart early points on the route toward the modal and spiritualised sounds that would come to fore in the later 1960s and 1970s.”

Musically, graphically, and sonically, Blue Note Records created and defined the golden age of modern jazz on record. Founded in 1939 by German émigré Alfred Lion, the label’s roster of artists is a litany of giants, among them Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, and Herbie Hancock. 

Order a copy of Spiritual Jazz 9: Blue Notes Part One & Two here and stream the song “The Phantom” from Duke Pearson’s 1968 The Phantom LP.

Tracklisting

Part One

01. Bobby Hutcherson “Verse”

02. Pete Laroca “Basra”

03. Wayne Shorter “Footprints”

04. Elvin Jones “At This Point In Time”

05. Andrew Hill “Poinsettia”

06. Eddie Gale “The Rain”

07. Duke Pearson “Empathy”

08. Bobby Hutcherson “Searchin’ The Trane”

09. Duke Pearson “The Phantom”

10. Freddie Hubbard “Assunta”

Part Two 

01. Joe Henderson “El Barrio”

02. Jackie McLean “Plight”

03. Duke Pearson “Cristo Redentor”

04. Wayne Shorter “Indian Song”

05. Hank Mobley “The Morning After”

06. Pete La Roca “Malaguena”

07. Freddie Hubbard “Blue Spirits”

08. Booker Ervin “Gichi”

09. Solomon Ilori “Song Of Praise To God”