Somethin' Else: The Story of Blue Note Records and the Birth of Modern Jazz

The first comprehensive, full-length history of the greatest jazz label of all timeFounded in 1939, the record label Blue Note defined modern jazz. With a roster of artists including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk, Blue Note revolutionized both the recording industry and American music like no other label before or since. Now, for the first time, this legendary house receives the full-length history it deserves, timed for the celebration of its seventieth anniversary. Jazz scholar Ashley Kahn has obtained unprecedented access to Blue Note archives and interviews with more than seventy musicians, producers, engineers, and journalists, yielding a treasure trove of anecdotes, documents, photographs, and recordings. Kahn traces the history of the label from its founding through its brilliant string of genre-defining albums in the 1950s and 60s, its influential fusion of jazz and R&B rhythms in the 70s, and its contemporary rebirth as the home of popular vocalists Bobby McFerrin, Cassandra Wilson, and Norah Jones. For the aficionado and the casual fan alike, Somethin' Else is the definitive chronicle of an essential American institution.