NEW MUSIC | TRAILBLAZING STARS OF JAZZ, SOUL AND R&B LINE UP FOR BLUE NOTE RE:IMAGINED

By Rishma Dhaliwal • On What is New , , ,

‘Blue Note Re:imagined’ out 25th Septem­ber 2020

Legendary labels Decca Records and Blue Note have joined forces for Blue Note Re:imagined; a brand new col­lec­tion of clas­sic Blue Note tracks brought togeth­er for the first time, reworked and newly recor­ded by a selec­tion of the jazz scene’s most excit­ing young tal­ents today.

Rep­res­ent­ing a bridge between the ground-break­ing label’s past and future, the pro­ject will fea­ture con­tri­bu­tions from a rollcall of inter­na­tion­ally acclaimed jazz, soul and R&B acts - Shabaka Hutch­ings, Ezra Col­lect­ive, Nubya Gar­cia, Mr Jukes, Steam Down, Skinny Pelembe, Emma-Jean Thack­ray, Poppy Ajudha, Jordan Rakei, Fieh, Ish­mael Ensemble, Blue Lab Beats, Melt Your­self Down, Yazmin Lacey, Alfa Mist, and Brit Award-win­ning Jorja Smith, whose ver­sion of St Germain’s Rose Rouge is released today.

The track, for which St Ger­main ori­gin­ally sampled Mar­lena Shaw’s Cook­in With Blue Note At Montreux album, takes its cues from clas­sic soul, jazz and reg­gae and per­fectly cap­tures the endur­ingly rel­ev­ant Blue Note aes­thet­ic. It is avail­able to listen to here.

Blue Note, which cel­eb­rated its mile­stone 80th anniversary in 2019, boasts an illus­tri­ous cata­logue that traces the entire his­tory of jazz, and the Re:imagined pro­ject fea­tures music ori­gin­ally cre­ated by some of its most legendary alumni. Along­side Smith’s rework­ing of Rose Rouge is Ezra Col­lect­ive’s ver­sion of Wayne Shorter’s Foot­prints plus inter­pret­a­tions of tracks by the likes of Herbie Han­cock, Bobby Hutcher­son, Joe Hende­r­son, Don­ald Byrd, Eddie Hende­r­son, McCoy Tyn­er and Andrew Hill.

Jorja Smith:

“Hon­oured to be involved on this Blue Note album to rework St Germain’s anthem ‘Rose Rouge’. And with such an array of won­der­ful musi­cians on the album, includ­ing my broth­ers Ezra Col­lect­ive”.

Ezra Col­lect­ive:

“This pro­ject means so much to us in Ezra Col­lect­ive. For us, Blue Note encap­su­lates everything that jazz is. Ever­chan­ging, ever­mov­ing with times and always swinging. From Herbie to Wayne, Glasper and Jose James. Across the dec­ades it’s been a con­stant source of inspir­a­tion, so to con­trib­ute to that is a dream come true.

 Foot­prints was a song we learnt as teen­agers, and a song we’ve haven’t left alone since. It felt the per­fect oppor­tun­ity to pay homage to a hero of ours, Wayne Short­er, as well as doc­u­ment the jour­ney we’ve made as a band since then.”

Blue Note Pres­id­ent Don Was:

“The music of Blue Note Records owes its endur­ing rel­ev­ance to the fact that, through­out its 81-year his­tory, the artists on the label con­sist­ently pushed the envel­ope of con­tem­por­ary music. Blue Note Re:imagined con­tin­ues that tra­di­tion by view­ing the label’s leg­acy thru the lens of the UK scene’s most invent­ive young artists.”

Hav­ing seen cross-pol­lin­a­tion with a mul­ti­tude of genres over the last few years, includ­ing grime, trap, afrobeat and hip-hop, the new jazz scene has enjoyed much-deserved main­stream recog­ni­tion. Blue Note Re:imagined reflects this melt­ing pot of diversity and shines a light on an ener­get­ic, free-flow­ing move­ment that con­tin­ues to flour­ish.

Jorja Smith’s Rose Rouge is out now, and addi­tion­al singles will be released across the com­ing weeks. The full Blue Note Re:imagined album will be released on Septem­ber 25th 2020.

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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About Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal
Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless. Currently working in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media knowledge to I am Hip Hop and other projects by No Bounds.