Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.5

Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 8, 2019

It's been a fantastic week around these parts for really cool releases tied to music history. Just the other day I got one of my all time favorite pieces of swag ever from Universal Music Group, a limited edition tin holding a stack of 10" vinyl albums (33 rpm, but who's counting?) recreating one of Decca Records' first releases in 1929 of a piece by Delius. And now this fantastic documentary giving some background on one of the most legendary jazz labels of all time has shown up in my review queue, offering me another unapologetic reason to geek out. As unabashedly wonderful as the Decca swag is, I have to say this remarkable documentary may end up being one of my all time favorite pieces in a more profound way than the tin of Delius, for Blue Note Records helped shape my knowledge of jazz as I was growing up, and it continues to provide some of the most provocative and, well, downright cool music imaginable. This loving tribute to the label includes sufficient background information to satisfy the curious, but it's really in some of the off the cuff commentaries by various people, including some archival recordings of the label's founders, that really delivers the goods.

There's some pointed but unspoken subtext in the early moments of this documentary which is finally overtly addressed at about the seven minute mark when Blue Note recording artist Kendrick Scott starts talking about being an African American musician and what that "brings to the table" to making music. A bit later when legendary alto man Lou Donaldson goes on a frankly hilarious tear about "cheap, cheap" white executives who ran some other labels, you start to get a feel for what Blue Note may have meant to "struggling artists" over the course of decades. The perhaps ironic fact is that Blue Note was founded by two Jewish emigres named Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff who had gotten out of Germany during the nascent days of the Nazi movement and whose unabashed love for jazz led to the creation of the now legendary label. (The documentary doesn't really get into original partner Max Margulis' involvement).

The documentary gets into some of the history of the label and spends a good deal of time on a couple of the label's more enduring extra-musical contributions to the recording industry in America: Wolff's amazing photography, which often became part of the label's distinctive cover designs, and the amazing engineering prowess of legendary Rudy Van Gelder (who is one of the interview subjects). (Amazingly, some of the early Blue Note releases were recorded in Van Gelder's parents' house, where they allowed him to install a control booth!) A huge variety of talking heads includes Don Was, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, among many other notables (no pun intended).

Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blue Note Records: Between the Notes is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (largely) in 1.78:1 (some archival video hovers closer to Academy ratio). As is typically the case with documentaries cobbled together from different source elements, there is a pretty wide range of quality on hand with regard to the archival elements, with some clips looking pretty darned good over all, but others, notably what I assume are old kinescopes of Clifford Brown, pretty ragged and fuzzy looking (with occasional anomalies like ghosting built into the mix). The contemporary interview and performance sequences look sharp, albeit kind of oddly brown a lot of time, with just slightly anemic contrast that can give a somewhat milky haze to some of the presentation.

Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blue Note Records: Between the Notes is one of the rare music centered documentaries where they actually let the music play for at least a second or two, and as such the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks included on this release get a bit more of a workout than usual. The surround track is probably most obvious in the contemporary performances by the Blue Note All Stars (with some nice tunes from the always amazing Robert Glasper). The bulk of the documentary is talking heads and/or voiceover, and as such the stereo track probably suffices pretty much as well as the surround track. The disc is authored to default to the LPCM 2.0 track, as is sometimes the case with Eagle Rock releases.

Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bonus Tracks (1080p; 24:33) are authored together under one timecode, but you can access them individually:

  Bayyinnah

  
  

  Masquaiero

Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the really interesting things about this superb documentary is how it gets into the feelings that Blue Note recordings typically imparted, and in a somewhat analagous way, this is an emotionally compelling piece that any lover of jazz in general or this label in particular is sure to enjoy. Technical merits are solid, and Blue Note Records: Between the Notes comes Highly recommended.