About

Kenny Burrell had been recording for Blue Note for two years when he went into Manhattan Towers to cut Blue Lights in 1958, a high-quality blowing session that produced two stellar volumes. The guitarist assembled an impressive line-up with trumpeter Louis Smith, tenor saxophonists Junior Cook and Tina Brooks, pianists Duke Jordan and Bobby Timmons, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Art Blakey. Volume 1 opens with Burrell’s relaxed blues “Yes Baby” before shifting into Jordan’s more animated “Scotch Blues.” Burrell casts a spell with a stunning rendition of Vernon Duke’s “Autumn In New York” before closing out the set with a percolating version of the Duke Ellington warhorse “Caravan.” The album’s final touch was the graceful cover which features an illustration by Andy Warhol, one of three Blue Note covers the soon-to-be famed artist collaborated on with designer Reid Miles. — (via Label)

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We wrote recently here about Burrell's current form. A veteran now and largely subsumed into jazz education, he can certainly still play. Blue Lights Volume One, the first of the two Blue Note albums under this name collated here. The unfortunate Brooks is heard first on ‘Yes Baby’, a laidback blues, quite soulful, less urgent than Cook, the Brown-inclined Smith in soaring form, his pristine tone and piercing attack a standout, Cook follows, broader in sound than Brooks. Jordan is always inventive, too. Happily, the soloists are identified, the two tenors differentiated and the various pianists clarified, making this reviewer's lot a happier one. Neither Smith nor Brooks attained much in the way of later fame; the former went into education, the latter drifted into narcotics-induced oblivion following his Blue Note period. A great way to get to know Burrell and a number of his companions of the time. Brilliant music. — (via JazzWise)

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— Mono reissue on 180g vinyl
— All-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes
— Part of Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series

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Label: Blue Note
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Mono, 180 Gram
Reissued: 2026 / Originally Released: 1958
Genre: Jazz
Style: Hard Bop

File under: Jazz - Blue Note
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