Alfred Lion's Blue Note Demands

The founding trio of Blue Note, which included Max Margulis, a Marxist vocal coach, long-time German music-promoter Alfred Lion, who had recently emigrated from Germany due to anti-Semitic practices of the Nazi government, and critic Emanuel Eisenberg. All three investors shared Lion's commitment to social justice and appreciation for jazz as a medium for such. Despite maintaining their day jobs, they launched Blue Note in 1939, a pivotal moment coinciding with heightened Jewish awareness of African American struggles, exemplified by Billie Holiday's performance of "Strange Fruit" at Café Society.

     Blue Note's ethos was shaped by a deep empathy for marginalized communities and a profound reverence for jazz and its practitioners. In an industry often characterized by exploitation, Lion and his colleagues stood out as passionate advocates, infusing their venture with quasi-nonprofit principles. Reflecting this ethos, Margulis penned a manifesto, signed by Lion and Eisenberg, outlining their commitment to elevating the artistry of jazz while championing social causes:

“Blue Note Records are designed to serve the uncompromising expressions of hot jazz or swing. Direct and honest hot jazz is a way of feeling, a musical and social manifestation, and Blue Note records are concerned with identifying its impulse, not its sensational and commercial adornments.”

In the 1960s Blue Note Records became famous for demanding a formula of song styles to be represented on each and every album that they would release. Since the 1940s, owner-president Alfred Lion (born in 1908 in Berlin, Germany as "Alfred Löw") had been more interested in bringing good music to the public through his record label, but changes within the industry in the early 1950s--coupled with the label's choice to back the new "Be Bop" style of music artists--led to some financially challenging times for Blue Note. As the public came to demand their music in the new 12" vinyl record album format, the label had to incur some significant expenses in order to switch over. Their first 12" release came out in 1956 from their steadfast top-selling artist, Jimmy "Hammond" Smith. 

     In the late 1950s Alfred came to realize that his label could--and perhaps should (especially to offset these new investment costs)--make money. This led to the creation of the formula that he thought might ensure the popularity of an album's sales (and ever-increasingly-lucrative radio play). Though one of the elements of his new marketing formula had to do with the regulation of the frequency in which his company would release albums, the other considered the delivery of a spectrum of musical styles to increase the chances of the listener/buyer's enjoyment of their purchase. Riding on the coattails of successes like Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Jimmy Smith's Midnight Special Parts 1 & 2, and Lee Morgan's Sidewinder, the Jazz World took notice that there was money to be made through the sales of record albums: Blue Note became known as the "Cadillac of the record industry" (meaning the crème de la crème), henceforth signing many top-name artists who happened upon some of their careers' most commercially-successful albums.

      Though Alfred Lion's formula did vary and/or evolve a little to accommodate the trends and evolution of Jazz music, it consisted of basically five requirements:

1. A soulful, even poppy, opening song that has a groove or hook that listeners can bite into and, hopefully, be haunted by. If not an original composition, this one could often be a cover of a recent pop hit song or jazz standard.

     In the mid-60s, a "formula" of a boogaloo-influenced, funky title track (exemplified by Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder") was used to help gain commercial success while maintaining artistic integrity on the rest of the album.

2. An original Be-Bop, Hard Bop, or Cool Jazz tune--often uptempo and sophisticated but not a requirement.

3. Something representative of the new trends or styles being explored and/or experimented with at the time--like Free-Jazz, Avant-Garde, Third Stream, Progressive Big Band, Post Bop, Afro-Cubano/Latin Jazz, Samba and Bossa Nova, and Fusion.

4. A song representative of Blues, Rhythm & Blues, and/or Gospel style or structure. A song that was built with tempos that "grooved" rather than raced, with compositions that drew on blues and gospel influences.

5. A ballad and/or a cover of a traditional Jazz Standard; melodic, slow, and accessible to even the uneducated listener.

While fighting with chronic heart issues (including a heart attack), in 1965 Alfred Lion sold his beloved company to Liberty Records. Unable to adjust to the new corporate mentality of his parent company, he chose to step away from the record industry in 1967. His partner and childhood friend (and acclaimed Blue Note photographer), Francis Wolff (who was also born in Berlin, Germany), continued running the company (with pianist Duke Pearson) until his own sudden heart-attack death in March of 1971.

     The Liberty overlords had intended to maintain autonomy for the Blue Note identity along with its repertoire, but Liberty was then acquired by United Artists in 1968. The ensuing period of chaos at the label led to all sorts of problems with funding, marketing, and contract promises, with UA's takeover completed in 1971. In 1979 United Artists was bought out by Artie Mogull and Jerry Rubinstein's EMI Record company, whereupon the Blue Note label ceased to be a source of new music, only continued to serve as a source catalogue for re-issues of past releases. In 1985 Bruce Lundvall's takeover in the leadership role at EMI Manhattan  led to the decision to revive the historic-though-recently-dormant label.