Horace Silver Quintet, Silver’s Serenade, 1963 on Blue Note

https://goatless.org/2026/04/25/horace-silver-quintet-silvers-serenade-1963-on-blue-note

Freddie Roach, Good Move!, 1964 on Blue Note

Freddie Roach’s third album as a leader, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliff with Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Eddie Wright (guitar), and Clarence Johnston (drums).

Tunes include “It Ain’t Necessarily So” (Gerswhin) and Pastel (Garner) as well as “T’Ain’t What You Do (It’s The Way That You Do It).” Great soul-jazz organ here.

My copy—via Amazon—is the Tone Poet Series reissue from 2024, with lacquer cut by Kevin Gray and pressing at RTI. As you can expect from this series it’s a great sounding pressing with lovely packaging.

Big John Patton, Let ‘Em Roll, 1966 on Blue Note

Patton joined by Otis Finch (drums), Grant Green (guitar), and Bobby Hutcherson (vibes), and recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Fantastic Hammond B3 driven mid-sixties Blue Note jazz – can’t go wrong.

My copy—direct from Amazon, which often has deals on these—is the Blue Note Tone Poet series reissue from 2023, with lacquer cut by Kevin Grey and Joe Harley and pressing at RTI.

Lou Donaldson, Midnight Creeper, 1968 on Blue Note

Donaldson joined here by Leo Morris (drums), George Benson (guitar), Lonnie Smith (organ) and Blue Mitchell (trumpet). Very groovy soul-jazz LP from late sixties Blue Note.

Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs and produced by Francis Wolff.

My copy—via Amazon—is the Blue Note Tone Poet reissue from 2024, mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI.

Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot is a pair of live albums by the jazz musician and composer Eric Dolphy. They were released in December 1961 (Volume 1) and November 1963 (Volume 2) by Prestige Records. They were recorded on the night of 16 July 1961 at the end of Dolphy's two-week residency, alongside trumpeter Booker Little, at the Five Spot jazz club in New York. It was the only night to be recorded. The engineer was Rudy Van Gelder.

Dolphy's composition "The Prophet" is a tribute to the artist Richard "Prophet" Jennings, who had designed the covers of Dolphy's earlier albums, Outward Bound and Out There.

In an AllMusic review of volume 1, Michael G. Nastos stated that Dolphy's group had "developed into a role model for all progressive jazz combos to come" - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXTdcseaWJg

#EricDolphy #BookerLittle #Jazz #FiveSpotJazzClub #Music #PrestigeLabel #RichardProphetJennings #RudyVanGelder #MalWaldron #RichardDavis #EdBlackwell

Booker Ervin, The Freedom Book, 1964 on Prestige

Sixth full-length with Ervin as leader, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in 1963, for Prestige. Ervin is joined here by Jaki Byard (piano), Richard Davis (bass), and Alan Dawson (who was a drum instructor at Berklee in Boston) (drums).

My copy—via a private sale—is the 2023 Analogue Productions / Craft Recordings reissue, in the Prestige Stereo Series. It was mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed at QRP on 180g vinyl.

Blue Mitchell, Down With It, 1966 on Blue Note

Another fantastic Blue Note jazz LP, this came out originally in 1966. It features Mitchell (trumpet) with Junior Cook (tenor sax), Chick Corea (piano), Gene Taylor (bass), and Aloysius Foster (drums), and was recorded at Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey.

My copy- via a private sale – is the Blue Note Tone Poet reissue from 2024, cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed at RTI. Great sound and packaging.

Herbie Hancock, Inventions and Dimensions, 1964 on Blue Note

Hancock is joined by Paul Chambers, Willie Bobo and Chihuahua Martinez—though it’s not really what you’d call a Latin jazz album so much as post-bop or modal.

Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder at his Englewood Cliffs studio.

My copy—direct from Blue Note—is the 2019 Blue Note 80 Vinyl Series reissue mastered for vinyl by Kevin Gray and pressed at Optimal Media GmbH – sounds great.

Wayne Shorter, Schizophrenia, 1969 on Blue Note

Eleventh Wayne Shorter album, with Herbie Hancock, Curtis Fuller, Ron Carter, James Spaulding, and Joe Chambers. Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, with Francis Wolff producing.

This is transitional between post-bop and free jazz – looser and closer to the edge than my normal taste, but worth a listen for anyone interested in post-bop or Shorter and Hancock.

My copy as part of the Story of Blue Note Records VMP Anthology, which was reissued in 2024.