Impulse vs Blue Note
Fatback
6,746 Posts
For the title of greatest jazz label evar.I been obsessing over this for about 15 years and I'm gonna have to give it to Impulse.sound: drawboth had van geldercovers: impulseclose, respect to reid miles and francis wolf, but those gatefolds and orange black spines.catalog: impulseColtrane. blue note focus was more hard bop and modal. impulse had a good amount of that (not as much) and that angry black shit. or spiritual. whatever you people call it now.
Comments
despite Coltrane being my favorite artist ever
Blue Note was around so much longer and covered so much more ground
also, percentage wise, there are less Blue Notes that I don't care about than Impulse.
This was my initial thought too, but there are a high number of late era blue note terds out there too.
ok. off the cuff...
my top five blue notes:
out to lunch
maiden voyage
soul station
sonnny rollins live at the VV
dialogue
impulse:
impressions
black saint and the sinner lady
blues and the abstract truth
four for trane
journey in satchidananda
(sampling will not work. even if i went top ten or tweenty.)
http://www.jazzdisco.org/impulse-records/
http://www.jazzdisco.org/blue-note-records/
you?
and both labels' covers started looking more generic around 1968
(have you ever read that book about Impulse Records? i forget who it was, but somebody at Impulse, maybe Bob Thiele, had a shit fit when somebody at ABC's art department stopped doing the orange/black spines...note that when Thiele left ABC/Impulse and started Flying Dutchman, for the first few years, the cover art was in the old Impulse tradition, with Impulse-ish spines, gatefolds, and photos of the session musicians)
wasn't coltrane on Blue Note as well?
not like that
Madness....
Blue Note in all respects by a mile.
You don't dig the out stuff though, right?
Some of my favorite stuff is the inside/outside sound where they butt right up against the line without crossing over too far, but no, with rare exceptions I don't care too much for the really out stuff.
The madness comment was aimed at the design aspect. Reid Miles is by far one of the most influential designers of his time, evidenced in the countless imitations of his Blue Note designs. I can't remember ever seeing an Impulse pastiche. The orange/black spine is iconic, but compared to covers like Larry Young's 'Unity' or the Grachan Moncur with the blue and white cover (can't remember the title right now)?
one album as a leader
some of my favourite Impulse Lp's:
Bill Plummer - "Cosmic Brotherhood"
Mel Brown- Wizard
Alice Coltrane-Huntington Ashram
Cliff Coulter- East Side San Jose
Mingus-Black Saint
Gary Saracho- En Medio
Micheal White- Go with the flow
SOnny Rollins- Alfie
blue note. no contest.
peace, stein. . .
imitation is flattery, but not in itself, testimony of greatness. additionally,
if you put it all on reid miles, he also did covers for other labels.
b/w
what about Forlenza Venosa Associates?
Understanding by John Patton!
Well, like I say, Flying Dutchman albums from 1969-72 looked a lot like Impulse, but then again the same man was behind them both.
Probably doesn't count, then, but it needed to be mentioned.
I don't even think its even close . Impulse was basically a sixties imprint, while Blue Note was around since '39. Blue Note's catalog is so rich and deep, it includes boogie woogie/ bop/ hard bop / modal/ funk and to a lesser degree avant garde/free cuts. Blue Note's "out" records are dope, they had Ornette Coleman/ Sam Rivers/ Eric Dolphy/ Andrew Hill / Larry Young/ Wayne Shorter/Tony Williams/ Grachan Moncur III/ Jackie McClean/ Cecil Taylor all cut sides for them.
i disagree. to me, the greatest art and artists enter a realm where trying to rank them in comparison is fruitless. Personal preference is one thing, but after a certain point there is no objective way to prove the superiority of a given masterwork over another.
To take the example at hand, trying to decide whether 'A Love Supreme' is better or worse than 'Speak No Evil' is a futile exercise.
A Love Supreme.
Those are great points. I'm changing to Blue Note. F*ck.
What Rey meant to say is that you should stack up the best in each catalog, then popsike each entry. Whatever's worth more is better.
(Totally gonna be Blue Note)
You don't dig the out stuff though, right?
I don't even think its even close . Impulse was basically a sixties imprint, while Blue Note was around since '39. Blue Note's catalog is so rich and deep, it includes boogie woogie/ bop/ hard bop / modal/ funk and to a lesser degree avant garde/free cuts. Blue Note's "out" records are dope, they had Ornette Coleman/ Sam Rivers/ Eric Dolphy/ Andrew Hill / Larry Young/ Wayne Shorter/Tony Williams/ Grachan Moncur III/ Jackie McClean/ Cecil Taylor all cut sides for them.
Those are great points. I'm changing to Blue Note. F*ck.
Don't give up so easy. I like this record tawk.
Seems to me that Blue Note did boogie woogie and trad in the '39-'55+/- period.
But most of their catalog '55-'70+/- is very consistent small group jam sessions around a few themes.
Some artists tended to be more be bop, some more blues, some more modal.
Impulse on the other hand ranged far and wide.
An impulse lp can surprise you.
You always know what you are getting on the Blue Note lp.
For many labels this would be a liability.
But the quality of all aspects of a Blue Note product make it an asset.
I am going with Prestige.
I don't even think its even close . Impulse was basically a sixties imprint, while Blue Note was around since '39. Blue Note's catalog is so rich and deep, it includes boogie woogie/ bop/ hard bop / modal/ funk and to a lesser degree avant garde/free cuts. Blue Note's "out" records are dope, they had Ornette Coleman/ Sam Rivers/ Eric Dolphy/ Andrew Hill / Larry Young/ Wayne Shorter/Tony Williams/ Grachan Moncur III/ Jackie McClean/ Cecil Taylor all cut sides for them.
Those are great points. I'm changing to Blue Note. F*ck.
Don't give up so easy. I like this record tawk.
It's not giving up. Like if this was CTI vs Impulse.