Blue Note US Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Contemporary jazz talent Melissa Aldana is back on the legendary BlueNote label with her second album here. Echoes Of The Inner Prophet is, says the great label, "a musical voyage to explore the depth of the spiritual journey" and has been co-produced by Aldana and Lage Lund. The tenor saxophonist is joined three by the talented Lund on guitar, as well as piano from Fabian Almazan, Kush Abadey on drums and Pablo Menares on bass. The eight-track work is a mix of some all-new original compositions that "seek profound truths through introspection, intuition, and self-reflection" and chief amongst them is an opening track dedicated to the great Wayne Shorter.

Review: The accomplished and influential US jazz cat Robert Glasper has been involved with several of the genre's most essential projects over the last 15 or so years. His Black Radio albums are legendary and his work with Dinner Party is ever more celebrated. In My Element is one of his early works and now courtesy of Blue Note it gets its first-ever release on vinyl. It was a 2007 follow-up to his 2005 debut and marked him out as a rising star with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid alongside him and helping him to expand jazz's horizons. It also shows off his mad compositional skills and unique knack for harmony. A true modern classic.

Review: Jazz heads might well be familiar with the name of Herbie Nichols Trio these days but during his playing career, he was far less celebrated outside hardcore circles. The American pianist sure had a unique style and deserves to now have more recognition for his work, which he will get as Tone Poet - Blue Note's reissue arm - serves up a repress of his innovative self-titled mid-1950s release on the label. Max Roach is on drums for this one with bassists Al McKibbon and Teddy Kotick and the whole thing has been remastered from the original analog tapes so it has never sounded better.

Review: Madlib's back catalogue is one of the most revered in hip-hop and it would be quite interesting to hear a load of jazz cats rework it in their own style. But this essential album from Blue Note is sort of the opposite - the legendary US producer gets access to the vast Blue Note vaults and from that culls his own library and sound and samples and cooks up fresh takes on plenty of classics. As such you will recognise his beats under melodies from the likes of Donald Byrd and Bobbi Humphrey, Ronnie Foster and Bobby Hutcherson. The whole thing has been remastered as part of the Classic Vinyl Edition series so has never sounded better.