Double vinyl LP pressing. Original soundtrack to the 2019 motion picture. Directed by Dexter Fletcher (Bohemian Rhapsody) and produced by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) the movie is a musical fantasy charting Elton John's breakthrough years and stars Taron Egerton (Kingsman) as Elton John, Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) as songwriter Bernie Taupin, Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) as manager John Reid plus Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World) as Elton's mother Sheila Eileen.

AWASE

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. On his acclaimed 2005 Blue Note debut Canvas, pianist and composer Robert Glasper proved he had jazz chops in abundance with his acoustic trio featuring bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid, while a hip hop sub-context lay just beneath the surface in the album's skittering beats, hinting at future directions that Glasper would take on albums like the Grammy-winning Black Radio years later. The album featured special guests Mark Turner on tenor saxophone plus vocalist Bilal, and presented Glasper's signature sound on 9 original tunes as well as a nod to one of his biggest influences Herbie Hancock with a version of "Riot."

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Drummer Tony Williams had a long, fruitful relationship with Blue Note Records starting in the 1960s when he appeared on numerous post bop classics (Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage, Eric Dolphy Out to Lunch, Andrew Hill Point of Departure) and made his first 2 albums as a leader: Life Time (1964) and Spring (1965). After Blue Note relaunched in 1984, Williams returned to the label eager to form a new acoustic band as a vehicle to perform his compositions.

GENTLEMAN

Double vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from the musician, bandleader and TV personality. Batiste is best known as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Recorded in his hometown of New Orleans, the album is produced by T-Bone Burnett and is described as "an homage to his musical heroes and an intimate portrait of the artist." As Batiste explains, "The idea was to strip everything down, go back to basics. "When you strip something down to rawest form, the essence of it shines through." The Kenner-born bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert opted to include on the album's track list the New Orleans standard "Saint James Infirmary," as well as "Smile," "The Very Thought of You" and Louis Armstrong's timeless "What a Wonderful World."

Vinyl LP pressing. This album features music selected by Norwegian saxophonist, composer, improviser Mette Henriette from her critically-acclaimed double CD ECM debut, an arrestingly original musical statement. Jazz and classical players are drawn together in her ensembles, but the music shapes it's own world, outside genre definitions. In her sometimes disarmingly fragile music, vulnerability can be as potent a force as full-tilt blowing, but there is a place for both.

Vinyl LP pressing. Treasure Island, released in early 1974, was the second of two albums pianist and composer Keith Jarrett recorded for Impulse Records - the first was Fort Yawuh, issued a year earlier. Cut at Generation Sound Studios in New York City, the band consisted of Jarrett on piano and soprano saxophone, Dewey Redman on tenor, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Paul Motian.

Double vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release. Like their acclaimed ECM release Small Town of 2017 which The Guardian called "wistful and mesmerizing... tonally ingenious and haunting" Epistrophy by guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan was recorded at New York City's Village Vanguard. The album once again captures the rare empathy these two players achieve together in this intimate environment. There are further poetic takes on pieces from the duo's beloved Americana songbook ("All in Fun," "Red River Valley," "Save the Last Dance for Me"), as well as another intense version of a composition by Paul Motian ("Mumbo Jumbo"), an artist whom both the guitarist and bassist knew well. Frisell and Morgan communicate the essence of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" and the Frank Sinatra hit "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," so much so that the famous words seem to hang in the air even without a singer. At the center of the album is a pair of pieces by Thelonious Monk: the funky, angular "Epistrophy" and the ruminative ballad "Pannonica." And as with "Goldfinger" on Small Town, Frisell and Morgan offer a glowing duo interpretation of a melody-rich John Barry title tune from a James Bond film "You Only Live Twice."

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. "Glamoured is a Gaelic word meaning to be whisked away," says vocalist and songwriter Cassandra Wilson, explaining the title of her 2003 album. "It's like being in a daydream, those split seconds when you're transfixed and your eyes don't move and you have to shake yourself out of it. This album captures the feeling of that reverie." Indeed, Wilson sets such a mood with her trademark mix of first-rate originals and adventurous covers of other songwriters' works, this time picking material by Sting, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Muddy Waters and Abbey Lincoln. Such eclectic tastes come naturally to Wilson, who began her musical career performing in and around her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. "Down South, musicians have to be able to play in many different circumstances and in many contexts," she says. "They have to play jazz, they have to integrate the blues, and they have to know country. And the lines are kinda blurry sometimes, 'cause that's what everybody wants to hear." For the recording of Glamoured, Cassandra once again returned to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi with a list of good songs and an open mind. "For some albums, I'll have a very clear idea of where I want it to go," she says, "but this time I had questions about what kinds of sounds to explore."

Vinyl LP pressing. The initial musical connection between saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson was made in 1990s jam sessions in New York City, with both going on to individual success Iverson in hit trio The Bad Plus and Turner as a solo leader and in such groups as the trio Fly (recording in both capacities for ECM). A decade after their first meeting, the saxophonist and pianist began an association in the Billy Hart Quartet, the two players featuring sympathetically on two widely lauded ECM albums by that band. Now with Temporary Kings, their debut on record as a duo, Turner and Iverson explore aesthetic common ground that encompasses the cool-toned intricacies of the Lennie Tristano/Warne Marsh school, as well as the heightened intimacy of modernist chamber music. The album presents six originals by Iverson (such as the nostalgic solo tune Yesterdays Bouquet) and two by Turner (including Myrons World, which has acquired near-classic status among contemporary jazz players). There's an off-kilter blues (Unclaimed Freight) and a strikingly melodic, almost Ravelian opening track dedicated to the Swiss town where the album was recorded (Lugano), plus an interpretation of Marshs playfully serpentine Dixies Dilemma.

Vinyl LP pressing. A classic big-band album and one of the first-ever releases on the Impulse! Label, this 1961 recording features a superb line-up including Jimmy Knepper on trombone, Ron Carter on bass and a fiery Elvin Jones on drums.

Double vinyl LP pressing. A departure and a homecoming for the Memphis-born and California-based tenorist, introducing new music and revisiting archive favorites (including the epic 'Forest Flower'), and featuring an all-star line-up. "This top-flight quartet bristles with a silent, self-assured energy... It may be subdued and serene, but this album is absolutely luminescent." - CMJ New Music Report. Originally released 2/1999

Vinyl LP pressing. Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard burst upon the Blue Note scene in June 1960 with his auspicious debut album Open Sesame. Within six months, Hubbard had already recorded a follow-up (Goin' Up) and appeared as a sideman on sessions with Tina Brooks (True Blue), Hank Mobley (Roll Call), Kenny Drew (Undercurrent), and Jackie McLean (Bluesnik). Hubbard's bravado style was already fully formed on Open Sesame with his brilliant tone and jaw-dropping technical prowess at the helm of sterling quintet.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. One of the funkiest and most inventive organists to ever walk the earth, Dr. Lonnie Smith made his name on Blue Note beginning with his 1968 label debut Think! Produced by Francis Wolff, the album featured trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist David Newman, guitarist Melvin Sparks, and drummer Marian Booker Jr., with Henry "Pucho" Brown, William Bivens, and Norberto Apellaniz adding percussion on two tracks. Groove is the thing on this session from the hard-driving opener "Song of Ice Bag".