Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series All-Analog 180g Vinyl 2LP Mastered by Kevin Gray Directly from the Original Master Tapes and Manufactured at Optimal in Germany

The Classic Vinyl Reissue Series is the continuation of Blue Note's acclaimed Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series, which was created in celebration of the 80th anniversary of Blue Note Records in 2019. The series presents affordable, high-quality reissues in standard packaging that are mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio and manufactured on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany. The pressings are all-analog whenever an analog source is available, with Gray mastering directly from the original master tapes.

Blue Note Records has recorded the legends of Jazz and has traced the entire evolution of the music from the early days of Boogie Woogie, Hot Jazz and Swing, through the innovations of Bebop, Hard Bop, Post-Bop, Soul Jazz, Avant-Garde, and 70s Fusion, and into the vibrant sounds of Jazz's many modern-day incarnations. The Classic Vinyl Series is curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman and is broad in its scope. The series reissues the best-known Blue Note classics from the 1950s and 60s, but also goes deeper, exploring the many different eras and styles of the legendary label's eight-decade history with the aim of telling their story and fully representing the Blue Note motto: The Finest In Jazz Since 1939.

The sound of Blue Note Records has been embedded in hip-hop since the music's early days with artists like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, J Dilla, Beastie Boys, and more mining Blue Note's rich catalog for inspiration and sampling from tracks by Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Lonnie Smith, and others. In the early 1990s, Blue Note invited Us3 into the vaults for a jazz/hip-hop remix album that produced the smash single "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" and in 1996 went even further with The New Groove: The Blue Note Remix Project featuring remixes by Guru, The Ummah, The Roots, and more.

It was Madlib who raised the bar next when the acclaimed DJ, producer, rapper, and multi-instrumentalist invaded the Blue Note vaults to create his 2003 masterpiece Shades of Blue. Madlib's deep love of jazz (his uncle is trumpeter Jon Faddis) is apparent throughout this visionary album which features remixes, reimaginations, and reinterpretations of classics by Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, The Three Sounds, Ronnie Foster, Bobby Hutcherson, Andrew Hill, Wayne Shorter, and more.