In honor of Blue Note Records' 80th Anniversary, the legendary jazz label is launching the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series. Blue Note President Don Was brought in "Tone Poet" Joe Harley – co-founder and co-producer of the acclaimed Music Matters audiophile vinyl series – to produce the new series of all-analog 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe gatefold packaging. Mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio and pressed at RTI, this is how LPs are supposed to sound – and look.

All 18 titles are handpicked by Harley and cover lesser-known Blue Note classics, modern-era standouts, and albums from other labels under the Blue Note catalog. The first two albums in the series – Wayne Shorter's Etcetera and Chick Corea's Now He Sings, Now He Sobs – will be released on February 8, with Sam Rivers' Contours and Cassandra Wilson's Glamoured to follow on March 15. See below for a full list of 2019 releases for the Tone Poet Series.

Read Harley's essay Blue Note, Tone Poetry and Audiophilia about his history with Blue Note, Music Matters, and his "quest to capture the sound of those master tapes on vinyl and to allow listeners to know what it would sound like to actually be in Rudy [Van Gelder]'s living room in Hackensack or later in Rudy's studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ."

February 8
Wayne Shorter – Etcetera (Blue Note, 1965)
Chick Corea – Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (Solid State, 1968)

March 15
Sam Rivers – Contours (Blue Note, 1965)
Cassandra Wilson – Glamoured (Blue Note, 2003)

April 26
Gil Evans – New Bottle Old Wine (World Pacific, 1958)
Joe Henderson – The State of the Tenor: Live at the Village Vanguard, Volume 2 (Blue Note, 1985)

May 31
Lou Donaldson – Mr. Shing-A-Ling (Blue Note, 1967)
Lee Morgan – Cornbread (Blue Note, 1965)

June 28
Baby Face Willette – Face To Face (Blue Note, 1961)
Dexter Gordon – Clubhouse (Blue Note, 1965)

July 26
Kenny Burrell – Introducing Kenny Burrell (Blue Note, 1956)
Andrew Hill – Black Fire (Blue Note, 1963)

September 6
Donald Byrd – Chant (Blue Note, 1961)
Stanley Turrentine – Hustlin' (Blue Note, 1964)

October 25
Grant Green – Born to Be Blue (Blue Note, 1962)
Tina Brooks – Minor Move (Blue Note, 1958)

November 15
Hank Mobley – Poppin' (Blue Note, 1957)
Stanley Turrentine – Comin' Your Way (Blue Note, 1961)