Blue Mitchell – Blue’s Moods

Space for a single trumpet

Blue Mitchell was a member of Horace Silver’s quintet when he recorded “Blue’s Moods” in August 1960. For his own album he chose a smaller group: trumpet, piano, bass and drums. Without a second horn, the relationship between melody and rhythm section becomes particularly direct. Mitchell can begin a line alone and leave the piano room to answer.

Wynton Kelly plays piano, Sam Jones bass and Roy Brooks drums. Brooks also knew Mitchell from Silver’s band. The sessions took place at Plaza Sound in New York on 24 and 25 August, with Orrin Keepnews producing and Ray Fowler engineering. Riverside released the album later in 1960.

Standards, bebop and original pieces

“I’ll Close My Eyes” opens the programme. Rocky Boyd’s “Avars” follows that familiar melody, while Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple from the Apple” introduces another musical background. The selection connects songs readily approached through their melodies with material from the bebop repertoire. Eight tracks give the quartet several distinct starting points.

The musicians contribute compositions themselves. Kelly and Mitchell wrote “Kinda Vague” together; “Sir John” is Mitchell’s. “When I Fall in Love”, Ronnell Bright’s “Sweet Pumpkin” and “I Wish I Knew” complete the programme. Moving between these pieces offers a way to follow how a fixed ensemble works with different kinds of material. Part of its identity lies in what it carries from one performance into the next.

Kelly beyond the solo

It is worth following Wynton Kelly during the trumpet passages, rather than waiting for a piano solo. A chord, a short rhythmic figure or a deliberately unfilled space can affect how the melody sits within the ensemble. On another listen, try making the piano your starting point and hearing Mitchell’s contribution in relation to it.

Sam Jones and Roy Brooks supply the rhythmic counterpart. There are only four musicians, but several ways to shape a shared pulse. The limited instrumentation makes it possible to follow individual voices and then return to the whole. The album provides a concrete framework for that approach: eight distinct pieces with different origins, played by the same small group across two recording dates.

This edition

Analogue Productions’ AAPJ 212-45 is a Fantasy 45 Series release on two 180-gram LPs at 45 RPM. The stated mastering is by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman at AcousTech. QRP handles pressing, with a matte-finish Stoughton tip-on gatefold. The publisher does not identify a specific tape source for this edition. Mastering information attached to other, later 33⅓-RPM releases does not describe this product.

Michael 45 keeps the records in Germany and dispatches them from Hilden, so customers need not organise a personal US import or wait for customs clearance.

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.