Reuben James. Photo: Reuben James photo: Zac Mahrouche

THE venerable Blue Note catalogue – home to timeless gems by Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, Donald Byrd and dozens of others – is one of the greatest archives in jazz history. The record label, having settled down after some turbulent times in past decades and now under the direction of Don Was, is not shy about exploiting its reputation as the guardian of a great jazz legacy nor in marking itself out as progressive label that looks forward as well as backwards.

To serve these two masters, in 2020 it invited a raft of young UK jazz artists to revisit and remake tracks from the vaults, in the way Madlib and Us3 had done in the past. The result, Blue Note Re:imagined, was an enjoyable if widely varied set, where some artists restructured the songs/tunes entirely (as with Poppy Ajudha’s fast-and-loose reboot of Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man), while others played it pretty straight, such as Ezra Collective with its nicely woozy version of Wayne Shorter’s Footprints.

Blue Note Re:imagined II

Later this month, available for pre-order now, comes Blue Note Re:imagined II, where a fresh batch of up-and-coming tyros (Ego Ella May, Nubiyan Twist, Cherise etc) are let loose in jazz heaven.

One of them, soul-jazz-R&B star Reuben James (Sam Smith, Disclosure, Roy Ayers, Joni Mitchell – in her living room! – and his own combos), admits that although it sounds like bliss for any jazz geek, the sheer width and heft of the heritage can be daunting.

“Yeah, they called up and said I could choose anything from the Blue Note catalogue and I was like… whoa,” he says. “There’s just too much choice. It’s kind of overwhelming. So, it took me a long time to choose what to cover. But my sister had just had her first baby and my wife was pregnant with our first and I love Wayne Shorter so I chose a song called Infant Eyes, which is on Speak No Evil and it just has the best chords ever. And Herbie Hancock who is the GOAT [Greatest of All Time] for me. His feel and choices on that album are second to none.

“And then it turned out someone – I later found out it was Jean Carne – had put lyrics to it. So, I transcribed them and thought, what now? First of all, let me get a blinding drumbeat. So, a friend of mine sent this cool beat and Blue Note thought I’d stolen a sample and I said, no this is straight from my man.

“Then I put the chords in and sent it to [producer] Carrtoon in New York to put the bass down. But it felt a bid sad and slow to me, so I pitched the whole thing up so my voice sounds much higher than usual. It was a bit weird. But that’s fine. It was all about experimenting, right?”

Featuring on Blue Note Re:imagined II:

Ego Ella May. Photo courtesy of Blue Note Records

Nubiyan Twist. Photo courtesy of Blue Note Records

Not many people will know the Wayne Shorter that James went for, but only hermits will not have heard Norah Jones’s Don’t Know Why, as performed by Leeds-born, London-based saxophonist/singer Parthenope on the album. I asked her why she went for something so familiar.

“It’s just a great song – I’ve known it since I was a kid and was so inspired to work on it,” she said. “What I ended up with was a cover that grows from being heavily influenced by the original into something completely different throughout the song, with chord re-harmonisation, huge backing vocal stacks and improvisation until it takes you somewhere else as a listener. There is a satisfaction when the song returns to the familiar last Norah verse and then is brought to a close by a dreamy and thoughtful outro.

“Though it was daunting at first to take on such a big song, I’m so glad I worked with the challenge, as it really pushed me creatively and I think it came out great in the end.”

There are 16 tracks, all approached with similar respect for the original but a desire to put a unique stamp on the tunes. There’s no sloppy “let’s just change the key and put a drum machine on it” thinking here: Nubiyan Twist actually sent me what was basically a fascinating essay detailing how they took on re-modelling Donald Byrd, part of which you can find at www.robtryan.com along with comments by other artists.

Swindle. Photo courtesy of Blue Note Records

Purists will grumble at some of the “liberties” taken with classic tracks, but it is not as if an exercise like this expunges the originals. In fact, Swindle’s version of Byrd’s Miss Kane sent me right back to the source album on vinyl (Street Lady, which cost me a fortune on Discogs).

• Blue Note Re:imagined II is released on September 30, but you can preview the tunes and compare them to the originals by clicking on the playlist at https://www.bluenote.com/announcing-blue-note-reimagined-ii/

• If the vinyl arrives in time, Rob Ryan will be doing some back-to-back comparisons of new and old Blue Note at the New Journal’s talkin’/jazz stage (a mix of vinyl jazz and guest speakers) at the York Rise street party, NW5, on September 11. Plus there will be the first play anywhere of Camilla George’s new album Ibio-Ibio (https://www.camillageorge.com/).

• There will also be a chance to win tickets to shows at the Pizza Express (https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/), Hampstead Jazz Club (https://hampsteadjazzclub.com/) and Camden’s Jazz Café (https://thejazzcafelondon.com)