January 28, 2009

• With Ravi Coltrane, Nicholas Payton

• Pre-show party, live music at ASC Jazz Café

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Alys Stephens Center presents Blue Note Records 70th Anniversary Tour, featuring the Blue Note 7, at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Alys Stephens Center, 1200 10th Ave. S., Birmingham. Enjoy a pre-show party at 7 p.m. with live music and drink specials downstairs in the ASC Jazz Café. Tickets are $55, $45 and $35; student tickets are $20. This show is part of the AT&T Red Hot and Jazz Series. Sponsors are The Birmingham News, UAB and Viva Health. Call 205-975-2787 or visit www.AlysStephens.org for more information.

Blue Note Records commemorated the label's 70th anniversary with the Jan. 13 release of "Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records," a collection of classic Blue Note repertoire re-envisioned by the Blue Note 7 (BN7), an all-star septet featuring pianist, musical director and Blue Note recording artist Bill Charlap, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, alto saxophonist/flutist Steve Wilson, guitarist Peter Bernstein, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. Charlap said of the project: "The music that Blue Note recorded is so vast and historically important ... We chose to record compositions that would honor the label and its key players, whittling it down ... from Blue Note's wide-ranging and extensive catalog."

"Mosaic" features Cedar Walton's "Mosaic," written for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Joe Henderson's "Inner Urge," Bobby Hutcherson's "Little B's Poem," Thelonious Monk's "Criss Cross," Duke Pearson's "Idle Moments," written for guitarist Grant Green and Horace Silver's "The Outlaw," all of which were arranged by band members. Also on "Mosaic" are McCoy Tyner's "Search for Peace" and Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance." More arrangements of songs from the Blue Note library will be created for the BN7 tour, which began Jan. 7 in Yakima, Wash.