The label is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, and some would say that their best artists are all dead, but Blue Note most certainly is not and this festival showcases the new talents who intend to keep the flame burning.

Obviously, Blue Note played a pivotal role in the development of jazz. The music, the artists, even the record sleeves have all become legendary. After a rough period at the end of the 20th Century (when the label went into hibernation) the label is back and attempting to keep its creative spirit going, partly by capitalising on its heritage, but also by proposing new artists and new styles of jazz (mixed by world music, electronics, hip-hop…)

For the 2009 Blue Note Records Festival, concerts are being held in eight different Parisian venues (you can see the program here) with names such as Erik Truffaz and Patricia Barber. Feel free to check out the full details of the festival on the official site here.

And whilst I’m going on about jazz, perhaps you might not know that Miles Davis’ « Kind of Blue » was released fifty years ago and a really cool box set (although not on Blue Note, admittedly) has been released with 2CDs, 1 documentary on DVD, a large-format 60-page book, a blue heavyweight vinyl, photos, a poster…

All the essential information for the 2009 Paris Blue Note Records Festival is here.