Blue Note Records announced the 2027 line-up of its Tone Poet audiophile vinyl reissue series on 9 November 2026. Produced by Joe Harley, the series is mastered all-analog directly from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio, pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI) and packaged in deluxe tip-on jackets. The label’s schedule pairs two titles a month through 2027 — 24 in total — plus one quarterly exclusive reserved for Tone Poet Society members.
First wave: 8 January 2027
The opening pair, out on 8 January, comprises Donald Byrd’s 1961 hard bop peak Free Form and Pepper Adams’s 1963 Workshop Jazz set Pepper Adams Plays The Compositions Of Charles Mingus. Alongside them comes the first quarterly exclusive, Grant Green’s Am I Blue (1963), limited to 1,000 individually numbered copies with a gold-foil Tone Poet Society stamp and a lithographic print of a photograph by Francis Wolff. All three are available for pre-order now through the Blue Note Store; the second, third and fourth quarterly exclusives are still to be announced.
A line-up that reaches beyond Blue Note
Harley’s picks draw on the Blue Note catalogue but also on Capitol, Pacific Jazz, United Artists and Workshop Jazz. The year runs from Lee Morgan’s Charisma, Bobby Hutcherson’s Spiral and Cirrus, Andrew Hill’s Ocho Rios, Wayne Shorter’s Super Nova, the Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley collaboration, Duke Ellington’s The Duke Plays Ellington and the Chet Baker/Russ Freeman quartet recordings, through less-travelled corners of the catalogue by Herbie Nichols, Elvin Jones and Curtis Fuller.
2027 release schedule
| Release date | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| January 8 | Donald Byrd Pepper Adams |
Free Form Pepper Adams Plays The Compositions Of Charles Mingus（Blue Note Workshop Jazz 1961 1963） |
| February 5 | Lee Morgan Carmell Jones |
Charisma Business Meetin’（Blue Note Pacific Jazz 1966 1962） |
| March 5 | Bobby Hutcherson Art Farmer |
Spiral Modern Art（Blue Note United Artists 1968 1958） |
| April 2 | Andrew Hill Clifford Jordan & John Gilmore |
Ocho Rios Blowing In From Chicago（Blue Note Blue Note 1969–70 1957） |
| May 7 | Nancy Wilson & Cannonball Adderley Sonny Clark |
Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley Cool Struttin’, Vol. 2（Capitol Blue Note 1961 1957–58） |
| June 4 | Hank Mobley Wayne Shorter |
Hank Mobley And His All-Stars Super Nova（Blue Note Blue Note 1957 1969） |
| July 2 | Clifford Brown & Zoot Sims Grant Green |
Jazz Immortal Grantstand（Pacific Jazz Blue Note 1954 1961） |
| August 6 | The Three Sounds Benny Golson |
Moods Benny Golson and the Philadelphians（Blue Note United Artists 1960 1958） |
| September 3 | Chet Baker & Russ Freeman Art Blakey |
Chet Baker Quartet Featuring Russ Freeman The Freedom Rider（Pacific Jazz Blue Note 1953 1961） |
| October 1 | Herbie Nichols Bud Shank & Carmell Jones |
Herbie Nichols Trio, Vol. 2 New Groove（Blue Note Pacific Jazz 1955–56 1961） |
| November 5 | Duke Ellington Bobby Hutcherson |
The Duke Plays Ellington Cirrus（Capitol Blue Note 1953 1974） |
| December 3 | Curtis Fuller Elvin Jones |
Bone & Bari The Ultimate（Blue Note Blue Note 1957 1968） |
Harley: music you simply have to share
“Every year putting together the Tone Poet lineup brings me back to the reason I fell in love with this music: that feeling of hearing something so moving, so surprising, that you just have to share it,” Harley said in the announcement. He described the 2027 selection as ranging from “the adventurous spirit of Andrew Hill and Wayne Shorter to the sheer joy of Nancy Wilson with Cannonball Adderley,” adding that “special surprises” remain to be announced.
Subscriptions and ordering
The Tone Poet Society subscription service continues with four tiers of increasing savings and benefits; every member receives two Tone Poet titles a month. Individual albums and memberships are handled through the Blue Note Store and the Tone Poet Society website respectively.
Source
Blue Note Records: Announcing the 2027 Line-Up of the Tone Poet Vinyl Series (9 November 2026); pre-order page: Blue Note Store – Tone Poet Series.
(Image: Blue Note Records)