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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

The Hallowed Halls of The Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Still Inventing Masterpieces

When it came time for Belgian jazz guitarist-composer-arranger-producer-vocalist Jeanfrancois Prins, 57, to record his loving tribute to the label that pioneered bebop, he had to come to New Jersey. He just had to. So he did. The Van Gelder Studio in Englewood, since 1959, had birthed the bop, literally. Before that, Rudy Van Gelder [1924-2016] recorded the greats in Hackensack. He ultimately recorded every Blue Note session from 1953-1967. That’s why ‘Blue Note Mode’ (Gam Records, France) reeks with tradition, and a real sense of history. Prins knows whereof he plays.

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