The legends of jazz knew if they wanted the best, they’d have to cross the Hudson from New York City to Hackensack. Rudy Van Gelder [1924-2016] was a sound scientist. Coltrane, Monk, Miles, Ellington, Ray Charles, Sonny Rollins, they all made the trip. The studio is in Englewood now, run by Maureen and Don Sickler. And it’s still producing gems.

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.