Fats Navarro - Fabulous Fats Navarro Vol. 1 LP

The Classic Vinyl Reissue Series is the continuation of Blue Note's acclaimed Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series, which was created in celebration of the 80th anniversary of Blue Note Records in 2019. The series presents affordable, high-quality reissues in standard packaging that are mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio and manufactured on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany. The pressings are all-analog whenever an analog source is available, with Gray mastering directly from the original master tapes.

Blue Note Records has recorded the legends of Jazz and has traced the entire evolution of the music from the early days of Boogie Woogie, Hot Jazz and Swing, through the innovations of Bebop, Hard Bop, Post-Bop, Soul Jazz, Avant-Garde, and 70s Fusion, and into the vibrant sounds of Jazz's many modern-day incarnations. The Classic Vinyl Series is curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman and is broad in its scope. The series reissues the best-known Blue Note classics from the 1950s and 60s, but also goes deeper, exploring the many different eras and styles of the legendary label's eight-decade history with the aim of telling their story and fully representing the Blue Note motto: The Finest In Jazz Since 1939.

The prodigiously talented trumpeter Theodore "Fats" Navarro was a bebop innovator whose career was cut tragically short when he died in 1950 at the age of 26. Navarro played with Charlie Parker and forged a distinctive style on his horn that would influence many greats that followed him including Clifford Brown. The year after his death Blue Note compiled the 10" LP Fats Navarro Memorial Album as a tribute to the late trumpeter with selections from various dates Fats had featured on between 1947-49 with the Tadd Dameron Sextet, the Bud Powell Quintet, and the McGhee-Navarro Boptet which Fats co-led with trumpeter Howard McGhee. In 1957, the label expanded the release into two 12" LPs titled The Fabulous Fats Navarro as part of the 1500 series including additional tracks from the sessions as well as alternate takes of several pieces in order to showcase the sheer creativity and originality of Navarro's improvisations. Altogether the collection is a bebop masterclass that featured various distinguished casts of bebop luminaries.