Jazz album and show to honor Blue Note legends

When Bill Charlap was a teenager in New York City — he was a music student at the school immortalized by the movie "Fame" — his best source of reference material was the public library near Lincoln Center, where he checked out jazz records by the musicians he emulated. More often than not, the records were Blue Note releases.

By 2000, Charlap had become an accomplished jazz pianist and arranger, and when his own Blue Note Records album (the first of six) came out that year, the moment was just short of transcendent, like a ballplayer's first at-bat in Yankee Stadium.

"I remember getting all those records from the library," said Charlap, 42, "and seeing that Blue Note Pac-Man on it, and all those jazz giants. So when I first signed with them and my album came out and it had that Blue Note [symbol] on it, I thought, 'Wow, I can't believe that's my name on there.' "

The legendary record label nearly synonymous with jazz is marking its 70th year with an ambitious album and concert tour by a combo led by Charlap. The group, which performs Thursday at the Moore Theatre, includes drummer Lewis Nash, bassist Peter Washington, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and saxophonists Ravi Coltrane (the son of jazz great and Blue Note artist John Coltrane) and Steve Wilson. The album, "Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records," attempts to do what seems impossible: to distill the 70 years of artists and albums into eight carefully chosen, reinvented songs.

The album represents the work of McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Cedar Walton, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Thelonious Monk, Duke Pearson and Horace Silver. The group chose to record eight songs: "Search for Peace," "Dolphin Dance," "Inner Urge," "Little B's Poem," "Criss Cross," "Idle Moments," "The Outlaw," and the title track "Mosaic." Not all the songs represent an artist's best-known work, and many landmark songs were left out.

"There was no way to be comprehensive," said Charlap, who likened the album to a snapshot. "These are the tunes that spoke to us."

In composing the new arrangements — everyone in the group took a turn arranging — the musicians attempted to create something that "feels like history, in that it's classic but doesn't feel old or reactionary, doesn't feel revivalistic, and doesn't feel antiquated. It's something that still feels completely vital."

To promote the album, the group of all-star musicians will go on a three-month, 51-city national tour that starts Thursday at the Moore. The honor of kicking off the tour became Seattle's when the city was scheduled to host the annual meeting of the International Association for Jazz Education. That group abruptly announced last fall that it would cease operating, leaving Seattle without a conference but with the Blue Note concert, which was moved from the Paramount to the Moore in anticipation of a smaller audience. The tour then stops in Yakima on Friday before going to Oregon and California.

"The legacy of Blue Note records is not just the record company, it's all the musicians," Charlap said. "They're truly our heroes. In our minds, when we're playing, they're on a great shelf up high and out of reach — Earl Hines, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, all the giants. So anywhere you are, you imagine them right there in the room. And it makes us always do the best we can."

The selection of the group was done with great intention. Most are in their 40s, old enough to have played with some of the musicians who are part of the Blue Note legacy, young enough to bring a fresh perspective to the music. All have previously played with one or more of the other musicians, giving the group an immediate chemistry. The album was recorded in two days.

"It was a daunting challenge," Wilson said. "It's a large body of work that's strongly identified with the label, its sound, its imagery. We're not looking to do it any better. You can't out-Monk Monk. You can't outdo Horace Silver. We're not looking to do these tunes as covers.

"This project is also very timely for the young musicians coming up now. Because the business and the music have changed so much, they won't have the opportunity to serve the apprenticeships that might allow them to relate to a different period of music. To see this group of musicians brings the love and knowledge of this music to a younger audience."

Hugo Kugiya: hkugiya@yahoo.com