Blue Note was a struggling label, hit by the record industry's changeover to the 12" LP format, but the popularity of the organ/soul jazz craze, driven by the innovative work of Jimmy Smith, ensured that the label survived. Three significant elements make Blue Note releases stand out: the work of recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, the photographs of Francis Wolff and the cover designs principally by Reid Miles. Lion and Wolff were also respected by musicians for their straight dealing and for "hanging out" in the jazz scene. Blue Note also recorded avant-garde musicians like Andrew Hill and Cecil Taylor. Indeed, it was Lion's discovery of Hill, which he would later cite, along with his earlier involvement with Thelonious Monk and their fellow pianist Herbie Nichols, as having given him particular pleasure during his career. Duke Pearson, who Lion appointed after Quebec's death in 1963, helped to ensure that the label's roster remained fresh as a whole. In fact the popularity that Horace Silver's Song for My Father and Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder enjoyed resulted in Lion being pressured by his distributors into producing more hits. Having suffered from heart problems for some years, Lion retired in 1967 having sold the Blue Note label and catalogue to Liberty Records in 1965. Wolff stayed with the label until his death in 1971. Liberty Records in turn was acquired by United Artists, and the Blue Note imprint went dormant until it was revived by record executive Bruce Lundvall under the ownership of EMI. Death Lion died of heart failure in Poway, California at the age of 78. Documentary films Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz. Germany, 1996 It Must Schwing! The Blue Note Story. Germany, 2018. Blue Note Records: Beyond the notes. Switzerland, 2018. See also :Category:Albums produced by Alfred Lion References Further reading Michael Cuscuna, Michel Ruppli: The Blue Note label: A Discography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001. Colin Larkin: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Third edition. New York: Macmillan, 1998. Donald Clarke (Ed.): The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music. London: Viking, 1989. Barry Dean Kernfeld (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. London: Macmillan Press, 1988. External links Detailed biography at Immigrant Entrepreneurship Story of Blue Note's Beginning Blue Note Records, The Biography NAMM Oral History Interview with Dr. Ruth Lion October 20, 2003 1908 births 1987 deaths People from Schöneberg Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United