Larry Young’s ‘Mother Ship’ To Get Blue Note Tone Poet Series Reissue
The organist’s final Blue Note album featured heavyweights Lee Morgan on trumpet, Herbert Morgan on tenor sax, and Eddie Gladden on drums.
Larry Young’s final album on Blue Note Records, Mother Ship, is joining the Blue Note Tone Poet vinyl reissue series this year. The new edition of the seminal record arrives April 3, with preorders opening on February 2
Although it was recorded back in 1969, the album saw its first release in 1980 via Blue Note’s LT Series. Mother Ship features all-original Hammond B-3 compositions from the organist, and a set of killer musicians in the mix: Lee Morgan on trumpet, Herbert Morgan on tenor sax, and Eddie Gladden on drums. It was the final album he released on Blue Note.
The new edition will mark Young’s first entry into the audiophile vinyl series, which has also reissued records from Baby Face Willette, Stanley Turrentine, Grant Green, John Coltrane and more. Like all Tone Poet vinyls, this version of Mother Ship was produced by Joe Harley and mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Each release will be pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI), and packaged in a deluxe gatefold jacket.
The Tone Poet reissue series first came to life after Blue Note President Don Was’ expressed his excitement around exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought in Harley—the “Tone Poet” himself—to curate and oversee reissues of albums from Blue Note’s archives. The series launched in 2019, with reissues of Wayne Shorter’s Etcetera and Chick Corea’s Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.
