Alfred Lion

Alfred Lion (born Alfred Loew, April 21, 1908 – February 2, 1987), was a Jewish German-born American record executive who co-founded Blue Note Records in 1939. Blue Note recorded many of the biggest names in jazz throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

Alfred Lion was born to a German Jewish family, at Gotenstrasse 7 on the Rote Insel in Berlin, just two minutes' walk away from Marlene Dietrich's birthplace. His lifelong fascination with jazz began at the age of 16 when he saw a concert given by Sam Wooding's Orchestra in his native city. In 1926 Lion emigrated to the United States, but while working on the New York docks, he was attacked by an anti-immigrant fellow worker; he returned to Germany to convalesce. From 1933 Lion was based in South America, working for German import-export companies, only returning to New York in 1938. Lion's presence at one of the concerts given under the From Spirituals to Swing banner at Carnegie Hall inspired him to start his own record label.

In partnership with communist writer Max Margulis (he supplied the start-up capital) Lion founded Blue Note in 1939. In the label's first record session on January 6, Lion recorded two musicians who had impressed him at the earlier concert: the boogie-woogie pianists Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis. The company's first hit, recorded in the same year, was Sidney Bechet's recording of "Summertime". It was notable for being issued on a 12" 78rpm record instead of the then standard 10" owing to its length.

By the time Lion was drafted into the army, his Berlin childhood friend Francis Wolff had joined him, and under the wing of Milt Gabler and his Commodore Music Store, Wolff sustained the business in Lion's absence. (Margulis had by now permanently dropped out of any involvement with Blue Note.)

At the persuading of Ike Quebec, their artists and repertoire (A&R) man, Lion began to explore more modern developments in jazz, and Quebec introduced Lion to Thelonious Monk, the first 'modern' jazz musician Blue Note was to record. Blue Note's involvement with modern jazz was not total for several years, and Lion continued his label's association with Bechet and clarinetist George Lewis into the 1950s. Wolff would supervise few sessions himself until after Lion's retirement, concentrating on the company's business affairs.

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