"LiPuma and Krasnow were young and vibrant men with a tremendous love of music. And they also had the expertise to back up that love. And they started signing all kinds of bands. It was the new image in music, and I think it was the best kind of image that we ever had in the music business. There was a sense in the air of a lot of adventure..."
From 1968 to 1978, Blue Thumb Records was one of music's most adventurous and imaginative record labels, with a far-ranging roster of cutting-edge acts and an unconventional visual sensibility. Nurturing an eclectic assortment of artists from a wide variety of genres, Blue Thumb embodied the restless creative spirit of the era in which it was born, reflecting the emerging attitude that albums were worthy of being taken seriously as artistic statements.
Blue Thumb's expansive musical vision was anthologized on the 1995 label retrospective All Day Thumbsucker Revisited. Today, October 27, Verve Records/UMe is releasing the long-out-of-print collection, originally compiled by Gary Katz, known for his work with Steely Dan, in an updated two-CD edition on the eve of next year's 50th anniversary of Blue Thumb's founding. The first in a projected series of releases to celebrate the revered label, the CD set offers 32 vintage tracks spread across two discs, while the digital edition, due November 10, marks the first time this collection will be available as a digital download and for streaming. In showcasing Blue Thumb's influential artist roster, the album also honors the iconoclastic musical vision of late label founders Bob Krasnow, who died on December 11, 2016, and Tommy LiPuma, who passed away on March 13, 2017.
Danny Bennett, President & CEO of Verve Label Group comments, "With the release of All Day Thumbsucker Revisited, we are so proud to honor Tommy LiPuma and Bob Krasnow by celebrating their Blue Thumb Records legacy and the incredible music they curated, all of which is well represented on this must-have collection."
As Joe Sample of the Crusaders observed, "LiPuma and Krasnow were young and vibrant men with a tremendous love of music. And they also had the expertise to back up that love. And they started signing all kinds of bands. It was the new image in music, and I think it was the best kind of image that we ever had in the music business.
There was a sense in the air of a lot of adventure," Sample notes. "The music business was making big, major changes; the newfound FM airwaves meant there was suddenly a whole new branch of radio stations that played music that would never be played on an AM station. Blue Thumb was one of the first companies that realized this new set of airwaves was important for music."
Commenting on Blue Thumb's early days, Sidran recalled, "They were running it, literally, out of three rooms. And they were making records that were consciously counter to what was going on. And nobody had done that... Krasnow was going out of his way to do something different."
