The Blue Note Tone Poet Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was' admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley (from Music Matters), a.k.a. the "Tone Poet," on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.

The brawny tenor saxophonist Fred Jackson first appeared on a Blue Note record with his standout sideman performance on organist Baby Face Willette's Face To Face in 1961 and would later add his full-throttled sound to Big John Patton's Blue Note albums Along Came John and The Way I Feel. In 1962, Jackson recorded his own leader debut for the label with Hootin' ‘N Tootin', a deeply soulful set of hot-blooded originals performed by a muscular 4-piece band with guitarist Willie Jones, drummer Wilbert Hogan, and organist Earl Van Dyke, who would later become part of Motown house band the Funk Brothers.

This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI), and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.