Seventieth anniversaries are not usually considered a big deal — at least not compared to 75th or 50th ones — but if the folks at Blue Note Records want to treat the label’s 70th as a big deal, who’s going to complain?

There’s an additional hook to the Blue Note celebrations planned for next year: Not only is 2009 the 70th anniversary of the label’s founding by Alfred Lion; it is also the 25th anniversary of its rebirth as an active label under the direction of Bruce Lundvall, who has been in charge ever since. Considering that Blue Note remains a powerful force in the jazz record business at a time when the jazz record business isn’t exactly thriving (even if the label has been cheating a little bit in recent years by signing non-jazz artists like Al Green and Van Morrison), now seems as good a time as any for Blue Note to pay tribute to itself.

At least two jazz festivals next year will be marking the label’s anniversary. As noted elsewhere on this site, the Portland Jazz Festival in Oregon, recently rescued from financial oblivion, will present a roster consisting almost entirely of present and former Blue Note artists in February. And from March 30 through April 11, there will be something actually called the Blue Note Records Festival in France, although details (including where exactly in France it’s being held) are so far hard to come by.

According to the label, a number of other festivals, including the big ones in New York, Newport and Montreal, will be staging Blue Note tributes of their own. None of that can be verified until those festivals actually announce their schedules, but there’s no reason to doubt it will happen.

A newly assembled band, the Blue Note Seven, with a repertoire consisting of numbers originally recorded for the label and a lineup including Ravi Coltrane on saxophone, Nicholas Payton on trumpet and Bill Charlap on piano, will be releasing an album and embarking on a world tour in January. And New York City will host a month-long Blue Note celebration of its own on Jan. 27, with performances at the Village Vanguard, Jazz at Lincoln Center and other venues by a roster of current and former Blue Note artists ranging from Lou Donaldson to Wynton Marsalis to Norah Jones.

Not many record companies ever get this kind of sustained attention and adulation. But then again, not many record companies last 70 years.