Django Reinhardt - Chronological Classics 1934-1953 (15 CD)

 

Django Reinhardt was the first hugely influential jazz figure to emerge from Europe -- and he remains the most influential European to this day, with possible competition from Joe Zawinul, George Shearing, John McLaughlin, his old cohort Stephane Grappelli and a bare handful of others. A free-spirited gypsy, Reinhardt wasn't the most reliable person in the world, frequently wandering off into the countryside on a whim

 

 

Stan Kenton And His Orchestra - The Chronogical Classics 1940-1947 (5 CD/FLAC)

 

Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Kenton had several pop hits from the early 1940s into the 1960s, his music was always forward-looking. Kenton was also a pioneer in the field of jazz education, creating the Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in 1959 at Indiana University.

Henry “Red” Allen And His Orchestra - The Chronogical Classics 1929-1947 (FLAC)

 

Jazz history is full of innovators, interpreters, and individualists. The innovators change the way that the music is played and influence both their contemporaries and future generations while the interpreters perform the mainstream of the day or earlier styles, contributing fresh ideas to the music. The individualists are unique players who have their own sound and/or style. While they may not be major influences on others, they add to the legacy of jazz through their colorful musical personalities. Henry “Red” Allen was an individualist.

The last great trumpeter to emerge from New Orleans in the 1920s and arguably the most advanced of all of them. Allen’s playing remained unpredictable throughout his career. He was mostly heard in Dixieland, trad jazz and swing settings but the trumpeter tended to be more modern than his repertoire and his bands. His playing was quite speechlike and conversational, his phrasing sometimes almost ignored the beat, and he had a wide array of sounds, smears, and growls that sounded unlike anyone else. Allen was also an underrated vocalist who sang a bit like his trumpet playing and was a natural and masterful showman.

Andy Kirk - Chronogical Classics 1929-1948 (7 CD/FLAC)

 

Andrew Dewey Kirk (May 28, 1898 – December 11, 1992) was an American jazz saxophonist and tubist who led the Twelve Clouds of Joy, a band popular during the swing era.

He was born in Newport, Kentucky, United States. Kirk grew up in Denver, Colorado, where he was tutored by Wilberforce Whiteman, Paul Whiteman's father. Kirk started his musical career playing with George Morrison's band, but then went on to join Terrence Holder's Dark Clouds of Joy. In 1929, he was elected leader after Holder departed. Renaming the band Clouds of Joy, Kirk also relocated the band from Dallas, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri. Although named the Clouds of Joy, the band has also been known as the Twelve Clouds of Joy due to the number of musicians in the band. They set up in the Pla-Mor Ballroom on the junction of 32nd and Main in Kansas City and made their first recording for Brunswick Records that same year. Mary Lou Williams came in as pianist at the last moment, but she impressed Brunswick's Dave Kapp, so she became a member of the band.

 

Fats Waller - Chronogical Classics 1922-1940 (10 CD/FLAC)

 

Fats Waller seems never to have suffered from seasickness. Every photograph and eyewitness account of his transatlantic nautical adventures indicates a strong constitution, unfazed by rough seas even if the rest of the passengers were hanging over the rails. When Waller invaded London in August 1938, a team of Anglo and European musicians were assigned the task of accompanying him through the grooves of six phonograph recordings. Known for the rest of time as "Fats Waller & His Continental Rhythm," this band hammered out one amazing performance after the next. "Don't Try Your Jive on Me" and "Ain't Misbehavin'" both feature the organ, cool at first but gradually gathering steam and finishing grandly with horns in the air. "Music, Maestro Please" is late-'30s sentimentality at its finest, with tinkling celeste and even a bit of romantic violin. After Dr. Jekyll goes off to mope behind the potted palms, Mr. Hyde bursts in on a riotous version of Slim Gaillard's "Flat Foot Floogie" and an alarming ode to disappointed hopes with the catchy title "Pent Up in a Penthouse." Here Waller threatens to "step out the window and turn left," a frightening proposition for anyone occupying a suite so many floors up from the street. Fats's maniacal treatment of "A-Tisket A-Tasket" surpasses even the original version, made famous by its composer Ella Fitzgerald. One week after this combustible session, Fats placed himself at the console of a pipe organ, that instrument so dear to his heart. It is a crying shame that no recordings were made when Waller was granted access to the organ of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Fats later said he considered that to have been the greatest moment of his life. Back in London, the organist pointedly concentrated on spirituals, the music his father the Baptist preacher would have preferred. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is gorgeous. Near the end the music, the song seems to become partially composed of light as Waller's fingers create swirling tides of heavenly tonalities. Before the session was over, Fats was given the opportunity to accompany the lovely Adelaide Hall, famous for her wordless vocal on Duke Ellington's original version of "Creole Love Call." Some music critics, unable to enjoy Hall's diva approach, insist that she was "not a jazz singer." This is a very odd assessment considering all the wonderful jazz recordings she made throughout her long life, much of which was spent in Scandinavia, where she always received respectful admiration. Here Fats teases her with quips that help to spice up a very sweet pair of love songs. Back in New York and bolstered by His Rhythm, Fats wrestled with his repertoire, still saddled with droopy titles like "I'll Never Forgive Myself." While "Two Sleepy People" is pleasant, it pales when compared with Waller's lusty V-Disc version of 1943. Here in the waning weeks of 1938, "You Look Good to Me" is the best of the vocal tracks, second only to the bouncy instrumental "Yacht Club Swing."

Claude Hopkins And His Orchestra - The Chronogical Classics 1932-1940 (3 CD/FLAC)

 

Claude Driskett Hopkins (August 24, 1903 – February 19, 1984) was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader. 

Hopkins was born into a well-educated, middle-class family, both parents being members of the faculty of Howard University. He studied formally at Howard before starting a career as a dance band pianist. In the mid-20s he visited Europe as leader of a band accompanying Joséphine Baker. Later in the decade and into the early 30s he worked in and around New York, leading bands at many prestigious dancehalls, including the Savoy and Roseland. In 1934 he began a residency at the Cotton Club, sharing headline space with the Jimmie Lunceford band, which lasted until the club closed its Harlem premises in February 1936. In the late 30s and early 40s Hopkins toured extensively but folded the band in 1942. He regularly employed first-class musicians such as Hilton Jefferson, Edmond Hall, Vic Dickenson and Jabbo Smith. After a spell outside music he returned to the scene, fronting a band in New York in 1948, and continued to appear in the city and other east coast centres, with large and small groups, into the 70s. Among the musicians with whom he performed during these years were Henry ‘Red’ Allen, Wild Bill Davison and Roy Eldridge. The bands which Hopkins led always had a relaxed, lightly swinging sound, eschewing powerhouse bravura performances.

 

Gene Krupa - Chronogical Classics 1935-1945 (7 CD/FLAC)

 

Gene Krupa, in full Eugene Bertram Krupa, (born January 15, 1909, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.—died October 16, 1973, Yonkers, New York), American jazz drummer who was perhaps the most popular percussionist of the swing era.

After the death of his father, Krupa went to work at age 11 as an errand boy for a music company. He soon earned enough money to purchase a musical instrument and decided upon a drum set because it was the least expensive instrument in a wholesale catalog. In the early 1920s, Krupa learned from and sometimes jammed with many of the great jazz performers who were then in Chicago, receiving his greatest inspiration from New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds. Immersing himself in the study of jazz, Krupa began to play in several Chicago-area jazz groups with musicians such as Frank Teschmacher, Bix Beiderbecke, and his future employer Benny Goodman.

 

Don Byas - The Chronogical Classics 1944-1953 (6 CD/FLAC)

 

One of the greatest of all tenor players, Don Byas' decision to move permanently to Europe in 1946 resulted in him being vastly underrated in jazz history books. His knowledge of chords rivalled Coleman Hawkins, and, due to their similarity in tones, Byas can be considered an extension of the elder tenor. He played with many top swing bands, including those of Lionel Hampton (1935), Buck Clayton (1936), Don Redman, Lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk (1939-1940), and most importantly Count Basie (1941-1943). An advanced swing stylist, Byas' playing looked toward bop. He jammed at Minton's Playhouse in the early '40s, appeared on 52nd Street with Dizzy Gillespie, and performed a pair of stunning duets with bassist Slam Stewart at a 1944 Town Hall concert. 

After recording extensively during 1945-1946 (often as a leader), Byas went to Europe with Don Redman's band, and (with the exception of a 1970 appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival) never came back to the U.S. He lived in France, the Netherlands, and Denmark; often appeared at festivals; and worked steadily. Whenever American players were touring, they would ask for Byas, who had opportunities to perform with Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz at the Philharmonic (including a recorded tenor battle with Hawkins and Stan Getz), Art Blakey, and (on a 1968 recording) Ben Webster. Byas also recorded often in the 1950s, but was largely forgotten in the U.S. by the time of his death. 

Charlie Barnet - Chronogical Classics 1936-1940 (6 CD/FLAC)

 

Charlie Barnet was unusual in several ways. One of the few jazzmen to be born a millionaire, Barnet was a bit of a playboy throughout his life, ending up with a countless number of ex-wives and anecdotes. He was one of the few white big band leaders of the swing era to openly embrace the music of Duke Ellington (he also greatly admired Count Basie). Barnet was a pioneer in leading integrated bands (as early as 1935). And, although chiefly a tenor saxophonist (where he developed an original sound out of the style of Coleman Hawkins), Barnet was an effective emulator of Johnny Hodges on alto in addition to being virtually the only soprano player (other than Sidney Bechet) in the 1930s and '40s.

And yet Charlie Barnet was only significant in jazz for about a decade (1939-1949). Although his family wanted him to be a lawyer, he was a professional musician by the time he was 16 and ironically in his career made more money than he would have in business. Barnet arrived in New York in 1932 and started leading bands on records the following year, but his career was quite erratic until 1939. Many of Barnet's early records are worthy but some are quite commercial as he attempted to find a niche. Best is a sideman appearance on a 1934 Red Norvo date that also includes Artie Shaw and Teddy Wilson.

In 1939, with the hit recording of "Cherokee" and a very successful run at the Famous Door in New York, Charlie Barnet soon became a household name. In addition to the fine trumpeter Bobby Burnet (who soloed on many of Barnet's Bluebird records), such sidemen as guitarist Bus Etri; drummer Cliff Leeman; singers Lena Horne, Francis Wayne, and Kay Starr; pianist Dodo Marmarosa; clarinetist Buddy DeFranco; guitarist Barney Kessel; and even trumpeter Roy Eldridge spent time with Barnet's bands. Although at the height of his popularity during 1939-1942 (when his orchestra could often play a close imitation of Ellington's), Barnet's recordings for Decca during 1942-1946 were also of great interest with "Skyliner" being a best-seller.

By 1947 Barnet was starting to look toward bop. Clark Terry was his star trumpeter that year, and in 1949 his screaming trumpet section included Maynard Ferguson, Doc Severinsen, Rolf Ericson, and Ray Wetzel. Barnet, however, soon lost interest and near the end of 1949 he broke up his band. Semi-retired throughout the remainder of his life, Charlie Barnet occasionally led swing-oriented big bands during short tours and appearances, making his last recording in 1966.

 

Roy Eldridge - Chronogical Classics (1935-1951) (4 CD/FLAC)

 

David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), commonly known as Roy Eldridge, and nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from the smooth and lyrical style of earlier jazz trumpet innovator Louis Armstrong, and his strong impact on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most influential musicians of the swing era and a precursor of bebop.

 

Wynonie Harris - Chronogical Classics 1944-1952 (4 CD/FLAC)

 Wynonie Harris (August 24, 1915 – June 14, 1969) was an American blues shouter and rhythm-and-blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. He had fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952. Harris is attributed by many music scholars to be one of the founding fathers of rock and roll. His Good Rocking Tonight is especially mentioned at least as a precursor to rock and roll.

His dirty blues repertoire included "Lolly Pop Mama" (1948), "I Like My Baby's Pudding" (1950), "Sittin on It All the Time" (1950), "Keep On Churnin' (Till the Butter Comes)" (1952), and "Wasn't That Good" (1953). 

 

Johnny Dodds - Chronogical Classics 1926-1940 (4 CD/FLAC)

Johnny Dodds (April 12, 1892 – August 8, 1940) was an American New Orleans based jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist, best known for his recordings under his own name and with bands such as those of Joe "King" Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Lovie Austin and Louis Armstrong. Dodds (pronounced "dots") was also the older brother of drummer Warren "Baby" Dodds. The pair worked together in the New Orleans Bootblacks in 1926.

Born in Waveland, Mississippi, United States, he moved to New Orleans in his youth, and studied clarinet with Lorenzo Tio. He played with the bands of Frankie Duson, Kid Ory, and Joe "King" Oliver. Dodds went to Chicago and played with Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, with which he first recorded in 1923. Dodds also worked frequently with his good friend Natty Dominique during this period, a professional relationship that would last a lifetime. After the breakup of Oliver's band in 1924, Dodds replaced Alcide Nunez as the house clarinetist and bandleader of Kelly's Stables. He recorded with numerous small groups in Chicago, most notably Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7, and Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers.

Noted for his professionalism and virtuosity as a musician, and his heartfelt, heavily blues-laden style, Dodds was an important influence on later clarinetists, notably Benny Goodman.

Dodds did not record for most of the 1930s, affected by ill health. He died of a heart attack in Chicago, in August 1940.

In 1987, Dodds was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
 

 

Cab Calloway - Chronogical Classics 1940-1949 (5 CD/FLAC)

 

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer, dancer, bandleader and actor. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years.

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the most popular dance bands in the United States from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole.

Calloway had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming known as the "Hi-de-ho" man of jazz for his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher", originally recorded in 1931. He reached the Billboard charts in five consecutive decades (1930s–1970s). Calloway also made several stage, film, and television appearances until his death in 1994 at the age of 86. He had roles in Stormy Weather (1943), Porgy and Bess (1953), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Hello Dolly! (1967). His career saw renewed interest when he appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.

Calloway was the first African American musician to sell a million records from a single and to have a nationally syndicated radio show. In 1993, Calloway received the National Medal of Arts from the United States Congress. He posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. His song "Minnie the Moocher" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2019. He is also inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame and the International Jazz Hall of Fame. 

 

Jimmie Noone - Chronogical Classics 1923-1940 (5 CD/FLAC)

 

Jimmie Noone (or Jimmy Noone; April 23, 1895 – April 19, 1944) was an American jazz clarinetist.


Noone was born in Cut Off, Louisiana, and started playing guitar in his home town; at the age of 15, he switched to the clarinet and moved to New Orleans, where he studied with Lorenzo Tio and with the young Sidney Bechet, who was only 13 at the time. By 1912, he was playing professionally with Freddie Keppard in Storyville, and played with Buddy Petit, Kid Ory, Papa Celestin, the Eagle Band, and the Young Olympia Band, before joining the Original Creole Orchestra in Chicago, Illinois in 1917. The following year, he joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, then in 1920 joined Keppard in Doc Cook's band which he would remain with for six years, and make early recordings with. In 1926, he started leading the band at Chicago's Apex Club. This band, Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, was notable for its unusual instrumentation—a front line consisting of just Noone and alto saxophonist/clarinetist Joe Poston, who had worked with Noone in Doc Cook's band. The influential Pittsburgh-born pianist Earl Hines was also in the band for a time.

Noone signed with Brunswick in May, 1928 and was assigned to their Vocalion label. From his first session yielded "Four or Five Times" b/w "Every Evening (I Miss You") (Vocalion 1185), which was a best seller. He continued recording for Vocalion prolifically through February, 1935. He then signed with Decca in early 1936 and one session each for Decca in 1936, 1937 and 1940. He did one session for Bluebird also in 1940.

In 1935, Noone moved to New York City to start a band and a (short-lived) club with Wellman Braud. He then returned to Chicago where he played at various clubs until 1943, when he moved to Los Angeles, California. Shortly after he joined Kid Ory's band, which was featured for a time on a radio program hosted by Orson Welles. Noone played a few broadcasts with the band, but died suddenly of a heart attack. The Ory band, with New Orleans-born clarinetist Wade Whaley, played a blues (titled "Blues for Jimmie" by Welles) in his honor on the radio, and the number eventually became a regular feature for the Ory band. He died, aged 48, in Los Angeles, California.

 

John Kirby - Chronogical Classics 1938-1946 (4 CD/FLAC)

 John Kirby (December 31, 1908 – June 14, 1952), was an American jazz double-bassist, who also played trombone and tuba. In addition to sideman work (prominently with Benny Goodman), Kirby is remembered for leading a successful chamber jazz sextet in the late 1930s and early 1940s, which scored several hit songs including "Loch Lomond" and the debut recording of "Undecided", a jazz standard. 

 

Ethel Waters - Chronogical Classics 1921-1947 (7 CD/FLAC)

 Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.

Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I Blue?", and "Cabin in the Sky", as well as her version of the spiritual "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Academy Award.

 

Bud Freeman - Chronological Classics 1928-1946 [4 CD/FLAC]

 Lawrence "Bud" Freeman (April 13, 1906 – March 15, 1991) was an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, known mainly for playing the tenor saxophone, but also able at the clarinet. He had a smooth and full tenor sax style with a heavy robust swing. He was one of the most influential and important jazz tenor saxophonists of the Big Band era. His major recordings were "The Eel", "Tillie's Downtown Now", "Crazeology", "The Buzzard", and "After Awhile", composed with Benny Goodman.

 

Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra - Chronogical Classics 1923-1932 (4 CD/FLAC)

 Bennie Moten (November 13, 1894 – April 2, 1935) was a noted American jazz pianist and band leader born in Kansas City, Missouri.

He led the Kansas City Orchestra, the most important of the itinerant, blues-based orchestras active in the Midwest in the 1920s, and helped to develop the riffing style that would come to define many of the 1930s Big Bands.

Jess Stacy - Chronogical Classics 1935-1956 (3 CD, 1994-2007/FLAC)

 One of the Swing Era’s piano greats who isn’t as well known today as those named above was Jess Stacy. Stacy was born in Missouri in 1904 and grew up in Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River. At 14, Stacy was captivated by the music played on riverboats arriving from New Orleans and eventually played with Bix Beiderbecke in the 1920s and other artists and bands in the 1930s. He joined Benny Goodman in the mid-1930s, playing with the band at the famed Palomar Ballroom concert in 1935 and at Carnegie Hall in 1938. Stacy, who was influenced by Hines and Wilson, left Goodman in the early 1940s, rejoined in ’42 before leaving for Tommy Dorsey. He moved to Los Angeles in the ’50s but left the music business after being heckled by a drunk in a small club. For a time, he was married to singer Lee Wiley.

 

Erroll Garner - Chronogical Classics 1944-1954 (17 CD)

 Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1923 – January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard.

Garner's first recordings were made in late 1944 at the apartment of Timme Rosenkrantz; these were subsequently issued as the five-volume Overture to Dawn series on Blue Note Records. His recording career advanced in the late 1940s when several sides such as "Fine and Dandy" and "Sweet 'n' Lovely" were cut. However, his 1955 live album Concert by the Sea was a best-selling jazz album in its day and features Eddie Calhoun on bass and Denzil Best on drums. This recording of a performance at the Sunset Center, a former church in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, that was to be shared with Korean War veterans at a nearby army base, was made using relatively primitive sound equipment, but for George Avakian the decision to release the recording was easy. Other works include 1951's Long Ago and Far Away and 1974's Magician, both of which see Garner perform a number of classic standards. Often the trio was expanded to add Latin percussion, usually a conga.

In 1964, Garner appeared in the UK on the music series Jazz 625 broadcast on the BBC's new second channel. The programme was hosted by Steve Race, who introduced Garner's trio with Eddie Calhoun on bass and Kelly Martin on drums.

Since Garner could not write down his musical ideas, he used to record them on tape, to be later transcribed by others.

Erroll Garner - 1944 {The Chronological Classics, 802} [77:36]
Erroll Garner - 1944, Vol. 2 {The Chronological Classics, 818} [72:01]
Erroll Garner - 1944, Vol. 3 {The Chronological Classics, 850} [69:54]
Erroll Garner - 1944-1945 {The Chronological Classics, 873} [70:53]
Erroll Garner - 1945-1946 {The Chronological Classics, 924} [56:53]
Erroll Garner - 1946-1947 {The Chronological Classics, 1004} [66:11]
Erroll Garner - 1947-1949 {The Chronological Classics, 1109} [68:58]
Erroll Garner - 1949 {The Chronological Classics, 1138} [67:43]
Erroll Garner - 1949, Vol. 2 {The Chronological Classics, 1182} [64:03]
Erroll Garner - 1949-1950 {The Chronological Classics, 1205} [70:09]
Erroll Garner - 1950 {The Chronological Classics, 1240} [72:50]
Erroll Garner - 1950-1951 {The Chronological Classics, 1310} [71:31]
Erroll Garner - 1951-1952 {The Chronological Classics, 1341} [65:51]
Erroll Garner - 1952-1953 {The Chronological Classics, 1370} [76:00]
Erroll Garner - 1953 {The Chronological Classics, 1391} [73:55]
Erroll Garner - 1953-1954 {The Chronological Classics, 1423} [72:25]
Erroll Garner - 1954 {The Chronological Classics, 1447} [76:13]