The Zawinul Syndicate - World Tour [2 CD, 1998/FLAC]

This live 2-CD set is the fruit of a 1997 Zawinul Syndicate world tour. Powered by Abidjanian drummer Paco Sery and either long-time Zawinul associate Victor Baily or Richard Bona on bass, the group attains critical mass from the start, cooling down only when a change of pace is warranted.

The Oscar Peterson Trio – Live At The Blue Note (The Complete Recordings - March 16-18, 1990) [4 CD, 2004/FLAC]

 In March of 1990, Oscar Peterson played a two-week engagement at the Blue Note in New York with a group billed as the Oscar Peterson Trio, even though it contained four players. Peterson was on piano, Ray Brown was on bass, Herb Ellis was on guitar and Bobby Durham was on drums. The billing was no doubt intended to capitalize on the fact that Peterson, Brown and Ellis had been one of the most popular jazz trios of the 1950s. The three had rarely played together between 1958 and this 1990 New York gig.

Dinah Washington- Milestones of a Legend [10 CD, 2017/FLAC]

 

10-CD box set featuring nineteen original albums from the iconic jazz and blues vocalist Dinah Washington. Featuring Quincy Jones, Hal Mooney, Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson, Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Harold Land, Max Roach and Joe Zawinul.

Dinah Washington was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003. Two of her songs that have been included in the Grammy Hall of Fame are included in this set: "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" (1998) and "Unforgettable" (2001).

Johnny Griffin- The Complete Recordings 1960-1962 [2014]

 One of the all-time great tenor saxophonists, Johnny Griffin will go down in the annals of jazz as a performer easily able to negotiate the tricky harmonic changes and swift tempos of modern music. He'll also be remembered as a player who could masterfully interpret tender ballads, rivaling Ben Webster in that regard.

Count Basie - The Complete Roulette Live Recordings of Count Basie and His Orchestra (1958-1962) [8 CD, 1991/FLAC]

 

Count Basie is one jazz musician who was amply recorded throughout his career and has been the subject of numerous domestic and foreign reissue lines; yet, Mosaic has managed to release Count Basie material in a valuable fashion. This eight-disc set contains Basie recordings for the Roulette label from 1959 to 1962, the first of a two-part series covering his full Roulette output. These are live recordings; the studio sessions are coming on their own set. There are plenty of blues, relaxed swingers, and superb vocals. There is nothing revolutionary about this music, but its consistency and celebratory fiber remain impressive through every disc. While eight discs is a lot of time for one band, no matter how great (and they do frequently repeat some songs), the set provides a chance to replicate the experience of life on the road for a touring band.

Charlie Parker / The Man with the Saxophone (1941-1952) [10 CD, 2000/FLAC]

One of a handful of musicians who can be said to have permanently changed jazz, Charlie Parker was arguably the greatest saxophonist of all time. He could play remarkably fast lines that, if slowed down to half speed, would reveal that every note made sense. "Bird," along with his contemporaries Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, is considered a founder of bebop; in reality he was an intuitive player who simply was expressing himself. Rather than basing his improvisations closely on the melody as was done in swing, he was a master of chordal improvising, creating new melodies that were based on the structure of a song. In fact, Bird wrote several future standards (such as "Anthropology," "Ornithology," "Scrapple from the Apple," and "Ko Ko," along with such blues numbers as "Now's the Time" and "Parker's Mood") that "borrowed" and modernized the chord structures of older tunes. Parker's remarkable technique, fairly original sound, and ability to come up with harmonically advanced phrases that could be both logical and whimsical were highly influential. By 1950, it was impossible to play "modern jazz" with credibility without closely studying Charlie Parker. 

Lee Morgan - The Complete Blue Note 50s Sessions (4 CD, 1995/FLAC)

 Lee Morgan recorded for Blue Note in the late '50s, playing seven dates between 1956 and 1958. Morgan was still in his teens at the time and half of the joy of The Complete Blue Note Lee Morgan Fifties Sessions is hearing the trumpeter develop at a rapid rate. The four-disc box set The Complete Blue Note encompasses sessions with Horace Silver, Paul Chambers, Benny Golson, Wynton Kelly, Sonny Clarke, Doug Watkins, and Art Taylor. Morgan may have been young at the time these were recorded, but he was impressive even at the beginning, playing blistering hard bop and lyrical ballads with equal ease. He may have gone on to record greater, more influential albums but this music remains exciting, vital, and simply joyous. 

Art Pepper - Live At The Village Vanguard (4 CD, 1987/FLAC)

 Alto saxophonist Art Pepper recorded several albums during an extended stint at the Village Vanguard in 1977. They were originally issued as Live at the Vanguard, Vols. 1-4, then reissued using various weeknights as the reference. Either way, all are exceptional, with burning Pepper solos, outstanding secondary solos by pianist George Cables, and equally fine work from bassist George Mraz and drummer Elvin Jones. 

Sonny Rollins- The Prestige Years (5 CD, 2014) [FLAC]

 Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins, born September 7, 1930, remains one of the most influential and important American Jazz musicians of all time and is widely recognized as the finest tenor sax player in Jazz's long history. Although now well into his 80s, Rollins continues to perform and release new recordings. Rollins was born in New York City, to parents who were themselves born in the U S Virgin Islands. Rollins received his first saxophone at age 13, initially attracted to the jump and R&B sounds of performers like Louis Jordan, but soon he became drawn into the mainstream tenor sax tradition. Rollins began to make a name for himself in 1949 as he recorded with Johnson and Bud Powell what would later be called "hard bop", with Davis in 1951, with the Modern Jazz Quartet and with Monk in 1953, but the breakthrough arrived in 1954 when he recorded his famous compositions "Oleo", "Airegin" and "Doxy" with a quintet led by Miles Davis. Rollins was invited later in 1955 to join the Clifford Brown-Max Roach quintet. After Brown's death in 1956, Rollins continued to play with Roach and released his own albums on Prestige Records, Blue Note, Riverside, and the Los Angeles label Contemporary. His widely acclaimed album Saxophone Colossus was recorded on June 22, 1956, and included his best-known composition "St. Thomas". In 1956 he also recorded Tenor Madness, using Davis' group. The title track is the only recording of Rollins with John Coltrane, who was also in the group at this time. It was this musical titan's recordings made with Prestige 1953-1956 which established Sony Rollins as one amongst the finest Jazz players to grace the genre. This 5 CD set contains all 10 LPs Sonny Rollins made for Prestige Records, in their entirety, beginning with his collaboration with Theolonius Monk and The Modern Jazz Quartet, and moving through his classic works as leader of some of the finest Jazz combos ever to record together.

Weather Report - The Columbia Albums 1971-1975 (7 CD, 2012) [FLAC]

 For many, the story of Weather Report begins with the late 1970s albums that featured the addition of electric bassist Jaco Pastorius (as documented on 2011's box set, Weather Report: The Columbia Albums 1976-1982, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the band's formation). Yet what the six albums that make up this comprehensive collection prove beyond a shadow of a doubt is that the early to mid 1970s saw some of the most adventurous and satisfying work of Weather Report's entire lifespan. In fact, it's these recordings Weather Report, I Sing the Body Electric, Live In Tokyo, Sweetnighter, Mysterious Traveller and Tale Spinnin' that established Weather Report as one of the seminal fusion ensembles of the era, alongside such brethren bands as the Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Headhunters, and Return To Forever. With remastered sound and authoritative liner notes by Bill Milkowski, Weather Report: The Columbia Albums 1971-1975, is also noteworthy for the inclusion of the complete Live In Tokyo, (a handful of whose tracks had appeared on I Sing the Body Electric) which captures the band at a peak performance in 1972.

CD1 - Weather Report (1971) (00:45:01)

CD2 - I Sing the Body Electric (00:52:51)

CD3 - Live in Tokyo (1) (00:45:33)

CD4 - Live in Tokyo (2) 00:42:56)

CD5 - Sweetnighter (00:49:43)

CD6 - Mysterious Traveller (01:13:03)

CD7 - Tale Spinnin' (01:02:24)