VA - V Disc - The Songs That Went To War (WWII 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition) [4 CD, 1992/FLAC]

 During World War II a strike by the Musicians Union kept professional players off records for a long period. To fill the gap, a special "V-Disc" program was instituted to provide new music for military personnel serving overseas. This attractive four-CD box set from Time-Life contains 79 performances by a wide variety of artists from the period. Most of the music is jazz but there are some numbers from pop performers; such notables as Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, San Kenton, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, the Nat King Cole Trio, Muggsy Spanier, Hoagy Carmicahel, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge, Paul Robeson, Hot Lips Page, Marian Anderson, Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong, Bunk Johnson, Les Paul and even Ethel Merman make strong appearances. There is a lot of valuable music on this well-conceived reissue. 

Gerry Mulligan with Chet Baker - Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings (4 CD, 1996/FLAC)

 

Baritonist Gerry Mulligan's pianoless quartet of 1952-1953 with trumpeter Chet Baker was one of the most popular groups of the period and an influential force on West Coast Jazz. Mulligan's interplay with Baker looked back toward the collective improvisation of Dixieland but utilized up-to-date harmonies. This four-CD set overlaps with a previous (and now out-of-print) five-LP Mosaic box. In addition to all of the Pacific Jazz (as opposed to Fantasy and GNP/Crescendo) recordings of the Mulligan Quartet (including the hit version of "My Funny Valentine"), this box has a few slightly earlier titles that find Mulligan gradually forming the group (even utilizing pianist Jimmie Rowles on two songs), tunes from live sessions in which altoist Lee Konitz made the band a quintet, the 1957 Mulligan-Baker set called Reunion, and an Annie Ross date from the same period (leaving out the numbers that have Art Farmer in Baker's place). Despite both musicians remaining active for over 30 years, Mulligan and Baker only teamed up again on one occasion, for a 1970s Carnegie Hall concert released by CTI. The consistently delightful music on this box (much of which is classic) is highly recommended for all jazz collections.

Miles Davis - Live-Evil [2 CD, 1971/FLAC]

Live-Evil is one of Miles Davis' most confusing and illuminating documents. As a double album, it features very different settings of his band -- and indeed two very different bands. The double-LP CD package is an amalgam of a December 19, 1970, gig at the Cellar Door, which featured a band comprised of Miles, bassist Michael Henderson, drummer Jack DeJohnette, guitarist John McLaughlin, saxophonist Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett on organ, and percussionist Airto. These tunes show a septet that grooved hard and fast, touching on the great funkiness that would come on later.

The Modern Jazz Quartet - Dedicated To Connie (2 CD, 1960/FLAC)

 

Dedicated to Connie Kay after his death, this concert LP, recorded in Slovenia in 1960, found the Modern Jazz Quartet (which included pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and bassist Percy Heath) in surprisingly inspired form, playing their usual repertoire of the time. Highlights include a 23-minute medley of John Lewis compositions, "Bag's Groove," "It Don't Mean a Thing," "Django," "How High the Moon," and "Skating in Central Park." Lewis has stated that the group never played better than during this concert. Although that statement is debatable, the MJQ certainly sounds in prime form throughout the easily recommended release. 

•     Milt Jackson - vibraphone
•     John Lewis - piano
•     Percy Heath - bass
•     Connie Kay - drums

Brad Mehldau discography [1993-2020]

 

Brad Mehldau (born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist. Besides leading his own group, the Brad Mehldau Trio, he has performed with many renowned artists, including Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Larry Grenadier, Peter Bernstein, Jeff Ballard, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Brian Blade, Jimmy Cobb, classical vocalists Renée Fleming and Anne Sofie von Otter, and singer-songwriters Chris Thile and John Mayer.

Don Byas Quartet - The Complete 1946-1954 Paris Recordings (3 CD, 2011/FLAC)

 

This release contains all of the quartet recordings that Don Byas made for French labels between 1946 and 1954. Byas' accompaniment on these tracks consisted of renowned local musicians like Martial Solal and Pierre Michelot, as well as other illustrious American figures likes Mary Lou Williams and Beryl Booker. All of these quartets follow the traditional jazz formation of tenor sax backed by a rhythm section of piano, bass and drums. 

Wes Montgomery - The Montgomeryland Sessions (2CD, 2013/FLAC)

 

This release contains the complete classic albums “The Montgomery Brothers & Five Others” (1958), “Montgomeryland” (1959) and “Wes, Buddy & Monk” (1958). Also included are all the songs featuring solos by Wes Montgomery from the LPs “Kismet” (1958) and A Good Git Together (1959) and, as a final bonus, a rare 1955 Montgomery Brothers version of “Love for Sale” appearing here on CD for the first time ever - taken from a long out of print compilation LP called appropriately, “Almost Forgotten”. 

Bob Brookmeyer - Mosaic Select 9 (3 CD, 2004/FLAC)

 The Bob Brookmeyer volume in the Mosaic Select series is one of the more enlightening issues in that it not only includes his little-known debut quartet sides for Pacific Jazz in 1954, featuring Red Mitchell, but more importantly, brings back into print his classic Traditionalism Revisited, Street Swingers, and Kansas City Revisited albums from 1957 and 1958. These sides in particular showcased Brookmeyer's fantastic compositional and arrangement skills even better than his work with Gerry Mulligan. Some of the players on these sessions include Jimmy Giuffre, Jim Hall, Ralph Pena, Jimmy Raney, Paul Quinichette, and Dave Bailey. Brookmeyer was a complete traditionalist, but an unusual harmonist. His charts extrapolated the essence and melodic purity of the earlier jazz material and read it into the advanced harmonic theories of the day on the West Coast, as well as brought it's "cool" ambience to the proceedings -- whether the tempo was up or down. In addition to this music, there are tracks that first saw the light of day on the Playboy Jazz All Stars compilation, and Brookmeyer's self-titled album on Crown. The Street Swingers disc, in particular, with its quintet setting putting Hall, Raney, and Brookmeyer on the frontline, is a masterpiece. Also from 1958 is the Stretching Out album originally issued on United Artists with Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, as well as Hank Jones, Charlie Persip, and Freddie Green on guitar. This is a smoking, wonderfully up-tempo session full of many colors and textures, and showcases Brookmeyer's charts at his developmental peak. In all, there are the four complete albums, some alternate takes, and compilation sides, making this essential for not only Brookmeyer fans, but West Coast jazz collectors as well.

Billie Holiday - Rare Live Recordings 1934-1959 (5 CD, 2007/FLAC)

 

These rare treasures take you all across Billie's career-from '35, the year she debuted at the Apollo and first charted, to '59, the year she died. The stunning early performances include a 20-year-old Billie with Ellington in '35 and a 1937 radio broadcast from the Savoy Hotel in NY with the Basie Orchestra; you'll also hear rare rehearsal tapes, her Monterey '58 performance, songs on The Eddie Condon Show, The Tonight Show, The Steve Allen Show, an impromptu recording of Billie and friends singing My Yiddish Mamma, and more with Art Tatum, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and more! Includes 129 tracks: Swing Brother Swing; Fine and Mellow; I'll Get By; Billie's Blues; All of Me; Lover Man; Them There Eyes; You're My Thrill; I Cover the Waterfront; Porgy; Tenderly; God Bless the Child; My Man; Moanin' Low; Ghost of a Chance, and more.

Cannonball Adderley - The Black Messiah (2 CD, 1972/FLAC)

A massive live set from Cannonball Adderley – and a record that really shows the growth he'd undergone in just a few short years! The album's done in close collaboration with David Axelrod – who'd handled Cannon's big live dates for Capitol in the 60s – but this record is much more freewheeling, open-ended, fuzz, funky, and electric overall! Tracks are all nice and long, and really trip out in the best way – with keyboards from George Duke in the core group, plus some heavy basslines from Walter Booker, drums from Roy McCurdy, and guitar from Mike Deasy on a number of key tracks.