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.

 

Verve Jazzclub - Legends [30 CD]

 

Universal/Verve music The JAZZ CLUB series adds an attractive budget line to the Verve catalogue. With its modern design and popular choice of repertoire, the JAZZ CLUB is not only opened for Jazz fans, but for everyone that loves good music

 

• Antonio Carlos Jobim - One Note Samba (2006)
• Astrud Gilberto - Non-Stop To Brazil (2006)
• Billie Holiday - Lady Sings The Blues (2006)
• Charlie Parker - Now's The Time (2008)
• Charly Antolini - Power Drummer (2007)
• Chick Corea - Electric Chick (2008)
• Connie Francis - Cocktail Connie (2009)
• Dizzy Gillespie - Live In Berlin (2006)
• Ella & Louis - Singing And Swinging Together (2011)
• Ella Fitzgerald - Live In San Francisco (2006)
• George Duke - Keyboard Giant (2007)
• George Shearing - Swinging In A Latin Mood (2006)
• Incognito - Always There (2010)
• James Brown - The Soul Brother's Jazz (2010)
• Jimmy Smith - Plays Red Hot Blues (2009)
• Klaus Doldinger - Shakin' The Blues (2008)
• Louis Armstrong - Let's Fall In Love (2006)
• Monty Alexander - Piano Genius (2012)
• Nat King Cole - Classic Recordings (2009)
• Oscar Peterson - Fly Me To The Moon (2006)
• Paco De Lucia - Flamenco Virtuoso (2008)
• Quincy Jones - Swinging The Big Band (2006)
• Roy Ayers - Soulful Vibes (2013)
• Sonny Rollins - Rollin' With Rollins (2012)
• Stan Getz - Body And Soul (2006)
• Stephane Grappelli - Tribute To Django Reinhardt (2009)
• Swingle Singers - Swinging The Classics (2009)
• The Andrews Sisters - Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen (2007)
• The Singers Unlimited - Feelings (2007)
• Wes Montgomery - Bumpin' On Sunset (2007)

Herbie Hancock - The Herbie Hancock Box (4 CD, 2002/FLAC)

Given that Blue Note Records has issued a definitive 1960s box set of Hancock’s earliest—and some consider his most seminal—work, and the literally dozens of best-of’s that have been issued, more by Columbia than by anybody else, this set with its spare futuristic design might at first glance seem like overkill, as in, “do we really need another Herbie Hancock collection, especially a damned box set?” In this case, it’s very important to take a second and even third look.

The material covered here encompasses a whopping 23 albums recorded over 13 years! There are 34 tracks spread out over these four discs, and while little here is completely unreleased, a number of cuts have never been made available in the States before. Lastly, given all of the Hancock material on the market, this set is the only one to capture the huge depth and breadth of Hancock’s musically restless vision as it has been recorded. The discs are not presented in chronological order, and that, too, is in keeping with Hancock’s modus operandi.

Disc one starts with the first V.S.O.P. project from 1976, which was the Miles quintet with Freddie Hubbard playing all new tunes, so you hear the introduction to “Maiden Voyage” and the track itself. Next, it shifts to 1979 with Hancock’s Live Under the Sky album, with a killer version of “Para Oriente,” and then shifts yet again to The Piano album in 1979, where Hancock plays a “Harvest Time” solo, before moving to “The Sorcerer” from the Quartet album of 1982. Before the disc has concluded, you’ve moved through more V.S.O.P., and the theme from the Round Midnight soundtrack.

Disc two offers more of these same treatments from the same periods generally, but it features a killer version of V.S.O.P. going for broke on a completely unreleased version of Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay” from 1977.

Disc three is nearly worth the price of the box alone. This is where you get to explore the electric side of Hancock, and the various guises he worked under from the time he immediately left Miles and worked with some musicians who were totally outside his frame of reference. For instance, there is the glorious “Rain Dance” from 1972, with a large band that included trombonist Julian Priester, synthesist Patrick Gleeson, and drummer Billy Hart. Also, along with more well-known classics such as “Watermelon Man,” from Head Hunters, you get tracks from Flood; Thrust; the killer Death Wish title theme with Wah Wah Watson and Lee Ritenour on guitars; “Sun Touch,” from Man-Child, featuring the most beautiful flute solo ever played by Ernie Watts; Secrets; Sunlight; and the outstanding “4 A.M.,” from the Mr. Hands album. This track, with a quartet that features the late Jaco Pastorius, Tony Williams, and percussionist Bill Summers, reveals the amazing depth of empathy Hancock had for the musicians he employed. His trading of lower runs with Jaco provides a listen to how tender Pastorius could be when presented with a keyboard player who was content to let him sing on the bass, and also how Hancock never has the need to dominate the proceedings, preferring to let the band speak for itself on his tunes.

Disc four also features Hancock’s more electric ventures. While the material ranges chronologically from “Chameleon” on Head Hunters to a Bill Laswell remake of “Maiden Voyage” in 1988, the sense of continuity that the rest of the box has doesn’t seem to flow as easily. The rather jarring juxtapositions of “Stars in Your Eyes,” from 1980’s Monster, to “Rockit,” in 1983, to “Calypso” from Mr. Hands in 1980, to “Nobu,” in 1974, is too vast an expanse—mood-wise as well as aesthetically—to bridge. Perhaps it’s the range of musicians that includes everyone from Ray Parker Jr. and Sheila E to Harvey Mason and Tony Williams, just to name a few. While the individual bands add up to pure delight, the track-to-track moves atmospheres, even in the funk-hip-hop worldview from bumpin’ street funk to jagged, angular grooves, to near-overdriven bass, and time-lines that obliterate continuity.
In all, this is a small complaint; doubtless, many will use the random feature on a CD player to remedy this, or the programming feature. The Herbie Hancock Box does stand as a more than representative view of the musician’s work with Columbia and reveals how lasting and influential his contributions have been, as well as how diverse, and that’s really the point. Hours upon hours of pleasure await the listener who drops the cash for this fine artifact.

DISC ONE (01:12:44)

01. Introduction to Maiden Voyage (Herbie Hancock) 04:33

02. Maiden Voyage (Herbie Hancock) 13:21

03. Para Oriente [live, feat. The V.S.O.P. Quintet] (Tony Williams) 07:16

04. Harvest Time (Herbie Hancock) 04:49

05. The Sorcerer (Herbie Hancock) 07:19

06. Diana [live, feat. The V.S.O.P. Quintet] (Wayne Shorter) 04:34

07. Finger Painting [feat. The V.S.O.P. Quintet] (Herbie Hancock) 06:45

08. ’Round Midnight [feat. Bobby McFerrin] (Bernie Hanighen / Thelonious Monk / Cootie Williams) 05:36

09. The Eye of the Hurricane (Herbie Hancock) 18:32

DISC TWO (01:09:17)

01. Domo (Herbie Hancock) 12:24

02. Dolphin Dance (Herbie Hancock) 10:18

03. Liza (All the Clouds’ll Roll Away) (George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin / Gus Kahn) 08:52

04. Eighty-One (Ron Carter / Miles Davis) 13:03

05. Milestones (Miles Davis) 06:39

06. Stella by Starlight-On Green Dolphin Street (Bronislaw Kaper / Ned Washington / Victor Young) 07:06

07. Red Clay (Freddie Hubbard) 10:55

DISC THREE (01:07:50)

01. Rain Dance (Herbie Hancock) 09:17

02. Watermelon Man (Herbie Hancock) 06:30

03. Butterfly (Herbie Hancock / Bennie Maupin) 11:19

04. Death Wish (Main Title) (Herbie Hancock) 06:12

05. Actual Proof (Herbie Hancock) 08:28

06. Sun Touch (Herbie Hancock) 05:09

07. 4 A.M. (Herbie Hancock) 05:23

08. Come Running to Me (Herbie Hancock / Allee Willis) 08:25

09. People Music (Herbie Hancock / Paul Jackson / Melvin Ragin) 07:08

DISC FOUR (01:07:58)

01. Chameleon (Herbie Hancock / Paul Jackson / Bennie Maupin / Harvey Mason, Sr.) 15:41

02. Stars in Your Eyes (Lisa Capuano / Gavin Christopher / Herbie Hancock / Ray Parker, Jr.) 07:05

03. Rockit (Michael Beinhorn / Herbie Hancock / Bill Laswell) 05:26

04. Calypso (Herbie Hancock) 06:43

05. Satisfied with Love (Herbie Hancock / Jean Hancock) 06:31

06. Karabali (Herbie Hancock / Daniel Ponce) 05:16

07. Spider (Herbie Hancock / Paul Jackson / Melvin Ragin) 07:21

08. Nobu (Herbie Hancock) 07:23

09. Maiden Voyager / P. Bop (Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner / Bootsy Collins / Herbie Hancock / Bill Laswell) 06:33 

Freddie Slack - Mosaic Select 18 (3 CD, 2005/FLAC)

 Freddie Slack was the pianist with Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra during part of the 1930s before becoming well known for playing boogie-woogie with Will Bradley's band, most notably on the hit "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar."

 In 1941 Slack went out on his own, forming a big band that soon signed with the Capitol label. His hit recording of "Cow Cow Boogie" in 1942 with singer Ella Mae Morse made him famous even though none of his other records caught on at the same level. Slack's orchestra just lasted two years and, although he had a new band during 1945-1946, many of his recordings were made with small groups. With the exception of a slightly earlier four-song session for Decca, five songs that were purposely bypassed, and a 1955 album of boogie-woogie and re-creations, all of Slack's recordings as a leader are on this three-CD set. 

There are 17 previously unreleased performances, including a five-song session from 1946 and three numbers from 1952. It is particularly interesting to hear the influence of bebop being felt in Slack's playing and some of the arrangements although he mostly remained a swing stylist. While most of his sidemen are little known, T-Bone Walker pops up on a few numbers (including two features), guitarists Remo Palmieri, Al Hendrickson, and Tiny Timbrell are assets, and every vocal by Ella Mae Morse is well worth hearing. In addition, Johnny Mercer is a guest on several tunes. The three-fer is wrapped up by all seven recordings by drummer Ray McKinley's long-forgotten 1942 big band, a band with trumpeters Dick Cathcart and Pete Candoli, valve trombonist Brad Gowans, clarinetist Mahlon Clark, and pianist Lou Stein in the personnel. Overall, this is a well-conceived release of mostly obscure but worthy music.

 

Charles Mingus - The Complete Debut Recordings [12 CD, 1990]

 

This mammoth 12-CD box set may not contain Charles Mingus' most significant recordings (those would take place shortly after these sessions), but there is a remarkable amount of exciting and somewhat innovative music in this reissue of all of the dates recorded for Mingus' Debut label. There are duets and trios with pianist Spaulding Givens, a variety of odd third stream originals (some with vocalist Jackie Paris and altoist Lee Konitz), the famous Massey Hall concert with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie (heard in two versions, one with Mingus' overdubbed bass), a four-trombone date with J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, Bennie Green, and Willie Dennis, trio sets with pianists Paul Bley, Hazel Scott, and the obscure John Dennis, a quintet with trumpeter Thad Jones and Frank Wess on tenor and flute, Miles Davis' "Alone Together" session, a date led by trombonist Jimmy Knepper, a completely unissued 1957 sextet session, and -- most importantly -- a greatly expanded live session with trombonist Eddie Bert and tenor saxophonist George Barrow that found Mingus finally finding himself musically. Many of these performances are now also available in smaller sets, but this attractive box (which has 64 previously unissued tracks among the 169 selections) is the best way to acquire this valuable music.

Bugge Wesseltoft - New Conceptions of Jazz Box (3 CD, 2009/FLAC)

 

While the Norwegian jazz scene has been pursuing its own course for decades, the period of 1996-1997 represented a significant watershed, a milestone where an entirely new kind of music emerged, linked to jazz but distanced considerably—some might say completely, but they'd be mistaken—from its roots in the American tradition. Three seminal and groundbreaking albums were released within a year of each other: trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær's Khmer (ECM, 1997); noise improv group Supersilent's 1- 3 (Rune Grammofon, 1997); and, beating the others by a year, keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft's aptly titled New Conception of Jazz (Jazzland, 1996). All three explored the integration of electronics, disparate cultural references, programming, turntables and—especially in the case of Supersilent, the most avant-garde of the three— noise, to create aural landscapes that were innovative, otherworldly and refreshingly new. The three releases created a unified shot across the bow that announced, in no uncertain terms, that something new was happening, something was changing, and that jazz and improvised music would never be the same again.

Of the three releases, New Conception of Jazz was, perhaps, the most user-friendly; a combination of dance floor beats, relentless grooves and solos couched within, at times, accessible but almost subversively challenging changes, Wesseltoft's "New Conception of Jazz" (NCOJ) became an imprint that spawned a series of albums— Sharing (1998), Moving (2001), Live (2003) and Film Ing (2004), all on the keyboardist's burgeoning Jazzland label. Over the course of these albums, Wesseltoft gradually expanded the purview of his NCOJ. While the electronica-drenched grooves of songs like "Somewhere in Between" and "Change" may have mistakenly pigeonholed Wesseltoft's music as sacrilegious to the jazz police, looking under the covers revealed an unmistakable sound that was, at least in part, influenced by pianist and icon Herbie Hancock's electric music—Head Hunters (Columbia, 1973) updated, perhaps, for an approaching and ultimately occurring new millennium.

But NCOJ was always about something more, and New Conception of Jazz Box—a generous three-CD set, with an additional DVD that features a NCOJ collaboration with oudist/vocalist Dhafer Youssef at Montreux in 2004—demonstrates just how much. It not only sets the record straight on the diversity of the concept, but positions Wesseltoft—alongside Norwegians contemporaries including fellow keyboardists Christian Wallumrød and Ståle Storløkken, trumpeters Molvær and Arve Henriksen, guitarist Eivind Aarset, drummers Audun Kleive and Thomas Strønen, singer Sidsel Endresen and turntablist Pål "DJ Strangefruit" Nyhus—as an artist who has gained considerable cachet everywhere but, curiously, the United States. It's time for that to change.

 

Blue Note Works 4000-4100 series [4061-4070]

 

...The Modern Jazz Series continued into the 1970s with the LPs listed below. Many were issued in both monaural versions (BLP series) and stereo versions (BST 84000 series).  Most of the 4000 series have been reissued by Toshiba-EMI in Japan ("Blue Note Works 4000" series); the catalog numbers are TOCJ-4###



BN.4061- Donald Byrd- 1960- At the Half Note Cafe vol.2 {RVG Remaster}
BN.4062- Horace Parlan- 1960- Headin' South {RVG Remaster}
BN.4063- Kenny Dorham- 1961- Whistle Stop {RVG Remaster}
BN.4064- Grant Green- 1961- Grant's First Stand {RVG Remaster}
BN.4065- Stanley Turrentine- 1961- Comin' Your Way
BN.4066- Lou Donaldson- 1961- Here 'Tis {RVG Remaster}
BN.4067- Jackie McLean- 1961- Bluesnik {RVG Remaster}
BN.4068- Baby Face Willette- 1961- Face To Face {RVG Remaster}
BN.4069- Stanley Turrentine- 1961- Up at Minton's Vol.1
BN.4070- Stanley Turrentine- 1961- Up at Minton's Vol.2

Bucky Pizzarelli discography [1971-2011]

 

A warm and gregarious guitarist, Bucky Pizzarelli carried the torch for traditional jazz and swing well into the 21st century. Influenced by innovative guitarists like Django Reinhardt and George Van Eps, Pizzarelli was known for his skill on both the six- and seven-string guitar. Following his emergence as a sideman in New York in the 1950s, he established his reputation as a member of the NBC Tonight Show Band during the '60s and '70s. Along with tours with icons like Benny Goodman, he released his own albums, embracing mainstream jazz traditions and commiserating with fellow veterans like Zoot Sims, Bud Freeman, Slam Stewart, and others. He passed these traditions down to his sons, guitarist/singer John Pizzarelli and bassist Martin Pizzarelli, recording a handful of highly regarded albums, like 2007's Generations, 2009's Pizzarelli Party, and 2011's Family Fugue, that showcased his wry charm and ebullient fret-board skills. Pizzarelli remained active well into his eighties and continued to explore his varied interests, as on his 2015 classical and standards album Renaissance. 

Bucky Pizzarelli died on April 1, 2020 due to complications from the COVID-19 virus. He was 94 years old.

1971. George Barnes & Bucky Pizzarelli - Guitars Pure And Honest

1987. Bucky And John Pizzarelli At The Vineyard Theatre

1989. Bucky Pizzarelli - The Rhythm Encounters

1989. Johnny Frigo With Bucky & John Pizzarelli - Live From Studio A In New York City

1995. Bucky & John Pizzarelli - Nirvana

1995. Scott Hamilton & Bucky Pizzarelli - The Red Door - Copy

1996. Bucky & John Pizzarelli - Solos And Duets (2 CD)

1998. The Pizzarellis, Bucky And John - Contrasts

2001. Bucky Pizzarelli - Swing Live

2003. Bucky Pizzarelli, Howard Alden... - Hot Club Of 52nd Street

2003. Howard Alden & Bucky Pizzarelli - In A Mellow Tone

2005. Bucky Pizzarelli & Frank Vignola - Moonglow

2006. Bucky Pizzarelli & Frank Vignola - Don't Blame Me

2006. Michele Ramo, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jerry Bruno - Oh' Lady Be Good

2007. Bucky & John Pizzarelli - Generations

2008. Bucky Pizzarelli And Strings - So Hard To Forget

2011. Bucky & John Pizzarelli - Family Fugue

2011. Bucky Pizzarelli - Challis In Wonderland

Ray Charles - The Complete 1961 Paris Recordings (3 CD, 2019/FLAC)

 A really fantastic slice of work from Ray Charles – billed here as the only live recordings in which Ray played Hammond organ throughout – instead of his usual piano! The 3CD set brings together three full performances recorded in Paris on October 21 and 22 in 1961 – right at a point when Ray was moving between Atlantic and ABC Records – and working with lots of the strong jazzy charts used in his final years at the former label! The Hammond is fantastic, and a number of tracks are nice and long, with great instrumental solos – so much so that it's almost as if Charles' is putting that side of his skills forward first, then coming in for a vocal punch second. Some of these tracks have been issued before, but there's also a lot of unreleased titles in the package.

 

Don Pullen - Mosaic Select 13 (3 CD, 2004/FLAC)

 The 13th volume in Mosaic's limited-edition Select series showcases the late work of the late pianist and composer Don Pullen. Contained within the box are the two fine albums by the George Adams-Don Pullen Quartet, Breakthrough and Song Everlasting. These two recordings were the first the pair had done domestically. The band's previous output was released on Soul Note, and musically very good. Both Blue Note albums are simply stunning. The interplay between the pianist and saxophonist Adams was near symbiotic and was augmented by the stellar rhythm section of bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Dannie Richmond. Three of the four men -- excepting Brown -- were alumni of the Charles Mingus band. These two albums are the best of what post-bop jazz had to offer in the 1980s. Special highlights are Pullen's "Song From the Old Country," Adams's "A Time for Sobriety" and "Serenade to Sariah," and Pullen's brilliant "Sing Me a Song Everlasting." The other two sides here are trio dates recorded for Blue Note. New Beginnings, issued in 1988, featured bassist Gary Peacock and Tony Williams, and Random Thoughts, issued in 1990, placed Pullen in the company of James Genus on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. While the name recognition on New Beginnings is high, the performances are inconsistent, largely because Pullen was trying to juxtapose a more groove-oriented piano trio approach against the outside nature of his '60s playing. It is interesting throughout though not terribly rewarding. Random Thoughts, however, feels like a more natural fit and one in which the pianist and composer's rhythmic ideas and solo proficiencies were better matched to his rhythm section. The tunes are more lyrical and flowing, even when coming from different directions at once. Ultimately, these four albums make up for a great renaissance in Pullen's career. All four albums have been wonderfully remastered.