Verve Jazz Masters series Vol. 1-10

 

Jazz Masters is a series of mainly single artist compilations released by Polygram/Verve between 1994 and 1996. The compilations collect material that was originally released on Verve or on one of the labels that became part of the Polygram group. The 20th and 60th releases in the series were various artist collections.

VJM 1 - Louis Armstrong

VJM 2 - Count Basie

VJM 3 - Chick Corea

VJM 4 - Duke Ellington

VJM 5 - Bill Evans

VJM 6 - Ella Fitzgerald

VJM 7 - Erroll Garner

VJM 8 - Stan Getz

VJM 9 - Astrud Gilberto

VJM 10 - Dizzy Gillespie

Mal Waldron discography [1956-2002]

 

Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from university. In the following dozen years or so Waldron led his own bands and played for those led by Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy, among others. During Waldron's period as house pianist for Prestige Records in the late 1950s, he appeared on dozens of albums and composed for many of them, including writing his most famous song, "Soul Eyes", for Coltrane. Waldron was often an accompanist for vocalists, and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959.

Nina Simone - The Real... Nina Simone (The Ultimate Nina Simone Collection) (3 CD, 2013/FLAC)

 

Blue Note Works 4000-4100 series [4186-4199]

 

...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.4186- Hank Mobley- 1965- The Turnaround {RVG Remaster}
BN.4187- Larry Young- 1964- Into Somethin'
BN.4188- Donald Byrd- 1964- I'm Tryin' to Get Home
BN.4189- Joe Henderson- 1964- Inner Urge {RVG Remaster}
BN.4190- Frederick Roach- 1964- All That's Good
BN.4191- Duke Pearson- 1964- Wahoo!
BN.4192- John Patton- 1965- Oh Baby!
BN.4193- Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers- 1964- Indestructible {RVG Remaster}
BN.4194- Wayne Shorter- 1964- Speak No Evil {RVG Remaster}
BN.4195- Herbie Hancock- 1965- Maiden Voyage {RVG Remaster}
BN.4196- Freddie Hubbard- 1965- Blue Spirits {RVG Remaster}
BN.4197- The Three Sounds- 1962- Out of This World
BN.4198- Bobby Hutcherson- 1965- Dialogue {RVG Remaster}
BN.4199- Lee Morgan- 1965- The Rumproller {RVG Remaster}

Lennie Tristano discography [1946-2014]

 

Leonard Joseph Tristano (March 19, 1919 – November 18, 1978) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and teacher of jazz improvisation.

Tristano studied for bachelor's and master's degrees in music in Chicago before moving to New York City in 1946. He played with leading bebop musicians and formed his own small bands, which soon displayed some of his early interests – contrapuntal interaction of instruments, harmonic flexibility, and rhythmic complexity. His quintet in 1949 recorded the first free group improvisations. Tristano's innovations continued in 1951, with the first overdubbed, improvised jazz recordings, and two years later, when he recorded an atonal improvised solo piano piece that was based on the development of motifs rather than on harmonies. He developed further via polyrhythms and chromaticism into the 1960s, but was infrequently recorded.

Tristano started teaching music, especially improvisation, in the early 1940s, and by the mid-1950s was concentrating on teaching in preference to performing. He taught in a structured and disciplined manner, which was unusual in jazz education when he began. His educational role over three decades meant that he exerted an influence on jazz through his students, including saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh.

Musicians and critics vary in their appraisal of Tristano as a musician. Some describe his playing as cold and suggest that his innovations had little impact; others state that he was a bridge between bebop and later, freer forms of jazz, and assert that he is less appreciated than he should be because commentators found him hard to categorize and because he chose not to commercialize.

1946 - 1947.Lennie Tristano - The Rarest Trio-Quartet Sessions

1946 - 1949.Lennie Tristano - Trio, Quartet, Quintet & Sextet

1947.Lennie Tristano - Live At The Cafe Bohemia

1949 - 1955. Lennie Tristano - Requiem

1950.Lennie Tristano Sextet - Wow

1951.Charlie Parker with Lennie Tristano - Complete Recordings

1952.Lennie Tristano - Live In Toronto

1953 - 1965.Lennie Tristano - Descent Into the Maelstrom

1955.Lennie Tristano - Live At The Confucius Restaurant (CD2)

1955.Lennie Tristano - Tristano (LP)

1956.Lennie Tristano & Warne Marsh - Intuition

1956.Lennie Tristano - New York Improvisations

1956.Lennie Tristano - The New Tristano

1958.Lennie Tristano - Continuity

1962.Lennie Tristano - Featuring Lee Konitz

1964 - 1965.Lennie Tristano -  Note To Note

1965.Lennie Tristano - Concert In Copenhagen

1987.Lennie Tristano - The Complete Lennie Tristano on Keynote

1997.Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz & Warne Marsh - The Complete Atlantic Recordings (6 CD)

2003.Lennie Tristano - Intuition (4 CD)

2014.Lennie Tristano - Chicago April 1951

Charlie Parker - The Complete Live Performances on Savoy 1947-1950 [4 CD, 1998/FLAC]

 

This four-CD set contains a somewhat streamlined presentation of Parker's complete known live broadcasts from New York's Royal Roost, dating during 1948 and 1949, augmented with five of the live September 29, 1947, Carnegie Hall recordings and one lower-quality tape made in Chicago during 1950.

For years, the audio quality of many of the performances gathered on these four CDs prevented a full-on embrace, what with all the other available Charlie Parker out there. But this collection restores these sessions to notoriety. They're mostly from New York's Royal Roost, 1948 to 1950, but with a 1947 Carnegie Hall supergroup concert and a 1950 Chicago pickup date that boasts some unknowns--and undersung guitarist George Freeman--with Parker. First, the single drawback: emcee and radio host "Symphony Sid" Torin's sometimes obsequious, faux-hipster shtick that bookends several of the tunes. Rest assured, though, Torin makes only brief intros and outros. Beyond that, these are all stellar works. The quintet on three of the CDs (the Royal Roost sessions) features Parker with Miles Davis on much of CD 1, highlighting the clipped fire of bebop's architecture being tunneled under by Davis's mellow-tone brass. Even when Kenny Dorham takes over on trumpet, the alchemy is built on contrast, Parker's raspy, fast wit and Dorham's wry (but often likemindedly fast) ripostes. Pianists Tadd Dameron and Al Haig make great showings, as does Max Roach, pushing the energy with a loose attack that defies the fact that the majority of these performances were for radio. The more-famed quintet fronted by Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and pianist John Lewis (famed cofounder of the Modern Jazz Quartet) closes the collection with five tunes from a 1947 Carnegie Hall concert. Parker seems more restrained, Gillespie gleeful, and Lewis characteristically spare. But the playing is first-rate, whether at light-speed (as on "Dizzy Atmosphere") or at the loping clip of "Groovin' High."

 

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. 

Lou Donaldson — The Complete Blue Note Lou Donaldson Sessions 1957-60 (6 CD, 2002/FLAC)

 

A soul survivor in every sense of the term, this alto saxophonist is one of the few remaining jazz artists who made a major impact on the jazz community via an extensive run with producer Alfred Lion and the Blue Note label (Horace Silver being another Blue Note legend that comes to mind). From his first recordings for the label with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, it was clear that Lou Donaldson put melody and sound at a premium, coming up with an amalgam that combined the creamy smoothness of Johnny Hodges with the quicksilver bop inflections of Charlie Parker. 

Over the course of some 20 albums that Donaldson would cut for Blue Note beginning with his first sessions in 1953, you can trace the course of popular jazz styles, from bop inflected quintets to soul jazz organ combos. The majority of this new six disc set covers the type of bebop fare that is the core of Donaldson's musical persona and much of this material has been available previously on compact disc, although there are a few items that could only be found previously on pricey Japanese imports.

For the record, the albums included herein are Wailing with Lou, Swing and Soul, Lou Takes Off, Blues Walk, LD + 3, The Time Is Right, Sunny Side Up, Light-Foot, Gravy Train, and Midnight Sun.

 

Toots Thielemans discography [1955-2012]

  

Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans  (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling. Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century

He has worked as a bandleader (scoring an international hit in the 1960s with his song "Bluesette"), as a sideman (notably on many projects with composer/arranger Quincy Jones), and has appeared on dozens of film soundtracks. In 2009 he became NEA Jazz Master, the highest honour for a jazz musician in the United States.

1955. Toots Thielemans - Sound Of Toots Thielemans

1958. Jean 'Toots' Thielemans - Man Bites Harmonica

1959. Toots Thielemans - The Soul Of Toots Thielemans

1961. Toots Thielemans - Blues Pour Flirter {Jazz In Paris, #17}

1964. Toots Thielemans - The Whistler And His Guitar

1967. Toots Thielemans - Guitar And Strings And Things (LP)

1967. Toots Thielemans - Two Toots

1969. Toots Thielemans & Elis Regina - Aquarela Do Brasil

1972. Toots Thielemans & Svend Asmussen - Toots & Svend

1975. Toots Thielemans - Images

1975. Toots Thielemans - Old Friend (LP)

1979. Toots Thielemans - Apple Dimple

1980. Thielemans - Pass - Pedersen - Live In The Netherlands

1984. Stephane Grappelli & Toots Thielemans - Bringing It Together

1985. Ake Johansson Trio with Chet Baker & Toots Thielemans - Chet & Toots

1985. Toots Thielemans - Bluesette

1985. Toots Thielemans - The Silver Collection

1988. Toots Thielemans - Only Trust Your Heart

1989. Toots Thielemans - Footprints

1991. Toots Thielemans & Shirley Horn Trio - For My Lady

1991. Toots Thielemans - Compact Jazz

1992. Toots Thielemans - The Brasil Project

1993. Toots Thielemans - The Brasil Project, Vol. 2

1994. Toots Thielemans - East Coast West Coast

1995. Toots Thielemans - Giants Of Jazz {CD 53238}

1996. Toots Thielemans - Verve Jazz Masters 59

1997. Toots Thielemans - Toots 75 - The Birthday Album

1998. Toots Thielemans - Chez Toots

1998. Toots Thielemans - Penthouse Serenade

2001. Toots Thielemans - Hard To Say Goodbye (The Very Best Of...)

2006. Toots Thielemans - One More For The Road

2010. Toots Thielemans European Quartet - Live

2012. Toots Thielemans European Quartet - 90 yrs

2012. Toots Thielemans The Best Of (2 CD)

Blue Note Works 4000-4100 series [4176-4185]

 

...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.4176- Dexter Gordon- 1964- One Flight Up {RVG Remaster}
BN.4177- Grachan Moncur III- 1964- Some Other Stuff {RVG Remaster}
BN.4178- Blue Mitchell- 1964- The Thing To Do {RVG Remaster}
BN.4179- Jackie McLean- 1964- It's Time
BN.4180- Anthony Williams- 1964- Life Time {RVG Remaster}
BN.4181- Kenny Dorham- 1964- Trompete Toccata {RVG Remaster}
BN.4182- Wayne Shorter- 1964- JUJU {RVG Remaster}
BN.4183- Grant Green- 1964- Talkin' About
BN.4184- Sam Rivers- 1964- Fuchsia Swing Song {RVG Remaster}
BN.4185- Horace Silver- 1964- Song For My Father {RVG Remaster}