Verve Jazz Masters series Vol. 11-20

 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 11 - Stéphane Grappelli

VJM 12 - Billie Holiday

VJM 13 - Antonio Carlos Jobim

VJM 14 - Wes Montgomery

VJM 15 - Charlie Parker

VJM 16 - Oscar Peterson

VJM 17 - Nina Simone

VJM 18 - Sarah Vaughan

VJM 19 - Dinah Washington

VJM 20 - Introducing Jazz Masters

Lucky Thompson discography [1944-2016]

 

Born in Columbia, SC, on June 16, 1924, tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson bridged the gap between the physical dynamism of swing and the cerebral intricacies of bebop, emerging as one of his instrument's foremost practitioners and a stylist par excellence. Eli Thompson's lifelong nickname -- the byproduct of a jersey, given him by his father, with the word "lucky" stitched across the chest -- would prove bitterly inappropriate: when he was five, his mother died, and the remainder of his childhood, spent largely in Detroit, was devoted to helping raise his younger siblings. Thompson loved music, but without hope of acquiring an instrument of his own, he ran errands to earn enough money to purchase an instructional book on the saxophone, complete with fingering chart. He then carved imitation lines and keys into a broom handle, teaching himself to read music years before he ever played an actual sax. According to legend, Thompson finally received his own saxophone by accident -- a delivery company mistakenly dropped one off at his home along with some furniture, and after graduating high school and working briefly as a barber, he signed on with Erskine Hawkins' 'Bama State Collegians, touring with the group until 1943, when he joined Lionel Hampton and settled in New York City.

Woody Shaw - The Complete Muse Sessions (7 CD, 2013/FLAC)

 

Mosaic's 2013 Woody Shaw box set The Complete Muse Sessions brings together all of the albums the innovative jazz trumpeter recorded for the label during the 1970s and later in the 1980s. Largely out of print since their initial release, save for a number of reissues on the now defunct 32 Jazz label, these Muse albums represent not only some of the most important recordings of Shaw's career, but some of the most influential and individualistic artistic statements by a jazz artist in the 20th century. With his combination of technical prowess and knowledge of the jazz tradition, as well as a keen harmonic vision for where to take his music and jazz as a whole into the future, Woody Shaw was a towering if often underappreciated figure during his lifetime. Taking inspiration from his slightly older contemporary, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, innovators like John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy, as well as longtime friend and collaborator pianist Larry Young, Shaw developed an extremely original conception for how to improvise and compose jazz. Beginning with 1974's The Moontrane and moving through 1975's Love Dance, 1976's Concert Ensemble Live at the Berliner Jazztage, 1976's Little Red's Fantasy, and 1977's Iron Men, the box set showcases Shaw's mastery of the wide harmonic intervals and pentatonic scale developments he'd imbibed from his musical compatriots, as well as his love of the avant-garde -- both classical and jazz. In that way, these '70s albums are the bridge between the hard bop of the '60s and the free jazz of the '70s.

 

VA - The Art of the Piano: Trio, Quartet, Quintet and Beyond (Milestones of Jazz Legends) [10 CD, 2020/FLAC]

 

20 of the Jazz worlds greatest piano players with 20 of their most influential albums The spectrum ranges from Bill Evans or Duke Ellington via Ramsey Lewis or Ahmad Jamal to Red Garland or Tommy Flanagan, through to Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Horace Silver, or the debut albums of Herbie Hancock and Cecil Taylor, or the first recordings of Thelonious Monk.

The New Jazz Orchestra - Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe (1969-2020 reissue/FLAC)

 If one were asked to pick an album that represented the best of British jazz in the 1960s, Le Déjeuner Sur l’Herbe by the New Jazz Orchestra would be a serious contender. Recorded in September 1968, it draws together many of the key streams that had developed in British jazz in the preceding years, and also presages much of what was to come. Notwithstanding the line-up, which includes some of the very best British jazz musicians directed by an inventive and ingenious leader in Neil Ardley, the session features pieces written by the most distinctive jazz composers active in Britain at that time alongside idiosyncratic interpretations of works by John Coltrane and Miles Davis. And it’s all captured beautifully by engineer Howard Barrow and producer Tony Reeves and it features a stella cast of some of the greatest musicians, not just from that era or genre but beyond; Jack Bruce, who would become one of the founding members of Cream, Barbara Thompson, Ian Carr, Michael Gibbs, Dave Gelly, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman, who went on to form one of the greatest jazz / progressive / rock bands – Colosseum.

 

VA - Jazz At Midnight (5 CD, 1999/FLAC)

 

Very nice compilation of jazz standards

CD1 (61:07)

01. Ike Quebec - It's All Right with Me (6:05)

02. Bud Shank - Prelude No.2 (3:57)

03. Bobby Hutcherson - Tranquility (5:03)

04. Benny Green - Me and My Baby (6:41)

05. Herbie Hancock - Cantaloupe Island (5:30)

06. Art Blakey Quintet - Along Came Betty (6:11)

07. Dexter Gordon - Don't Explain (6:06)

08. Chet Baker - Stella by Starlight (3:54)

09. The Horace Silver Quintet - Que Pasa (5:38)

10. Dexter Gordon - Willow Weep for Me (8:48)

11. Thelonious Monk - Ask Me Now (3:14)

CD2 (65:44)

01. Benny Green - Something I Dreamed Last Night (4:46)

02. Dexter Gordon - Our Love Is Here to Stay (5:41)

03. Grant Green - At Long Last Love (7:19)

04. Chet Baker - Sweet Lorraine (3:11)

05. Herbie Hancock - Mimosa (8:39)

06. The Horace Silver Quintet - Sighin' and Cryin' (5:27)

07. Ike Quebec - Like (5:21)

08. Jay Jay Johnson - Pennies from Heaven (4:26)

09. Bill Evans & Bob Brookmeyer - I Got Rhythm (8:37)

10. Serge Chaloff - Handful of Stars (5:38)

11. Thelonious Monk - Baby My Dear (3:07)

12. John Lewis - I Can't Get Started (3:32)

CD3 (61:02)

01. Billy May Orchestra - Rhapsody in Blue (3:21)

02. Chet Baker - Isn't It Romantic (3:31)

03. Dexter Gordon - Till the Real Thing Comes Along (6:49)

04. The Horace Silver Quintet - Song for My Father (7:18)

05. Frank Rosolino - Embraceable You (3:04)

06. Ike Quebec - Don't Take Your Love from Me (7:04)

07. Jimmy Smith - Jumpin' the Blues (5:27)

08. Kenny Burrell - The Man I Love (6:47)

09. Jay Jay Johnson - Groovin' (4:41)

10. Paul Chambers - You'd Be So Nice to Come Home (7:17)

11. Benny Green - Hoagie Meat (5:43)

CD4 (67:23)

01. Jimmy Smith - Midnight Special (9:55)

02. Benny Green - Cupcake (5:13)

03. Chet Baker - But Not for Me (3:04)

04. Art Pepper - Fascinating Rhythm (4:26)

05. Dexter Gordon - Stairway to the Stars (6:59)

06. Jay Jay Johnson - Time After Time (4:13)

07. The Horace Silver Quintet - Lonely Woman (7:03)

08. Joe Henderson - Blue Bossa (8:02)

09. Sonny Criss - West Coast Blues (5:02)

10. Joe Henderson - You Know I Care (7:23)

11. Ike Quebec - Me'n You (6:03)

CD5 (59:13)

01. Chet Baker - Moonlight Becomes You (3:27)

02. Benny Green - Glad to Be Unhappy (5:12)

03. Dexter Gordon - Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry (5:23)

04. Freddie Hubbard - Cry Me Not (4:49)

05. Hank Jones - Summertime (2:33)

06. Horace Silver - Pretty Eyes (7:32)

07. Ike Quebec - Louie (3:12)

08. Kenny Burrell - Chittlins con Carne (5:25)

09. John Coltrane - Trane's Blues (6:58)

10. Jimmy Smith & Lee Morgan - 'S Wonderful (5:02)

11. Coleman Hawkins - Someone to Watch over Me (2:50)

12. Wayne Shorter - House of Jade (6:50)

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.

 

The Three Sounds - Eight Classic Albums 1958-1961 (4 CD, 2011/FLAC)

The Three Sounds (also known as The 3 Sounds) were an American jazz piano trio that formed in 1956 and disbanded in 1973.

The band formed in Benton Harbor, Michigan, United States, as the Four Sounds. The original line-up consisted of Gene Harris on piano, Andrew Simpkins on double bass and Bill Dowdy on drums, along with saxophonist Lonnie "The Sound" Walker, who dropped out the following year. The group moved to Washington and then New York, where, as the Three Sounds, they cut a record for Riverside Records, before signing an exclusive contract with Blue Note.

Between 1958 and 1962, the group released nine albums for Blue Note. They toured nationally during this period, building a large following in jazz clubs across the country. The trio played and recorded with the likes of saxophonists Lester Young, Lou Donaldson, Stanley Turrentine and Sonny Stitt, cornet player Nat Adderley, singer Anita O'Day, and guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, among others.  

Nat King Cole - Membran Music Box Set (10 CD, 2005)

 

10 CD collection from Membran Media

Dizzy Gillespie Big Band - Algo Bueno - The Complete Bluebird/Musicraft Recordings & The Pleyel Concert (1946-1949) (2 CD, 1999/FLAC)

 

This double CD collects all of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band sides from 1946-1949 for the Bluebird and Musicraft labels, including seven previously unissued cuts. These bands were renowned for their hard-swinging styles that accented the toughness of bebop wailing R&B and Latin/Cuban grooves. Some of Diz's sidemen included Milt Jackson, Cecil Payne, Ray Brown, Willie Bobo, Yusef Lateef, Johnny Hartman, Leo Parker, John Lewis, Sonny Stitt, Kenny Dorham, James Moody, Ernie Henry, Al McKibbon, and dozens of others. Here are formidable versions of "Two Bass Hit," "Cubana Bop," "Jump Did-Le-Ba," "Oop-Pop-A-Da," and many others. In addition to the studio sides there is an entire Paris concert included from a radio transcription, making these sides indispensable.