Thelonious Monk - The Evolution of an Artist (4 CD, 2008/FLAC)

 

Four classic Monk's albums on Evolution series of german BHM label

Judy Garland - The Garland Variations: Songs She Recorded More Than Once (5 CD, 2014)

 

A set consisting of five compact discs of songs performed by a single artist might seem like a bonanza to the singer's loyal fan base. It also could be daunting even to fervent followers when each song is followed by anywhere from one to four different recorded versions of the same number. 

Judy Garland opens JSP Records’  5-CD box set The Garland Variations: Songs She Recorded More Than Once (JSP 975) with “Everybody Sing,” the kind of rousing showstopper she was practically born to sing. Sessions for the song from MGM’s Broadway Melody of 1938 began when Garland was on the cusp of just fifteen years old, but the power of her vocal instrument was already in place. But even when belting with a force to rival the mighty Merman, there was always something unfailingly intimate – or personal – about a Judy Garland performance. There’s plenty of that intimacy, as well as that power, on this illuminating new set produced by JSP’s John Stedman and compiled and annotated by Lawrence Schulman.

Art Van Damme - Swinging The Accordion On MPS (5 CD, 2006/FLAC)

 The hippest cat ever to swing an accordion, Art Van Damme dared go where no man had gone before: jazz accordion. He started taking accordion lessons at the age of nine, and moved on to classical studies after his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1934. After leaving school. he played in a trio in local clubs under big band leader Ben Bernie hired him in 1941. He soon returned to Chicago, though, and continued to work the club circuit there throughout World War Two.

Van Damme was inspired by swing recordings, particularly Benny Goodman's, and in the late 1930s, he began experimenting, adapting Goodman solos to the accordion. Throughout his career, he would often be compared to Goodman, since the two were both classically trained, technical masters of their instruments, and versatile and creative jazz soloists. He formed a quintet with several of his studio colleagues, and recorded his first album, for the small label, Music Craft, in 1944.

More Cocktail Capers LPHe joined the staff of NBC Radio in Chicago in 1945 and remained a studio musician for over 15 years, even after he became a recording artist in his own right. His early style fits into a small but at the time quite popular niche between the cocktail piano sound and the accordion/guitar/organ sound of the Three Suns. 

Herbie Hancock – The Complete Columbia Album Collection, 1972-1988 [34 CD, 2013]

 

Gathered here for the first time are all of the recordings Herbie Hancock (b. 1940) made for Columbia Records U.S. and CBS/Sony Records Japan between 1972 and 1988--a stunningly creative, 17-year period, yielding 31 albums. Eight of the titles in this set have never been released outside of Japan. This collection of 34 newly-remastered CDs showcases Herbie's virtuosity in a dazzling display of musical styles. It is a testament to his fearlessness, innovation, and ever-evolving curiosity, as well as his significant commercial success--the platinum certifications of Head Hunters and Future Shock.

Django Reinhardt - Chronological Classics 1934-1953 (15 CD)

 

Django Reinhardt was the first hugely influential jazz figure to emerge from Europe -- and he remains the most influential European to this day, with possible competition from Joe Zawinul, George Shearing, John McLaughlin, his old cohort Stephane Grappelli and a bare handful of others. A free-spirited gypsy, Reinhardt wasn't the most reliable person in the world, frequently wandering off into the countryside on a whim

 

 

Pharoah Sanders - In The Beginning 1963-1964 [4 CD, 2012] (FLAC+320)

 RIP (October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022)

Pharoah Sanders In the Beginning 1963 - 1964 - four CD set documents the first recordings of the iconic tenor saxophonist, Pharoah Sanders, prior to his well-known association with John Coltrane. Beginning with two previously unreleased sessions with Ornette Coleman alumni Don Cherry and Paul Bley, followed by Pharoah's debut date as a leader for ESP-Disk and concluding with the first issue ever of the complete the December 30 and 31, 1964 Sun Ra at Judson Hall concerts, Sanders only known recordings with the Arkestra the set also includes rare recorded interviews with Sanders, Cherry, Bley and Ra by ESP-Disk's music producer Michael D. Anderson. With Coltrane, Sanders would become known for extremely atonal blowing using extended techniques, but on his September 20, 1964 ESP session (as on most of his work as a leader) he does not go to those extremes.

 

Miles Davis - The First Great Quintet [Studio 1955-56] [2021 remaster FLAC-HD]

 In the summer of 1955, after Miles Davis performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, he was approached by Columbia Records executive George Avakian, who offered him a contract if he could form a regular band. Davis assembled his first regular quintet to meet a commitment at the Café Bohemia in July with Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. By the autumn, Rollins had left to deal with his heroin addiction, and later in the year joined the hard bop quintet led by Clifford Brown and Max Roach.

At the recommendation of drummer Jones, Davis replaced Rollins with John Coltrane, beginning a partnership that would last five years and finalizing the Quintet's first line-up. Expanded to a sextet with the addition of Cannonball Adderley on alto saxophone in 1958, the First Great Quintet was one of the definitive hard bop groups along with the Brown-Roach Quintet and the Jazz Messengers, recording the Columbia albums Round About Midnight, Milestones, and the marathon sessions for Prestige Records resulting in four albums collected on The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions.

Miles Davis Quintet:   

Miles Davis, trumpet
John Coltrane, tenor saxophone
Red Garland, piano
Paul Chambers, double bass
Philly Joe Jones, drums

Miles Davis - The Complete Columbia Album Collection - [52 albums - 70 CD, 2009/FLAC]

 

Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection is a box set by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 2009. It contains all the official releases on the Columbia Records label.

 

Billy Cobham– The Atlantic Years 1973-1978 [8 CD, 2015] (FLAC + 320)

 

At the dawn of the 1970s, Billy Cobham built his legend with his bandleader debut, Spectrum . Raw, daring and overflowing with adrenalin, the album topped the Billboard Jazz charts. Having played for Miles Davis, Horace Silver and Mose Allison, Billy Cobham had joined the legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971, before signing to Atlantic as a solo artist in 1973. Worshipped today as a titan of drumming, Billy Cobham's career is now in its fifth decade.

Herbie Hancock & Carlos Santana – Live Under Sky 1981 [2020/FLAC]

 

Live Under the Sky was an annual multi-day summer jazz festival held in Tokyo's 10,000-capacity Denen Hall, featuring the cream of local and international talent. The climax of 1981's festival, broadcast by NHK radio was a jointly headlined set by Herbie Hancock and Carlos Santana, together with a band including Wynton Marsalis, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. A joyous blend of jazz and Latin-tinged funk, it is presented in full here, together with background notes and images. 

•     Double Bass – Ron Carter
•     Drums – Anthony Williams
•     Electric Guitar – Carlos Santana
•     Grand Piano, Keyboards – Herbie Hancock
•     Percussion – Armando Peraza, Orestes Vilato, Raul Rekow
•     Trumpet – Wynton Marsalis

A1 Watermelon Man > Evil Ways > Watermelon Man 25:33

B1 'Round Midnight 7:24

B2 Parade 9:54

B3 Unknown #1 7:47

C1 A Quick Sketch 17:39

C2 Love Theme From Spartacus 8:37

C3 Unknown #2 (Fade Out) 2:59

D1 Unknown #2 (Cont.) 3:24

D2 Unknown #3 5:55

D3 Europa 9:08

D4 Saturday Night 11:28