Louis Armstrong - The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings, Vol. 1 - 3 (3 CD, 2003/FLAC)

 

Louis Armstrong compilation of early work, recorded between 12 November 1925 through 23 June 1926. Released 22 April 2003 on Columbia/Legacy label, catalog# 86999, US.

Legacy has seen fit - and rightfully so - to reissue the complete recordings of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Seven as individual volumes instead of just a box set. This is a solid way to go for collectors trying to fill holes. It's also the best way for a beginner, not only with Armstrong's music but that of early-recorded jazz, to become acquainted with the development of improvisation in the music. Volume 1 concentrates on the Hot Five material from 1925 and 1926. The first band included Armstrong, Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, pianist Lil Hardin, and banjo boss Johnny St. Cyr. These 20 recordings were made for the Okeh label. The blues model on which all of these tunes were based is extrapolated upon and remade in the image of first the ensemble and then in the image of the soloist. From "My Heart" and the amazing "Oriental Strut" to "Lonesome Blues," to "Come Back Sweet Papa," to the introduction of scat singing in Lil Hardin's "Skid-Dat-De Dat," the exuberance and professionalism just drip from these tunes. But notions of harmonic invention are also present, places where the soloist slips outside the changes and moves toward reaching a musical unity with the ensemble by whatever means necessary as long as it swung. The sound here is as good as it gets for the time, and after one or two listens, the hiss is barely recognizable. What's important is the fidelity of the music, and it's excellent.

McCoy Tyner & Freddie Hubbard Quartet - Live at Fabrik Hamburg 1986 (2022 Hi-Res FLAC)

 Live At Fabrik presents pianist McCoy Tyner's trio with bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Louis Hayes and guest artist Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and flugelhorn. In actuality, Hubbard's power-packed presence transforms the unit into a co-led quartet, as the cover art acknowledges. The 2 x CD album is, in effect, the chronicle of a summit meeting between two giants of post-bop jazz—one of them, Hubbard, on the rebound from a fall from grace occasioned by his embrace of fusion in the 1970s, the other, Tyner, a bandleader who had never let his standards drop.

• Freddie Hubbard: trumpet
• McCoy Tyner: piano
• Avery Sharpe: bass
• Louis Hayes: drums.

 

Louis Armstrong - Columbia Jazz Masters Series Volumes 1-7, 1925-31 (1988-1993) [FLAC]

Originally released in LP format in 1961 as the 1st of 4 volumes compiling OKeh singles recorded by Louis Armstrong between 12 November 1925 through 12 December 1928, in chronological order. Columbia acquired OKeh Records in 1926, for its catalog of jazz and blues. Sony purchased Columbia in 1988 acquiring a broad catalog including jazz, pop, rock.

Louis Armstrong – The Hot Fives, Volume I 

Louis Armstrong – The Hot Fives & Hot Sevens, Volume II 

Louis Armstrong – The Hot Fives & Hot Sevens, Volume III 

Louis Armstrong – Volume 4 - Louis Armstrong And Earl Hines 

Louis Armstrong – Volume 5 - Louis In New York

Louis Armstrong – Vol. 6: St. Louis Blues 

Louis Armstrong – Volume 7 - You're Drivin' Me Crazy 

Brian Bromberg - A New Day (1986, 24-96 FLAC)

 Recorded October 1985 through June 1986 at Mad Hatter Recording Studios, Los Angeles

• Brian Bromberg - fretless & fretted electric & piccolo basses, keyboards, emulator II,drum machine
• Ernie Watts - tenor sax
• Alex Acuna - drums, percussion
• Freddie Hubbard - flugelhorn
• Joe Farrell - flute, tenor and soprano saxes
• Kei Akagi - keyboards, piano
• Guy Moon - keyboards
• Arthur Statman - keyboards
• Greg Armstrong - alto sax
• Carl Cherry - drums

Side 1
A1 - Summertime 4:37
A2 - Sunrise 6:24
A3 - Take A Walk In The Park With Me 7:05
A4 - Shana 5:30

Side 2
B1 - Mushy Tushy 6:00
B2 - It's A New Day 6:12
B3 - My Funny Valentine 6:04
B4 - Oriental Ho-Down 6:24 

Benny Goodman — The Complete Capitol Small Group Recordings Of Benny Goodman 1944-1955 (4 CD, 1993/FLAC)

 Benny Goodman took some stylistic chances during his 11-year tenure with Capitol. He listened closely to, then flirted with, bebop during this time, not altering his own swing-based playing but inserting it into a bop framework. He also played traditional swing in various small groups. The sessions covered on this most recent Mosaic four-disc (six-album) set were originally issued on a number of 10" and 12" albums, as well as the CDs BG in Hi Fi and The Benny Goodman Story, a Japanese issue. It shows Goodman mixing and matching idioms, retaining his own style and vision, and ultimately opting to return to the music he felt most comfortable making and playing. Despite some variation in sound quality caused by the music originally being issued on 16" acetate discs, the performance quality certainly compensates for it, and the discographical information and session histories are as exhaustive as possible. 

Abbey Lincoln - Through The Years [1956-2007] (3 CD, 2009/FLAC)

Anyone who has followed Abbey Lincoln’s career with any regularity understands that she has followed a fiercely individual path and has paid the cost for those choices. Through the Years is a cross-licensed, three-disc retrospective expertly compiled and assembled by the artist and her longtime producer, Jean-Philippe Allard. Covering more than 50 years in her storied career, it establishes from the outset that Lincoln was always a true jazz singer and unique stylist. Though it contains no unreleased material, it does offer the first true picture of he range of expression. Her accompanists include former husband Max Roach, Benny Carter, Kenny Dorham, Charlie Haden, Sonny Rollins, Wynton Kelly, Benny Golson, J.J. Johnson, Art Farmer, Stan Getz, and Hank Jones, to name scant few.

Stan Getz - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (8 CD, 2011/FLAC)

 With his beautiful, Lester Young-inspired tone, his grace with a melody, and his willingness to gently push boundaries, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz was known as "The Sound" for good reason. Coming to fame with the Woody Herman band in the '40s, he held his own through both the swing and bebop eras, then found renewed commercial success in the early '60s when a João Gilberto collaboration, "The Girl from Ipanema," was a big hit and ushered in a bossa nova boom. Getz loved playing with bold young players like Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke, and he didn't shy away from new technology, championing the Echoplex for a time. This wonderful set includes the albums he recorded for Columbia Records between 1972 and 1979 (most of which he produced himself), as well as the soundtrack LP to a Dutch film called Forest Eyes from 1979, and a bonus disc of Getz at Carnegie Hall for the 40th anniversary of the Woody Herman band that also includes live sets from the 1977 Montreux Jazz and the 1979 Havana Jam festivals. It's beautifully packaged, and Getz is Getz throughout.

Art Farmer - The Complete Albums Collection 1961-1963 (4 CD, 2016/FLAC)

1961 saw one of the most important shifts in Art Farmer s career. Having played primarily trumpet up until that point, Farmer switched to the softer tone of the flugelhorn, and for the rest of his life it would remain his instrument of choice. The first recorded instance of this change featured on the album Perception (Argo 1961), featuring Harold Mabern on piano, bassist Tommy Williams and drummer Roy McCurdy.

 

VA - The Complete H.R.S. Sessions [6 CD, 1999/FLAC]

 

The Hot Record Society, a New York-based group of jazz recording enthusiasts organized in 1937 by Stephen W. Smith, quickly evolved from a clearinghouse and auction outlet for collectors into a real recording organization. Across ten years from 1937 through 1947, HRS recorded such outfits as Pee Wee Russell's Rhythmakers (an ad hoc group formed by members of Count Basie's and Eddie Condon's bands), Sidney Bechet and Muggsy Spanier, Rex Stewart's Big Seven, Brick Fleagle's Orchestra, Sandy Williams' Big Eight, Jimmy Jones, J.C. Higginbotham, Joe Thomas, Harry Carney, Buck Clayton, Trummy Young, the Billy Taylor Quartet, Russell Procope, Dicky Wells, Babe Mathews and Joe Thomas, and Billy Kyle. It's all here, 124 tracks encompassing everything from prewar New Orleans jazz to the early bop period of the mid-'40s, and while there are gaps -- Smith went for years without recording after the outbreak of the Second World War, owing to a government priority for shellac (the substance that 78s were made from) that barely kept the major labels in business -- it's a good account of what happened with jazz over the decade represented here. Some of the selected material is a little odd, owing to choices made based on copyright accessibility (or nonexistence), and there are perhaps too many alternate takes for the novice listener. On the other hand, the sources are excellent, the recording venue was very fine, and the Mosaic people have done their usual excellent remastering job, so that, say, Budd Johnson's tenor sax and Jimmy Jones' piano on "Sunny Side Up" and "Strollin' Easy" sound incredibly clean and close, and Freddie Green's guitar gets one of its better showcases of the era. And the Brick Fleagle sides, starting with the extraordinary "Brick's Boogie," are almost worth the price of admission by themselves, just to hear what this overlooked, prodigiously talented musician had to offer in his prime, 60 years earlier.

Elvin Jones - The Complete Blue Note Sessions [8 CD, 2000]

 

This limited-edition eight-disc set combines all of Elvin Jones' Blue Note recordings from April 1968 through July 1973. This 65-track set contains the LPs Puttin It Together, Ultimate Elvin Jones, Poly-Currents, Coalition, Genesis, Merry Go Round, Live at the Lighthouse, Mr. Jones, and The Prime Element.

Jones makes his presence as a band leader undeniable on these sessions allowing the musicians to stretch out while directing the evolution of the pieces. The closest comparison would be to Art Blakey; Jones was a band leader, drum master, and someone who knew instinctively who would fit in his bands, whether it was a wide range of established jazz veterans or some that would go on to achieve that status. Some of this is quite adventurous and, while certainly not taking the extreme direction of John Coltrane's group after Jones and McCoy Tyner left it, moments of this modal hard bop music approach that level of intensity.