Art Pepper - The Complete Galaxy Recordings (1978-1982) [16 CD, 1989] [FLAC]

 THE COMPLETE GALAXY RECORDINGS contains 16 CDs worth of material recorded by Art Pepper during his 1978 to 1982 tenure with the Galaxy record label. This box set has 137 selections, including 53 previously unreleased tracks, with a total running time of 18 hours and 39 minutes. Also included is a 28-page booklet with an essay by Gary Giddins and rarely seen photos of Pepper from this period.

Personnel includes: Art Pepper (saxophone); Carl Burnett, George Cables, Ron Carter, Stanley Cowell, Tony Dumas, Tommy Flanagan, Al Foster, Charlie Haden, Roy Haynes, Billy Higgins, Hank Jones, Cecil McBee, Red Mitchel, Kenneth Nash, Howard Roberts, David Williams.

 

 

The Complete Verve/Clef - Charlie Ventura & Flip Phillips Studio Sessions (6 CD, 1998) [FLAC]

Although they were never major influences, both Flip Phillips and Charlie Ventura had their moments of fame and were entertaining and hard-swinging tenor saxophonists. This 1998 limited-edition six-CD box set from Mosaic is typically wondrous with quite a few little-heard gems included among the 116 selections (five previously unreleased, three of which are alternate takes). The first two CDs feature Charlie Ventura during 1951-1954, right after his "Bop for the People" band broke up. His seven sessions include a heated quintet with trumpeter Conte Candoli ("Bugle Call Rag" is a highlight), five separate quartets (with such notable players as pianists Marty Napoleon and Dave McKenna plus Buddy Rich), and a nonet date that has a few short solos from trumpeter Charlie Shavers and trombonist Kai Winding. Singer Mary Ann McCall is fine on five songs, although four less interesting numbers feature the Blentones, an indifferent vocal group. Ventura is heard on alto, baritone, and his booming bass sax in addition to his trademark tenor, and was still in his prime. Flip Phillips is featured on the last four CDs on 16 sessions dating from 1947-1954, and one in 1957. He is actually a sideman on sets headed by trombonist Tommy Turk, guitarist Nick Esposito, and Buddy Rich (starring on the latter). Otherwise, Flip is largely the star, supported by trumpeters Howard McGhee, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and Charlie Shavers, trombonist Bill Harris, pianists Hank Jones, Mickey Crane, Dick Hyman, Lou Levy, and Oscar Peterson, bassist Ray Brown, and drummers J.C. Heard, Shelly Manne, Max Roach, Jo Jones, and Rich, among others. With the exception of the Buddy Rich date (which is live), all of the music clocks in around three minutes apiece, so the musicians make expert use of their limited space. Highly recommended to bop and mainstream fans; get this very valuable set while you can.  

 

Simon Phillips - Protocol (6 CD, 2019/FLAC)

 

A must-have collector’s item, NOT available digitally — a deluxe, limited edition 6-CD box set to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Protocol, the powerhouse jazz-rock vehicle for the compositions of Modern Drummer Magazine’s #1 fusion player, Simon Phillips.

Includes each of the previous Protocol releases (I, II, III & IV), which have been re-mastered for better sound. PLUS, two full CDs of previously unreleased demo tracks — early versions of the same tunes that would later become Protocol’s finished material.

Phillips, himself, composed the liner notes of a brilliant 24-page booklet, providing deep insight into the genesis of the bands and how they transformed the tunes from the original concepts.

 

Nina Simone - The Complete RCA Albums Collection (9 CD, 2011/FLAC)

This nine-CD box set was first released back in 2011 via Sony’s Legacy Recordings imprint and collects remastered versions of all nine original albums that Nina Simone cut for RCA (between 1967 and 1974) and presents them in vinyl replica sleeves.

This set features expanded versions of each album, with a total of 35 bonus tracks, including additional songs/session material relevant to time period. The included 34-page booklet offers details on all the sessions and sources.

• 1967 - Nina Simone Sings The Blues - 00:32:46

• 1967 - Silk & Soul - 00:36:35

• 1968 - 'Nuff Said! - 01:05:01

• 1969 - Nina Simone And Piano! - 00:54:17

• 1969 - To Love Somebody - 00:55:52

• 1969 - Black Gold - 01:13:37

• 1971 - Here Comes The Sun - 01:07:17

• 1972 - Emergency Ward! - 00:39:06

• 1974 - It Is Finished - 00:59:57 

 

Stan Kenton discography [1950-2006]

Stan Kenton, byname of Stanley Newcomb Kenton, (born Feb. 19, 1912, Wichita, Kan., U.S.—died Aug. 25, 1979, Los Angeles), American jazz bandleader, pianist, and composer who commissioned and promoted the works of many modern composer-arrangers and thrust formal education and big-band jazz together into what became the stage (or concert) band movement of the 1960s and ’70s, involving thousands of high school and college musicians.

Kenton was responsible for the “progressive jazz” label that some mistake for all modern jazz and some use to identify all Kenton-linked jazz. Some critics place his music in the “cool jazz” category and, being based in California, many of his players—including Shorty Rogers, Bill Perkins, and Shelly Manne—were identified with West Coast jazz, a subcategory of cool jazz. 

Gene Krupa - Drummin' Man (Quadromania, 1938-1949) (4 CD, 2005/FLAC)

This Quadromania box set has the best recordings by Gene Krupa's big band. All of the drummer's hits are here including "Drummin' Man," "Drum Boogie," "Bolero at the Savoy," "Let Me Off Uptown," "Rockin' Chair," "After You've Gone," "Leave Us Leap," "Body and Soul," "Opus #1" and "Disc Jockey Jump." In addition to Krupa, the stars on these often-classic swing sides include trumpeter Roy Eldridge, singer Anita O'Day, altoist Charlie Kennedy and tenorman Charlie Ventura among others. Since this was the definitive Krupa set, it is a pity that Columbia has not reissued all of the music intact on CD yet.  

 

Grant Green & Baby Face Willette - Trio/Quartet - Complete Recordings (2 CD, 2014/FLAC)

 Digitally re-mastered two CD set containing all of Grant Green and Baby Face Willette's collaborative albums as leaders. Recorded in 1961-62, they consist of the LP GRANT'S FIRST STAND, issued under the guitarist's name, and Baby Face Willette's albums FACE TO FACE and STOP AND LISTEN. Other than their three LPs as leaders, Green and Willette only recorded together on Lou Donaldson's album HERE 'TIS, from which we have added the title song, a long blues, as a bonus.

 

Kid Ory - The Complete Verve Sessions (8 CD, 1999/FLAC)

 Kid Ory is known best for the work he did in the mid-1920s with the men who had once been his employees. Many essential King Oliver recordings feature Ory, and he is perhaps most famous as the trombone voice on Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five sessions. Ory’s ensemble playing on “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue” would be enough, by itself, to earn Ory pride of place among tailgate trombonists.

Come the Depression, Ory hung up his horn and went to work on a chicken farm outside of Los Angeles. Later, he found employment in a railroad office. It wasn’t until 1942 that Ory got back into the music business: His career enjoyed a renaissance starting in 1944 when Orson Welles hired the pioneering trombonist to lead a band for his radio broadcasts.

By the mid-’50s, when Ory started recording for Norman Granz at Verve, Ory’s second blooming was in full flower. He was touring Europe and the United States to packed houses. Audiences in France were so enthusiastic that Ory supposedly mistook their exuberance for aggression-he thought he was being jeered when he was actually being cheered. A recording of that night’s performance opens the Mosaic set, and in that hyper-charged atmosphere one will hear the closest Ory comes to the sort of raw rowdiness that is typical of so many trad trombonists today.

• Kid Ory - trombone, vocals
• J.C. Higginbotham, Jack Teagarden - trombone
• Alvin Alcorn, Red Allen, Teddy Buckner, Andrew Blakeney - trumpet
• Phillip Gomez, Buster Bailey, Caughey Roberts, Robert McCracken - clarinet
• Cedric Haywood, Claude Hopkins, Lionel Reason, Bob Van Eps - piano
• Wellman Braud, Frank Haggerty - guitar
• Johnny St. Cyr - banjo, guitar
• Arvell Shaw, Charles Oden, Morty Corb, Bob Boyack - bass
• Kansas Fields, Earl Watkins, Jesse Sailes, Alton Redd, Doc Cenardo - drums

 

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.