Ahmad Jamal - The Complete Ahmad Jamal Trio Argo Sessions 1956-62 [9 CD, 2010] [FLAC + 24-44 + 320]

 

In 2007, this set was well on its way with Ahmad Jamal’s blessing. He listened to and approved a multitude of previously unissued material, expanding the legacy of this extraordinary trio. A tape search proved problematic and we spent the next two years scouring various Ahmad Jamal Argo masters scouring Europe and Japan as well as the US.

As you can hear, this legacy has been reconstructed although almost half of it has comes from digital sources. Both analog and digital sources have minor problems here and there such as the small frying sound on disc 4, track 5. The only major problem is the “Count “Em 88” album (disc 1, tracks 1-9) which for years was available only in electronically-rechanneled stereo. The only existing source in 2010 is a Japanese CD master that seems to have been dubbed from an LP. It has wow and flutter and occasional electronic static as on track 5. Every effort has been made to bring all of this music to you in the best possible fidelity.

Peter Erskine, John Taylor, Palle Danielsson- As It Was [4 CD, 2016/FLAC]

 

This addition to ECM’s popular Old and New Masters Series is a box set reprising the four albums made by Peter Erskine’s American-British-Swedish trio with John Taylor and Palle Danielsson between 1992 and 1997: You Never Know, As It Is, Time Being and Juni. If its core concept – a piano led by a drummer – was unorthodox, the group was nonetheless influential, and the recordings provide an excellent environment for appreciating the distinctive writing and playing of John Taylor.

 

VA - The Best Jazz Is Played with Verve - Your Guide To North Sea Jazz Festival 1994 (2 CD, 1994/FLAC)

 

The North Sea Jazz Festival is an annual festival held each second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. It used to be in The Hague but since 2006 it has been held in Rotterdam. This is because the Statenhal where the festival was held before was demolished in 2006. As of 3 November 2017 the festival officially will be known as the NN North Sea Jazz Festival.

The founder of the three-day festival was Paul Acket, a businessman and jazz lover who made a fortune in the 1960s with his pop magazine publishing company. When Acket sold his company in 1975, he was able to start and sponsor the North Sea Jazz Festival. Acket wanted to present American jazz and European avant-garde jazz. In 1976 the first edition of the festival took place. It was an immediate success: six stages, thirty hours of music, and 300 performances drew over 9000 visitors. Acts included Count Basie, Miles Davis, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, James Taylor, Benny Goodman, and Sarah Vaughan among others. 

Miles Davis Quintet - The First Great Quintet 1955-56 (3 CD, 2021) [Hi-Res FLAC]

 

"In the summer of 1955, after 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." 

Max Neissendorfer Trio - Max Neissendorfer Trio (2023) [24-44]

The Munich jazz singer and pianist Max Neissendorfer (p,voc) is one of the most versatile jazz pianists and scat singers in Europe. Rene Harderer (b) studied double bass with Paulo Cardoso and electric bass with Patrick Scales at the Munich Music Academy. Stephan Treutter (dr) did his diploma in jazz drums at the Munich University of Music and Theater.

1 - There Is No Greater Love (08:45)

2 - Exactly Like You (07:35)

3 - Aqua De Beber (10:43)

4 - Angel Eyes (07:42)

5 - Night And Day (08:17)

6 - Relax (06:57)

7 - Doxy (07:37)

8 - Caravan (09:45)

9 - Get Me To The Church (08:00)

Dexter Gordon – The Complete Trio & Quartet Studio Recordings 1974/1975/1976 (8 CD, 2003) [FLAC]

This mammoth eight-disc box set contains all of the recordings Dexter Gordon cut for Steeplechase Records during the mid-'70s during the last years of his long sojourn in Paris. While his earlier Blue Note sides are often considered his finest, these dates, placing him in the company of brilliant musicians such as Kenny Drew, Tete Montoliu, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Albert Heath, Billy Higgins, Barry Harris, Sam Jones, and others, unquestionably rival them in quality. In addition to the great catalog Gordon amassed at Steeplechase, he left a ton of alternate takes and unreleased material on the shelf. This set brings together all of it, including 24 never-before-issued performances, making this, along with the Blue Note box set, the definitive Dexter Gordon caught at both his creative peaks. 

Michel Petrucciani - Montreux Years (2 CD, 2023) [24-96]

The brand-new release in The Montreux Years series is a collection of Michel Petrucciani’s most memorable performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival from 1990 – 1998.

Jaco Pastorius - Modern American Music... Period! The Criteria Sessions (1974/2014) [24-48]

Modern American Music... Period! The Criteria Sessions presents a series of demo recordings that bassist Jaco Pastorius made two years before his landmark debut album, 1976's Jaco Pastorius. Recorded after hours at Miami's Criteria Studios, these tracks represent some of the earliest solo cuts from Pastorius. 

Miles Davis & John Coltrane - The Best of Miles Davis and John Coltrane (2019) [24-48]

Coltrane had been a sideman with Davis on and off since 1955; they were both born in 1926, but their careers took drastically different paths. Davis was already a minor star in 1945, at the age of nineteen, when he recorded with Charlie Parker. Three years later, at twenty-two, he led a nonet, featuring intricate arrangements, that proved vastly influential. (They’re gathered under the title “Birth of the Cool.”) Davis had a huge and significant discography as a leader by the time he hired Coltrane, an unheralded musician best known as a rarely soloing sideman, who’d never yet led a record date. With Davis, Coltrane quickly found his voice, and expanded it during a stint in 1957 with Thelonious Monk. Coltrane had led dates on several labels; recorded the influential “Giant Steps,” in 1959; and was ready to go out on his own.

01 - Round Midnight 05:56

02 - Airegin 04:25

03 - My Funny Valentine 06:01

04 - Half Nelson 04:45

05 - The Maids of Cadiz 03:54

06 - Blues for Pablo 05:20

07 - Generique - Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud 02:48

08 - Au Bar Du Petit Bac - Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud 02:53

09 - Miles 05:42

10 - Summertime 03:19

11 - It Ain't Necessarily So 04:25

12 - So What 09:04

13 - All Blues 11:32

14 - Someday My Prince Will Come 09:04

15 - Giant Steps 04:44

16 - Syeeda's Song Flute 07:01

17 - Naima 04:21

18 - Like Sonny 05:52

19 - My Favorite Things 13:42

20 - Equinox 08:33

21 - Aisha 07:37

22 - Greensleeves 09:58

23 - Soul Eyes 05:24

24 - Tunji 06:33

25 - In a Sentimental Mood 04:14

Laboratorium - Anthology 1971-1988 [10 CD, 2006]

 

The end of the 60s was an important period in jazz, as well as rock music, in Poland and the rest of the world, with the development of many styles and trends in popular music. In 1970 the jazz rock fusion band, Laboratorium was formed in Kraków. Their music soon developed in jazz rock fusion, and so were pioneers in this music in Poland. In their first years, Laboratorium's music was acoustic, cleverly avoiding any limiting definitions. At the beginning of the 70's there was very limited access to Western recordings but this did not prove an obstacle for the band, because of the musicians searching and experimenting in the field. On the contrary and because of their relative isolation, Laboratorium developed an unique sound which was often noted in various critical reviews.

The Laboratorium's album debut was released in January 1973, consisting of two tracks recorded in April 1972 in a studio belonging to the PR III of the Polish Radio. The recording session was in fact, an award for taking second place on the Jazz Nad Odr¹ '72 festival. The tracks were noted for their unusual approach both towards harmony and tension-building. The first song 'Chora³' included a vocal fragment by Marek Stryszowski. Later his singing was to become an important and significant element of Laboratorium's music, often utilising electronic voice-modulation effects.