Buddy De Franco - The Complete Verve Recordings With Sonny Clark (4 CD, 1990) [FLAC]

 

Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco recorded extensively for Norgran and Verve during 1953-1958. For a little over a year, Sonny Clark was his regular pianist and all of their small-group recordings have been reissued on this limited-edition five-LP set. With bassist Eugene Wright (a couple years before he joined the Dave Brubeck Quartet) and drummer Bobby White completing the quartet, and guitarist Tal Farlow making the group a quintet on its final 11 numbers, DeFranco had one of his strongest bands.

The majority of the 39 selections on the typically attractive Mosaic box are standards or based on a familiar tune's chord changes. Buddy DeFranco had no real competitors (other than Benny Goodman) during the era, while Sonny Clark was one of the most talented of the Bud Powell-influenced pianists; they made for a mutually inspiring team.

• Sonny Clark (piano), 
• Buddy De Franco (clarinet), 
• Tal Farlow (guitar), 
• Bobby White (drums), 
• Gene Wright (bass)

 

Freddie Hubbard - The Complete Blue Note & Impulse '60s Studio Sessions (7 CD, 2022) [FLAC]

Ten Classic Studio Albums on Seven CDs: This limited edition collection traces Hubbard’s rise to prominence by collecting the entire ten studio albums recorded during his first six years as a leader. All of the music gives evidence of a brilliant player with an ever-more-personal voice, a budding composer who would go on to pen several jazz classics. Now at last Freddie gets his own seven-CD box set, with a special twist. Thanks to a special arrangement with the labels, we were able to package “The Complete Freddie Hubbard Blue Note & Impulse ‘60s Studio Sessions” in one box, representing every studio date he led from 1960 to 1966. 

Jean-Luc Ponty - Original Album Series Vol.2 (5 CD, 2016) [FLAC]

1979 - A Taste For Passion 

1979 - Live 

1980 - Civilized Evil 

1982 - Mystical Adventures 

1983 - Individual Choice 

Billie Holiday - The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve (1945-1959) [10 CD, 1992/FLAC]

 

This is a rather incredible collection: ten CDs enclosed in a tight black box that includes every one of the recordings Verve owns of Billie Holiday, not only the many studio recordings of 1952-57 (which feature Lady Day joined by such jazz all-stars as trumpeters Charlie Shavers and Harry "Sweets" Edison, altoist Benny Carter, and the tenors of Flip Phillips, Paul Quinichette and Ben Webster). Also included are prime performances at Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts in 1945-1947, an enjoyable European gig from 1954, her "comeback" Carnegie Hall concert of 1956, Holiday's rather sad final studio album from 1959, and even lengthy tapes from two informal rehearsals. It's a perfect purchase for the true Billie Holiday fanatic. 

Giorgio Gaslini - The Complete Remastered Recordings on Dischi Della Quercia {1976-85} (11 CD, 2013/FLAC)

 One of the most prominent and influential Italian jazz musicians, pianist/composer Giorgio Gaslini's music wed elements of 20th century classical music (serialism, aleatory) with avant-garde jazz and pop idioms; he termed his widely encompassing style "total music." Gaslini took piano lessons as a child and began performing at the age of 13. He formed and recorded with a jazz trio at the age of 16, and at 19 he performed at the International Jazz Festival in Florence. Gaslini attended the Conservatorio in his home town of Milan, studying composition, conducting, and piano. Gaslini's interests were varied; in the late '50s and early '60s he led a jazz quartet, composed for film, and led several Italian symphony orchestras. Gaslini also wrote for theater and ballet; his works have been performed at such prestigious venues as La Scala in Milan, the Rome Opera Theatre, and the Roman Theatre in Verona. Of his 40-plus film soundtracks, best known is his score for Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte.

As a jazz musician, Gaslini performed and recorded with many leading American avant-gardists, including Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Roswell Rudd, and Don Cherry. Gaslini was an active educator, teaching at Santa Cecilia Academy of Music in Rome (1972-1973) and at the Giuseppe Verdi Academy of Music in Milan (1979-1980). He was also the author of two textbooks on jazz. In 1991, he founded the jazz ensemble Grande Orchestra Nazionale. From 1991-1995, he composed a pair of suites for the Italian Instabile Orchestra: "Pierrot Solaire" and "Skies of Europe." Gaslini recorded for the Soul Note and Leo labels, among others. The Italian review Musica Jazz once dedicated an entire issue to his work -- a sign of the esteem in which he was held in his native land. Giorgio Gaslini died in July 2014 in Parma, Italy; he was 84 years old. 

Artie Shaw - Self Portrait (5 CD, 2001/FLAC)

As a clarinetist, he was one of the best, but as a bandleader and jazz innovator, Artie Shaw was peerless. In the various ensembles he led from 1936 to 1954, Shaw pushed swing jazz into new territory. He incorporated classical instrumentation into his arrangements and pretty much invented the genre of "third stream jazz"; he ignored the color barrier by recording with Hot Lips Page in the late '20s and by touring with Billie Holiday; he created volumes of timeless, beautiful, and swinging jazz. But mostly, Shaw kept everyone on their toes, wondering what new, gorgeous sounds he'd create next. 

The five-CD Self Portrait is the most complete collection assembled of his vast output, and Shaw himself, 91 years young, selected the tracks. It's a fascinating snapshot: the maverick clarinetist's career-long restlessness led to musical innovation and an odd assortment of inventive lineups. Listen to "Streamline" and hear the reckless sounds of Raymond Scott combined with a classical string quartet; hear his pure and pretty clarinet tones on "Begin the Beguine" and instantly understand how it became a hit in the late '30s. The highlights abound and every band--especially the mid-'50s Gramercy Five featuring Tal Farlow on guitar and Hank Jones on piano--is consistently great.

 

 

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol.10: Toronto (3 CD, 2018/FLAC)

 For many jazz fans, the high point of Art Pepper’s late-’70s comeback was a fournight stand at New York’s Village Vanguard that was recorded for Contemporary Records and released, at first, as four albums, and later as a nine-CD set. These rangy, sometimes raucous performances with pianist George Cables, bassist George Mraz and drummer Elvin Jones, captured the questing, Coltrane-inflected sound of his later years, while still reflecting the lyric, bop schooled virtuosity of his early work.

This 3 CD set (Vol. 10) from Widows Taste just released may well be among the most interesting and historically significant, as any in the series. On June 16, 1977, Art appeared with a quartet at the Bourbon Street club in Toronto. It is a dry run for those sessions recorded six weeks before the Vanguard shows and it finds Pepper in front of a different rhythm section, but obtaining much the same results.

Artie Shaw - Begin The Beguine [10 CD, 2005/FLAC]

 

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004), better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings.

Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led one of America's most popular big bands of the late 1930s and early '40s. Their signature song, a 1938 version of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine", was a wildly successful single and one of the era's defining recordings. Musically restless, Shaw was also an early proponent of Third Stream, which blended classical and jazz, and recorded some small-group sessions that flirted with be-bop before retiring from music in 1954.

VA - Dreyfus Jazz : 20 Years [20 CD, 2012]

 

In the early 90′s, Dreyfus starts to get involved with jazz music. 20 years later, Dreyfus Jazz label has become a prestigious and unavoidable label of quality and high artistic standards universally recognized. Today, the label continues to bring together the best talent and promote quality jazz.

•  Adrien Moignard - All The Way
•  Ahmad Jamal - It's Magic
•  Aldo Romano - Just Jazz
•  Anne Ducros - Close your eyes
•  Béla Fleck-Places
•  Bireli Lagrene - Gipsy Trio
•  Didier Lockwood - Tribute To Stephane Grappelli
•  Eddy Louiss - Eddy Louiss Trio
•  Franck Avitabile - Short stories
•  Geraldine Laurent - Time Out Trio
•  Marcus Miller - The Essential Marcus Miller - Power
•  Michel Petrucciani - Solo Live
•  Philip Catherine - Philip Catherine - Guitars Two
•  Richard Galliano Septet - Piazzolla forever
•  Rosario Giuliani - Lennie's Pennies
•  Roy Haynes - Fountain of Youth
•  Steve Grossman with Michel Petrucciani - The Quartet
•  Sylvain Luc - Joko
•  Terez Montcalm - Voodoo
•  Trio Sud - 'Young And Fine'

 

Bill Evans Trio - Turn Out the Stars : The Final Village Vanguard Recordings (6 CD, 1996) [FLAC]

  

New York City's legendary jazz club the Village Vanguard was the setting for Evans's musical triumphs in the early 1960's, and it's ironic it was the scene of his last triumphs. This six-disc set was recorded there in June 1980--Evans would pass away three months hence. Accompanied by bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera, Evans gives several of his classic tunes definitive readings. The interplay between these three is astonishing, the audio quality is overall superb, and Evans plays often with what can only be called quiet fire. TURN OUT THE STARS proves he left this world at the top of his game.



Recorded live at the Village Vanguard just months before Evans' sudden death in September, 1980, this material was originally earmarked for an album later that year. However, it remained unissued until 1996 when the compilers discovered Evans' handwritten notes concerning the aborted release.

Listening to these performances with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera, one is struck by how little Evans' overall style had changed in the twenty-four years since his 1956 debut: luxuriously-phrased piano lines, almost horn-like in their length and melodicism, which never lapse into mere vapid prettiness (even on tunes as slick as Paul Simon's "I Do It For Your Love") due to their cerebral, near-abstract quality. Johnson and LaBarbera are an intuitive unit, responding with ease and grace to their leader's occasional flights of fancy.