Thelonious Monk - Eight Classic Albums (4 CD, 2010/ FLAC)

 

Eight classic albums on four discs from great Monk

CD1 - Monk, Monk's Music {76:26}

CD2 - Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington, The Unique Thelonious Monk {75:46}

CD3 - Mulligan Meets Monk, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins {75:12}

CD4 - Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Monk Trio {79:34}

Tony Bennett - The Complete Improv Recordings [4 CD, 2004/FLAC]

 

For those new to the music of Tony Bennett, Improv was a label started by Tony Bennett and businessman Bill Hassett. Bennett was fed up with the suits at Columbia Records, who were trying to make him sing rock & roll. When his contract expired at the beginning of the 1970s, he and Hassett formed a label to help him realize his aesthetic ambitions, and Improv was born. Bennett recorded five albums for the label between 1975 and 1977 before it went bankrupt. These recordings may not have sold well -- due largely to distribution problems -- but all of them were critically acclaimed. On these sides, Bennett is in awesome company throughout, with talent ranging from Bill Evans and Earl Hines to Ruby Braff to Marian McPartland to Buddy Tate and Charlie Byrd.

The albums included here are Tony Bennett Sings 10 Rodgers and Hart Songs, Tony Bennett Sings More Great Rodgers & Hart, Tony Bennett and Bill Evans Together Again (this was the follow-up to the Fantasy set entitled The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album and is easily the better of the two), Life Is Beautiful, and Tony Bennett With the McPartlands and Friends Make Magnificent Music. While the original albums have been issued on CD before, complete sessions have never been available until now. Along with the original LPs are unissued alternate takes, 45s, and even an unreleased tune finished for a particular session but never used. In addition, the album with the McPartlands is here on compact disc for the first time. It should also be noted that this box finally completes the two different Tony Bennett and Bill Evans Together Again CD issues that were released on Rhino and Concord with different material. Collectors will find the box irresistible as much for its fine, if simple, presentation as for the material itself.

The Zawinul Syndicate - World Tour [2 CD, 1998/FLAC]

This live 2-CD set is the fruit of a 1997 Zawinul Syndicate world tour. Powered by Abidjanian drummer Paco Sery and either long-time Zawinul associate Victor Baily or Richard Bona on bass, the group attains critical mass from the start, cooling down only when a change of pace is warranted.

The Oscar Peterson Trio – Live At The Blue Note (The Complete Recordings - March 16-18, 1990) [4 CD, 2004/FLAC]

 In March of 1990, Oscar Peterson played a two-week engagement at the Blue Note in New York with a group billed as the Oscar Peterson Trio, even though it contained four players. Peterson was on piano, Ray Brown was on bass, Herb Ellis was on guitar and Bobby Durham was on drums. The billing was no doubt intended to capitalize on the fact that Peterson, Brown and Ellis had been one of the most popular jazz trios of the 1950s. The three had rarely played together between 1958 and this 1990 New York gig.

Dinah Washington- Milestones of a Legend [10 CD, 2017/FLAC]

 

10-CD box set featuring nineteen original albums from the iconic jazz and blues vocalist Dinah Washington. Featuring Quincy Jones, Hal Mooney, Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson, Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Harold Land, Max Roach and Joe Zawinul.

Dinah Washington was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003. Two of her songs that have been included in the Grammy Hall of Fame are included in this set: "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" (1998) and "Unforgettable" (2001).

Johnny Griffin- The Complete Recordings 1960-1962 [2014]

 One of the all-time great tenor saxophonists, Johnny Griffin will go down in the annals of jazz as a performer easily able to negotiate the tricky harmonic changes and swift tempos of modern music. He'll also be remembered as a player who could masterfully interpret tender ballads, rivaling Ben Webster in that regard.

Count Basie - The Complete Roulette Live Recordings of Count Basie and His Orchestra (1958-1962) [8 CD, 1991/FLAC]

 

Count Basie is one jazz musician who was amply recorded throughout his career and has been the subject of numerous domestic and foreign reissue lines; yet, Mosaic has managed to release Count Basie material in a valuable fashion. This eight-disc set contains Basie recordings for the Roulette label from 1959 to 1962, the first of a two-part series covering his full Roulette output. These are live recordings; the studio sessions are coming on their own set. There are plenty of blues, relaxed swingers, and superb vocals. There is nothing revolutionary about this music, but its consistency and celebratory fiber remain impressive through every disc. While eight discs is a lot of time for one band, no matter how great (and they do frequently repeat some songs), the set provides a chance to replicate the experience of life on the road for a touring band.

Charlie Parker / The Man with the Saxophone (1941-1952) [10 CD, 2000/FLAC]

One of a handful of musicians who can be said to have permanently changed jazz, Charlie Parker was arguably the greatest saxophonist of all time. He could play remarkably fast lines that, if slowed down to half speed, would reveal that every note made sense. "Bird," along with his contemporaries Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, is considered a founder of bebop; in reality he was an intuitive player who simply was expressing himself. Rather than basing his improvisations closely on the melody as was done in swing, he was a master of chordal improvising, creating new melodies that were based on the structure of a song. In fact, Bird wrote several future standards (such as "Anthropology," "Ornithology," "Scrapple from the Apple," and "Ko Ko," along with such blues numbers as "Now's the Time" and "Parker's Mood") that "borrowed" and modernized the chord structures of older tunes. Parker's remarkable technique, fairly original sound, and ability to come up with harmonically advanced phrases that could be both logical and whimsical were highly influential. By 1950, it was impossible to play "modern jazz" with credibility without closely studying Charlie Parker. 

Lee Morgan - The Complete Blue Note 50s Sessions (4 CD, 1995/FLAC)

 Lee Morgan recorded for Blue Note in the late '50s, playing seven dates between 1956 and 1958. Morgan was still in his teens at the time and half of the joy of The Complete Blue Note Lee Morgan Fifties Sessions is hearing the trumpeter develop at a rapid rate. The four-disc box set The Complete Blue Note encompasses sessions with Horace Silver, Paul Chambers, Benny Golson, Wynton Kelly, Sonny Clarke, Doug Watkins, and Art Taylor. Morgan may have been young at the time these were recorded, but he was impressive even at the beginning, playing blistering hard bop and lyrical ballads with equal ease. He may have gone on to record greater, more influential albums but this music remains exciting, vital, and simply joyous. 

Art Pepper - Live At The Village Vanguard (4 CD, 1987/FLAC)

 Alto saxophonist Art Pepper recorded several albums during an extended stint at the Village Vanguard in 1977. They were originally issued as Live at the Vanguard, Vols. 1-4, then reissued using various weeknights as the reference. Either way, all are exceptional, with burning Pepper solos, outstanding secondary solos by pianist George Cables, and equally fine work from bassist George Mraz and drummer Elvin Jones.