Hank Mobley - Complete Blue Note Fifties Sessions (6 CD, 1998) [FLAC]

 

This is a typically remarkable box set from Mosaic. The six-CD limited-edition package has all of tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley's recordings as a leader for Blue Note from a three-year period, all of the music originally included in the albums titled The Hank Mobley Quartet, Hank Mobley Sextet, Hank Mobley & His All-Stars, Hank Mobley Quintet, Hank, Hank Mobley, Curtain Call, Poppin', and Peckin' Time; not a lot of imagination went into these records' original titles. There is only one previously unissued selection (the alternate take of "Barrel of Funk"), but two of the albums were only out previously in Japan, and most of the others had not been previously available on CD. Mobley, an underrated player with a distinctive sound (influenced at times by Sonny Rollins), would continue to grow as an improviser and composer throughout the 1960s, but even on his earliest date here, he is a strong (if unsung) soloist. Featured along with the leader is a who's who of 1950s hard bop, including trumpeters Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Bill Hardman, Kenny Dorham, and Art Farmer, pianists Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons, Sonny Clark, and Wynton Kelly, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassists Doug Watkins, Paul Chambers, Wilbur Ware, and Jimmy Rowser, and drummers Art Blakey, Charlie Persip, Philly Joe Jones, and Art Taylor. A must for Hank Mobley and 1950s Blue Note fans, but this deluxe box (released in 1998) promises to go out of print quickly.

Ella Fitzgerald - Twelve Nights In Hollywood (4 CD, 2009) [FLAC]

 

Ella Fitzgerald's Twelve Nights In Hollywood is 4-CD box set of 73 completely unreleased live recordings from Ella in her relaxed, absolute prime. For Twelve Nights In Hollywood Verve Select dug into the vault to collect the best of her performances across her extended 10-night 1961 engagement at Los Angeles' Crescendo Club - which originally resulted in the hit LP Ella In Hollywood - and her two-night return engagement the following year, presenting an unforgettable experience that puts you right in the front seat at the club, without repeating any performances from the original album. It includes several tracks never before heard by Ella live, tracks she had just recorded or had yet to record in the studio, and old chestnuts she revisited in a fresh way. Standouts among many across the four discs include "But Not For Me," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "Perdido," "How High the Moon" and "When Your Lover Has Gone."

The Vandermark 5 - Alchemia [12 CD, 2005] (FLAC + 320)

 People always asked why Grateful Dead fans used to tour with the band; the answer was that they never played the same show twice. This box-set recording of the Vandermark 5's five-night stand at the Alchemia Club in Krakow, Poland last March does not quite live up to that high standard, but it does offer a rare glimpse at a working band, well, working.

These 12 full-length CDs document the Vandermark 5 playing at Alchemia, a major nightclub in Kraków, Poland, for a period of five evenings in March 2005. Over the course of well more than 12 hours of music, the quintet solidifies its reputation as one of the most innovative and exciting jazz groups of its time, as magic fills the air every night. It is difficult to imagine a more compelling set of modern jazz.

Sidney Bechet - Complete Edition Vol. 1-13 [13 CD, 1991/FLAC]

Sidney Bechet (May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz, and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist.

Forceful delivery, well-constructed improvisations, and a distinctive, wide vibrato characterized Bechet's playing. Bechet's erratic temperament hampered his career, however, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim.

Milt Jackson - La Ronde Suite (4 CD, 2005/FLAC)

 

Milt Jackson (born January 1, 1923, Detroit, Michigan, USA - died October 9, 1999, New York City, New York, USA) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, composer and bandleader.

He played with numerous artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Woody Herman, John Coltrane, The Modern Jazz Quartet and many others as well as in his own bands. 

Mahalia Jackson - In Memoriam (5 LP, 1974/FLAC)

 General critical consensus holds Mahalia Jackson as the greatest gospel singer ever to live; a major crossover success whose popularity extended across racial divides, she was gospel's first superstar, and even decades after her death remains, for many listeners, a defining symbol of the music's transcendent power. With her singularly expressive contralto, Jackson continues to inspire the generations of vocalists who follow in her wake; among the first spiritual performers to introduce elements of blues into her music, she infused gospel with a sensuality and freedom it had never before experienced, and her artistry rewrote the rules forever. Born in one of the poorest sections of New Orleans on October 26, 1911, Jackson made her debut in the children's choir of the Plymouth Rock Baptist Church at the age of four, and within a few years was a prominent member of the Mt. Moriah Baptist's junior choir. Raised next door to a sanctified church, she was heavily influenced by their brand of gospel, with its reliance on drums and percussion over piano; another major inspiration was the blues of Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. 

4 albums on 5 LP

• Mahalia Jackson Sings America's Favourite Hymns (LP 1-2)
• Mahalia Jackson In Concert Easter Sunday, 1967 (LP 3)
• Mahalia Jackson Sings The Gospel Right Out Of The Church (LP 4)
• What The World Needs Now (LP 5)

Fats Waller - Early, Middle & Last Years (1934-1943) (15 CD) [FLAC]

 

Not only was Fats Waller one of the greatest pianists jazz has ever known, he was also one of its most exuberantly funny entertainers -- and as so often happens, one facet tends to obscure the other. His extraordinarily light and flexible touch belied his ample physical girth; he could swing as hard as any pianist alive or dead in his classic James P. Johnson-derived stride manner, with a powerful left hand delivering the octaves and tenths in a tireless, rapid, seamless stream. Waller also pioneered the use of the pipe organ and Hammond organ in jazz -- he called the pipe organ the "God box" -- adapting his irresistible sense of swing to the pedals and a staccato right hand while making imaginative changes of the registration. As a composer and improviser, his melodic invention rarely flagged, and he contributed fistfuls of joyous yet paradoxically winsome songs like "Honeysuckle Rose," "Ain't Misbehavin,'" "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now," "Blue Turning Grey Over You" and the extraordinary "Jitterbug Waltz" to the jazz repertoire.

Peter Herbolzheimer - Big Band Man (The MPS & Polydor Studio Recordings) (FLAC, 4 CD/2008)

 

Peter Alexandru Herbolzheimer (31 December 1935 – 27 March 2010) was a Romanian-German jazz trombonist and bandleader.

This box contains albums 

• Soul Condor (70), 
• Time Travellers Galaxis (74), 
• Waitaminute (73), 
• Wide Open (73), 
• Hip Walk (76), 
• Touchdown (77), 
• I Hear Voices (78)

The Modern Jazz Quartet - The Complete Atlantic Studio Recordings 1956-64 [7 CD, 2011] [FLAC]

Even now, nearly sixty years later, it seems improbable that a group which came together as the rhythm section for one of the hottest players in bebop's genesis era, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, could morph into a standalone group that was the epitome of grace, elegance and cool dignity. But that's exactly what happened when Gillespie recruited pianist John Lewis (1920-2001), vibraphonist Milt Jackson (1923-1999), bassist Ray Brown (1926-2002) and drummer Kenny Clarke (1914-1985), giving the quartet an opportunity to shine as a discrete unit when it came time, during his sextet's exhausting sets, to give the horns a break, calling, "OK, band off!"

Roy Eldridge - The Complete Verve Roy Eldridge Studio Sessions [7 CD, 2003/FLAC]

 

7-disc CD box set from legendary trumpeter Roy Eldridge and the Verve Label. Includes his complete recordings 24-bit digitally remastered and booklet with rare photos.


Born in Pittsburgh in 1911, he began playing professionally in carnival bands and such before making a name for himself in a few Midwest regional bands. He arrived in New York in 1931, where Elmer Snowden, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers and Teddy Hill all employed him. He also backed Billie Holiday and featured with Fletcher Henderson. In the late 1930s, he was leading his own octet in Chicago with brother Joe on alto saxophone..

Roy was a trailblazer socially as well as musically; in the 1940s, he joined Gene Krupa’s band, making him the first black musician to tour with Krupa. His classic version of “Rockin’ Chair” and the always enjoyable feature “Let Me Off Uptown” with Anita O’Day are from this period. He continued to perform and record as a leader, and worked for a stint with Artie Shaw (1944-45). Later in the 1940s, he hooked up with Benny Goodman, and also with Norman Granz for a tour in Europe with Jazz at the Philharmonic. But fearing that the modernists in jazz were getting all the attention Stateside, he stayed in Europe, believing his career in America was over.

What happened next is why these Verve recordings exist.