Re-Bop: The Savoy Originals collects 13 tracks recorded between 1945 and 1959 for the influential West Coast jazz label. Boasting a wide range of performers, this compilation gathers classic cuts by the Modern Jazz Quartet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Red Norvo, Duke Jordan, Cal Tjader, Curtis Fuller, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Mann, and Dizzy Gillespie. The "Originals" portion of the title refers to the companion set, Re-Bop: The Savoy Remixes, in which turntablists like DJ Logic, Basement Boys, and DJ Jazzy Jeff take liberties with these tracks by rearranging them for the digital age. No matter what your feelings concerning remixing experimentation, Re-Bop: The Savoy Originals is a well-chosen primer collection for the jazz novice and a great-sounding disc for the completest.

The Trio is a 1973 live album by Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. At the Grammy Awards of 1975, The Trio won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group. In his Allmusic review, critic Scott Yanow complimented the playing of Pass and Pedersen, but wrote "the reason to acquire this set is for the remarkable Oscar Peterson. The pianist brilliantly investigates several jazz styles… Peterson really flourished during his years with Norman Granz's Pablo label, and this was one of his finest recordings of the period."

Maya With Love reunites the powerful trio that Harold Mabern assembled in 1997 to record his Mabern's Grooveyard album. Like that recording, this current offering makes the most of the talents of all three players to produce music that is a whirling stream of power. The percussive nature of Mabern's playing is highlighted on the boogie-woogie style of "Boogie for Al McShawn," while the young lion Christian McBride steps out from the background with some impressive bowing on "Lament." Tony Reedus provides a rhythmic framework to hang the whole work on with his impressive and intricate percussion work…

Louis Jordan was at the top of his fame when the 23 recordings reissued on this Classics CD were cut. The influential altoist/singer/entertainer during this era led a version of his Tympany Five that also featured trumpeter Aaron Izenhall, Josh Jackson on tenor and pianist Wild Bill Davis (years before he switched to organ). Among the hits included on the set are "Beware," "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin'," "Choo-Choo Ch'Boogie," "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens," "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Jack You're Dead," but even the lesser-known tracks are entertaining…

Having made an enormous contribution to the establishment of the Nashville Sound and the modernisation of country music, Anita Kerr felt the need to expand her artistic horizons and in 1965, made the move from Nashville to Hollywood. She wanted to work with different people, to get her own songs recorded, to play jazz, to conduct an orchestra, to take on more ambitious and more varied projects musically, and to form a vocal group which, rather than be confined to studio sessions, might also appear in club and concert settings. Her arrival on the West Coast was well timed. She had just fought off The Beatles to win a Grammy for the album We Dig Mancini and she was quickly able to assemble a stellar Anita Kerr Singers (B.J Baker: alto, Gene Merlino: tenor; Bob Tebow: bass, with Anita herself as soprano and soloist) and secure a contract more tailored to her needs with Warner Brothers. The result over the next two years, were these five superbly fashioned albums.

Among the dozens of sessions Django Reinhardt cut with various groups from 1934 to 1953, he would only rarely make trio recordings. This set compiles all of this existing instrumental trios, including a variety of different formations. As a bonus, a rare session by singer Nitta Rette backed by a trio of Django, Stéphane Grappelli and pianist Emil Stern (with plenty of solos by the three instrumentalists), as well as a series of quartet sides which feature Django as a prominent soloist.

Violinists Stéphane Grappelli and Stuff Smith performed together on a few occasions, but this 1965 studio session, first issued by Barclay, was one of the more difficult dates to acquire until Universal Music reissued it on CD in 2002, as a part of their extensive Jazz in Paris series. With a solid rhythm section (pianist René Urtreger, bassist Michel Gaudry, and drummer Michel Delaporte) that pretty much sticks to a supporting role, it is clear that Smith's gritty tone rubs off on Grappelli as the session progresses.

2017 release from clarinet superstar Anat Cohen. On Outra Coisa, a duo date with 7-String guitarist Marcello Gonçalves, Cohen delves deep into the music of celebrated Brazilian composer Moacir Santos. While Santos was an accomplished orchestrator and arranger (he later wrote music for films), it was the connection between his music and the guitar which was at the genesis of this recording. "I've always loved the rich orchestral sounds of Moacir's compositions but could not imagine how to transfer his large ensemble sound into my solo guitar. Reading Moacir Santos's scores directly from his songbook, I was surprised how perfectly it fit the 7-string guitar, in the original key, as if the music was composed for the instrument," says Gonçalves.

In the 1970s, Bessie Smith's recordings were reissued on five double LPs. Her CD reissue series also has five volumes (the first four are double-CD sets) with the main difference being that the final volume includes all of her rare alternate takes (which were bypassed on LP). The first set (which, as with all of the CD volumes, is housed in an oversize box that includes an informative booklet) contains her first 38 recordings. During this early era, Bessie Smith had no competitors on record and she was one of the few vocalists who could overcome the primitive recording techniques; her power really comes through.

Candy Dulfer is a Dutch smooth jazz, funk alto saxophonist and occasional singer who began playing at the age of six. She founded her band, Funky Stuff, when she was fourteen years old. Her debut album Saxuality (1990) received a Grammy nomination. Dulfer has released eleven studio albums, two live albums, and one compilation album. She has performed and recorded songs with musicians including her father Hans Dulfer, Prince, Dave Stewart, Van Morrison, and Maceo Parker, and has performed live with Alan Parsons (1995), Pink Floyd (1990), and Tower of Power (2014). She hosted the Dutch television series Candy meets… (2007), in which she interviews fellow musicians. In 2013 she became a judge in the fifth season of the Dutch version of X Factor.

The slick electric guitarist is among some very supportive, high-profile friends on his latest release showcasing his post-Wes Montgomery style in a smooth jazz-easy funk-dash of blues context…

While it's true that Oscar Peterson compilations appeared with regularity form the early '60s on, only a few of them – as with most recording artists – have any real merit. This two-disc collection from the Concord Music Group's Telarc label, is one of them. Appearing less than a year before his death, this compilation concentrates on recordings issued from the '50s through the middle of the '80s on Dizzy Gillespie's Pablo label, and those made for Telarc between 1990 and 2000. Many live dates are included here from both labels, including "Tenderly" with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown at the J.A.T.P. concerts in Japan; the trio dates at Zardi's in 1955 ("How High the Moon"), in Copenhagen with Joe Pass, Stéphane Grappelli, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen in 1979, and Mickey Roker in 1979 ("Nuages")….

In a year notable by the too-high incidence of jazz losses, Charles Earland quietly left this planet on Saturday, December 11, 1999. Known as the Mighty Burner for the intense way he commanded the Hammond B-3, the always working, too-heavy 58-year-old Earland made his departure via heart failure following one last performance in Kansas City.

One of several excellent hard bop pianists from the Memphis area, Harold Mabern has led relatively few dates through the years, but he has always been respected by his contemporaries. He played in Chicago with MJT + 3 in the late '50s and then moved to New York in 1959. Mabern worked with Jimmy Forrest, Lionel Hampton, the Jazztet (1961-1962), Donald Byrd, Miles Davis (1963), J.J. Johnson (1963-1965), Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Wes Montgomery, Joe Williams (1966-1967), and Sarah Vaughan. During 1968-1970, Mabern led four albums for Prestige, he was with Lee Morgan in the early '70s, and in 1972, he recorded with Stanley Cowell's Piano Choir. Harold Mabern has recorded as a leader for DIW/Columbia and Sackville and toured with the Contemporary Piano Ensemble (1993-1995).

For his third Criss Cross release, guitarist Peter Bernstein leads an all-star organ combo that also includes tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, trombonist Steve Davis, organist Larry Goldings, and drummer Billy Drummond. Some of the music that the quintet performs is typical for this type of hard bop/soul-jazz group, including a hot minor-toned blues, "Means and Ends," and Percy Mayfield's blues ballad "Danger Zone." However, a few of the other selections (particularly Bernstein's four originals) are more complex and serve as evidence that the music was being performed in 1996, not 1966. The musicians all play up to their capabilities and Goldings shows that he was one of the most inventive organists of the decade.