The success of Carol Welsman's I Like Men: Reflections of Miss Peggy Lee defies the odds. The idea of doing "tribute" albums to more famous performers in the jazz genre is as commercially enticing as it is artistically dicey. It's hard to gain a footing in jazz, and associating oneself with a well-known name is an obvious way to get attention. But the jazz section of record stores (brick-and-mortar and in cyberspace) is strewn with failed efforts in which performers were saddled with material unsuited to them, and with which they were unfamiliar before the call came from their managers. Then, too, the tribute concept works better in a live setting than on disc, since the question always comes up, why not just listen to a recording actually by the original artist?…

Eric Dolphy - Vintage Dolphy (1963) {GM Recordings 3005-2 rel 1995} (featuring Don Ellis)
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© 1963, 1995 GM Recordings | 3005-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Reeds

This is our all-time best seller. Selected ‘Jazz Album of the Week’ in the New York Times and on numerous ‘Best Recordings of the Year’ lists upon its original release, these live recordings from Carnegie Hall and Syracuse, New York, are now remastered and repackaged and include additional, previously unreleased Dolphy performances of Gunther Schuller’s Third Stream masterpiece Variants on a Theme by Monk. An incredible sampling of Dolphy’s artistry from ’62 to ’63, in action with his own quartet, in contemporary chamber music settings created for him by Schuller and in the heat of an all-star jam session on “Donna Lee”… Dolphy was never more brilliant.

Back in New York after three years spent gigging and recording in Europe, a mature and rejuvenated James Moody resumed the endless North American scuffle to get by as a contemporary jazz musician. Volume five in the Classics James Moody chronology presents 16 rare Mercury recordings made between October 1951 and June 1953, followed by eight Prestige titles from January and April, 1954. The first four tracks feature baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne; high points include the rowdy, bristling "Moody's Home" and "Wiggle Waggle," an R&B rocker that sounds like something right up out of the King record catalog. Beginning with the material recorded on May 21, 1952, Moody is heard leading a group largely composed of players who, like him, had worked in Dizzy Gillespie's big band. Two of these individuals – trumpeter Dave Burns and baritone saxophonist Numa "Pee Wee" Moore – show up regularly in the front line of Moody's excellent recording ensembles between 1952 and 1955.

Kenny Wheeler - It Takes Two! (2006) {Cam Jazz CAM 5016}
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© 2006 Cam Jazz / Cam Cine TV Music | CAM 5016
Jazz / Post Bop / Flugelhorn / Guitar

It Takes Two! finds Kenny Wheeler in an instrumental context with which he has not previously recorded. Throughout he is partnered by guitarists John Abercrombie and John Parricelli and the Swedish bass virtuoso Anders Jormin. The musical sensitivity of all those involved has resulted in what is, even by Wheeler's sometimes introspective standards, an extremely intimate sounding recording. Indeed, the shades, textures, and contrasts of the two guitars (harp-like, steely and incisive by turns), Jormin's bass and Wheeler's horns create something akin to a conversation to which the listener eavesdrops.

I Dig Dancers was, as the title indicates, aimed at attracting dancers and securing an identity for the band as a dance organization. There is, therefore, a plenitude of tunes eminently suitable for tripping the light fantastic to a band with a full solid ensemble sound and relaxed, clever and swinging arrangements at tempos tailor-made for the ballroom. The band assembled here was an all-star aggregation that was put together to support a European tour of “Free and Easy”. When that show ended, Jones took this great band, that featured Benny Bailey, Clark Terry, Phil Woods and others, on a tour of Europe and also made many of these recordings. After returning to the states, Jones made some more recordings, this time with Freddie Hubbard and Oliver Nelson on board.

In a world narrative dominated and controlled by powerful, wealthy individuals with vested interests in skewing the truth, what trust can be placed in our governments, our leaders and our sources of information to guide us to evolve as a species?

Here is the 12th volume in the complete chronological recordings of Lionel Hampton as reissued by the Classics label. It opens with Hamp's final five recordings for the MGM label, waxed in Los Angeles on October 17, 1951. This was a 20-piece big band using charts written by Quincy Jones, and the music it made feels much different from what's to be heard in the next leg of Lionel Hampton's odyssey, a Norman Granz-produced quartet session with Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich, recorded in New York on September 2, 1953. While the big band sides are exciting and fun, with a hip vocal by Sonny Parker on "Don't Flee the Scene Salty" and a singalong routine led by Hamp on "Oh Rock," the quartet swings cohesively, stretching out for six, seven or nearly eleven minutes, for the LP era had begun and Norman Granz encouraged extended improvisations. The combination of Oscar Peterson and Lionel Hampton, whether cooking together on "Air Mail Special" or savoring the changes of a ballad like "The Nearness of You" made spirits to soar and sparks to fly.

If you like jazz, you might as well listen to this CD, and hear where it started. Okay, so it didn't exactly start here. The ODJB didn't invent jazz - no matter what their leader, cornetist Nick LaRocca, says. But they were the first to record jazz, and they had an incalcuable influence on a lot of what came afterwards, simply because they put their music down on wax. These early recordings have been put out many times by many different labels, but according to the Penguin Guide, this issue has the best sound…

Dexter Gordon - Espace Cardin 1977 (2018) {Elemental Music 5990431}
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© 1977, 2018 Elemental Music | 5990431
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Saxophone

Elemental Music proudly presents DEXTER GORDON QUARTET -ESPACE CARDIN 1977, a complete previously unissued live performance by the great saxophonist, digitally remastered from the original master tapes at the INA Archives. Recorded in Paris on September 25, 1977, this concert marks the only recorded encounter of Gordon with the brilliant pianist Al Haig, who had been for years the pianist in Charlie Parker's Quintet. The group is completed by French bassist Pierre Michelot and the superb Kenny Clarke on drums. The program includes an outstanding reading of "Body and Soul", and Dexter's only known version of Sonny Rollins' "Oleo". A trio version of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight" showcasing the rhythm section led by Al Haig, recorded during the same performance, has been added as a bonus.

After years of producing albums which were more pop/funk than jazz oriented, George Duke simmers down, leaves off the R&B vocals, and takes a little creative license on the self-proclaimed "mood record" After Hours. While his recent Muir Woods Suite showed off his affinity for classical music, here he's at his best on the meditative Vince Guaraldi-type trio ballads "Together as One" and "Sweet Dreams," which glide along on the improvisational and gently swinging graces of Christian McBride and Leon "Ndugu" Chancler. A whole project in this vein would have been welcome, but Duke charters other new territory, too; on the easy grooving "The Touch" and the almost new agey "From Dusk Till Dawn," he borrows the actual Rhodes from Joe Sample but winds up perfectly simulating Bob James' "Taxi" vibe, especially on the exploratory solo on the latter tune. The untrained ear might swear it's an actual James recording, but Duke's a clever enough producer to go beyond strict imitation. "The Touch" achieves an intriguing low-toned brew, as Sheridon Stokes' bass flute melody drifts gently over a hypnotic weave of Larry Kimpel's bass and Duke's Rhodes.

This CD reissue, which adds "The Fuzz" to the original six-song LP, is a fine showcase for Bobby Jaspar and acts as an excellent introduction to his playing. A mellow-toned tenor and a fluent flutist who was quite bop-oriented, Jaspar is featured with pianist George Wallington, bassist Wilbur Little, drummer Elvin Jones, and (on three numbers) trumpeter Idrees Sulieman. The majority of the tunes (other than "My Old Flame" and "All of You") are originals by group members, straight-ahead tunes with good blowing changes.

шон means "Poles" in Mongolia dialect. It's the first and it will be certainly the only one album from Otto Solange.

Count Basie & Zoot Sims - Basie & Zoot (1975) {Pablo OJCCD-822-2 rel 1994}
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© 1975, 1994 Pablo Records / Fantasy | OJCCD-822-2 / 00025218682220
Jazz / Bop / Mainstream Jazz / Piano / Saxophone

This is a classic encounter in the Original Jazz Classics series. Pianist Count Basie (in his best-small group outing of the 1970s) and tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims were mutually inspired by each other's presence and, with the tasteful assistance of bassist John Heard and drummer Louie Bellson, they can be heard playing at the peak of their creative powers. Every listener interested in swinging jazz should pick up this disc, if only to hear these hard-charging versions of "I Never Knew," "It's Only a Paper Moon," and "Honeysuckle Rose." A gem, and essential music.