Recorded in 1958, this legendary date with the still-undersung Sonny Clark in the leader’s chair also featured a young Jackie McLean on alto (playing with a smoother tone than he had before or ever did again), trumpeter Art Farmer, and the legendary rhythm section of bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones, both from the Miles Davis band. The set begins with one of the preeminent “swinging medium blues” pieces in jazz history: the title track with its leveraged fours and eights shoved smoothly up against the walking bass of Chambers and the backbeat shuffle of Jones. Clark’s solo, with its grouped fifths and sevenths, is a wonder of both understatement and groove, while Chambers’ arco solo turns the blues in on itself. While there isn’t a weak note on this record, there are some other tracks that stand out, most notably Miles’ “Sippin’ at Bells,” with its loping Latin rhythm. When McLean takes his solo against a handful of Clark’s shaded minor chords, he sounds as if he may blow it — he comes out a little quick — but he recovers nicely and reaches for a handful of Broadway show tunes to counter the minor mood of the piece. He shifts to both Ben Webster and Lester Young before moving through Bird, and finally to McLean himself, riding the margin of the changes to slip just outside enough to add some depth in the middle register. The LP closes with Henderson and Vallée’s “Deep Night,” the only number in the batch not rooted in the blues. It’s a classic hard bop jamming tune and features wonderful solos by Farmer, who plays weird flatted notes all over the horn against the changes, and McLean, who thinks he’s playing a kind of snake charmer blues in swing tune. This set deserves its reputation for its soul appeal alone.

Personnel: Sonny Clark (piano); Jackie McLean (alto saxophone); Art Farmer (trumpet); Paul Chambers (acoustic bass); Philly Joe Jones (drums).

Tracklist

01. Cool Struttin’
02. Blue Monir
03. Sippin’ At Bells
04. Deep Night
05. Royal Flush
06. Lover

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One of jazz history’s greatest pianists, Bud Powell suffered from mental illness and heavy medication that often interfered with his playing. When he recorded this session in 1957, at age 33, his most incandescent inventions were already behind him, but what remained was a pianist of extraordinary depth, capable of the deepest blues and a rhythmic incisiveness like Thelonious Monk’s. And he was still a composer of first-rate bop lines, like “John’s Abbey” and “Time Waits,” the latter a reference to his once blazing “Tempus Fugue-it.” The rhythm section of bassist Sam Jones and drummer Philly Joe Jones is absolutely masterful at the slow and medium tempos that Powell had come to favor, with Jones often prodding the pianist into exuberance. This is the finest of Powell’s later recordings, revealing a bop pianist who paled only in comparison with his former self.

Personnel: Bud Powell (piano); Sam Jones (bass); Philly Joe Jones (drums).

Tracklist

01. Buster Rides Again
02. Sub City
03. Time Waits
04. Marmalade
05. Monopoly
06. John’s Abbey
07. Dry Soul
08. Sub City (Alternate Take)
09. John’s Abbey (Alternate Take)

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House Party comes from the same sessions that produced Smith’s better-known The Sermon. The 1957 and ’58 studio dates included both his working rhythm section of guitarist Eddie McFadden and drummer Donald Bailey and the guest pairing of Kenny Burrell and Art Blakey, as well as a coterie of horn players. While The Sermon emphasizes Smith’s funkier side, House Party demonstrates his ability to play dyed-in-the-wool bop on a Hammond organ. The music really springs to life on the two long takes of Charlie Parker tunes, “Au Privave” and the previously unissued “Confirmation.” Blakey’s presence on these adds an immediate spark, and Smith serves up a heady mix of powerful riffs and bubbling, blistering lines that erupt from the organ. The animation spreads to an excellent frontline with trumpeter Lee Morgan and saxophonists Lou Donaldson and Tina Brooks. The rest of the CD is good period fare, with fine work from Morgan, Burrell, McFadden, and Smith but without the same sense of excitement.

Personnel: Jimmy Smith (organ); Lou Donaldson, George Coleman (alto saxophone); Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone); Lee Morgan (trumpet); Curtis Fuller (trombone); Kenny Burrell, Eddie McFadden (guitar); Art Blakey, Donald Bailey (drums).

Tracklist

01. Au Privave
02. Lover Man
03. Just Friends
04. Blues After All
05. Confirmation

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The first three tracks on Lush Life (from May and August 1957) were recorded in a trio session with only bass and drums accompanying Trane on tenor. The piano-less format is surprisingly full sounding and Coltrane’s solos are at once fun loving and thoughtful. The playing of Earl May (bass) and Art Taylor (drums) is warm and robust and perfectly compliments Coltrane’s muscular, R&B-inspired lyricism.

Tracks four and five (from January 1958) feature a different rhythm section along with some elegant, delicate piano work from Red Garland. The title track is an unabashedly romantic, film noir-ish tour-de-force that completely enthralls the listener for all of its nearly 14 minutes. In addition, the cut features an astonishingly beautiful trumpet solo from the great Donald Byrd. Recorded in the same period as Blue Train, one of Coltrane’s greatest masterpieces, Lush Life is a perfect example of the master’s early playing at it’s most sensitive and exuberant.

Personnel: John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Donald Byrd (trumpet); Red Garland (piano); Earl May, Paul Chambers (bass); Arthur Taylor, Louis Hayes, Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums).

Tracklist

01. Like Someone In Love
02. I Love You
03. Trane’s Slo Blues
04. Lush Life
05. I Hear A Rhapsody

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This wonderful 1958 session features the tenor sax legend leading pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Arthur Taylor on a well-chosen five-song set of jazz and pop standards. The album opens with a lively version of Count Basie’s “Good Bait” that allows Coltrane, Chambers and Garland to indulge in some exquisite, highly inventive solos. While Coltrane’s versions of Billy Eckstine’s “I Want To Talk About You” and Fred Lacey’s “Theme For Ernie” are pretty much straight ballad performances, his bold, powerful style brings out the soulful feel of these two beautiful, reflective melodies.

Personnel: John Coltrane (vocals, tenor saxophone); John Coltrane; Paul Chambers (upright bass); Red Garland (piano); Art Taylor (drums).

Tracklist

01. Good Bait
02. I Want To Talk About You
03. You Say You Care
04. Theme For Ernie
05. Russian Lullaby

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Before trumpeter Donald Byrd began his flirtations with fusion, funk, and pop in the 1960s and ’70s, he was one of hard bop’s most satisfying practitioners. 1958′s Off To the Races is one of his finest dates from the period, and a stellar personnel list (including baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, and pianist Wynton Kelly) helps get things cooking. There is the usual Blue Note assortment of ballads, blues, and up-tempo numbers, but it’s the musicianship, particularly the fine, fluid soloing of Byrd and McLean, that makes this a keeper.

Tracklist

01. Lover Come Back To Me
02. When Your Love Has Gone
03. Sudwest Funk
04. Paul’s Pal
05. Off To The Races
06. Down Tempo

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All-star session recorded in NYC in the autumn of 1958, led by Cannonball Adderley on alto sax, and Milt Jackson on vibes. The rhythm section is also no less noteworthy with Wynton Kelly on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Art Blakey on drums. This date represents an interesting and successful juxtaposition of the two sides of jazz at the time, with Adderley coming from the more improvisational and swinging side of downtown jazz and Jackson coming from the more cerebral side of jazz as ‘high art’. But despite hailing from different sides of the scene, both men are considered venerable “practitioners of the blues” and this is perhaps the tie that binds these men together on this memorable date. The group plays a range of tunes including two of Adderley’s own compositions: the title track “Things Are Getting Better” and “Sounds For Sid” (dedicated to a favorite disc jockey of the time). Jackson also contributes one of his own themes with the original “Blues Oriental”, which leads off the disc. They also play Dizzy’s bop-era classic “Groovin’ High”, while Adderley presents his own modern take on “The Sidewalks of New York”. An important meeting of top shelf jazz musicians in a critical year in jazz history.

Tracklist

01. Blues Oriental
02. Things Are Getting Better
03. Serves Me Right (Take 5)
04. Serves Me Right (Take 4)
05. Groovin’ High
06. The Sidewalks Of New York (Take 5)
07. The Sidewalks Of New York (Take 4)
08. Sounds For Sid
09. Just One Of Those Things

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These were among Coltrane’s last recordings for Prestige, and they mark a turning point in his career. He was nearing the end of his “mainstream” phase, but he hadn’t yet jumped off into his ’60s exploratory mode. On Stardust, he proves to be quite the balladeer, taking sensuous and lyrical turns on the titular Hoagy Carmichael tune and other standards. This album wasn’t released until the early ’60s, by which time it already seemed worlds away from what Coltrane was up to. The swinging, uptempo “Love Thy Neighbor” provides a change of pace, but it’s the ballads that claim the day on Stardust.

Personnel: John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Wilbur Harden (trumpet, flugelhorn); Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); Red Garland (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); Jimmy Cobb, Arthur Taylor (drums).

Tracklist

01. Stardust
02. Time After Time
03. Love Thy Neighbor
04. Then I’ll Be Tired Of You

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Released in 1958 on Atlantic Records, It is a collaboration between the Jazz Messengers led by Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk, and is the only time Monk recorded for the Atlantic label, Blakey’s only other appearance being as a sideman for Milt Jackson on his Plenty Plenty Soul album.

Tracklist

01. Evidence
02. In Walked Bud
03. Blue Monk
04. I Mean You
05. Rhythm-A-Ning
06. Purple Shades
07. Evidence (Alternate Take)
08. Blue Monk (Alternate Take)
09. I Mean You (Alternate Take)

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This is Coltrane from the period when he was a member of Miles Davis’ legendary 1950s quintet, accompanied by fellow quintet members Garland and Chambers. This is ‘Trane in a relaxed bop mode, making some swinging relaxed jazz in the vein of Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz (the latter in his more bop-ish mode). This is not the fire-breathing saxophonist of the middle ’60s, but a player who was beginning to push against the boundaries, all the while playing with thoughtful, imaginative lyricism. It’s a set of little-known pop tunes of the era, with the exception of Jackie McLean’s “Little Melonae.” Anyone who likes/loves the mainstream jazz of the ’50s, or Miles’ music of that time, and/or Coltrane fans who want/need to hear their idol in an easy-going context should pick up on this.

Personnel: John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Red Garland (piano); Paul Chambers (bass instrument); Art Taylor (drum).

Tracklist

01. I See Your Face Before Me
02. If There Is Someone Lovelier
03. Little Melonae
04. Rise ‘N’ Shine
04. By The Numbers

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