Chet Baker’s good looks and somewhat halting delivery made him seem the James Dean of jazz. However, behind the youthful charm and celebrity image of his early years, he was a musician who transcended such sub-genres as “bebop” or “cool.” In fact, Somewhere Over The Rainbow is testament to the fact that Baker’s musical output can’t be easily pigeonholed.

On this 1962 release, we hear the legendary trumpeter on uptempo versions of “Blues in the Closet,” the little-known but cleverly penned Oscar Pettiford tune, and an inventive version of Thelonious Monk’s “Well You Needn’t,” where Baker slowly builds his solo until he explodes into a deluge of ascending and descending chromatic flourishes. Although Baker was much more than just a ballad player, intimate versions of “These Foolish Things” and the title track, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” add an air of dreaminess to one of Baker’s most distinctive albums of the ’60s.

Personnel: Chet Baker (trumpet); Bobby Jaspar (tenor saxophone, flute); Amadeo Tommasi (piano); Rene Thomas (guitar); Benoit Quersin (bass); Daniel Humair (drums).

Tracklist

01. Well You Needn’t
02. These Foolish Things
03. Star Eyes
04. Somewhere Over the Rainbow
05. Pent-Up House
06. Blues in the Closet

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A new Bill Evans Trio re-entered the studio in the spring of 1962, nearly one year after the untimely death of innovative bassist Scott LaFaro. Chuck Israels was LaFaro’s replacement, and while he would never take musical charge the way LaFaro did, his supportive presence and solid sound helped make this second edition of the Trio a worthy successor. The 1962 dates produced two albums’ worth of material. The previously released Moonbeams was lyrical yet somber, while the altogether brighter How My Heart Sings! consistently swings. There is little evidence here of the depressive slump which caused Evans to take off the previous year in response to LaFaro’s death.

Just as on Moonbeams, we are introduced here to new Evans originals, additions to a growing and impressive catalog, like “Walking Up” and the exhilarating “Show-Type Tune” in which the pianist puts on his best Bud Powell hat, knocking off line after line of thrillingly executed runs. Add Earl Zindar’s haunting title track, then a nod to Dave Brubeck on the two takes of the latter’s “In Your Own Sweet Way” and How My Heart Sings stands as the most varied Bill Evans set since his breakthrough Everybody Digs Bill Evans.

Bill Evans Trio: Bill Evans (piano); Chuck Israels (bass); Paul Motian (drums).

Tracklist

01. How My Heart Sings
02. I Should Care
03. In Your Own Sweet Way (Take 1)
04. In Your Own Sweet Way (Take 2)
05. Walking Up
06. Summertime
07. 34 Skidoo
08. Ev’rything I Love
09. Show-Type Tune

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Contains the Complete Recordings of Piero Umiliani with Chet Bakes in the early 60′s, enjoy!

Tracklist

01. Sentirsi Solo
02. Thinking Blues
03. Tema D’Amore
04. Tensione
05. Smog
06. Improvvisando In Blues
07. Relaxing With Chet
08. Twilight In Los Angeles
09. Furtivamente
10. I Soliti Ignoti
11. Motorizzazione
12. Gassman Blues

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Having sponsored Ornette Coleman at the School of Jazz near Lennox, MA, pianist and composer John Lewis helped launch the controversial career of one of the last great innovators in jazz. Lewis’ support of the ragtag Texas native was somewhat unique in jazz circles at the time and even surprising, especially considering the gulf between the classical jazz formality of his group the Modern Jazz Quartet and Coleman’s radical notions of free improvisation. Nevertheless, Lewis not only saw in Coleman the first jazz genius since bebop’s Parker, Gillespie, and Monk, but put pay to the praise with the MJQ’s 1962 rendition of one of Coleman’s most famous numbers, “Lonely Woman.” (Along with Art Pepper’s 1960 version of “Tears Inside,” this was one of the earliest of Coleman covers done.) The 1962 Atlantic album of the same name turns out to be one of the band’s best efforts. Lewis and fellow MJQ members Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, and Connie Kaye capitalize on the dramatic theme of “Lonely Woman” while adding a bit of chamber music complexity to the mix. The quartet doesn’t take Coleman’s free form harmolodic theory to heart with a round of quixotic solos, but the group does spotlight the often overlooked strength of his compositional ideas. And while the MJQ further plies its knack for involved pieces on Lewis originals like “Fugato” and “Trieste,” the group also balances out the set with looser material more in tune with Jackson’s blues and swing sensibilities. A great disc that’s perfect for the curious jazz lover.

Tracklist

01. Lonely Woman
02. Animal Dance
03. New York 19
04. Belkis
05. Why Are You Blue
06. Fugato
07. Lamb, Leopard (If I Were Eve)
08. Trieste

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for more info and buy check: vervemusicgroup.com/wayneshorter

1959 – Introducing Wayne Shorter

Tracklist

01. Blues A La Carte
02. Harry’s Last Land
03. Down In The Depths
04. Pug Nose
05. Black Diamond
06. Mack The Knife
07. Blues A La Carte (Alternate Take)
08. Harry’s Last Stand (Alternate Take)
09. Down In The Depths (Alternate Take)
10. Black Diamond (Alternate Take)

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1960 – Second Genesis

Tracklist

01. Ruby & The Pearl
02. Pay As You Go
03. Second Genesis
04. Mr.Chariman
05. Tenderfoot
06. The Albatross
07. Getting To Know You
08. I Didn’t Know What Time It Was

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1962 – Wayning Moments

Tracklist

01. Black Orpheus (Take 4)
02. Devil’s Island (Take 8 )
03. Moon Of Manakoor (Take 2)
04. Dead-End (Take 8 )
05. Wayning MOments (Take 2)
06. Powder Keg (Take 5)
07. All Or Nothing At All (Take 3)
08. Callaway Went That A Way (Take 3)
09. Black Orpheus (Take 3)
10. Devil’s Island (Take 7)
11. Moon Manakoor (Take 1)
12. Dead End (Take 7)
13. Wayning Moments (Take 3)
14. Powder Keg (Take 1)
15. Callaway Wen That A Way (Take 1)

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1964 – Juju

Tracklist

01. Juju
02. Deluge
03. House Of Jade
04. Mahjong
05. Yes Or No
06. Twelve More Bars To Go
07. Juju (Alternate Take)
08. House Of Jade (Alternate Take)

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1964 – Night Dreamer

Tracklist

01. Night Dreamer
02. Oriental Folk Song
03. Virgo
04. Black Nile
05. Charcoal Blues
06. Armageddon
07. Virgo (Alternate Take)

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1964 – Speak No Evil

Tracklist

01. Witch Hunt
02. Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum
03. Dance Cadaverous
04. Speak No Evil
05. Infant Eyes
06. Wild Flower
07. Dance Cadaverous (Alternate Take)

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1965 – Etcetera

Tracklist

01. Etceter
02. Penelope
03. Toy Tune
04. Barracudas (General Assembly)
05. Indian Song

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1965 – The All Seeing Eye

Tracklist

01. The All Seeing Eye
02. Genesis
03. Chaos
04. Face Of The Deep
05. Mephistopheles

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1965 – The Soothsayer

Tracklist

01. Lost
02. Angola
03. The Big Push
04. The Soothsayer
05. Lady Day
06. Valse Triste
07. Angola (Alternate Take)

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1966 – Adam’s Apple

Tracklist

01. Adam’s Apple
02. 502 Blues
03. El Goucho
04. Footprints
05. Teru
06. Chief Crazy Horse
07. The Collector

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1967 – Schizophrenia

Tracklist

01. Tom Thumb
02. Go
03. Schizophrenia
04. Kryptonite
05. Miyako
06. Playground

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1969 – Super Nova

Tracklist

01. Super Nova
02. Sweet Pea
03. Dindi
04. Water Babies
05. Capricorn
06. More Than Human

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1970 – Moto Grosso Feio

Tracklist

01. Moto Grosso Feio
02. Montezuma
03. Antigua
04. Vera Cruza
05. Iska

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1970 – Odyssey of Iska

Tracklist

01. Wind
02. Storm
03. Calm
04. De Pois Do Amor o Vazio
05. Joy

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1974 – Native Dancer

Tracklist

01. Ponta De Areia
02. Beauty And The Beast
03. Tarde
04. Miracle Of The Fishes
05. Diana
06. From The Lonely Afternoons
07. Ana Maria
08. Lilia
09. Joanna’s The Theme

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1985 – Atlantis

Tracklist

01. Endangared Species
02. The Three Marias
03. The Last Silk Hat
04. When You Dream
05. Who Goes There!
06. Atlantis
07. Shere Khan, The Tiger
08. Criancas
09. On The Eve Of Departure

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1986 – Phantom Navigator

Tracklist

01. Condition Rend
02. Mahogany Bird
03. Remote Control
04. Yamanjia
05. Forbidden, Plan-It!
06. Flagships

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1988 – Joy Ryder

Tracklist

01. Joy Rider
02. Cathay
03. Over Shadow Hill Way
04. Anthem
05. Causeways
06. Daredevil
07. Someplace Called Where

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1995 – High Life

Tracklist

01. Children Of The Night
02. At The Fair
03. Maya
04. On The Milky Way Express
05. Pandora Awakened
06. Virgo Rising
07. High Life
08. Midnight In California
09. Black Swan (In Memory Of Susan Portlynn Rome)

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2002 – Footprints Live!

Tracklist

01. Santuary
02. Masequelero
03. Valse Trist
04. Go
05. Aung San Suu Kyi
06. Footsprints
07. Atlantis
08. Juju

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2003 – Alegria

Tracklist

01. Sacajawea
02. Serenata
03. Vendiendo Alegria
04. Bachianas Brasileras No.5
05. Angola
06. Interlude
07. She Moves Through The Fair
08. Orbits
09. 12Th Century Carol
10. Capricorn II

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2005 – Beyond the Sound Barrier

Tracklist

01. Smilin’ Through (Arthur Penn)
02. As Far As The Eye Can See
03. On Wings Of Song
04. Tinker Bell
05. Joy Ryrder
06. Over Shadow Hill Way
07. Adventures Aboard The Golden Mean
08. Beyond The Sound Barrier

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In this album, Byrd demonstrates a further stage in his career. His sense of dynamics, for instance, is acutely evident throughout the set together with his capacity to construct fresh melodic patterns. Also heartening is the fact that Byrd does not find it necessary to pound home the point that he has roots. A blues feeling courses through everything he plays, but he is also able to range through a much wider variety of moods than are several of his more self-consciously “hard” contemporaries. There is in Byrd a linkage to sunny, light-hearted jazz playing as well as to vigorously assertive self-expression.

Tracklist

01. Say You’re Mine
02. Duke’s Mixture
03. Each Time I Think Of You
04. The Cat Walk
05. Cute
06. Hello Bright Sunflower

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Moonbeams was the first recording Bill Evans made after the death of his musical right arm, bassist Scott LaFaro. Indeed, in LaFaro, Evans found a counterpart rather than a sideman, and the music they made together over four albums showed it. Bassist Chuck Israels from Cecil Taylor and Bud Powell’s bands took his place in the band with Evans and drummer Paul Motian and Evans recorded the only possible response to the loss of LaFaro — an album of ballads. The irony on this recording is that, despite material that was so natural for Evans to play, particularly with his trademark impressionistic sound collage style, is that other than as a sideman almost ten years before, he has never been more assertive than on Moonbeams. It is as if, with the death of LaFaro, Evans’ safety net was gone and he had to lead the trio alone. And he does first and foremost by abandoning the impressionism in favor of a more rhythmic and muscular approach to harmony. The set opens with an Evans original, “RE: Person I Knew,” a modal study that looks back to his days he spent with Miles Davis. There is perhaps the signature jazz rendition of “Stairway to the Stars,” with its loping yet halting melody line and solo that is heightened by Motian’s gorgeous brush accents in the bridge section. Other selections are so well paced and sequenced the record feels like a dream, with the lovely stuttering arpeggios that fall in “If You Could See Me Now,” and the cascading interplay between Evan’s chords and Israel’s punctuation in “It Might As Well Be Spring,” a tune Evans played for the rest of his life. The set concludes with a waltz in “Very Early,” that is played at that proper tempo with great taste and delicate elegance throughout, there is no temptation by the rhythm section to charge it up or to elongate the harmonic architecture by means of juggling intervals. Moonbeams was a startling return to the recording sphere and a major advancement in his development as a leader.

Tracklist

01. Re:Person I Knew
02. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
03. I Fall In Love Too Easily
04. Stairway To The Stars
05. If You Could See Me Now
06. It Might As Well Be Spring
07. In Love In Vain
08. Very Early

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Although this 1963 date features some of the same musicians – Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis- as the following year’s “Out To Lunch”, it’s nowhere near as elegant as the celebrated Blue Note album.Some might find Eric Dolphy to be a bit forbidding–abstract and explosive in the same measure, and somewhat humorless like his mentor John Coltrane, but without Coltrane’s rhaposdic qualities or pan-world aspect. At the same time, Dolphy’s formidable improvising cuts right through the difficult maze his harmonic concept erects. He rarely gets bogged down in that marginal, beat, occasionally despairing world of the free jazzers. With Dolphy, seriousness can be liberating; he makes being difficult a beautiful way to go, and nowhere as much as this occasionally clunky but richly rewarding session which is the epitome of “post bop.”

Personnel: Eric Dolphy (bass clarinet); Prince Lasha (flute); Clifford Jordan (soprano saxophone); Woody Shaw Jr. (trumpet); Richard Davis (bass); Bobby Hutcherson (vibes); Eddie Kahn (bass); J.C. Moses (drums); Huey Simmons (alto saxophone).

Tracklist

01. Iron Man
02. Mandrake
03. Come Sunday
04. Burning Spear
05. Ode to C.P.

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“Here To Stay” is a fine and early example of Freddie Hubbard, then aged only 24, as a fully formed imaginative voice in jazz. The band – Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Cedar Walton (piano); Reggie Workman (bass); Philly Joe Jones (drums) – offers an ideal platform; all these musicians except Philly Joe Jones were working together at the time with Freddie Hubbard in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and the understanding they had developed shows. But it is Freddie Hubbard’s trumpet playing that really impresses; no wonder that his inventiveness on the instrument is still so admired today. “Here To Stay” is a very welcome addition to the Freddie Hubbard catalogue and is highly recommended.

Tracklist

01. Philly Mignon
02. Father And Son
03. Body and Soul
04. Nostrand and Fulton
05 .Full Moon and Empty Arms
06. Assunta

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These 1962 recordings were Thelonious Monk’s first for Columbia Records, with whom he spent the most commercially successful years of his career. Mixing his own highly personalized renditions of standards with originals, this was a pattern he followed for all of his subsequent releases with the label. Of his originals, only “Bright Mississippi” had never been recorded before, but after decades of toiling in obscurity, the re-recording of tunes such as “Bolivar Blues” and “Bye-Ya” was most certainly warranted. This is in part because they’d not been heard before by most of his new and wide audience, and also because this quartet (with Charlie Rouse, John Ore and Frankie Dunlop) had been playing at this point for two years–longer than he’d ever been able to keep an ensemble together before–and they’d settled into Monk’s music like one charismatic and multi-limbed being.

Tracklist

01. Monk’s Dream
02. Body and Soul
03. Bright Mississippi
04. Blues Five Spot
05. Blue Bolivar Blues
06. Just a Gigolo
07. Bye-ya
08. Sweet and Lovely
09. Monk’s Dream (Take 3)
10. Body and Soul (Take 1)
11. Bright Mississippi (Take 3)
12. Blue Bolivar Blues (Take 1)

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