Celebrating Riverside Records
Somebody recently sent me this great clip celebrating the 60th anniversary of Riverside Records. It features an interview with Riverside co-founder Orrin Keepnews, still quite articulate and interesting at 90 years old. I find it interesting that he considers Thelonious Monk to be the patron saint of the label, and that signing Monk was what gave the label credibility among other jazz artists. I’m a huge fan of Riverside, and so are most of the readers here at Jazz Collector, I’m sure. So this morning, laying in bed, I start putting together a list of my favorite Riverside albums. These are my personal favorites, not the ones I would call the “best” or the most influential. Just the ones that through the years I’ve listened to most often and enjoyed the most: Here goes:
1. Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby, Riverside 399
2. Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans, Know What I Mean?, Riverside 433
3. Benny Golson, The Modern Touch, Riverside 256
4. Cannonball Adderley, Live at the Lighthouse, Riverside 344
5. Abbey Lincoln, That’s Him, Riverside 251
Just to confirm my picks, I looked over the Riverside discography, and I’m still comfortable with my selections. My honorable mentions are The Unique Thelonious Monk; Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners; Presenting Ernie Henry and Ernie Henry Seven Standards and a Blues; several more by Evans, most particularly Moonbeams; several more by Adderley, most particularly the Quintet in San Francisco; Wes Montgomery and Milt Jackson, Bags Meets Wes; Johnny Griffin, Studio Jazz Party. I think I’ll leave it at that, lest I include the whole catalogue.
A fun exercise. I invite you all to join in.
Thanks Al, you made my day with your Riverside topic. I’m also a huge fan of Riverside, i love their music i love their covers, their smell (!)…I cherish my Riverside originals much more than many ultra collectible Blue Note.
My favourite are :
-Blue Mitchell’s Blues Moods,
-Don Friedman’s Circle Waltz,
-The Evans of course,
-The Chets of course,
-The incredible jazz guitar of Wes,
-Griff’s the Kerry Dancers,
-Matthew Gee,
-Dick Johnson….
Here are five Riversides that never fail to move me-bringing countless,joyous listening hours:
Bill Evans-Sunday At Village Vanguard(My fave Evans and great speaker evaluation lp. If a system can’t convey the emotion on “Alice In Wonderland”,it’s worthless to me).
Bill Evans-Portrait In Jazz(ditto for “Someday My Prince Will Come”).
Jimmy Heath-The Quota(beautiful ensemble,smokin’ Freddie Hubbard,while Tootie Heath glues it all together. “Lowland Lullaby” should be a jazz standard. Jimmy Heath’s best).
Wes Montgomery-Movin’ Along(has Ed Beach theme song,”So Do It”. Many fond memories there).
Cannonball Adderley-Meets The Pollwinners(Cannonball at top of his game with strong supporting group. “Never Will I Marry” features rock-solid Ray Brown under Cannon’s lyrical playing. Victor Feldman’s entry on his vibes solo is choice “tension and release”. AND Wes Montgomery-killer!)
Thanks for sharing. Will look for them right away !!!
Shows how great the label really was. Three of us, so far, and not a duplicate record (although Michel references the Evans, so I would assume some duplication there)
• Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby
• Lee Morgan Take Twelve
• Don Rendell Roarin’
• Joe Harriott Southern Horizons
• Johnny Lytle The Village Caller!
• Cannonball Nippon Soul
• Sam Jones Down Home
• Mongo Santamaria Go Mongo
• Eddie “Lockjaw” Afro-Jaws
• Ahmed Abdul-Malik Jazz Sahara
in no order what so ever !
opps
i forgot…
Ray Hard Hands Barretto …..Latino! (1962)
Damn fine record
It is difficult to ommit Evans when talking about Riverside …Agree with ceedee regarding “Sunday at” – it is taking me to Village Vanguard that evening in ’61 each time I put this record on my turntable.
Other favs from my collection (except for other evans records):
T Monk, brilliant corners
W Kelly, kelly blue
K Drew, it is new
J Griffin, little giant
Ch Baker, in New York
K Dorham, jazz contrasts (just got an original with white lables – sweet)
Wonderful stuff!
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– All the Bill Evans releases;
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– All the Chet Baker releases;
.
Cannonball – Them Dirty Blues; Live in San Fran
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– Clark Terry – Serenade to a Bus Seat
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– Cleanhead Vinson – Backdoor Blues (fun record, if you haven’t heard it – with the Cannonball Quintet as backing band)
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Sam Jones – The Soul Society
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Monk – Unique Monk; In Action; Brilliant Corners
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Al – that Abbey Lincoln record is also a treat – the band is incredible, she’s gorgeous and signs beautifully, the sound is great – really top-notch all around. Thanks for reminding me I need to put that on soon!
curious: not a mention for Sonny Rollins
12-241, The sound of Sonny
12-258, Freedom suite
and how about 12-269? J. Adderley with Blue Mitchell, an early Bill Evans, an early Sam Jones and the incredibly tasteful Philly Joe.
George Russell, Ezz-thetics, The Outer View, and Stratusphunk.
J.J. of course, what a terrible omission. And Stratus Seekers. They are all great. Riverside had the courage to record this innovative composer more than any other label.
And what about the Jazz Lab? Gigi Gryce?? So many unsung heroes, all on Riverside, which does not fare well in the second hand market. Good for neophyte buyers to acquire some beautiful music at moderate prices.
So much to Love – and most have been mentioned
Would add:
12-265 Pepper Adams 10 To 4 At The 5 Spot
12-293 Blue Mitchell – Out Of The Blue
12-297 Kenny Dorham & Cannonball Adderley – Blue Spring
Blakey – Ugetsu; and Caravan. How could we forget those?
I also enjoy Budd Johnson and the Four Brass Giants – joyous album.
Does anyone else have Nat Adderley – Little Big Horn? Great sound on that one, and top-notch playing by Jim Hall and Kenny Burrell.
Max Roach – Deeds Not Words. With the great Booker Little.
Don Wilkerson – The Texas Twister. Some deep Texas tenor.
Philly Joe Jones – Blues for Dracula (!) Terrible cover, pretty decent record.
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Rudolf is right on the money – Riverside recorded interesting composers and musicians the right way. So many terrific records.
What about those early Randy Westons? Perhaps not his most mature work but still very interesting and original. And he was the first modern player to be signed by the label – and it seems he had some influence in bringing Monk to them. Another and terribly underestimated one: Elmo Hope ‘Homecoming’….
My favorites are:
Chet Baker – Chet Baker In New York
Bill Evans – Moon Beams
Johnny Griffin – Way Out
Johnny Griffin – Johnny Griffin Sextet
Thelonious Monk – Monk’s Music
Thelonious Monk – Brilliant Corners
Benny Golson – The Modern Touch
Nice call Rob L – Jazz A La Bohemia is a very fine record.
I love Riverside and there were a lot of gems on the Jazzland subsidiary as well (my favourite being Clifford Jordan’s Bearcat).
These are the Riversides I listen to the most:
Jimmy Heath – The Quota
Jimmy Heath – Really Big!
Bill Evans – Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Max Roach – Deeds Not Words
Barry Harris – Newer Than New
JFK Quintet – New Jazz Frontiers From Washington
cannonball adderley Quintet Plus
cannonball adderley Things are gettin better
Russel, Golson Monk and Evans lp’s
..what a cattalog they have…
One of my favs is, for some reason, an most underrated jazz album that rarely gets mentioned……Walter Norris, Riverside, The Trio, with Billy Bean and Hal Gaylor. A ture Gem.
make that true gem..
Here are my favorite Riverside LPs:
Wynton Kelly – Kelly Blue
Bill Evans – Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Cannonball Adderley – Know What I Mean
Thelonious Monk – Monk’s Music
Kenny Drew – This is New
Chet Baker – Chet
Philly Joe Jones – Big Band Sounds
Kenny Dorham – Blue Spring
Clark Terry – Serenade to a Bus Seat
bev kelly – in person
dick morgan – at the showboat
abbey lincoln of course..
bags meets wes, which is enourmously recorded..
oh, what a label that is