For those who love jazz
This week’s theme: Selected items in honor of the birthday of the Lovely Mrs. JC. Featured artists include Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Annie Ross, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Rosemary Clooney, Billie Holiday, Nancy Lamott, Frank Sinatra, Melissa Errico, Gerry Mulligan, Judy Holliday, Bill Evans, Nat Cole, Dexter Gordon, Maxine Sullivan.
This week’s podcast explores the relatively new boxed set from Craft Records called Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings by the Bill Evans Trio featuring Scott Lazaro and Paul Motian. It features the Riverside LPs Portrait in Jazz and Explorations, with 26 alternates and outtakes, including 17 recordings that had never been released before. The show offers a mix of some of the original issues, such as Autumn Leaves and Nardis, with many of the newly released takes.
This week’s theme: Happy Third Anniversary to the Jazz Collector Live radio show and podcast, featuring the best of something. Featured artists include John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Miles Davis, Hank Mobley, Wynton Kelly, Jimmy Cobb, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Percy Heath, Connie Kay, Stan Getz, Duke Jordan, Jimmy Raney, Zoot Sims, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Rosemary Clooney, Warren Vache, Scott Hamilton, Cal Collins, Charlie Parker, Joao Gilberto, Maxine Sullivan, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Roland Kirk, Charles Mingus, John Handy, Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Harold Land, Richie Powell, Charlie Parker, LaVern Baker, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton and more.
This week’s theme: Jazz and vocal versions of songs written by Irving Berlin. Featured artists include John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, Ray Bryant, Max Roach, George Bryant, Charles McPherson, Jackie McLean, Rosemary Clooney, Ed Bickert, Scott Hamilton, John Oddo, Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Lamott, Duke Jordan, Walter Bishop Jr., Oscar Peterson, Dinah Washington, Lockjaw Davis, Paul Quinichette, Clark Terry, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver, Arthur Taylor.
This week’s theme: The Gershwin Songbook, as played by jazz pianists and their groups. Featured artists include: Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Red Garland, Billy Taylor, Bud Powell, Oscar Pettiford, Art Blakey, Paul Motian, Scott LaFaro, Hampton Hawes, Red Mitchell, Chuck Thompson, John Lewis, Percy Heath, Connie Kay, Ray Brown, Ed Thigpen, John Ore, J.C. Moses, Ray Barreto, Arthur Taylor, Paul Chambers, Randy Weston
This week’s theme: All the Things You Are in multiple settings. Featured artists include Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Eddie Gomez, Tal Farlow, Dan Axelrod, Eddie Costa, Booker Ervin, Tommy Flanagan, Richard Davis, Alan Dawson, Phineas Newborn Jr., Oscar Pettiford, Kenny Clarke, Johnny Griffin, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Art Blakey, Ella Fitzgerald, Horace Silver, Rosemary Clooney, Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Carmen McRae, Kenny Dorham, Doug Watkins, Dexter Gordon, Barry Harris, Buster Williams, Tootie Heath.
The Christmas holidays have always been a time when I liked to splurge on records. I think it goes back to an experience when I was living on Long Island, and I walked into the Titus Oaks store in Hicksville on the day after Christmas, and the owner/proprietor had just finished putting a bunch of records into the bins, and I was the first to see them, and among the records were original Blue Notes, maybe 15-20 all together, and they were all first pressings in mint, unplayed condition, and they were priced at $5 each. Yes, that really happened. It was the early 1980s, and it was not a dream. I think that experience has stuck with me the rest of my jazz collecting days and I always make sure to check out local record stores during the week before Christmas. As Christmas time approached a couple of months ago, I started feeling that old urge surging through my body. I tried a couple of the local record stores but, alas, no luck. I couldn’t shake the urge, so I went online, as I mentioned in a post back in December (New Old Jazz, Or Old New Jazz, on Vinyl). I went on a little spree. I meant to write about it earlier, but, as you may have noticed, I have not been doing much writing these days. Listening, yes, doing my radio show, yes, but writing, not so much. So, we’ll start catching up now and see if I can inspire myself to sit down and do so more writing in the next week or so. Read more
Continuing last week’s theme, celebrating the New Year with jazz vinyl featuring the number 26 in the catalog number. Featured artists include Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Tommy Flanagan, George Morrow, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Joe Morello, Eugene Wright, Ella Fitzgerland, Nelson Riddle, Kenny Drew, Lawrence Marable, Curtis Counce, Harold Land, Jack Sheldon, Billie Holiday, Benny Carter, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, Clifford Brown, Gigi Gryce, Percy Heath, John Lewis, Art Blakey, Buddy Rich, Sweets Edison, Willie Smith, George Wiggins, Bill Evans, Zoot Sims, Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Duke Pearson, Doug Watkins, Lex Humphries, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Earl Coleman, and more.
This week’s theme: Part two of our exploration of jazz tracks that have the name of a woman in the title. Featured artists include Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Bill Evans, Eddie Costa, Ray Charles, Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Art Blakey, Eddie Jefferson, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, Benny Golson, Billy Taylor, Stan Getz, Al Haig, Jimmy Raney, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Sam Jones, Louis Hayes, Barry Harris, Jimmy Rushing, Coleman Hawkins, Jackie McLean, Freddie Redd, Tina Brooks, Nat King Cole, Sweets Edison, and more.
Now that I’m doing the radio show, I’m a bit more in touch with what’s going on in the world of new reissues (sounds like an oxymoron) and new discoveries of music that had previously been unreleased. For example, on newly released material, I recently ordered a record album, as in vinyl, called Horace Silver, Silver in Seattle: Live at The Penthouse. This is a 1965 live recording featuring Silver with Woody Shaw and Joe Henderson. It was recently issued on Blue Note. I have no idea what the quality of the packaging or the sound is like, so I will report to you once I get it and have a chance to listen. For reissues, I did order that Bill Evans release on Craft, Haunted Heart, also on vinyl, and a few other Blue Notes to fill in gaps in my collection of original vinyl. I’m glad the labels are back to issuing vinyl, and it has piqued my interest in buying stuff again. Not sure that’s a good thing, but, alas, I am a collector and it is what we do, is it not? Read more
