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Classic trio work by Davis, recorded here with Shirley Scott on organ and Joe Newman joining in on trumpet! The cover's got a picture of Joe standing next to Basie, but the set's all Joe's –although it's also very much in a Basie bag. The tunes are all organ/tenor drivers – with short format and tight hooks – of the sort that would have been popular with Roulette's Birdland crowd. Titles include "Farouk", "Lock Up", "Telegraph", and "A Misty One".

A great small group date – with Newman on trumpet, Tommy Flanagan on piano, Wendell Marshall on bass, and Billy English on drums.

One of those classic 50s sessions in which a bunch of Count Basie players split off from the bigger group and do some great small combo work on their own! The album is leader-less in its billing – but only because all the players are so well tuned to each other, and have such a simpatico relationship that there's no need for egos to drive the record. Tracks are longish and more open than any Basie setting – and players include Frank Wess on flute and tenor, Kenny Burrell on solo guitar, Freddie Green on rhythm guitar, and Joe Newman on trumpet. Wess' solos are often out in the lead, but Burrell and Newman also get in some nice licks – and titles include "Pin Up", "Playboy", "Miss Blues", and "Blues For A Playmate".

Joe blows it strong and mellow – in this spare swinging group that includes Frank Wess on tenor, Tommy Flanagan on piano, Eddie Jones on bass, and Oliver Jackson on drums. Tracks are warm and unpressured, more in a Verve mode than a Prestige one – and titles include "Wednesday's Blues", "Jive At Five", "Taps Miller", and "Cuein The Blues".

Joe blows it strong and mellow – in this spare swinging group that includes Frank Wess on tenor, Tommy Flanagan on piano, Eddie Jones on bass, and Oliver Jackson on drums. Tracks are warm and unpressured, more in a Verve mode than a Prestige one – and titles include "Wednesday's Blues", "Jive At Five", "Taps Miller", and "Cuein The Blues".

With Gene Quill on alto, Joe Newman on trumpet, Billy Byers on trombone, Lou Stein on piano, Milt Hinton on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums.

Tight swing-based material from trumpeter Joe Newman, featuring Frank Foster as a very welcome bandmate in the frontline! The rest of the group includes Tommy Flanagan on piano, plus Eddie Jones on bass and Bill English on drums. The tracks have a nice open-ended quality, with good room for grooving and solos, and lots of nice tenor from Foster. Titles include "To Rigmor", "AM Romp", "Mo Lasses", and "Loop D Loop".

2 rare 50s sessions from Paris – both of them featuring work by famous American trumpet players! The first 3 tracks on the set are from a rare 10" LP recorded in 1956 – featuring some surprisingly long tracks played by a group that includes Joe Newman on trumpet, Frank Wess on tenor, Maurice Vander on piano, Sonny Pane on drums, and Henry Coker on trombone. Titles include "A Girl Named Rigmor", "Blues On The Champs Elysses", and "Lover Man" – and the session's a surprisingly unbridled one for Newman. The second set of titles on the CD are from a live LP recorded by Cootie Williams in 1959 – again in a relatively open mode for the player involved, and featuring a quintet with Arnold Jarvis on organ, Larry Dale on guitar and vocals, and George Clark on tenor. Titles include "Easy Swing", "Lil Darling", "Night Train", and "3 O'Clock In The Morning".

Wonderful work from Brook Benton – and the kind of record that always gets overlooked in discussions of southern soul, but which is proof that Benton's always been a key force in the genre! Brook virtually invented the style with his earlier country soul recordings – and by the time of this 1970 set, he's in perfect form vocally – and working under some wonderfully sophisticated arrangements by Arif Mardin. The result is the kind of cross-genre record that Brook could do effortlessly – and which should have made him huge, but instead kind of got him left behind by all the other folks who were copping his style. Yet with the strength of a record like this, we'll take that overlooked fame as still OK – because the set's a gem just waiting to be discovered by later generations like us! Rhythm's by the Dixie Flyers – augmented by jazz players that include King Curtis, Pepper Adams, and Joe Newman. Titles include "Aspen Colorado", "For Lee An", "Whoever Finds This, I Love You", "Don't It Make You Wanta Go Home", and "Let Me Fix It".

A record with a title that sounds like it should be something of a bachelor pad release from the title, but which is instead a good old fashioned, no holds barred, open-ended jazz session from trumpeter Buck Clayton! All tracks are nice and long – way more than usual for big label jazz at the time – and Clayton's trumpet is lineup alongside those of Joe Newman and Joe Thomas, plus other players who include Woody Herman on clarinet, Urbie Green and Benny Powell on trombones, Julian Dash and Al Cohn on tenor, Charlie Fowkes on baritone, Freddie Green on guitar, and Sir Charles Thompson on piano. Titles include "Moten Swing", "Sentimental Journey", "How Hi The Fi", and "Blue Moon".

A heavy classic from trumpeter Buck – two side-long tracks, which was relatively groundbreaking at the time, especially for a studio date! Other players include Joe Newman on trumpet, Urbie Green and Henderson Chambers on trombones, Lem Davis on alto, Julian Dash on tenor, Charlie Fowlkes on baritone, Sir Charles Thompson on piano, and Freddie Green on guitar! Titles include "The Huckle-Buck" and "Robbin's Nest".

A rare late date from Arnett Cobb – and one of the few to match the groove of his Prestige Records sessions! Also features Junior Mance on piano, plus guest trumpet from Joe Newman and trombone from Al grey.

A beautiful early 10" album by Billie Holiday – one that features a classic David Stone Martin cover, and a set of 8 tracks that capture the best of the Verve Holiday sound! Despite the title, the tunes are all studio recordings – done with small group players that include Joe Newman, Paul Quinichette, Flip Phillips, and Charlie Shavers. Billie's fine and mellow, as always – and titles include "Tenderly", "Yesterdays", "Remember", "Can't Face The Music", and "Stormy Weather".

One of the weirdest, wildest albums ever from Eddie Jefferson – a real standout classic that shows him retooling his sound for the 70s! After years of writing lyrics to James Moody and Charlie Parker tunes, Eddie lays out some crazy lyrics for modern jazz standards like "Freedom Jazz Dance" and "Bitches Brew", as well as "Night In Tunisia", which he'd never done before – and also offers up a great take on Cannonball's "Things Are Getting Better", not to mention Sly Stone's "Thank You Fallentinme Be Mice Elf Again"! There's a few more standard bop number in the mix too – like "Billie's Bounce" and "I Just Got Back In Town – and support is from a great group that includes Billy Mitchell on tenor, Joe Newman on trumpet, Sam Jones on bass, and Mickey Tucker on keyboards.

One of the groovier albums the Modern Jazz Quartet ever recorded – as you might expect, given the cover and title! In addition to the group's usual cool sound from Milt Jackson's vibes, the set also features John Lewis playing a bit of harpsichord in addition to his usual piano – and the group's also augmented on a few tracks with some great horns from Snookie Young and Joe Newman on trumpets, Garnett Brown on trombone, Jim Buffington on French horn, and Don Butterfield on tuba – a change that really gives the record a nicely different flavor from other MJQ albums. John Lewis composed all of the tracks – and titles include "Walkin Stomp", "Dancing", "Plastic Dreams", "Variations On A Christmas Theme", "Travlin", "Piazza Novona", and "England's Carol".

A relaxed small group session from saxophonist Oliver Nelson – a record that's quite different than some of his more tightly arranged dates, and a good reminder of this side of his talents! Oliver plays both alto and tenor sax on the album, and he's joined by a perfect group for the easy rolling groove of the tracks – Joe Newman on trumpet, Hank Jones on piano, George Duvivier on bass, and Charlie Persip on drums – plus a young Ray Barretto on congas, who brings in the loping, stepping groove you find on other early 60s soul jazz sets of this nature. Nelson's sax is always a treat – blown with a sharper edge than you might hear with a big group – and the tracks are all quite fress too, and include "Tipsy", "Mainstem", "Ho!", "J&B", and "Latino".

Nothing too peaceful here – at least not in a sleepy sort of way – as The Rascals are really hitting on all burners, and starting to mix a bit of funk in with their groove! The record's a great extension of the group's last work on Atlantic – and it takes that already-righteous territory, and furthers it a bit more with some heavy rhythms on the bottom, and nicely jamming guitar work on the top! There's a great sense of soul that informs the whole album – even at some of the more rockish points – and titles include the excellent side-long cut "Peaceful World", a long instrumental workout with a nice slow bubbling funky sound that's almost in the style of Chicano rock. The albumf eatures guest work from jazz players like Hubert Laws on flute, Alice Coltrane on harp, Garnett Brown on trombone, Joe Garrell on tenor sax, and Joe Newman on trumpet – and other titles include "Little Dove", "Visit To Mother Nature Land", "Happy Song", "Icy Water", "Sky Trane", and "In & Out Of Love".

Jimmy pays tribute to an earlier generation of R&B – in a hard-wailing set of soul jazz, done with backings from the legendary Oliver Nelson! A few tracks feature vocals by Jimmy, in a rough bluesy style, and others have some harmonica by Buddy Lucas – in a raspy, hard-wailing mode that still fits in nicely with the jazzier style of the album. Jimmy's organ is right up front on most numbers – recorded with that full, dynamic sound that makes so many of his Verve albums a treasure – and the best numbers have a more contemporary 60s groove alongside the older bluesy roots. Grady Tate plays drums – surprisingly funky at times – and other players include Melba Liston and Tom McIntosh on trombones, Billy Butler on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on Fender bass, and Joe Newman on trumpet. Titles include "Hi Heel Sneakers", "TNT", "Boom Boom", "Ain't That Just Like A Woman", and "One Mint Julep".

We love Marian Montgomery – and she's a heck of a great singer with a really unusual sound! In an early 60s work of sultry vixens, Marian's got a harder-swinging groove that's almost in a Ray Charles mode – clearly inspired by 50s R&B, but done with enough of a jazz flourish to expand out the sound nicely. Plus, she's got a really rhythmic approach to her work, no matter what the tune – which makes for an uncanny ability to turn even a sleeper into a surprising swinger. Here, it also helps that Dick Hyman's handling the arrangements – playing organ and piano himself on the record, and working with a small combo that includes Kenny Burrell, Joe Newman, Milt Hinton, and Willie Rodriguez. The whole thing's plenty great – and titles include "Breezin Along With The Breeze", "When Sunny Gets Blue", "My Buddy", "The Exciting Mister Fitch", "Deed I Do", and "All By Myself".

One of Basie's biggest albums – but still a work of pure genius! "April In Paris" is one of the darkest jazz standards ever written, and it never sounded better than in this original version, which features that great ending in which Basie and the band stop, then start, then stop – leaving you completely unresolved at the finish. The group's a strong one – with Frank Foster, Frank Wess, Freddie Green, Sonny Payne, Marshall Royal, Henry Coker, Joe Newman, and Thad Jones – and tracks include "Shiny Stockings", "Midgets", "Mambo Inn", "Sweety Cakes", and "Corner Pocket".

Back to back jazz soundtracks – the cream of the crop of the early 60s! First up is The Hustler – a killer jazz score from Kenyon Hopkins – a composer we can almost always trust to turn around a killer jass score! The work is mostly in a jazz ensemble mode – and moves between swinging segments, and sadder ones – those beautifully blue passages that Hopkins did so well in the early 60s – full of emotion, but in a really subtle, mature sort of way that also marked a shift in American cinema too – quite a change from the overblown emotion of a decade before, both in the music and on screen. Players include Phil Woods, Jerome Richardson, and Phil Bodner on reeds; Joe Wilder on trumpet, Jimmy Cleveland on trombone, Hank Jones on piano, and Barry Galbraith on guitar – and titles include "Derby Time", "Dining Out", "Fast Buck", "Small Time Charlie", "The Loser", and "Minnesota Fats". Paris Blues is a moody introspective score, written for a 1961 film that starred Paul Newman as a frustrated jazz musician living in Paris. The "Paris Blues" theme is a dark, somber composition that is supposedly Newman's masterpiece as a jazz writer – and it works beautifully with the film's themes of frustration and unfulfilled desire. Ellington's at his best here, and apart from the main theme, the score also has great versions of classics like "Mood Indigo" and "Take The A Train", plus originals like "Nite", "Wild Man Moore", "Guitar Amour", and "Paris Stairs". Also features Louis Armstrong on one track! CD also features 7 more tracks from The Long Hot Summer – a more traditional score penned by Alex North, and featuring a title song by Jimmie Rodgers.

Sly soul from the great King Curtis – one of his last albums ever, and one of his best as well! There's a hip sort of edge to the record that's different from the Curtis groove of the mid 60s – less standard soul instrumental covers, and a much more righteous feel overall – part of the vibe that King had been crafting for others in the late 60s Atlantic studios, and partly the funky undercurrents that would often only show up on some of his 45 releases for the label! The backing group here is really great – with rhythm work from Eddie Hinton on guitar, Barry Beckett on keyboards, David Hood on bass, and Roger Hawkins on drums – and solo moments from Cornell Dupree on lead guitar, and both Joe Newman and Ernie Royal on trumpets. King produced the record himself, and one cut features slightly different instrumentation – with organ by Jimmy Smith and piano by Richard Tee. Titles include "Floatin", "Sugar Foot", "Soulin", "Teasin", "Let It Be", "Someday We'll Be Together", "Something", and "Promenade".

A standout early session from organist Shirley Scott – noteworthy in that it's a quintet recording, different than Shirley's mostly-trio output from the time! Here, she's working in a group that includes Oliver Nelson on tenor sax and Joe Newman on trumpet – and Nelson's edgey tone adds a lot to the record, as it did on other Prestige sides from the same time – a deeper soul vibe than you might normally get from Shirley alone on the Hammond. The tracks are simple swinging soul jazz numbers – handled in tight format by the group – and other players include George Tucker on bass and Roy Brooks on drums. Tunes include "Blue Seven", "Wagon Wheels", "Nancy", "Don't Worry Bout It Baby Here I Am", and "Give Me The Simple Life". CD features the bonus track "How Sweet".

Nice set in which Shirley plays with a number of different groupings – nearly all of which are bigger than her usual trio. The long cut "How Sweet" features Joe Newman and Oliver Nelson teaming up on frontline horns; the groovy "As It Was" features Stanley Turrentine on tenor; and the bop standard "Now's The Time" features Lem Winchester on vibes. Other tracks include "Out Of This World", "Café Style", and "Ebb Tide", which always sounds nice on the organ!

A seminal set of Sonny Stitt recordings for Prestige – material that was originally issued on singles and 10" LPs, pulled together to make one classic album! The material here was recorded in 1951 and 1952, and shows Stitt at all of his prime youthful power – blowing beautifully with a razor-sharp tone, and a sense of improvisational imagination that few others could match! Sonny plays alto, tenor, and baritone – and other players include Joe Newman on trumpet, Kenny Drew or Junior Mance on piano, and Art Blakey on drums. Titles include "Cherokee", "Imagination", "Can't We Be Friends", "Liza", "Cool Mambo", "Sonny Sounds", and "Blue Mambo".

Legendary work from Goldwax Records – pulled from a stretch when the Memphis imprint was really going strong! By the time of these tracks, Goldwax was really coming into their own – picking up some of the best soul currents of the Memphis scene – and rivaling the Stax/Volt powerhouse in terms of quality – especially on the deep soul tracks that Goldwax seemed to do better than anyone else! This 2CD package is a wonderful overview of these golden years for the label – and it features every single single, both a and b-sides intact – presented with detailed notes on each release. Some of the work is the stuff of Memphis soul legend – mixed in with some more unusual, lesser-known bits from the scene – including a few rock, blues, and country numbers as well. 54 tracks in all – with titles that include "Anything You Do Is Alright" by Spencer Wiggins, "Don't You Believe Him" by Ivory Joe Hunter, "Cry Me A Hand Full" by The Terrys, "Say You Need It" by Barbara Perry, "Lovable Girl" by James Carr, "When You Look In The Mirror" by Eddie Jefferson, "What Time Ye Got" by Gene Bowlegs Miller, "Little Things" by Jeannie Newman, "Forgetting You" by James Carr, "Hello Daughter" by Leroy Daniel, "I Can't Forget You" by The Yo Yos, "Good Times" by George & Greer, "Walking Out On You" by Spencer Wiggins, "Qualifications" by The Ovations, "Liquid Mood" by Timmy Thomas, "Call On Me" by Percy Milem, "Me & My Imagination" by The Ovations, and "The Wife Of The Life Of The Party" by Kathy Davis.

2 of Brother Jack's best albums for Atlantic on one CD! Both records have a groovy 60's soul jazz organ sound, and the kind of amazing arrangements that make Jack's albums way better than most of his contemporaries. Change Is Gonna Come has lots of short soulful instrumentals, Joe Dukes or Pretty Purdie on drums, and titles like "Down In The Valley", "Same Old, Same Old", "No Tears", "Minha Saudade", and "Hotcha". Double Barrelled Soul has David Fathead Newman as a special guest, and features some nice early guitar playing by Melvin Sparks. That one includes a great version of "Sunny", plus the cuts "Esperanto", "Duffin' Round", and "More Head". Nice stuff, and over 70 minutes of funky organ grooves!

One of the weirdest, wildest albums ever from Eddie Jefferson – a real standout classic that shows him retooling his sound for the 70s! After years of writing lyrics to James Moody and Charlie Parker tunes, Eddie lays out some crazy lyrics for modern jazz standards like "Freedom Jazz Dance" and "Bitches Brew", as well as "Night In Tunisia", which he'd never done before – and also offers up a great take on Cannonball's "Things Are Getting Better", not to mention Sly Stone's "Thank You Fallentinme Be Mice Elf Again"! There's a few more standard bop number in the mix too – like "Billie's Bounce" and "I Just Got Back In Town – and support is from a great group that includes Billy Mitchell on tenor, Joe Newman on trumpet, Sam Jones on bass, and Mickey Tucker on keyboards.

A 60s album that brings together sides recorded by Young in earlier years for Savoy – put together as a "memorial" album after his death. Players include Count Basie on piano, Harry Edison and Joe Newman on trumpets, Buddy Tate on tenor, and Freddie Green on guitar. Includes master and alternate takes of "Tush", "These Foolish Things", "Salute To Fats", and "Basie English".