Hod O'Brien on piano, Tom Warrington on bass, and Paul Kreibich on drums. CD

A great trio for this great pianist – Ray Drummond on bass and Kenny Washington on drums! CD

An unusual quintet date for this great pianist – with Tom Harrell on trumpet and Pepper Adams on baritone – plus Ray Drummond on bass and Kenny Washington on drums. LP, Vinyl record album

Features Hod O'Brien on piano, Ray Drummond on bass, and Kenny Washington on drums. CD

A tight, old school set of jazz from the Dutch American All Stars – a group that features trumpeter John Marshall, pianist Hod O'Brien, bassist Jacques Schols, and drummer Peter Ypma – all playing here in very relaxed, familiar company! There's nothing too fancy or overdone with these tunes – and they spin out with that easygoing feel we love in any album that has O'Brien on piano – a mature mode of jazz that never tries too hard to overstate its case, but gets plenty of greatness done along the way. Marshall's horn has all the sparkling tones we love in other Blue Jack Jazz recordings, and the basswork from Schols really adds a nice undercurrent of soul to the set. Titles include "Joop's Lope", "Forecast", "Quasimodo", "Frisky", "Milestones", and "Zanzibar". CD

A real standout set in the later years of trumpet legend Chet Baker – in part because the record features some wonderful tenor work from the equally legendary Warne Marsh! Marsh at this point in his career has really developed a subtle edge – this slight current of darkness that wasn't there at the start, and which works well next to the moody qualities that Baker developed in his final years too. Equally wonderful is the piano of Hod O'Brien – a great and overlooked musician, and one who has this almost broken-down quality that really fits the emotive energy of the date. Other players include Eddie Gladden on drums and Cecil McBee on bass – the latter of whom is a bit of a surprise on such a session – on titles that include "Imagination", "We Know It's Love", "Well Spoken", "Blues For A reason", and "Looking Good Tonight". Features a great bonus track – an alternate of "Looking Good Tonight", on vinyl for the first time! LP, Vinyl record album

Belgian guitarist Rene Thomas was one of the few players to break out of the postwar Paris jazz scene and actually get to record in America – and on this classic set from 1960, he's grooving with a very hip group that includes JR Monterose on tenor, Hod O'Brien on piano, and the rhythm section of Teddy Kotick and Albert Heath. Tracks are all in the 5 minute range – save for one longer reading of Monterose's great "Green Street Scene" – and the material is pretty nice and breezy. Titles include "MTC", "Spontaneous Effort", and "Milestones". CD

Three albums in one package! First up is TTT – a great later date from tenor genius JR Monterose – a set that's deceptively simple at the outset, but which has JR playing with all of those wonderfully sharp lines and well-chosen phrases of earlier years! Monterose is a real unsung talent on his instrument – a player who never went too far out on most recordings, but managed to pack an incredible amount of ideas into each solo – a bit like Sonny Rollins at his most inventive, but with a raspier tone that's got to be heard to be fully appreciated. This set features Monterose continuing his genius in a live setting – working in a Danish club in 1988 with a quartet that includes Hod O'Brien on piano, Guffy Pallesen on bass, and Jesper Elen on drums. The titles are all familiar ones, but the solos are the sort of thing that make you fully appreciate jazz at its best – the kind of phrasing, timing, and tone that true giants like Monterose bring to their best work. Tracks include "All The Things You Are", "What's New", "Central Park West", "Airegin", and "You Don't Know What Love Is". Next is Alive In Amsterdam – some of the rawest work ever from this under-recorded tenor genius – a late 60s Dutch set that's very different than both the famous blue album by JR Monterose, and his later comeback material too! Here, the bulk of the record is just JR on tenor with percussion accompaniment – the drums of Han Bennink on side one, then added percussion from three other players alongside Bennink on side two – while JR switches to a very cool electrified, amplified version of the tenor! His tone and texture are wonderful right from the start – as he and Bennink deliver fantastic duet performances of "I Remember Clifford" and "Sonnymoon For Two" – before joining with the other percussionists on the extended "Reborn" on side two – a very well-titled number, given JR's sound! Last is Body & Soul – an extremely rare set – recorded in 1970 in Holland, and featuring the tenor of JR Monterose in quintet with Jon Eardley on trumpet, Rien De Graaff on piano, Henk Haverhoek on bass, and Pierre Courbois on drums. The set's a key lost chapter in the career of this enigmatic tenor player – as it's got a sound that reaches back to his few hardbop recordings from the 50s, but also shows that Monterose had grown a lot as a soloist in the past decade, inserting a lot more freeness to his style, possibly an influence from 60s modernists like Coltrane or Ayler. The Dutch rhythm of the set works quite well for the nature of the materials – and Courbois' drums are especially compelling, nicely held back here from some of their more over-the-top tendencies, but adding in a lot of complicated fills and rhythmic changes underneath the sax solos. Titles include "Short Bridge", "Old Folks", "For Hank", "Just Blues", and "Body & Soul". CD

With Hod O'Brien on piano and Red Mitchell on bass. LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant record – much more straightforward, and straight ahead, than much of Rudd's other work, which is why we like it so much! The album's an ingeniously subtle affair – with Rudd on trombone and French horn, working with a small group that features Sheila Jordan on vocals, Hod O'Brien on piano, Arild Anderson on bass, and Barry Altschul on drums. Jordan is at the height of her powers here – singing beautifully in a wordless mode on tracks like "Maiden Voyage" and "Suh Blah Blah Bu Sibi", or straight and icy on one of the best versions of "What Are You Doing the Rest Of Your Life" that we've ever heard! Hod O'Brien is brilliant too – and the album's one of the few widely-released sessions to really display his talents! CD

A real standout set in the later years of trumpet legend Chet Baker – in part because the record features some wonderful tenor work from the equally legendary Warne Marsh! Marsh at this point in his career has really developed a subtle edge – this slight current of darkness that wasn't there at the start, and which works well next to the moody qualities that Baker developed in his final years too. Equally wonderful is the piano of Hod O'Brien – a great and overlooked musician, and one who has this almost broken-down quality that really fits the emotive energy of the date. Other players include Eddie Gladden on drums and Cecil McBee on bass – the latter of whom is a bit of a surprise on such a session – on titles that include "Imagination", "We Know It's Love", "Well Spoken", "Blues For A reason", and "Looking Good Tonight". LP, Vinyl record album

A trio date with Brown on tenor, Hod O'Brien on piano, and Jaques Schols on bass. Includes the original "Smog Eyes", plus standards "Yardbird Suite", "Darn That Dream", "Body And Soul", and "Lover Come Back To Me". CD

An excellent follow-up to the legendary Two Trumpets session on Prestige – and even rarer than that one! The lineup features Farmer, Byrd, and Sulieman on the horns in the title – with hip rhythm from Hod O'Brien on piano, Addison Farmer on bass, and Ed Thigpen on drums. Titles include "Diffusion Of Beauty", "You Gotta Dig It To Dig It", "Who's Who", and "Palm Court Alley". CD

A tight, old school set of jazz from the Dutch American All Stars – a group that features trumpeter John Marshall, pianist Hod O'Brien, bassist Jacques Schols, and drummer Peter Ypma – all playing here in very relaxed, familiar company! There's nothing too fancy or overdone with these tunes – and they spin out with that easygoing feel we love in any album that has O'Brien on piano – a mature mode of jazz that never tries too hard to overstate its case, but gets plenty of greatness done along the way. Marshall's horn has all the sparkling tones we love in other Blue Jack Jazz recordings, and the basswork from Schols really adds a nice undercurrent of soul to the set. Titles include "Joop's Lope", "Forecast", "Quasimodo", "Frisky", "Milestones", and "Zanzibar". CD

A real standout set in the later years of trumpet legend Chet Baker – in part because the record features some wonderful tenor work from the equally legendary Warne Marsh! Marsh at this point in his career has really developed a subtle edge – this slight current of darkness that wasn't there at the start, and which works well next to the moody qualities that Baker developed in his final years too. Equally wonderful is the piano of Hod O'Brien – a great and overlooked musician, and one who has this almost broken-down quality that really fits the emotive energy of the date. Other players include Eddie Gladden on drums and Cecil McBee on bass – the latter of whom is a bit of a surprise on such a session – on titles that include "Imagination", "We Know It's Love", "Well Spoken", "Blues For A reason", and "Looking Good Tonight". CD

Great later issue of two classic Prestige hardbop albums from the 50s! First up is Two Trumpets – one of those wonderful late 50s Prestige Records blowing sessions that really let individual players have lots of the right sort of space to find their own voice alongside each other! Byrd and Farmer are both young here, and mighty sharp in their sounds – already quite distinct from each other in phrasing, and a great choice as soloists to illuminate in a setting like this. The rest of the group features Jackie McLean on alto – getting in some great solos too – plus Barry Harris on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and the great Art Taylor on drums. Byrd's bite is a great counterpart to the lyricism of Farmer – and titles include "Contour", "Round Midnight", "The Third", and "Dig". Next is Three Trumpets – an excellent follow-up to the legendary Two Trumpets session on Prestige – and even rarer than that one! The lineup features Farmer, Byrd, and Idrees Sulieman on the horns in the title – with hip rhythm from Hod O'Brien on piano, Addison Farmer on bass, and Ed Thigpen on drums. Titles include "Diffusion Of Beauty", "You Gotta Dig It To Dig It", "Who's Who", and "Palm Court Alley". LP, Vinyl record album

A great return to form for tenorist JR Monterose – a player who always sounds amazing on record, even though he only made a handful of albums over a 30 or 40 year period of performance! Most folks know JR's classic 50s album for Blue Note, but later dates like this are well worth seeking out – and this set may be one of the purest later demonstrations of Monterose's genius – as the tenorist has the sort of effortlessly creative solo ability you'd find in a rare few – able to spin things out with the imagination of a Sonny Rollins or Von Freeman, while still managing to hold tight with the rest of the group – who are equally great, and include the wonderful Hod O'Brien on piano, plus Teddy Kotick on bass and Jimmy Wormworth on drums. Titles include sublime readings of "Giant Steps", "My Old Flame", and "Lush Life" – plus the great originals "Marty's Place", "Evelyn's Delight", and "Luan". CD

Features Hod O'Brien on piano and Bobby Routch on French horn! CD