A really unique album from the great Lee Morgan – a set that features the trumpeter in two different settings, but in a way that really works well together! Most of the album has Lee blowing in a very cool quintet – with Joe Henderson on tenor, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums – a group who maybe bring out a slightly hipper vibe that really points the way to the rest of Morgan's direction in the late 60s, when he was really letting some more spiritual currents loose. The other two tracks on the record feature a hip larger band directed by Oliver Nelson – swinging hard in a really soulful style! Nelson's arrangements on these two tracks are great – quite progressive, with a soul jazz big band style that seems to point the way towards the 70s – and the band provides a raging backdrop that lets Lee's trumpet soar over the top in beautiful crystal clear solos. Titles include "Nite Flite", "Delightful Deggie", "Ca-Lee-So", and "Zambia". CD also features 4 bonus tracks – "Need It", "Filet Of Soul", "Zambia (big band version)", and "Delightful Deggie (big band version)". CD

The last in a series of rare 50s live material from Chet Baker – featuring a near-lost performance from the Tiffany Club in LA, recorded in 1954 with a group that includes Russ Freeman on piano, Carson Smith on bass, and Bob Neel on drums. The tracks are presented in crystal-clear long versions – really sparkling with a sound that's tremendous for a live set at the time – and which is even more amazing, considering that most of the tracks hadn't been issued before. A few numbers were issued in edited form on an Italian label, and later briefly on one of the out of print Mosaic box sets – but the CD features the full performance – 12 tracks in all, all in unedited takes. Titles include "Lullaby Of the Leaves", "Russ Job", "The Wind", "Frenesi", "Carson City Stage", and "A Dandy Line". CD

3 tremendous albums from modern trombonist Eddie Bert – all of which stand as some of his greatest work of the 50s! The records were all originally recorded for Savoy, and all within a few months of each other – and there's a crystal-clear focus on all of them that you don't always find in both Savoy sessions, and other trombone outings from the time. The groups here are all small – either quartet or quintet lineups that feature Bert's trombone with Hank Jones on piano, JR Monterose on tenor, Joe Puma on guitar, Clyde Lombardi on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums – carving amazing lines out of the ether, and using the instrument with a deftness and sense of imagination that most other 50s players couldn't touch! Titles include "Fragile", "Three Bass Hit", "See You Later", "Bert Tram", "One For Tubby", "It's Only Sunshine", "Crosstown", "Wishbone", "Steady Eddie", "Slow Crosstown", "Conversation", "Bronx Line", and "Manhattan Suite". CD

5 albums from Lee Morgan – one of the coolest cats to ever handle a trumpet for Blue Note! First up is Delightfulee – really unique album from the great Lee Morgan – a set that features the trumpeter in two different settings, but in a way that really works well together! Most of the album has Lee blowing in a very cool quintet – with Joe Henderson on tenor, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums – a group who maybe bring out a slightly hipper vibe that really points the way to the rest of Morgan's direction in the late 60s, when he was really letting some more spiritual currents loose. The other two tracks on the record feature a hip larger band directed by Oliver Nelson – swinging hard in a really soulful style! Nelson's arrangements on these two tracks are great – quite progressive, with a soul jazz big band style that seems to point the way towards the 70s – and the band provides a raging backdrop that lets Lee's trumpet soar over the top in beautiful crystal clear solos. Titles include "Nite Flite", "Delightful Deggie", "Ca-Lee-So", and "Zambia". Also features a few bonus tracks. The Cooker is a very appropriate title for a very cooking little album – one of Lee Morgan's first efforts as a leader, cut back during his first years of late 50s fame! The style here is a bit less Morgan-esque than some of Lee's later 60s classics – but the record is rock-solid throughout, and proof that Morgan was every bit as great a leader in a hardbop session as Hank Mobley or some of the other emerging heavyweights at Blue Note! The strength of the group really helps keep the fire stoked on the set – and Bobby Timmons turns in some amazing piano work alongside a lineup that includes Pepper Adams on baritone sax, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The Adams presence gives the record a bit of the feel of some of Pepper's sessions with Donald Byrd – but the sparkling, soaring sound of Morgan makes the record way more than just a copycat set. Titles include "New-Ma", "Night In Tunisia", "Lover Man", "Just One Of Those Things", and "Heavy Dipper". Lee Way is an undisputed masterpiece by Lee Morgan – and one of the first records in which he shed his straight bop sensibility, and began evolving into a soulful genius for the 60s! The album's got 4 long tracks that all build beautifully – really extended numbers that break the format of some of Lee's earlier work, and hint a bit at some of the more complicated touches he'd use on later sessions. All players are great – and include fellow Jazz Messengers Bobby Timmons on piano and Art Blakey on drums, plus Jackie McLean on alto and Paul Chambers on bass. Titles include the sublime "These Are Soulful Days" – a perfect model of soulful lyricism – plus "Midtown Blues", "Nakatini Suite", and "The Lion & The Wolff". Rumproller often gets too easily lumped next to The Sidewinder – because of an obvious title and cover similarity to that hit record – but like that one, the album's far more than jazz cliche – and shows Lee Morgan to be one of the greatest jazz musicians of the 60s. The set starts off with the title cut, "The Rumproller" – hard-wailing soul bop, in the manner of Lee's most popular work – but then it easily flows into more sensitive material that has a freer, lyrical feel – like the great original tune "Eclipso" and Wayne Shorter's "Edda" – both of which are superb. Lee is astounding, as always, on trumpet – and the rest of the group includes the great Ronnie Matthews on piano, plus Joe Henderson, Victor Sproles, and Billy Higgins. Search For The New Land is a brilliant album that proves that even at the height of his success, Lee Morgan was one of the freest thinkers on Blue Note – always coming up with fresh ideas that continued to grow his talents! The first cut on the album is keen poof of that fact – the title track "Search For The New Land" – a beautiful 16 minute exploration of modal jazz themes, with an unusual stop/start device as a means of ushering solos by different bandmates – including Wayne Shorter on tenor, Grant Green on guitar, and Herbie Hancock on piano! The approach is unlike anything that Morgan ever did before – and unlike most of other Blue Note as well – and it also benefits from great rhythmic help from Reggie Workman on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. Other tunes are a bit more conventional, but still pretty special – like some of Morgan's inventive work on the Rajah albums – with titles that include "The Joker", "Melancholee", "Mr. Kenyatta" and "Morgan The Pirate". CD

An early gem from Buffy Sainte Marie – still working here in a very stripped-down, folk-based style – one that brings an incredible focus on her vocals and guitar! Buffy's only got a bit of bass backing her up here – which leaves the lady to carry the album mostly by herself, and often with this sense of power that we don't remember as strongly in her later records – a subtle drama to the vocals that might come off cloying in the hands of another singer, but which really hits to the core here. Production is perfect – crystal-clear, but without trying to polish the music at all – and titles include "Groundhog", "Must I Go Bound", "Fixin To Die", "Lazarus", "Many A Mile", "Broke Down Girl", "Welcome Welcome Emigrante", and "The Piney Wood Hills". CD

Sublime early work from Magic Sam – an Chicago bluesman who never hit bigger fame until the last few years of his too-short career – but who's represented here with some killer sides from the legendary Cobra label! Sam's guitar playing alone is worth the price of admission – deft and sharp, with moments that really step out from some of his electric contemporaries – and his vocals have a great gritty sense of soul that really shows his ties to the west side scene of the 50s and 60s – almost with an R&B sort of inflection at times. The package brings back rare 78s with crystal-clear sound – and titles include "21 Days In Jail", "All Your Love", "Look Whatcha Done", "All Night Long", "Love Me With A Feeling", "Magic Rocker", and "Roll Your Money Maker". CD

Amazing music from one of our most-treasured stretches of David Bowie's career – that creatively-fertile time when he escaped to West Berlin, hid from the mainstream, and made some groundbreaking records with Brian Eno – then returned to the limelight to remind us all that he was still a hell of a force to be reckoned with! The set includes everything post-Thin White Duke, and pre-Let's Dance – a run of music that's still shaping new sounds on this planet all these many years later. The set begins with Low – the mix of experimental instrumentals and subtle vocal tracks that was a complete change from Ziggy Stardust – and follows with Heroes, Lodger, and Scary Monsters & Super Creeps – all albums that reintroduce some sense of song and lyrical interplay, but at a level that clearly indicates how important Bowie was to the generation of post-punk and new wave as his earlier work was to psych, prog, and glam! But the package isn't just a standard collection of albums – because along with those four studio records, it also features the live album Stage, presented here in two different full mixes – plus a new 2017 mix of Lodger, which really increases the edge. There's also a special Heroes EP, with all the different language versions of the song – and a very cool Re:Call 3 album – which features all the singles that were issued at the time, plus other rare material – and Bowie's very unique take on Bertolt Brecht's Baal. Titles on this album include "Alabama Song", "Crystal Japan", "Under Pressure", "Remembering Marie A", "The Drowned Girl", "The Dirty Song", "Cat People", and even his "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" duet with Bing Crosby. As with other entries in this complete Bowie series, the presentation is wonderful – album sleeve replicas, great packaging, and lots of notes – kind of a treasure, even if you already own some of the records! CD