The bands of Bobby Byrne and Kai Winding playing four tunes each in their own style – "Perdido", "That's A Plenty", "Get Happy", and "Hot & Cool Blues" – with Byrne playing with Yank Lawson, Arrtie Baker, Jack Lesberg, and more, and Winding with Howard McGhee, John Lewis, Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke! LP, Vinyl record album

Great small group work – and the Johnny Dodds group features trumpet from Charlie Shavers, while the Jimmy Noone combo features both Shavers on trumpet and Pete Brown on alto! LP, Vinyl record album

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There's no disco going on here, and no battling either – as the set's got this wonderfully warm, fluid groove that mixes township rhythms with some sweet jazzy touches – plenty of reed work from Bra Sello on the top, but also plenty of great ensemble instrumentation too! The record features two side-long tracks, but the vibe is very different than Nigerian funk records that follow a similar format – as the musicians here are all rooted in jazz, and really stretch things out with plenty of jazzy solo action, even though the rhythms are more grooving in an extended way. Titles include "Washa" and "Call & Go" – both long, both great! (Global Grooves, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

Includes "Buddy's Blues", "Sweethearts On Parade", "I Never Knew", "Gene's Blues", "Bernie's Tune", "The Drum Battle", and "Perdido". LP, Vinyl record album

This is the kind of battle we like to see! Three heavy tenors – Nelson, King, and Jimmy Forrest – come head to head in a relaxed set of tunes cut in that Prestige blowing session mode, but tweaked with a bit more tightness, in the style of some of the label's emerging soul jazz sides of the 60s. Nelson's gutsy tenor will shock you if you haven't heard him in this sort of less restrained setting – and Forrest's work from this time is always a treat. Titles include "Blues For MF", "Anacruses", "Perdido", and "In Passing". LP, Vinyl record album

A raw early cooker from Mongo Santamaria – a real standout album from the Riverside years, thanks to a live performance that goes far beyond his studio work of the time! The set was caught live at the Village Gate – in a way that lets the band open up and really jam on the tunes – an especially great thing, given that players include Pat Patrick, Marty Sheller, and Bobby Capers on horns, all of whom bring a lot of fire to the session. Mongo's great on congas, as you might expect – and the album's even got a cool little introduction of the group by Symphony Sid! Tracks include "Mongo's Groove", "The Jungle Bit", "Fatback", and "Nothing For Nothing", a nice long track written by Patrick! (Latin, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

A gem of a record from the groundbreaking Landsdowne series of UK jazz recordings at the end of the 70s – an ambitious effort directed by composer Neil Ardley, cut very much in the mode of the best work by the Ian Carr/Don Rendell group of the time! As the title might imply, the tunes are all of Greek mythological inspiration – but not in a hokey sort of style, or one that has any overdone "battle of the gods" feel. Instead, there's a warm, intimate approach to the work – almost in the mode of the best sophisticated jazz soundtracks of the late 60s – with a real concern for color, shadings, and tone – ultimately in a style that has less to do with mythology than you might think, but which is pretty darn impressive nonetheless! Carr plays trumpet and flugelhorn, Rendell plays saxes and flutes – and other players include Jack Bruce on bass, Chris Spedding on guitar, and and Barbara Thompson on reeds. Titles include "The Greek Variations", "Farewell Penelope", "Persephone's Jive", "Veil Of Ino", and "Siren's Song". LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderful record from saxophonist Arthur Blythe – a set that features his group working through a number of tunes by Thelonious Monk – but with very different arrangements and instrumentation that change things up completely! The set came at a time when Monk was receiving a lot of new attention in the world of jazz, and at a time when Arthur's star had risen too – and the meeting of forces is wonderful – as Blythe brings all sorts of new rhythms and tonal combinations to play with familiar tunes that really transform in the process. The group is a familiar one for Blythe – and features Abdul Wadud on cello, Kelvyn Bell on guitar, Bob Stewart on tuba, and Bobby Battle on drums! And while you might scratch your head at the tuba, the instrument is often used in ways that might follow older bassline styles – but with a quality that bridges the alto and cello in a great way. Titles include "Nutty", "Coming On The Hudson", "Light Blue", "Epistrophy", and "We See". LP, Vinyl record album

A nice little record that lives up to the name of the group – a record that's maybe jazz at the core, but served up in very cinematic ways – very much the spirit of the dark, moody image pictured on the cover! This isn't chase, crime, or cop music – but instead maybe the sounds you'd hear on the journey home after the battle – slow funk in the rhythms, peppered with great work on vibes, piano, and mellotron from Pierre Chretien – who also wrote, arranged, and produced the whole record too! Most tunes have a nice light melody over heavier drums and percussion on the bottom – never too over the top, but well-paced in a way that really makes this one stand out from the pack. Titles include "Les Corbeaux", "Eveil De La Cite", "Aube Sur La Ville", "Fleurs De Bitume", "Le Petit Cimetiere", "Apres Le Deluge", and "Illusions Perdues". LP, Vinyl record album

Hard to believe it took a few decades in the careers of both players for them to record together – but that's exactly what you've got here – a landmark meeting of Count Basie and Duke Ellington from the early 60s, near the tail end of Duke's classic stretch on Columbia! Teo Macero produced the session with just the right amount of care and class to keep the whole thing from being an exercise in cliche – and there's a surprising amount of depth here that you might not expect – the best modern elements of Duke's orchestra on Columbia, coming into play with a bit more of the fire and vamp of the Basie group at the time! Titles include "Battle Royal", "Wild Man", "Segue In C", "Jumpin At The Woodside", "To You", and "Take The A Train". LP, Vinyl record album

Sophisticated fusion from Japanese reedman Toshiyuki Honda – a set that's kind of an extension of the straighter sounds he'd crafted a few years before! The album has almost a soundtrack-like feel at times – and comes off like a suite of tracks that blends core combo instrumentation with larger strings – in ways that color in the tunes wonderfully – but in ways that are quite different from some of the other "jazz with strings" albums of the time! Honda's work on soprano sax, alto, and keyboards is great throughout – and although some of the rhythms are programmed, they're still quite warm and hardly the too-commercial type that other jazz artists were using at the time. Titles include "Waltz Crepuscule", "Love Theme #2", "A Refracted Beat", "The Woman From Marusa", "The Men Gather Round Money", and "A Gloomy Foreboding Of Battle". LP, Vinyl record album

Funky, fuzzy, and outta site – a really wonderful set of extended psychedelic jazz numbers from twin tenorists Takeru Muraoka and Takao Uematsu! The set's billed as a live tenor "battle" on the cover – but it's hardly the sort of record that you'd hear from American players in this mode – no bebop jams, and instead some great soul and funk-influenced lines on the horns, served up over rhythm from a trio that features electric piano, electric bass, and drums from the mighty Motohiko Hino! There's a nice degree of fuzz on the saxes at times (are they using some effects pedals?) – and the long tunes really open up with a wicked groove that feels like some lost US jazz funk album from the early 70s. Titles include "Happy Birth", "Listen Here", "Hot Sunday", and "CC Rider". LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal early album from Ian Carr's legendary Nucleus group – playing here in a version that includes Karl Jenkins and Brian Smith on reeds, and Chris Spedding on guitar! The band has a landmark sound that mixes progressive jazz and tight full-on rock fusion into a style that's sometimes funky, sometimes avant, and often pretty darn exciting! This album has lots of nice electric piano lines, and plenty of choppy sax parts that hit a nice groove in the manner that would later be taken up by a lot of European reed players. Tracks include "Torrid Zone", "Stonescape", "Striation", "1916 – The Battle Of Boogaloo", "Persephones Jive", and "Earth Mother". LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary meeting of these two jazz talents – and knowing the famous temper of Buddy Rich, this probably really was a battle of the drummers! Kidding aside, though, the set's a very unusual one for Buddy – as the group here features players normally associated with Max Roach – a very cool lineup that includes Julian Priester on trombone, Tommy Turrentine on trumpet, and Stanley Turrentine on tenor – all of whom keep things cool, and bring in some great solo moments when needed! Rich also brings a few of his key men to the set, too – including Phil Woods on alto and Willie Dennis on trombone – on titles that include "Sleep", "The Casbah", "Limehouse Blues", and "Big Foot". LP, Vinyl record album

Head to head blowing from Sonny Sitt and Paul Gonsalves – just the kind of twin-horn performance that Stitt was famous for in his live battle days, and one that also reminds us that Gonsalves can be a very loose swinger when he wants to be! The tracks are all long, and played with the sort of feel you'd hear if you caught these guys live at some small southside club – and the solos also show the kind of inventiveness and imagination you'd catch in that sort of setting – backed by a swinging rhythm combo that features Hank Jones on piano, Milt Hinton on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums. Titles include a version of "Perdido" that's nearly 13 minutes long – plus "Stardust", "Sposin", "Salt & Pepper", and "Theme From Lord Of The Flies". LP, Vinyl record album

24 tracks that perfectly illustrate all that was great about Gene Ammons in his early days – a set of singles and 78s recorded for Chess in the late 40s and early 50s, featuring players that include Tom Archia, Matthew Gee, Junior Mance, Sonny Stitt, and Bill Massey. Titles include "Do You Really Mean It", "Swingin For Xmas", "The Battle", "Jam For Boppers", "Bless You", "Cha Bootie", "Goodbye", " Tenor Eleven", "Don't Do Me Wrong", "Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe", and "Can Anyone Explain". LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful moment in which the loft jazz generation really got a chance to shine in the mainstream – and mostly without any sense of overdone attempts at commercialization! The album's a great summation of all the ideas that reedman Arthur Blythe was cooking up in the 70s underground – performed here with a hip group that includes Blythe on alto, Kelvyn Bell on guitar, Abdul Wadud on cello, Bobby Battle on drums, Bob Stewart on tuba, Wilbur Morris on bass, and Mohammad Abdullah on congas – some of them players who you might never have expected to be recording for Columbia Records! And yet the setting of the record doesn't interfere with their creativity at all – and instead, really seems to give Blythe and the group the sort of focus that only makes their ideas even better – on titles that include "Elaborations", "Metamorphosis", "Sister Daisy", "Shadows", and "The Lower Nile". LP, Vinyl record album

A rarity from the bop era – hard-blowing tracks that run for a duration that's way longer than the standard three minutes of most 78rpm singles. Here, Gordon and Gray blow head to head in some of their famous "battle" sessions – working with players like Sonny Criss, Howard McGhee, Hampton Hawes, and Barney Kessel in a format that was very popular on the LA bop scene. Each side of the 2LP set features one long track – and titles include "Disorder At The Border", "Cherokee", "Byas A Drink", and "The Hunt". Great 70s package – with notes on all the material the material. LP, Vinyl record album

An excellent lost funky soundtrack on Blue Note – their only one for years, and Grant Green's entry into the blacksploitation genre! The whole thing bristles with the kind of chunky, thumping percussive feel as the best funky soundtracks of the era – informed by the work of Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes, but with the deeper jazz feel that Green brings from his other Blue Note sides of the time! Some cuts are quite funky, particularly the opener, "Past, Present, and Future" with it's crisp trap, chicken scratch guitar and bongo driven beat. Others have more of a stripped-down dope instrumental feel – there's some sweet funky flute work on "Fathers Lament", and even a slight bossa groove creeps into the title track! The whole album's very nice, and it's very different than any of Grant Green's other work! Other titles include "Afro Party", Luana's Theme", "Slight Fear And Terror", and "Battle Scene". LP, Vinyl record album

Features work by Gene Krupa, Oscar Peterson, a trumpet battle with Roy Eldridge and Charlie Shavers, and the classic "Jam Session Blues" – all packaged in a box with a David Stone Martin cover! LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderful mid 80s effort from the Don Pullen Quintet – a group that features young lion Donald Harrison on alto sax – recording in a setting that's nicely fresh, compared to some of his other work! Other players include the under-recorded trumpeter Olu Dara, and a wonderful elastic rhythm section of Fred Hopkins on bass and Bobby Battle on drums – all working with Pullen's piano in a groove that's angular at times, but never loses its sense of swing – that wonderful balance that always made Pullen a real standout amongst the jazz communities in which he worked. Titles include "The Sixth Sense", "In The Beginning", "Tales From The Bright Side", "Gratitude", and "All Is Well". LP, Vinyl record album

You might know the trumpet of Antoine Berjeaut from his work with Makaya McCraven – but here, as a leader, he's a very different force overall – working in territory that's mostly his own, and which blends his trumpet and flugelhorn solos with a nice array of electric elements! The approach is almost a 21st Century evolution of older Miles electric modes – but more stripped-down, intimate, and compressed – save for the few moments when Berjeaut opens the door to invite other guests into the proceedings – something that doesn't happen much until the end of the record. Instead, Antoine handles all instruments and sounds himself – soloing over the top on all tracks – in a mix of titles that include "Walk", "Meeting Point", "Mind's Eyes", "Photism", "PPDQ", "Horns & Battle", "Chromatism", and "Life In Ocre". LP, Vinyl record album

The alto sax of Arthur Blythe finds a great way to stretch out in this classic album from the mid 80s – a set that mixes some of the sharper edges of Blythe's earlier records with a few more contemporary touches – but always at a level that still has the reedman standing far from the mainstream! The core group here features Olu Dara on trumpet, Cecil McBee on bass, John Hicks on piano, and Bobby Battle on drums – and on the acoustic tracks, there's some great energy between them that soars with a soulful spirit birthed in the loft jazz years, maybe swung a bit straighter than before. A few other tunes add in some extra elements – an electric bass on one number, some light strings on another – but the core of the album still has a magnificent focus on that tone that Blythe had only perfected even more on records like this, especially on the more laidback numbers, which come as a real surprise, and reflect a ballad style we might not have guessed in the early days. Titles include "Odessa", "Esquinas", "After Paris", "Crescent", and "Break Time". LP, Vinyl record album

Maceo Pinkard wrote plenty of classic tunes in the pre-War years – and here, they're performed by drummer Sticks Evans & The Broadway Recording Orchestra and featuring such vocalists as Delores Andrews (who we learn on the back cover "likes big men and tiny dogs"), Daisy Banks, Vic Carlo, and The Edgar Battle Singers! Titles include plenty of classics – including "Sugar", "Them There Eyes", "Gimme A Little Kiss Will Ya Huh", "Why Do You Torture Me?", "Mammy O Mine", and "Let's Have A Show Down". (Vocalists, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderful meeting of two of the biggest 50s talents on the drums – and a session that's great not only for the expected firey percussion, but also for the horn work by other members on the set! Given the "drum battle" style of the record, the tracks are long and very open – done in a studio mode that recalls some of the Krupa/Rich meetings at JATP, and like the JATP sides, featuring plenty of space for players to take longer solos. Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, and Roy Eldridge get in some nice licks on the set – and other players include Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, and Ray Brown. Titles include "Gene's Blues", "Bernie's Tune", "Buddy's Blues", and "I Never Knew". LP, Vinyl record album

Gritty live work from twin tenor giants Gene Ammons and Dexter Gordon – recorded in an open-ended style that's a bit like some of Gordon's famous early work on the Central Avenue scene in LA, or Ammons' famous live "battles" with Sonny Stitt! The date was recorded in Chicago at the North Park Hotel – with sound that's a bit more "live" than some of the other Prestige sessions at the time – and an unusual lineup that features local players Jodie Christian and John Young on piano, Cleveland Eaton on bass, and Steve McCall on drums. The lovely Vi Redd makes a vocal appearance on the track "Lonesome Lover Blues" – and other titles include "The Chase", "Polka Dots & Moonbeams", and "The Happy Blues" – all nice and long! LP, Vinyl record album

A cool cooker from Maynard Ferguson – and a set that has all the upbeat tones you'd expect from the title, but lots of funky currents underneath! The set really sparkles right from the start – and has that sweet vibe that Maynard was really getting perfect on these late 70s records for Columbia – jazzy fusion that's tight, but never too uptight – with lots of room for sweet solos from the leader himself, plus Bill Hannon on moog, John Qdini on guitar, Eric Traub on tenor, and Mike Migliore on alto. Titles include a famous working of Earth Wind & Fier's "Fantasy" – plus "Battlestar Galactica", "MF Carnival", "Baker Street", "Birdland", "How Ya Doin Baby", and "Stella By Starlight". LP, Vinyl record album

A nice little album – featuring some of the sides that Gene Ammons cut "off contract" for Chess/Argo during the early 60s, and ones that feature him paired with Sonny Stitt, his longtime partner in legendary tenor battles from the 50s. The two horns aren't really locked in combat here, but they do complement each other nicely on the album's mellow groovers and ballad tracks. Titles include "Cha Bootie", "Tenor Eleven", "The Last Mile", and "Full Moon". LP, Vinyl record album

With Stanley Turrentine and Ralph Moore on tenor, George Benson on guitar, Larry Willis on electric piano and synthesizer, Wayne Braithwaite on electric basss, Rufus Reid on bass, Idris Muhammad on drums and tambourine, and Carl Allen on drums. Titles include "Battlescar Galorica", "Saint's Homecoming Song", "Melting Pot", and "Life Flight". LP, Vinyl record album

A richly dynamic set from pianist Don Pullen, and one of his farthest-out sessions from the mid 70s – especially considering he had just finished a tenure as Mingus' piano player not long before this set was recorded! The "outness" of the date is probably due in part to reedman Sam Rivers, who brings a great deal of energy to the set, and wrote half of the numbers the group performs (the other half are from Pullen) – and the players work here in a quartet that features bassist Alex Blake and drummer Bobby Battles. The set's got a lot of the freewheeling energy that Rivers was hitting in the 70s – and titles include "Capricorn Rising", "Fall Out", "Joycie Girl". and "Break Out". LP, Vinyl record album