A huge range of recordings with two of the best arrangers who ever worked with Stan Kenton! Includes material from a great variety of records and sessions – a really unique package. CD

Includes four trio tracks – just piano, guitar, and bass – plus plenty of solo material. CD

Solo piano numbers from Art Tatum, plus four trio tracks with guitarist Everett Barksdale and Slam Stewart on bass. CD

A great period for this legendary trombonist and singer – includes material from the albums Shades Of Night, Jazz Ultimate, Swing Low Sweet Spiritual, This Is Teagarden, Coast Concert, and Big T's Dixieland Band – plus other tracks too. CD

A rare live set by Cannonball Adderley – unreleased in America at the time, and performed with the style of Cannon's best work for Riverside! The album's very similar to some of the group's best live sets for Riverside – like the San Francisco or other Tokyo recording – done with tracks that are long and a bit stretched out, performed with Nat Adderley on cornet, Joe Zawinul on piano, Vic Gaskin on bass, and Roy McCurdy on drums. Titles include "Work Song", "Mercy Mercy Mercy", "This Here", "Jive Samba", and "Money In The Pocket". CD

If the 60's ever had a "hit" jazz record, it was probably this one! The album's a sparkling live session featuring the trademark soul jazz sounds of the Cannonball Adderley group with Joe Zawinul on acoustic and electric piano, and brother Nat Adderley on cornet. The tracks have a long soulful groove, with gutbucket solos from the 3 above-mentioned players, and tight live production by a young David Axelrod. Titles include "Sticks", "Hippodelphia", "Sack O Woe", and the classic "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" – a jazz theme that you'll recognize instantly! CD

Includes the albums Plays For Dancers In Love from 1957 and Plays For Dream Dancing from 1961. CD

A real classic in the canon of American postwar jazz – one of the few albums ever cut as a leader by Boston baritone player Serge Chaloff – one of a handful of musicians who really helped move the instrument forward in jazz, and help it take a rightful place next to the expressiveness of the tenor and alto sax! Even though he hardly got a chance to record, Serge was a hell of a player, and one who has both the rich tone of the instrument completely in hand, while also able to move with the fluidity of a much leaner horn – a quality that's augmented here by the fantastic rhythm work from Sonny Clark on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The set's a treasure through and through – from the cool cover image, to the great music within – served up on tunes that include "How About You", "Handful Of Stars", "The Goof & I", "Susie's Blues", and "All The Things You Are". CD

One of the few key recordings issued by baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff before his untimely early death – a tremendous little record that really helped redefine the place of his instrument in jazz! The album is one of a number produced by Stan Kenton for Capitol at the time, but it's far from the cooler jazz outings of other "Kenton Presents" sessions – a real Boston Blow up that has Serge standing starkly out front on the baritone, hitting some tremendous notes that show a command and dexterity on his instrument that few other players could match! Also noteworthy is the presence of the great Boots Mussulli on alto sax – a sharp-edge player with a lot of Charlie Mariano touches, and an artist who's rarely heard in a setting so stripped-down as this. Other artists include Herb Pomeroy on trumpet, Ray Santisi on piano, and Jimmy Zitano on drums – and titles include the original numbers "Kip", "Unison", "Bob The Robin", and "Sergical" – plus versions of "What's New", "Yesterday's Gardenias", and Jaki Byard's "Diane's Melody". CD

A classic jazz interpretation of the score to West Side Story – served up in ultra-hip fashion by the Stan Kenton Orchestra! Although the tunes are familiar, the readings are extremely creative – and use Leonard Bernstein's original music as the starting point for a rich tapestry of tones, colors, and sounds that really open things up! Arrangements are by Johnny Richards, and very swinging throughout – and soloists include Gabe Balthazar on alto, Conte Candoli on trumpet, and Sam Donahue on tenor – plus some great standout piano from Stan himself. Titles include "Something's Coming", "Officer Krupke", "Tonight", "Cool", "I Feel Pretty", and "Taunting Scene". CD

A classic jazz interpretation of the score to West Side Story – served up in ultra-hip fashion by the Stan Kenton Orchestra! Although the tunes are familiar, the readings are extremely creative – and use Leonard Bernstein's original music as the starting point for a rich tapestry of tones, colors, and sounds that really open things up! Arrangements are by Johnny Richards, and very swinging throughout – and soloists include Gabe Balthazar on alto, Conte Candoli on trumpet, and Sam Donahue on tenor – plus some great standout piano from Stan himself. Titles include "Something's Coming", "Officer Krupke", "Tonight", "Cool", "I Feel Pretty", and "Taunting Scene". CD

Notable sidemen include Zoot Sims, Lee Konitz, Conte Candoli, and Art Pepper – on tracks that include "Baia", "Autumn In New York", "Me Reverie", "April In Paris", "You And The Night And The Music", and "Street Of Dreams". CD

Late Kenton on Capitol – but great Kenton too! In a way, Stan was almost best when he was working with standards – as on a set like this, he has an incredible way of transforming the sound of familiar numbers into something dark, moody, and modern. It's amazing to hear the way he raises the edge of tunes we thought we'd already heard too much of – and working with players like Charlie Mariano, Don Sebesky, and Rolf Ericson, Stan's in perfect company to really work magic with the material. Titles include "Django", "Willow Weep For Me", "I Get Along Without You Very Well", "The Thrill Is Gone", and "When Sunny Gets Blue". CD features the bonus track "Lazy Afternoon". CD

Peggy's sweet as sugar, but working here with a heck of a lot of spice – thanks to arranger Benny Carter, who brings in a wonderfully jazzy feel to the set! The album's one of Peggy's best from her comeback years at Capitol – and a prime example of the syncopated, slinking mode of arrangement that was the best 60s discovery for the Peggy Lee voice – and which allowed her to create a unique space for her own maturing sexuality in pop music. The whole thing's great, and avoids the cliches of some of the other Peggy Lee albums from the time. Titles include "I Believe In You", "Ain't That Love", "The Best Is Yet To Come", "The Sweetest Sounds", "Teach Me Tonight", "Tell All The World About You", and "Big Bad Bill". Plus, CD features 3 bonus cuts – including "Amazing", "Loads Of Love", and "I'll Be Around". (Vocalists, Jazz) CD

A stone cooker – and one of the best versions of Porgy & Bess recorded in a jazz format! It's a slightly-forgotten fact that at the time of the big late 50s film version of Porgy & Bess, there was a bit of trouble with the soundtrack – so the market was flooded with other versions of Gershwin's score in a hope to fill the void. This is one of the best of that bunch – a very well-done set of tunes arranged and conducted by Bill Potts, recorded with a strong set of soloists that include Al Cohn, Gene Quill, Zoot Sims, Art Farmer, Bill Evans, Charlie Shavers, Bob Brookmeyer, and Harry Edison. Tracks are the usual batch of Porgy & Bess numbers – "I Loves You Porgy", "It Ain't Necessarily So", "My Man's Gone Now", "A Woman Is A Sometimes Thing", "Summertime" – all woven together wonderfully in a rich tapestry of sound, with some particularly evocative solos. CD

The last Capitol album from vocalist Sue Raney – and easily the most compelling of the bunch! Sue's in really great form here – shaking off some of the cooler west coast modes of earlier records, and going for a more lively, more fluid style that's sometimes touched with the R&B influences that were creeping into jazz vocals at the time. Backings are by Ralph Carmichael – tightly jazzy, but often with plenty of room for Sue to take over – and there's a really great sense of balance, poise, and power here that far surpasses most of Raney's other albums from the time. Titles include "How About Me", "Burnt Sugar", "Some Of These Days", "Trouble Is A Man", "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying", and "Here's That Rainy Day". (Vocalists, Jazz) CD

Wonderful late 50s jazz from the LA scene – not just because singer Dakota Staton is at the best of her youthful prime, but also because the Shearing group on the set is great too! George is working here with one of his best lineups – a group that includes Latin-inflected Al McKibbon on bass and Percy Brice on drums, but which also has some great guitar work by Toots Thielemans, and wonderful vibes by Emil Richards. The Shearing group plays instrumentally on about half the album, and Dakota joins in on the remaining tracks. Titles include "Pawn Ticket", "In The Night", "Easy", "I Hear Music", "Senor Blues", "Later", and "I'd Love To Make Love To You". CD

A completely fresh take on the Charlie Parker aesthetic of the bop generation – updated for the 70s, but in ways that are still pretty classic overall! The group's a large one, but plays with a tightness that goes way past their gimmicky name – thanks to players who include Med Flory and Joe Lopes on alto, Warne Marsh and Jay Migliori on tenor, Jack Nimitz on baritone, and Conte Candoli on trumpet – all of whom get in some great licks! Tunes are all short bop classics, played with very tight head arrangements, and some searing breakout solos. Titles include "Ko Ko", "Be Bop", "Repetition", "Night In Tunisia", "Hot House", "Star Eyes", and "Parker's Mood". CD

A completely fresh take on the Charlie Parker aesthetic of the bop generation – updated for the 70s, but in ways that are still pretty classic overall! The group's a large one, but plays with a tightness that goes way past their gimmicky name – thanks to players who include Med Flory and Joe Lopes on alto, Warne Marsh and Jay Migliori on tenor, Jack Nimitz on baritone, and Conte Candoli on trumpet – all of whom get in some great licks! Tunes are all short bop classics, played with very tight head arrangements, and some searing breakout solos. Titles include "Ko Ko", "Be Bop", "Repetition", "Night In Tunisia", "Hot House", "Star Eyes", and "Parker's Mood". CD

Incredible work by Randy Weston – light years ahead of his trio material from just a few years before! The album is one of his most progressive from the early years, and features an extended suite dedicated to the newly-won freedoms of the African Nations – with occasional lyrics by Langston Hughes, and arrangements by the great Melba Liston! The material's political, radical, and modernist – but it never fails to groove, and uses its politics to achieve an added emotional punch, as in the best work from the same time by Max Roach and Charles Mingus – and some of their larger progressive projects. The group is much larger than you'd expect from Randy – with Benny Bailey and Richard Williams on trumpets, Slide Hampton on trombone, Sahib Shihab on reeds, and Candido and Olatunji on percussion – which really dominates the record. The whole thing is amazing – one of the purest realizations of the African influence in Weston's music – and movements of the suite are entitled "Uhuru Kwanza", "African Lady", "Bantu", and "Kucheza Blues" CD

The sweet vocals of Nancy join the classic Cannonball quintet for a great set of soul jazz tunes that was one of Capitol's biggest selling jazz sides in the 60s! About half the cuts feature Nancy on vocals – on tunes like "Save Your Love For Me", "Never Will I Marry", "Happy Talk", and "The Masquerade Is Over" – and the other half feature Cannon's group playing instrumentally – on cuts like "Teaneck", "One Man's Dream", and "Never Say Yes". Pop, but hip – nice and hip! (Vocalists, Jazz) CD

An album of mixed vocal and instrumental cuts, some with Nancy in the lead, backed by Shearing's combo, others with Shearing's group alone. The vocal tracks are quite nice jazz ones – and include "On Green Dolphin Street", "Born To Be Blue", "All Night Long", and "Let's Live Again". Shearing's backing is pretty nice, and gives Nancy's style a really moody feel that's different than her pop work! This CD contains 8 extra tracks, including "Evansville", "My Gentleman Friend", "Silk", "Stablemates", and "Whisper Not". (Vocalists, Jazz) CD

Tracks include "The Thrill Is Gone", "Time After Time", "Look For The Silver Lining", "Daybreak", "Just Friends", and "My Ideal" – 20 cuts total. CD

Legendary early work from trumpeter Miles Davis – late 40s sessions for Capitol Records that are completely different than the bop material he was cutting with Charlie Parker and on his own! Instead, these sides have Miles working with a complex, more arranged style – built up with a young Gil Evans, in a mode that prefaces the later famous recordings the pair would make in the late 50s for Columbia. Here, the tracks are shorter, but beautifully blend bop ideas with fuller arrangements – and Davis blows alongside other key young modernists in a variety of larger groups – with work from Lee Konitz on alto, Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax, JJ Johnson and Kai Winding on trombones, Al Haig and John Lewis on piano, and Kenny Clarke and Max Roach on drums. Mulligan contributed plenty, too – his ideas on an overall sound definitely helped shape these sides – and the record's go on to legendary status – even though it's very different than most other Miles Davis from the time. Titles include "Godchild", "Jeru", "Move", "Venus De Milo", "Budo", and "Deception". This "complete" package follows up the core tracks with live material recorded at the Royal Roost, even before the original studio sessions – in a group that features Mike Zwerin on trombone with Konitz, Mulligan, Lewis, and Roach – plus a bit of vocals from Kenny Pacho Hagood. Titles include "Darn That Dream", "Moon Dreams", "S'Il Vou Plait", "Move", "Birth Of The Cool Theme", "Godchild", and "Budo". CD

It's great to see that David Axelrod's finally getting his due – and this reissue of material from Fantasy is one of the first reissues of his work in the US! Most cuts here are much more jazz-based than Axelrod's higher-concept material under his own name for Capitol in the late 60s – and the music represents Axe's key move to Fantasy after bigger label fame – a move that he made with Cannonball Adderley, who also figures in on some of these tracks. The CD features 8 tracks from Axelrod's Full Axe album – a tasty bit of funky fusion that's one of his best jazz-oriented releases – plus a sampling of tracks from other albums he produced and/or arranged for Fantasy. Titles from Full Axe include "My Family", "Mucho Chupar", "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing", and "Everything Counts" – and other tracks include "Cantaro" and "Solitario" by Gene Ammons, "Bach" and "Sierra Morena" by Hampton Hawes, "Quit It" by Nat Adderley, "Goodbye So Long" by Funk Inc, and "Stayin Place" from the Big Man 2LP set. CD

A rare treat from saxophonist Gary Bartz – material recorded for a small west coast label after his initial classics on Prestige Records – but in a vibe that's different than the fuller productions of his albums on Capitol Records in the late 70s! The sound here is nicely intimate – almost like a record on the Black Jazz label – as Bartz blows alto and soprano sax in the company of Charles Mims on piano, Curtis Robertson on bass, and Howard King on drums – players with a gently soulful groove who stretch out nicely with Gary on the album's long tracks. Syreeta makes a guest appearance on vocals on a cool version of "My Funny Valentine", and other titles include "Ju Ju Man", "Pisces Daddy Blue", "Straight Street", and "Chelsea Bridge". CD

Beautiful work from baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff – one of a few key players who helped reinvent the role of his instrument in jazz during the postwar years – but one who only made a handful of records before his too-early death! This live performance really corrects the lack of entries in the Chaloff catalog – and it really stands as a nice contrast to the more composed vibe of his Capitol albums – as the tracks are long and open, and Serge really blows us away with his imagination and power on the solos! The group's not an all-star one – Jerry Murphy on piano, Al Dimino on bass, and Don Sheldon on drums – but Chaloff hardly lets that get in the way, as he steps out front right from the start, and blows beautifully on both the swingers and ballads – with a depth and dexterity that most folks would usually only hit on the tenor. Titles include "Ninety Nine Guys", "Wildwood", "Move", "Tea For Two", "I'll Remember April", "Love Is Just Around The Corner", and "Willow Weep For Me". CD

The first album in a legendary run of vocal jazz classics on Atlantic Records – and a set that really helped Chris Connor move to a new level of expression in her music! The sound here is much richer than Connor's previous recordings for Bethlehem – and the small combo jazz backings have been replaced by fuller orchestrations by Ralph Burns – done in a cool, edgey sort of way that really pushes Chris into newly sophisticated territory! The sound's on a par with the best June Christy/Pete Rugolo collaborations on Capitol – and the group's filled with some great jazz players, including Zoot Sims, John Lewis, Milt Hinton, and Oscar Pettiford. Titles include "I Get A Kick Out Of You", "My April Heart", "He Was Good to Me", "Where Are You", and "Get Out Of Town". (Vocalists, Jazz) CD

Oscar pays tribute to Frank – but he uses his keys, not his voice – to come up with some great renditions of tunes from Sinatra's classic Capitol years! It's true that Peterson was known to vocalize on some sessions (most notably on his tribute to Nat King Cole, recorded a few years later) – but this album is straight trio grooving, with Peterson skipping soulfully over the keys of the piano, abetted by Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums – in a wonderfully-crafted set of tunes that includes "Witchcraft", "Come Dance With Me", "You Make Me Feel So Young", "All Of Me", "It Happened In Monterey", and "The Tender Trap". CD

Oscar Peterson pays tribute to the late Nat King Cole – not only on piano, but also with a bit of vocals as well! Given how rarely Oscar sings on record, the album's a real treat – especially as his vocals capture the spirit of Cole surprisingly well – not exactly like Nat, but with the same mix of soul, swing, and class! Half the album features Peterson in trio formation – with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass – in a way that recreates the King Cole Trio sound. Other tracks feature fuller backings from Manny Albam – nice and jazzy, in the style that Nat used during the 50s at Capitol! Titles are all Cole favorites – and include "Little Girl", "Unforgettable", "What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry", "Easy Listening Blues", "Walkin My Baby Back Home", and "It's Only A Paper Moon". CD

Sal Salvador was one of the 50's more accomplished modernist talents on jazz guitar – and his work ranks up there with players like Tal Farlow, or Gil Melle's great bandmate Joe Cinderella. This long-overdue CD brings together some of his best work from the mid 50s – by pairing one rare Blue Note 10" jazz session with another album that Salvador cut as part of Capitol's "Stan Kenton Presents" series. The Blue Note session's got some great tracks that feature tenorist Frank Sokolow, an icy toned genius who's never gotten his just dues. Other cuts (on both the Blue Note and Capitol sessions) feature Eddie Costa on piano and vibes, and titles from both include "See", "Round Trip", "Wheels", "Salutations", "Down Home", and "Yesterdays". 18 cuts in all, in a great looking package that replicates the orignal cover art! CD

Jerri Winters gets some hip backings here – thanks to help from the Al Belletto Sextet, who almost share the star spotlight on the record as much as Jerri! The combo are perhaps best known for their 50s work on Capitol, but they sound equally great here – stepping out with a tight sound that must have made them a great act to catch live in a club! And in addition to the combo's instrumentation – which includes alto sax, piano, trombone, and trumpet – the group also harmonize a bit behind Jerri's vocals – supporting her with a sound that's sort of a groovy 50s update on the older 40s mode of matching a female lead with a male harmony group. Don't let all this praise of the Belletto group take away from Winters, though – because she steps out strongly too – and really makes the album sparkle with a personal take on some lesser-remembered standards. Titles include "In Other Words", "Crazy In The Night", "Kind Of Moody", "Ridin On The Moon", "Dark Shadows", "Sometimes I'm Happy", and "It's Always You". (Vocalists, Jazz) CD

One of Lou's more unique sides of the 60s – as the album features him as the main soloist over arrangements by a group headed up by Oliver Nelson. As has been ably demonstrated on many sides on labels like Verve, Impulse, and Capitol – there's no better talent than Nelson for taking a strong soulful player, and putting him into a context that will let him solo at his best, and not be overwhelmed by the band. There's some nice organ in the group, and titles include "Tippin In", "Back Talk", "Huffin N Puffin", and "Ignant Oit". CD