One of the first great European statements from tenorist Dexter Gordon – a 1967 live recording that really lets Dexter stretch out, and show an even deeper side of his talents than on his 60s albums for Blue Note! The rhythm section here is rock solid – Kenny Drew on piano, Neils Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass, and Albert Tootie Heath on drums – a unit that still retains the sharpness of the Blue Note dates, but also has the energy to "go long" as Gordon pushes a few of the numbers on the set well past the ten minute mark. Gordon's solos are wonderfully imaginative and expressive – and titles include "Devilette", "For All We Know", "Doxy", and "Sonnymoon For Two". LP, Vinyl record album

Charlie Haden has made many wonderful albums over the years, in many different formats, both large and small – but this set holds a really special place in our heart, as it's got this close-up and intimate approach that really shows the world what a special musician Haden can be! Each track on the album is a duet – one with Ornette Coleman on alto, one with Keith Jarrett on piano, one with Alice Coltrane on harp, and the last with Paul Motian on drums – on long tracks that feature some really magical interplay between the musicians. The spare format is an extremely wonderful showcase for Haden's expressive bass work – and the intimacy of the tracks is different from some of the ECM recordings made during the same stretch – as the feel here is less a muted exploration of sound than it is a deeply personal interaction with some of the best talents of his generation. Tracks include "Ellen David", "For Turiya", "OC", and "For A Free Portugal". LP, Vinyl record album

A holy grail from the prime years of Blue Note hardbop – and one of the first records ever recorded by Clifford Jordan, then a fresh young tenor talent, just blown in from Chicago! The album has Jordan working with an all-star lineup that includes Art Farmer on trumpet, Sonny Clark on piano, and Louis Hayes in drums – blowing with a style that is a bit looser than other Blue Notes from the time, with touches of lyrical expression, brought on by the presence of Farmer and Hayes. Great overall – as tight as a bop side, but with a much deeper soul! Titles include "Confirmation", "Laconia", "Soul-Lo Blues", and "Cliff Craft". LP, Vinyl record album

An unusual chapter in the label-hopping career of Charles Mingus – a one-off date recorded for Mercury right after Mingus' legendary sessions for Columbia! The format here may well be Mingus' most ambitious to date – as the album features larger groups than before, exploring a range of musical ideas that run from Charles' own highly political expressions of the Civil Rights era to some of his landmark explorations of Duke Ellington! As always, the individual players in the group are given a strong voice in the proceedings – and the record bristles with energy from solos by Ted Curson, Eric Dolphy, Booker Ervin, Jimmy Knepper, Yusef Lateef, and a young Joe Farrell – as well as vocal performances by Lorraine Cousins, who sings on the classic "Weird Nightmare" and the haunting "Eclipse". A tremendous record throughout – filled with life, imagination, and boundless creativity – with titles that include "Mingus Fingus no. 2", "Weird Nightmare", "Eclipse", "Bemoanable Lady", "Half Mast Inhibition", and "Prayer for Passive Resistance". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the all-time classics of early 60s mainstream jazz – and a beautiful record that showcases writing and arranging talents of Oliver Nelson! Nelson had been bumping around a variety of sessions before this one – as a leader, sideman, and arranger – but it was with this album that his true talents really unfolded – sparkling with a depth of imagination and expression that marked him as one of the greatest artists in 60s American jazz! The group on the set is an all-star sextet – featuring Paul Chambers, Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Roy Haynes, and Freddie Hubbard – a disparate group of players who manage to come together with Nelson and find a unique voice that's rarely been duplicated again! The album features 6 fantastic compositions by Nelson, including "Stolen Moments", "Hoe Down", and "Yearnin". A fantastic record – and one that you can't go wrong with! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the all-time classics of early 60s mainstream jazz – and a beautiful record that showcases writing and arranging talents of Oliver Nelson! Nelson had been bumping around a variety of sessions before this one – as a leader, sideman, and arranger – but it was with this album that his true talents really unfolded – sparkling with a depth of imagination and expression that marked him as one of the greatest artists in 60s American jazz! The group on the set is an all-star sextet – featuring Paul Chambers, Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Roy Haynes, and Freddie Hubbard – a disparate group of players who manage to come together with Nelson and find a unique voice that's rarely been duplicated again! The album features 6 fantastic compositions by Nelson, including "Stolen Moments", "Hoe Down", and "Yearnin". A fantastic record – and one that you can't go wrong with! LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing grooves from the legendary Dave Pike – one of the American vibists' few albums for the MPS label – and quite possibly the trippiest of the bunch! The set's a beautiful illustration of the freedoms that the MPS label offered American players like Pike – a chance to really open up and do his thing, and find new sides and styles he'd never expressed before on his records back home! Of course, part of the strength of the set is the group he's working with here – an ensemble that includes the amazing Volker Kreigel on guitar (and sitar!), plus JA Rettenbacher on bass and Peter Baumeister on drums. But, lest you think this is a standard quartet affair, let it be known that all players – including Pike – handle a very wide variety of instruments throughout the session – including bongos, toys, maracas, other percussion, and more – even a bit of vocalizations as well! Tracks often have a slow-building, slightly-trippy feel that's totally great – and Kreigel's work on guitar is a perfect pairing with Pike's vibes – especially as both players are clearly digging an Eastern influence for the set. Titles include "Suspicious Child", "Soul Eggs", "Raga Jeeva Swara", "Rabbi Mogen's Hideout", "Attack Of The Green Misers", "Infra Red", and "Send Me The Yellow Guys". LP, Vinyl record album

Genius work from the team of Chick Corea on piano and Gary Burton on vibes – both players who were already making a lot of magic in the 70s, but who really seem to explode in the company of each other! Burton's tones are wonderfully bold and firm – these cascading colors that merge perfectly with Corea's piano lines – which themselves have a beautifully understated feel that's quite different than his fusion material – but which seems to pack an even more powerful punch! The album features no other instrumentation at all – yet the range of feeling and expression is much more powerful than most full group performances – on a sublime set of tracks that include "Duet Suite", "Never", "La Fiesta", "Radio", "Song To Gayle", and selections from Corea's "Children's Songs". LP, Vinyl record album

John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, really setting fire here in a classic live performance from the mid 60s – one of those very long, open-ended concert dates that was arguably even more impressive than some of Coltrane's studio album! The set was recorded in 1965, but not issued until a few years after Coltrane's death – and it's an amazing representation of the bold steps forward that Trane was taking at the time – working with Sanders in a set of very spiritual expressions that run in these out, open ways that are even different from the Coltrane sound of the year before! The group still features McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums – often hanging onto modal rhythms at the start, then dropping back once the horns open up – and Don Raphael Garrett plays bass clarinet, bringing a bit of Dolphy flavor to the set. Titles include "Tapestry In Sound", "Out Of This World", "Evolution", and "Cosmos". LP, Vinyl record album

Tremendous work from this lesser-known combo from Detroit – a session of work that builds strongly on the colors and changes explored by Miles Davis earlier in the 60s, but which takes things off into a whole new direction! (A Multidirection?) The horns on the record have incredible interplay – trumpet by Charles Moore and tenor from Leon Henderson, playing together with a sense of dexterity that may even beat the team of Davis and Wayne Shorter – angular one moment, softly lyrical the next, and always in pursuit of fresh tones and righteous sounds. Kenny Cox's piano is great too – an exercise in understatement at times – getting as much done with one note as other players would with five – as he slowly guides the group along, and grounds their freer expressions with a good sense of humanity. Rhythm is by Ron Brooks on bass and Danny Spencer on drums – and titles include "What Other One", "Gravity Point", "Spellbound", "Snuck In", and "Sojourn". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most beautiful albums that Charlie Haden ever recorded – and if he only ever appeared on one record in his life, we'd still love him tremendously for this one! The album has a feel that's very much in keeping with both the "liberation" and "orchestra" in the title – "liberation", in that the music is filled with inspiration from South American sources, and has a strongly political feel at times; and "orchestra" because the group here is somewhat large, and filled with a tremendous array of expressive players – including Gato Barbieri on tenor, Dewey Redman on alto and tenor, Don Cherry on cornet and flutes, Michael Mantler on trumpet, Roswell Rudd on trombone, Robert Northern on French horn, Paul Motian and Andrew Cyrille on percussion, Carla Bley on piano, and Perry Robinson on clarinet. Haden leads these disparate talents through a set of tremendously focused music – filled with as many ideas as it is with a sense of humanity and soul – all to brilliantly point the way forward for the new sound of Impulse Records in the years after Coltrane's death! Titles include the classic "Song For Che", plus Ornette's "War Orphans", Carla Bley's "The Interlude", and "Song Of The United Front", by Hans Eisler, and with words by Brecht! LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing, simply amazing – and light years ahead of the staid sounds that Chico Hamilton was cutting in the 50s! Hamilton's one of those players who has an amazing range to his music – almost all of it really incredible, as Chico always shifts things up over time – continually trying new things, and new modes of expression – even though, given his popularity, he could have just kept recording the same things year after year. This album is true testament to that propensity for growth in Hamilton's music – a wonderfully unbridled set that's filled with unusual rhythms, odd instrumentation, and even some of the first touches of psychedelic jazz to appear in the 60s! Players include Sadao Watanabe on alto and flute, Gabor Szabo on guitar, Jimmy Cheatham on trombone, and Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja on percussion – all working together in a really wonderful range of modes from track to track – always groovy, but also pretty far-reaching and exploratory too! Titles include "El Moors", "Helena", "Strange", "Marcheta", "El Chico", and "Conquistadores". LP, Vinyl record album

A great big band indeed – a session from 1960 that has Bill Holman still sitting nicely at the top of the west coast large group format from the 50s! As with previous dates of this nature, Holman's got a way around the charts that few can match – a way of swinging the whole ensemble strongly, yet never in ways that are cloying, commercial, or cliched. All the right players find a space for expression – and the lineup includes Richie Kamuca and Bill Perkins on tenor sax, Frank Rosolino on trombone, and Conte Candoli on trumpet – all players who really sparkle nicely when they step out from the larger group. Titles include "Stereoso", "Shadrack", "Quickstep", "Aura", "The Moon Is Blue", "June Is Busting Out All Over", and "Spinuet". LP, Vinyl record album

Jazz funk genius from Freddie Hubbard in the mid 70s! Gleam was a Japanese-only double album from the jazz giant in its original release – mighty funky at times, too – right up there with some of the best Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock Japanese sets from the 70s! It's a live set captured in March of '75 at Tokyo's Yubin Chokin Hall – long numbers played by a group that includes Freddie on trumpet, Carl Randall on tenor and flute, George Cables on electric piano, Henry Franklin on bass, Carl Burnett on drums, and Buck Clark on percussion! Each player has plenty of space to groove, and it's very well captured – you can hear the most expressive solos and the most subtle nuances. Some great solos by Freddie and the rest of the players – breathless tenor & flute by Randall, keys by Cables that are jazz funk perfection and interplay between Burnett's drums and Clark's congas & percussion that's somehow tense and comfortable at the same time. The shortest number in the set runs more than the 7 minutes and the longest is more than 20 minutes – and none is one second shorter than necessary, actually leaving us pining for more – making it all the more vital in the double album format. Released on 2CDs for the first time ever here! How this great album has been so hard to find over the years is a mystery. Titles include "Kuntu", "Spirits Of Trane", an amazing cover of Stevie Wonder's "Too High", "Midnight At The Oasis", "Ebony Moonbeams", and "Put It In The Pocket". LP, Vinyl record album

Groundbreaking work from the legendary Ahmad Jamal – not just in his own career, but in live jazz in general! The album's a classic recording of Jamal's trio with Israel Crosby on bass and Vernell Fournier on drums – captured at the Pershing Lounge on the south side of Chicago, where Jamal was clearly wowing the crowd with his amazing talents on the piano. The groove here is sublimely fluid and soulful – clearly the next wave of expression on the piano in the 50s, and as important to the Chicago scene as Bill Evans was to that of New York at the time. The recording quality is wonderful – clear enough to capture the subtleties of Crosby's amazing bass, and the lightly tippling sound of Fournier's drums – and titles include a classic extended reading of "Poinciana", plus "What's New", "But Not For Me", and "No Greater Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Mid 70s magic from vocalist Irene Kral – one of a handful of albums that really had Kral setting herself apart from most other jazz vocal contemporaries! The approach here is very simple – just Irene's voice and piano backing from Alan Broadbent – but a hell of a lot goes on in the spare space, thanks to subtly expressive vocals from Kral – never too overdone, yet filled with a mature sophistication that's wonderful – almost conversational at points, yet always with a soft swing that reminds us that she's a jazz singer at heart. Titles include "Love Came On Stealthy Fingers", "I Like You You're Nice", "When I Look In Your Eyes", "A Time For Love/Small World", "Never Let Me Go", "Lucky To Be Me/Some Other Time", "Don't Look Back", and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most". (Vocalists, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant moment as a leader from saxophonist Maurice Malik King – a member of the St Louis underground in the 70s, but one who never saw the same sort of fame as contemporaries who left the city for New York and beyond – yet who continued to create some incredible music far away from the limelight! The early 80s set is a great example of the way the more sophisticated, sensitive moments of the loft jazz world of the 70s were taken to farther local scenes in the US, and allowed players to continue the journey with their own very personal levels of expression – something that's definitely the case here as King crafts these beautiful long lines on alto alongside the bass of Zimbabwe Nkenya and percussion of Qaiyim Shabazz. There's a very special sound to the whole thing – a mode that's every bit as unique as the Ritual Trio up in Chicago, yet every different too – as you'll hear on cuts that include "In Between Space", "Music To Me", "In Search Of Spirits Passed & Present", and "When Force Meet". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the few albums ever recorded by Jimmy Neeley – an unsung piano genius of the 50s and 60s, with a sound and style that placed him right up there with the best work of Ahmad Jamal! Like Jamal, Neeley has a bit of a flair for the exotic – and also like Jamal, his trio performances are very well crafted, fitting together bass (by Michel Mulia) and drums (by Rudy Lawless) into a seamless blend of percussive and rhythmic expression that really grooves nicely with the piano. Titles include "The Chase", "Misirlou", "Getting A Taste", "Lament For The Lonely", and "Gone With The Wind". LP, Vinyl record album

One of a rare few albums done by pianist Cecil Taylor for the Blue Note label in the 60s – some of the most outside work recorded for the imprint at the time! The word "structures" here is perhaps a bit misplaced – as the work has a strong sense of freedom with the soloists – who operate based on a system of energy and impulses described by Taylor in the notes, at a level that's maybe one of his most inventive, ambitious expressions of the decade! The whole lineup is great – with especially strong horn work from Eddie Gale on trumpet, Jimmy Lyons on alto, and Ken McIntyre on alto, oboe, and bass clarinet – and Taylor's piano gets accompaniment from two groundbreaking bassists – Henry Grimes and Alan Silva – plus drums from Andrew Cyrille. Given the lineup, and the format, the whole thing almost feels more like one of the BYG/Actuel avant sessions than Blue Note in the 60s – and titles include "Steps", "Enter Evening (Soft Line Structure)", "Unit Structure/As Of A Now/Section", and "Tales (8 Whisps)". LP, Vinyl record album

Really hard-jamming work from keyboardist Brian Auger – the first of a 2-part live set from the US, and easily some of his greatest work on record! The tracks are all very long and stretched out here – an extrapolation of the territory Auger was already exploring on studio sides, taken into even more cosmic realms through the lively nature of the set. As with other records from the time, Alex Lighterwood sings on some cuts – but the real highlight is the keyboard work of Auger – served up on both organ and electric piano, and hitting a great blend of funk, fusion, and keyboard soul! Titles include a really great funky remake of "Bumpin On Sunset", the original break track "Don't Look Away", and the tunes "Truth", and "Beginning Again". LP, Vinyl record album

Long lean groovers from Brian Auger and the Oblivion Express group – recorded with a slightly freer feel than some of the group's earlier albums, and an approach that has them stretching out nicely! Brian still sings a bit on some tracks, but there seems to be more of a focus than before on the keyboards – that nicely compressed Auger use of Hammond and electric piano that actually went onto influence a fair bit of American players at the time, in the way that Auger himself had been influenced before by their own earlier work. Rhythms are great throughout – making all tracks funky, in a laidback sort of way – and titles include a remake of "Bumpin' On Sunset", one of the band's best tracks, plus "Change", "Beginning Again", "You'll Stay In My Heart", and "Straight Ahead". LP, Vinyl record album

Seminal 70s work from one of the most righteous jazz musicians ever! On this set, Alice Coltrane moves past the rawer spiritual sound of her Impulse albums – working with a more focused vision and an approach to jazz that takes her way past the identity of just being "Mrs Coltrane", into territory that's a more perfect expression of her spiritual vision. The approach calls for more ambitious orchestrations, yet never in a way that overwhelms the jazz basis of the music – and Alice herself is on Fender Rhodes, organ, and harp – working with players who include Fred Jackson and Hubert Laws on reeds, Oscar Brashear on trumpet, George Bohannon on trombone, Charlie Haden on bass, Ben Riley on drums, and Armando Peraza on congas. Titles include "Spiritual Eternal", "Om Supreme", "Morning Workshop", "Wisdom Eye", and "Los Caballos". LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe one of the greatest jazz albums of all time – a real breakthrough moment for the legendary John Coltrane, and the blueprint for generations of jazz records to come! Trane was already breaking down plenty of boundaries before Love Supreme – but he knocked it out of the park for the album – which is a full-length suite of spiritual expression, one that gives even greater focus and message to Coltrane's long-spiralling style of soloing on the tenor sax! The group here is the classic quartet – McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums – taking Trane up to the heavens on waves of modal energy, but also holding his spirit closer to the planet than on some of later, more outside performances. There's a slight bit of vocalization on the record – that chanted energy that imbues the set with so much love – and movements include "Acknowledgement", "Resolution", "Pursuance", and "Psalm". LP, Vinyl record album

Hardly any ragtime here – despite the title – and instead, the album's one of the greatest ever from drummer Beaver Harris – cut with his ultra-hip 360 Degree Music Experience group! The title is somewhat accurate in that the record brings together a long history of jazz-based expression – almost a century's worth of music, served up by Harris and the group members with the same fluid sensibility as Jaki Byard in his best work, although Byard was never this ambitious! The ensemble is somewhat large, but really comes together well – with an impressive range of artists who include Doc Cheatham on trumpet, Marshall Brown on trombone, Dave Burrell on piano, Keith Marks on flute, Cecil McBee and Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Maxine Sullivan and Bill Willingham on vocals. The album's sort of a mini-history of jazz, but one that's hardly hokey at all – and which usually veers towards Harris' more righteous modes of the 70s, even when hitting older styles. Sullivan is especially great – singing here as a sophisticated soul jazz diva of the 70s, and hardly the older-styled singer we might expect. A few moments are stripped down and percussive – and other odd instrumentation includes a bit of sitar and steel drums. Titles include "It's Hard To But We Do", "I Wish I Knew", "Can There Be Peace?", "Down In Brazil", "African Drums", and "Round Trip". LP, Vinyl record album

Trumpeter Fats Navarro was one of the true giants of the early bop years, but he passed away at a young age just as the music was taking off – leaving behind just a handful of killer recordings to document his legacy! This set was put together by Blue Note as a great reminder of his genius – a style on the trumpet that was different than that of Dizzy Gillespie or Miles Davis – and which really set the tone for some of the more expressive players who would follow him on the instrument. Navarro is incredibly deft, yet never in a way that calls attention to itself too much – truly organic, and set up here in groups led by pianists Tadd Dameron and Bud Powell, plus some recordings in a group he co-led with trumpeter Howard McGhee. Titles on this first volume include "Wail", "The Chase", "The Squirrel", "Our Delight", and "Dameronia". LP, Vinyl record album

Trumpeter Fats Navarro was one of the true giants of the early bop years, but he passed away at a young age just as the music was taking off – leaving behind just a handful of killer recordings to document his legacy! This set was put together by Blue Note as a great reminder of his genius – a style on the trumpet that was different than that of Dizzy Gillespie or Miles Davis – and which really set the tone for some of the more expressive players who would follow him on the instrument. Navarro is incredibly deft, yet never in a way that calls attention to itself too much – truly organic, and set up here in groups led by pianists Tadd Dameron and Bud Powell, plus some recordings in a group he co-led with trumpeter Howard McGhee. Titles on this second volume include "Lady Bird", "Jahbero", "Symphonette", "Double Talk", and "The Skunk". LP, Vinyl record album

Really wonderful work from Don Pullen – solo material, and some of his most soulful sides of the 70s – done in this long-flowing style that's completely sublime! Pullen's really at his best in this format – working in a way that's very free, but never overindulgent or overexpressive in the wrong way – a kind of magical connection between his soul and the piano, with results that are still among some of the greatest in the genre. All tracks are long, and very beautiful – and titles include "Richard's Tune", "Big Alice", "Song Played Backwards", and "Suite (Sweet) Malcolm". LP, Vinyl record album

A masterful fusion set from guitarist Lee Ritenour – one that expands his sound a bit more than usual by adding in vocals on a number of tracks – but in a way that really gets at the mainstream soul influences that bubble through his jazz work! The set features key vocal appearances from Patti Austin, Tom Baylor, and Bill Champlin – all singers who really know how to respect the instrumental side of a tune, too – which is great, given that the record also features keyboards from Dave Grusin and Patrice Rushen too. Titles include "That's Enough For Me", "Sugarloaf Express", "What Do You Want", "Matchmakers", "Morning Glory", and "The Storm". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the first moments of genius from a young Pharoah Sanders – a set that builds on the energy of John Coltrane's Love Supreme generation – but takes it in a much more expansive direction! The album's got a sense of majesty that's years ahead of its time – righteous, positive, spiritual jazz that flows out with a timeless power, and a quality that almost out-Coltrane's Coltrane! All tracks are long, expressive, and freely flowing – building with a very organic sense of energy – totally free from any gimmicks or cliche. Players include Dave Burrell on piano, Henry Grimes on bass, and Sonny Sharrock on guitar – and Pharoah plays alto, tenor, and piccolo – and even vocalizes a bit. The album begins with the amazing "Upper & Lower Egypt" – which is a perfect illustration of the two sides of Pharoah's genius – free/out & spiritual/modal – and other titles include "Japan", and "Capricorn Rising". LP, Vinyl record album

A bit more of a high concept album than some of Wynton Marsalis' previous efforts – a set with a few more added horns on side one, and an extended suite on side two! The work definitely shows Wynton's increasing concern with jazz history – his desire to embrace, and sometimes represent, decades of past musical expression in his work – a real Lincoln Center sort of impulse, but one that still comes off relatively well here, and without as much hoke as you'd expect. Side one has Wynton working with regular pianist Marcus Roberts, plus Todd Williams on tenor and soprano sax and Wes Anderson on alto – and side two features a completely different group, much more in an older-styled jazz vein – with Michael White on clarinet, Danny Barker on banjo, Teddy Riley on trumpet, and Freddie Lonzo on trombone. Titles include "The Majesty Of The Blues", "Hickory Dickory Dock", and the expanded "New Orleans Function" suite. LP, Vinyl record album

Mindblowing! This is when Wes Montgomery really starts to get interesting to us – when he's working with a top-line arranger like Don Sebesky, crafting some incredibly compelling chords over lightly jazzy arrangements and soaring strings, in a whole new mode of expression that would go onto transform a generation of guitar players! And sure, this album sold a gazillion copies – but we'll be honest in saying that we think it's loads more complex and mature than some of Wes' straight jazz sides from earlier years – light years away from the small combo dates of the early years, both in conception and sound. Titles include "Day In The Life", "Watch What Happens", "California Nights", "Windy", "Trust In Me", and "The Joker". LP, Vinyl record album