5 discs worth of pre-history from the founding core of Chicago's AACM, back when they were simply known as the "Art Ensemble". Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors, and Lester Bowie are joined by Thurman Barker, Robert Corwder, Philip Wilson and Curtis Clark. 23 tracks in all, icluding "Theme Statements", "Old", "Tatas-Matoes", "Jazz Death?", "Tutankhamen", "Tkhke" and "Carefree". CD

Sounds hokey – but this is a fantastic album! French pianist Raymond Fol leads a group that includes American and European players of the Clarke-Boland Big Band mode, like Johnny Griffin, Jimmy Woode, and Fats Sadi, plus American Art Taylor on drums – and he's come up with a swinging take on Vivaldi's Four Seasons that's one of the hippest French jazz sides we've heard from the 60s! Forget the source of the material, because Fol lets the players really go loose on the solos – which means you'll hear great vibes from Sadi, searing tenor from Griffin, and some excellent work on piano and celeste from Fol himself, all set to tight rhythm accompaniment that makes the tracks swing harder than you'd ever expect. A real treat, kind of a swinging jazz suite, ala the best MPS work of the Clarke-Boland Big Band! LP, Vinyl record album

A rare 60s meeting of groovy talents from both sides of the Atlantic – and a record that matches the trumpet of Dizzy Gillespie with the hiply swinging vocals of The Double Six Of Paris! The group were a wonderfully groovy precursor to the Swingle Singers – and sung in a scatting approach to jazz vocals that was very much in the tradition of Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross – but also drew inspiration from the earlier work of Eddie Jefferson, King Pleasure, and others. Their sound is great – much more 60s groovy than some other vocal groups – and pairing them with Dizzy gives this record an added punch that some of their other sessions are missing! Backing is small combo throughout – with either Bud Powell or Kenny Barron on piano, Kenny Clarke on drums, and James Moody on tenor – and with the presence of Diz, most of the material here is of bop orientation – taken at a fast and lively clip! Lalo Schifrin arranged the whole session too – and titles include "One Bass Hit", "Blue N Boogie", "Emanon", "Groovin High", "Ow", "The Champ", "Tin Tin Deo", "Hot House", and "Con Alma". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare 60s meeting of groovy talents from both sides of the Atlantic – and a record that matches the trumpet of Dizzy Gillespie with the hiply swinging vocals of The Double Six Of Paris! The group were a wonderfully groovy precursor to the Swingle Singers – and sung in a scatting approach to jazz vocals that was very much in the tradition of Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross – but also drew inspiration from the earlier work of Eddie Jefferson, King Pleasure, and others. Their sound is great – much more 60s groovy than some other vocal groups – and pairing them with Dizzy gives this record an added punch that some of their other sessions are missing! Backing is small combo throughout – with either Bud Powell or Kenny Barron on piano, Kenny Clarke on drums, and James Moody on tenor – and with the presence of Diz, most of the material here is of bop orientation – taken at a fast and lively clip! Lalo Schifrin arranged the whole session too – and titles include "One Bass Hit", "Blue N Boogie", "Emanon", "Groovin High", "Ow", "The Champ", "Tin Tin Deo", "Hot House", and "Con Alma". CD

A brilliant little soundtrack from Dizzy Gillespie – composed by Mal Waldron, and played by Diz with a sound and sensitivity that few of his other 60s albums can match! The feel here is quite bold and righteous – a perfect accompaniment for the documentary-like black and white images of Shirley Clarke's film – set in Harlem, and mostly recorded on location in the early 60s! Dizzy's tone is wonderful – bracing one minute, blue-toned the next – and the rest of the group is wonderful too – with James Moody on tenor and flute, Kenny Barron on piano, Chris White on bass, and Rudy Collins on drums. There's a richly expressive feel to the music that makes the set hold up fantastically both as a soundtrack and as a jazz album – and titles include "The Pusher", "Duke's Fantasy", "Coney Island", "Bonnie's Blues", "Duke's Awakening", "Coolie", and "Enter Priest". LP, Vinyl record album

Brilliant work from the modernist underground late 50s Paris! Andre Hodeir was one of the city's best-known jazz composers and arrangers at the time – a key part of the postwar scene, and its development into its own style away from strictly American sounds. Hodier's working here with a great batch of French players that include Martial Solal, Roger Guerin, Pierre Gossez, and Pierre Michelot – plus the then-French resident Kenny Clarke. The music swings much more than on other sessions of this type, and works extremely well throughout at blending tight jazzy lines with very "out there" concepts – especially in a way that we never really see in 50's recordings like this. Christine Legrand is on vocals, and although this was years before the Swingle Singers did their thing, and especially before they went onto do avant garde material by Berio, she's got these insane vocals here that are simply astounding. Tracks include "Jazz Et Jazz", "Trope A Saint-Trop", "Jazz Cantata", and "Osymetrios". Very good stuff, and unlike anything else we can think of! LP, Vinyl record album

An excellent live set from Dutch vocalist Rita Reys – one of the coolest voices on the continent during the postwar years, and equally well-skilled at singing in English as her American contemporaries! The backing on the set is by the Pim Jacobs trio, with a guest appearance by Kenny Clarke on drums – and the titles are a strong mix of jazz numbers and standards – all done with a lightly dancing quality that's really great. Reys was easily one of the best European singers to pick up on American jazz modes at the time – and this album's a perfect example of the strength of her talents! Titles include "Speak Low", "What's New", "I Remember Clifford", "Poor Butterfly", "Autumn Leaves", and "I Get A Kick Out Of You". (Vocalists, Jazz) CD

A pretty incredible legacy of jazz from the scene in Belgium during the late 60s and early 70s – a place that never got the kind of exposure as the jazz worlds of the UK, Scandinavia, and Germany – but one that was making some really amazing work at the time! Take the "progressive" in the title a bit loosely – this is neither prog jazz rock, nor work that's too academic to be groovy – as the groups here are often a bit funky, and play with a surprising degree of soul – just the right space between the notes to make for tunes that cross over very well to fans of American funky jazz from the 70s, with some moments that also rival the best in Brazilian 70s jazz too! The rhythms are wonderful – sometimes full-on funky, sometimes more modal and spacious – and the tracks mix electric and acoustic instrumentation perfectly – mostly instrumental, but with a few vocals from time to time. Some of the artists are ones here you might not normally associate with Belgium – and that's just because they're finally getting their due here, in a well-collected package that also illuminates the connections with a great set of notes. Titles include "Vas Y Voir" by Brussels Art Quintet, "Pathetic Dreams" by Koen De Bruyne, "Archangelo" by Raphael, "Memphis Talk" by Philip Catherine, "Naima" by Lou MacConnell, "Pro Forma 1" by Babs Robert, "Utopic Cities" by Solis Lacus, "SUS" by Placebo, "Face Reality" by Jacques & Micheline Pelzer, "Tohubohu (part 1)" by Marc Moulin, "Open Sky" by Open Sky Unit, and "Sakara" by Clarke Boland Big Band. (Funky Compilations, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

A killer batch of large ensemble numbers – very much in the mode of the Clarke-Boland Big Band, or some of the other groups on MPS at the time! The group's led by Jerry Van Rooyen, the Dutch jazzman and composer who did some excellent funky soundtrack work over the years – a fact that certainly shows up in the tracks on the set – which have a sweetly grooving feel mixed in with the large ensemble jazz – a great approach that would have been right at home in some hip Euro film score from the time! Van Rooyen gives the material a soulful feel that's a lot like some of Quincy Jones' best scoring from the 60s – blending together work on organ, Fender Rhodes, and piano (played by Frans Elsen, Rob Madna, and Rob Franken) – with breakaway horn solos by players like Benny Bailey on trumpet and Rolf Ericson on trumpets, Ake Persson and Jiggs Whigham on trombones, and Herb Geller, Ferdinand Povel, and Tony Coe on reeds – most of whom are players who've sparked great notes previously on sets with the Clarke-Boland Big Band, or other hip MPS ensemble projects. Titles include "Sonlite", "Because I Love You", "Some Blues", "For Nathalie", "The Runners", "JBW", "Green", and "Whirligig". LP, Vinyl record album

A great one – and the kind of European jazz album that kicks like a Clarke/Boland Big Band album! Hans Koller directs a large-scale swinging big band of some of the best European and American expatriot players of the time – like Sahib Shihab, Benny Bailey, Donald Byrd, Johnny Griffin, and Albert Mangelsdorff – and the set screams with intense solos, and a tight groove that pushes past any of the cliches you could imagine for a set like this. One of the things that makes the session great is some groovy organ, played by Infried Hoffman, the German player who was in Klaus Doldinger's early group. Doldinger's also on here, and his sound is way better than on his 70's work. Titles include "Hip Hit", "Revelation", "Conversation", "Knodel-Waltzer", and "Blazy Bones Revisited". LP, Vinyl record album

Great work from one of the most unique guitarists on the European scene – working here in trio formation, with either Pierre Michelot or Michel Gaudry on bass, and Kenny Clarke or Daniel Humair on drums! The tracks are short and tight – with hints of Django, but also some other unique influences that give the guitar work a strangely jangly sound. Titles include "Opus De Funk", "Take Five", "On Green Dolphin Street", "Milestones", and "Nuages". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare European gem from Johnny Griffin – recorded in quartet formation with backing from the rhythm trio of the Clarke Boland Big Band! Johnny was working with the trio in the bigger group at the time, but he gets plenty of space to state his case here – stretching out on hard-bitten, almost-modern solos that are some of his most adventurous to date on record – supported strongly on the album's longish tracks by Francy Boland on piano, Jimmy Woode on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums! There's a quality to Griffin's tone that's incredible – urgent, edgey, but never too far out – completely in command of itself, and able to run free, but without wasting at note at all – unlike some of his over-stretched European solos of later years. The set features beautiful long readings of Boland's "Night Lady" and "Old Stuff", plus Griffin's "Scrabble", and versions of "Summertime", "All The Things You Are", and "Little Man You've Had A Busy Day". CD

2 jazzy gems from Michel Legrand – back to back on a single CD! Michel Legrand Big Band Plays Richard Rodgers is a pretty wonderful album by Legrand – way better than you'd guess from the title! Sure, the tunes are mostly numbers by Richard Rodgers, but Legrand handles them here with the best of his soundtrack skills – really opening them up with some amazingly deft arrangements, and working with a stellar set of American jazz players to give the tunes a sound that's as jazzy as possible – and swinging them with the inherent lyricism that always makes us love his music! Players are a great lineup – with Clark Terry and Ernie Royal on trumpets, Urbie Green and Bob Brookmeyer on trombones, Paul Gonsalves on tenor, Jerry Dodgion and Phil Woods on alto, Julious Watkins on French horn, Gary Burton on vibes, and Tommy Flanagan and Hank Jones on piano. Titles include "This Can't Be Love", "Falling In Love With Love", "Bali Hai", "Have You Met Miss Jones", "There's A Small Hotel", and "The Lady Is A Tramp". On the second album, Broadway is the beat, but the sound has plenty of Parisian touches, too – thanks to arrangements from the mighty Michel Legrand! Legrand's in a mode here that's somewhere between his earliest soundtracks, and the European-themed records he cut for Columbia in the late 50s – styles that are a bit more warm and sentimental than in later years, with evocative elements designed to coax the Broadway-based listener out on a voyage across the Atlantic! Strings are relatively full, and sometimes used with great dynamic energy – and titles include "Bewitched", "There's A Boat Dat's Leavin Soon For New York", "Old Devil Moon", "With A Little Bit Of Luck", "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", and "Yesterdays". CD

Larger group meditations by the Modern Jazz Quartet – working here in an expanded lineup that includes work from Phil Woods, Charlie Mariano, Seldon Powell, Richie Kamuca, Clark Terry, and Jimmy Cleveland! The album takes a core MJQ groove, and only seems to lay out out over the larger arrangements as backing – almost as if the set were recorded in two parts, and stitched together – but in a way that works with a brilliant sense of counterpart, one that brings a lot more soul and color to the group's work than usual. Titles include versions of the John Lewis numbers "One Never Knows", "Animal Dance", "The Golden Striker", "Django", and "Home" – plus Milt Jackson's "Ralph's New Blues". CD

A fantastic early recording from the great French tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen – best known as an artist who recorded famously in the soundtrack world of the French new wave, and with Art Blakey – but who's even more striking here on a rare small combo date from the 50s! The session's a monster – cut with rhythmic backing by Milt Jackson on piano (!?), Percy Heath on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums – and two cuts feature additional percussion by Gana M'Bow, which gives the set a wonderful kick, and an unusual sound for the period – as Gana plays toumba, at a level that forecasts some of Wilen's later experiments crossing jazz with elements of African music. The quality of the set is wonderful – hardbop, but with lots of new ideas going on – on titles that include "Nuages", "Swing 39", "Epistrophy", "Minor Swing", "Swingin Parisian Rhythm", "J'Ai Ta Main", "La Route Enchantee", and "Menilmontant". LP, Vinyl record album