Quentin Angus on guitar, Can Olgun on piano, Desmond White on bass, Nate Smith on drums, and vocals from Michael Mayo. CD

Robin Eubanks on trombone, keyboards, and vocals, Kevin Eubanks on electric guitar, Corey Glover on vocals, Antonio Hart on alto saxophone, Duane Eubanks on trumpet, Kuumba Frank Lacy on vocals, Mike King and Kris Bowers on piano and keyboards, Boris Kozlov on bass, Nate Smith and Billy Kilson on drums, and Daniel Sadownick and David Silliman on percussion. CD

Taylor Haskins plays trumpet, melodica, guitar, bass, and electronics – with Ben Monder on guitar, Nate Smith on drums, and others. CD

A wonderfully warm and soulful session from bassist Dave Holland – thanks to contributions from a younger batch of players that includes Chris Potter on saxes and Steve Nelson on vibes! Both Potter and Nelson really make the record something special – Potter for his angular, well-crafted lines on tenor and soprano sax – and Nelson for his dark-edged vibes, which always add a new dimension to any group he works with! Other players are pretty great too – and include Robin Eubanks on trombone and Nate Smith on drums – and titles are all originals by group members, very fresh numbers from the hipper side of the soulful jazz spectrum! Titles include "The Eyes Have It", "Easy Did It", "Vicissitudes", "The Leak", "Secret Garden", "Lucky Seven", and "Amator Silenti". CD

Chris Potter on tenor saxophone, Craig Taborn on Fender Rhodes, Adam Rogers on guitar, and Nate Smith on drums. CD

A great date a leader from this important 80s tenorist – with a group that includes Mulgrew Miller on piano, Steve Turre on trombone, Peter Washington on bass, and Marvin Smitty Smith on drums! CD

Pianist Danny Grissett has really grown into a master of tone in recent years – a player who seems to find just the right way to make all his notes resonate strongly with this incredible sense of harmony and presence – so full of color and life, a record like this makes us feel like we're hearing him for the first time all over again! The balance of sound and structure here is wonderful – as Grissett can be economical, but always right on the money – doing a heck of a lot with just a little, and really finding a way to set fire with the tenor sax of Walter Smith III, whose presence here creates this crackle, a sparkle, that leaps off from the rhythms by Vincente Archer on bass and Bill Stewart on drums. Most of the best tracks here are Grissett originals – and titles include "Winter Silence", "Blue J", "Mr Wiggle Worm", "The In Between", and "Seven Tune". CD

Now out of print, and a heck of a great little set of rare and unissued tracks from the glory days of the Blue Note funk scene! For most of the 80s and early 90s, Blue Note US used to bad mouth the stuff from this period – but by the mid 90s, demand for the funky stuff from collectors and DJs led Blue Note to dig back in the vaults, and come up with this tasty batch of goodies! Titles include "It's Your Thing" by Grant Green, "Brother Soul (alternate)" by Lou Donaldson, "You Want Me To Stop Loving You" by Stanley Turrentine, "Dancin In An Easy Groove" by Lonnie Smith, "Village Lee (alternate)" by John Patton, "The Scorpion (alternate)" by Lou Donaldson, and "Hold On, I'm Comin" by Reuben Wilson. CD

One of Lonnie Liston Smith's most spiritual sessions, and the record that most clearly shows his roots with Pharoah Sanders! The vibe here is much more jazz-based than on some of Lonnie's other records for Flying Dutchman – with Smith playing as much acoustic piano as he does electric, using the former in long-spiralling lines that have a beautifully meditative quality, and which give the album a real Strata East-like sound. Mtume and Sonny Morgan play percussion, Cecil McBee plays bass, and the real star of the album may well be George Barron – who turns in some beautiful Sonny Fortune-like work on tenor and soprano sax! Titles include "Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord", "Rejuvenation", "Astral Traveling", "I Mani", "Aspirations", and "In Search Of Truth". CD includes alternate takes of "Astral Traveling", "Rejuvenation", "Imani", and "In Search Of Truth". CD

Essential early work by Stan – a 3 CD collection of his early 50s recordings for the Roost label, either under his own name and group, or with guitarist Johnny Smith. The Smith sides only make up a very small portion of the package – as most of the work are by Getz's quartet or quintet, the groundbreaking assemblage that featured Jimmy Raney on guitar, whose icy clear tone was a perfect counterpart for Getz's sweet breathy work on the tenor. The quality of the material is really great – and the package does a great job of presenting the work freshly, without an overload of alternate takes or tunes you don't want to hear. There's a total of 59 tracks in all – and titles include "Potter's Luck", "Tenderly", "Budo", "Signal", "Fools Rush In", "Lullaby Of Birdland", "It Might As Well Be Spring", "Yvette", "Melody Express", "Split Kick", "Hershey Bar", and "Penny". CD