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 fantastic album from trumpeter Clark Terry – a small group date that features superb tenor from Paul Gonsalves, in a mode that's very similar to the work that both he and Terry recorded for Chess/Argo Records in the late 50s! This set's a French date, and features both horn players in a hip quintet with Raymond Fol on piano, Jimmy Woode on bass, and GT Hogan on drums – playing in a mode that's laidback, open, and which really has Terry showing off the most soulful side of his phrasing! Gonsalves is fantastic too – very different in a setting like this than in his larger group performances with Ellington – and the pair together are really at their best, with very expressive tones. Titles include "Blues For The Champ Of The Champs", "Clark Bars", "Lonely One", "Pannonica Ou Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 No 2", and "Serenade To A Bus Seat". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

One of those great European jazz records that never fully got its due back in the 70s – but which would have stood right next to classics on the Black Jazz label, if it were issued in the US! The group here are wonderfully soulful, and have a fluid, open sort of energy – never avant, and spiritual more in nature than execution – but very individual and very personal, as they serve up a mix of original songs and a few very well-chosen cuts by others! Jean Francois Boillat leads the group on Fender Rhodes and piano, in tandem with reedman Raymond Therace – who blows both tenor and flute, alongside bass, drums, and added percussion. Boillat's approach to the Rhodes is great – chunky and ringing out with a strong current of soul – and Therace clearly follows the vibe, especially on his tenor solos. Titles include "Sweet Fire", "1224, "Straight Life", "In Your Quiet Place", "Cenovis", and "Rahsaan Rahsaan". LP, Vinyl record album

32 tracks over two records – Cab Calloway, Raymond Scott, Glen Gray, Harry James, Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Joe Venuti, Woody Herman, Jimmy Lunceford, and lots more. LP, Vinyl record album

A great little follow-up to Katie Lee's indie hit of the late 50s, Songs Of Couch & Consultation – and like that set, a batch of playful little tunes with psychoanalytic themes at the core! The scoring here, by Ray Martin, is quite similar to some of the other RCA female vocal sides of the late 50s – not entirely jazz, and done with full orchestrations – yet never in a way that's ever too sentimental at all – and in fact, in Martin's hands, surprisingly playful at most points – almost as if Raymond Scott were scoring the tunes! Lee's charm really does a great job of bringing the inner psyche out – and titles include "The Insecure Tango", "Life Is Just A Bed Of Neuroses", "The Ballad Of Group Therapy", and "We Must Adjust". LP, Vinyl record album