A huge amount of greatness – including Clifford Brown's famous recordings with Max Roach, his All Stars jam session, and recordings with Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Helen Merrill – plus a "with strings" session, and unreleased tracks! CD

Cooking rare Emarcy work from Gene Ammons – 78 rpm material packaged into a great 10" LP – with tracks that include "Concentration", "Idaho", "McDougal's Sprout", and "Shermanski". LP, Vinyl record album

Classic work recorded with Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Harold Land, Dinah Washington, and Helen Merrill! CD

About as classic as you can get for the Brown/Roach group – recorded at Basin Street with a group that includes Richie Powell on piano, Sonny Rollins on tenor, and George Morrow on bass. Tracks are tight and in that firey hardbop mode the pair pioneered – and titles include "Gertrude's Bounce", "Powell's Prances", "Time", "The Scene Is Clean", and "I'll Remember April". Most notable is the work by Powell on the record – as Bud's brother really shines here, turning out some great original compositions, and arranging the group with tight precision! Plus, the CD reissue features 4 bonus tracks – including alternates of some tunes on the record, and a few breakdowns. CD

Quite possibly THE key example of the magic of Clifford Brown and Max Roach on record – a brilliant studio session that really has the group "incorporating" their sound – forging a bold musical statement that would forever leave its imprint on jazz for years to come! The format here shows Brown and Roach as a key force in 50s hardbop – extending Max's bop idiom of years back, and using Clifford's more lyrical approach to solo work to expand the tone, color, and spirit of their music – linking styles and worlds wonderfully, and forging a sound that's tight, yet also beautifully spontaneous and personal. The rest of the group includes Harold Land on tenor, Richie Powell on piano, and George Morrow on bass – and titles include "Sweet Clifford", "Ghost Of A Chance", "Stompin At The Savoy", "I'll String Along With You", "Mildama", "Darn That Dream", and "I Get A Kick Out Of You". CD

Not west coast, but "best coast" jazz – a prime example of the way the Clifford Brown/Max Roach team helped to cook up the intensity of the LA scene of the 50s by infusing it with a bit of New York fire! The album takes off in the extended mode of Clifford's All Stars album – and like that one, features Max Roach on drums alongside a lineup of players that includes Herb Geller and Joe Maini on alto saxes, Walter Benton on tenor, Kenny Drew on piano, and Curtis Counce on bass – all jamming together in really extended, side-long tracks that have plenty of space for creative solo work and free-flowing improvisation! The format's a very unusual one for the 50s – and a great side-stream to the better-known Brown/Roach albums – with the 2 long tracks "Coronado" and "You Go To My Head". CD also features a shorter rehearsal take of "Coronado". CD

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With Eddie Calhoun on bass and Kelly Martin on drums. LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent small group work from vibist Terry Gibbs – just the kind of set that shows why he was one of the best known players on his instrument in the 50s! Gibbs has a clear, clean style here that's never too laidback, nor too prone to over-done flourishes – a style that was born in swing, informed by bop, and carried off beautifully by a quartet on the date that includes Terry Pollard on piano, Herman Wright on bass, and Bert Dale (aka Nils Bertil Dahlander) on drums. The sound is nicely straight ahead – no gimmicks, no schtick, just nicely grooving work on vibes and piano – with tracks that include "Seven Come Eleven", "Lonely Dreams", "Dickie's Dream", "Imagination", "King City Stomp", "Pretty Face", "The Continental", "Bless My Soles", and "Nutty Notes". LP, Vinyl record album

Includes "Washboard Blues", "How Long, How Long Blues", "Pine Top's Blues", "Randolph St Shuffle", "Royal Garden Blues" and more! LP, Vinyl record album

Produced by Bob Shad and arranged by Richard Hayman. Features Hank Jones on piano and Al Ciaola on guitar. Titles include "For You For Me For Evermore", "In The Wee Small Hours", "I'll String Along With You", "Delovely", and "Down In The Depths". CD

Two albums' worth of material – both recorded in Paris – one with Roosevelt Sykes, the other with Buddy Guy & Junior Wells! CD

A wonderful album from Helen Merrill – one of the few jazz singers we can think of who continued to grow stylistically as the years went on! This majestic album was recorded in 1980, and it features Merrill dipping into a modern Brazilian bag – working with baroque arrangements that blend jazz and strings in the style of some of Milton Nascimento's work, but handled here with a more sensitive approach that has a lot more focus on the vocals on a few tracks. The track selection is wonderful – and the album features great versions of songs like "Wave", "Natural Sounds", "Like A Lover", "Casa Forte", "Antonio's Song", "Vera Cruz", and "So Many Stars". Arrangements are by Torrie Zito, but done with even more jazz than usual – thanks to the presence of players like Sal Nistico on tenor, Urbie Green on trombone, Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, and Zito himself on piano. CD

Gerry Mulligan's still far from the mainstream of jazz on this sweet little set – a great date that expands nicely from the mellower styles of the Pacific Jazz years – expanding the group a bit, with some really great results! In addition to Mulligan's usual baritone sax, Gerry also plays a bit of piano on one track – reconciling himself with the instrument, and using it in surprisingly soulful ways. Other players include Zoot Sims on tenor, Bob Brookmeyer on trombone, either Don Ferrara or Jon Eardley on trumpet, and Dave Bailey on drums. Tracks are long and nicely open – a bit less tightly arranged than some of Mulligan's work on Pacific Jazz – and titles include "Lollypop", "Igloo", "Blue At The Roots", "Elevation", and "Mainstream". LP, Vinyl record album

Features Teddy Wilson on piano, Slam Stewart on bass, Specs Powell & Eddie Dell on drums, Remo Palmieri on guitar, Vic Dickenson on trombone with Aaron Sachs and Hank D'Amico on Clarenet. LP, Vinyl record album

A hip album from Sarah Vaughan – one recorded with great jazz backings from Ernie Wilkins, and featuring a young Cannonball Adderley as the main soloist! The addition of Adderley's alto definitely brings a swinging sound to the set – a sense of soul that's even deeper than usual for Vaughan, and which helps the album live up to its hi-fi promise! Wilkins arrangements have a bit of a Basie bounce at times, but never overwhelm Sarah's vocals – and Jimmy Jones is also on the set, handling the piano lines. Titles include "An Occasional Man", "Oh My", "Soon", "How High The Moon", "It Shouldn't Happen To A Dream", and "Maybe". LP, Vinyl record album

One of Vaughan's nice jazz sides from the 50s on EmArcy, but cut with slightly larger backing, almost in the vein of some here concurrent pop oriented work at the Mercury parent label during the same time. Arrangements are by Hal Mooney, and Vaughan takes an approach that showcases how she garnered the titular nickname in great readings of a number of standards on this set. Titles include "Lush Life", "Only You Can Say", "The Boy Next Door", and "I'm The Girl". LP, Vinyl record album

Don't get this John Williams confused with the bigger-name soundtrack composer of later years – because this set is pure piano jazz all the way through, played by an artist who shined briefly with Stan Getz in the mid 50s! Although little-known, Williams is a great link between bop and mainstream piano jazz worlds at the time – and really sparkles on this session for Emarcy from the mid 50s – a record that goes way beyond simple standards and easy inflections – always voiced freshly by Williams in a mode that's modern, yet not self-consciously so. Rhythm is from Bill Anthony, Ernie Farrow, or Chuck Andrus on bass – and by Frank Isola or Jack Edie on drums. Titles include the originals "Shiloh", "Okeefenokee Holiday" – plus versions of "Manteca", "Like Someone In Love", "Baubles Bangles & Beads", and "Someday My Prince Will Come". LP, Vinyl record album

Important early recordings from the key years of bebop and cool jazz – with Mercury sides by Red Rodney, Lennie Tristano, Chubby Jackson, Bill Harris, Gene Ammons, and Billy Eckstine! LP, Vinyl record album

Features "Cherokee" by Clifford Brown & Max Roach, "Shulie A Bop" by Sarah Vaughan, "I've Got To Be A Rugcutter" by Erroll Garner, "Clarinet Marmalade" by Irving Fazola's Dixielanders, "Inside On The Southside" by Bud Freeman's All Stars, "Blue Boy" by Lennie Tristano Trio and more! LP, Vinyl record album

Very early work from Cannonball Adderley – recorded way before the funky years, when he was a hard-wailing soulful soloist with a lot of bop in his style! Cannon's paired here with brother Nat, a good companion even at this early stage – and the two of them solo in front of a large group that features Jerome Richardson, Max Roach, Cecil Payne, and Jimmy Cleveland, all blowing away in hard heavy form, similar to that used on other Mercury/Emarcy jazz sessions from the time. Quincy Jones handled the arrangements, and Cannonball holds his own nicely – and serves up a whole new tone that's a lot more measured than in later years. Tracks include "Fallen Feathers", "Song Is You", "Willows", and "Everglade". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the few truly great albums by one of the hippest guitarists we can think of! Zoller was a fantastic talent of the European scene – with an approach to the guitar that's unlike anyone else we've heard. Unfortunately, though, he didn't always make that many albums as a leader in a regular jazz format – where his modernist ideas were allowed free reign, without some sort of gimmicky presentation getting in the way. This album's one of the rare few that let Zoller really take hold of the direction of the record – and it might be the best ever to hear his amazing work in action. The group's a quartet of well-matched players that includes Don Friedman on piano, Barre Philips on bass, and Daniel Humair on drums – and the album includes 4 originals by Zoller, including "Explorations", "Blizzards, and "The Hun", plus a version of Carla Bley's "Ictus". LP, Vinyl record album