Retro Reviews

Jazz at Oberlin is one of the classic Dave Brubeck albums. It was his first recorded college concert, and it featured Paul Desmond at his most uninhibited. In this Retro Review, Thomas Cunniffe tells of the first he heard this jazz masterpiece.

In 1954, Max Roach and Clifford Brown teamed up in LA to form one of jazz’s finest bop groups. The group only stayed in California for a few months, but it helped revitalize LA’s bop scene. In this Retro Review, Thomas Cunniffe examines two early concerts by the Brown/Roach Quintet, originally issued on the GNP label, and now available in a superior reissue by Fresh Sounds.

Although it was made in a recording studio, Art Blakey’s Free For All sounds like a live album. Recorded in 1964, the album features remarkable music by one of the greatest of all Jazz Messenger units, with Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton and Reggie Workman. Thomas Cunniffe discusses the curious circumstances of the recording session and the events of the time that may have inspired the music.

Although he had appeared on records since the early 1960s, Charles Lloyd was still developing his sound and finding his audience in 1965. A new 2-disc set, Manhattan Stories includes contrasting live sets from Judson Hall and Slug’s featuring Lloyd, Gábor Szabó, Ron Carter and Pete La Roca. Thomas Cunniffe reviews the set, noting how well these two sets play off each other, and how one selection points to Lloyd’s eventual direction.

Filling an important gap in Charles Mingus’ discography, the new Mosaic 7-CD set The Jazz Workshop Concerts collects five concerts from 1964-1965 originally produced for issue on Mingus’ own label. The album includes over two hours of newly released music, including three very different versions of Meditations on Integration. Thomas Cunniffe offers details in this Retro Review.

Mosaic’s new collection of Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars includes over 11 hours of live performances spread over 9 CDs. Co-Producer and annotator Ricky Riccardi has long held that Armstrong’s later recordings are as important as his early works, and reviewer Thomas Cunniffe states that the music in this Mosaic set validates Riccardi’s arguments. This expanded Retro Review offers a detailed look at the music in this outstanding collection.

By all indications, it shouldn’t have been that special: just a run-out concert by the Erroll Garner Trio in a small California coastal town on the off-night of a nightclub engagement in San Francisco. Yet, on September 19. 1955, Erroll Garner’s concert in Carmel-by-the-Sea was recorded by a young Army DJ, and subsequently issued by Columbia. To celebrate the album’s 60th anniversary, the complete concert is being issued for the first time. In this Retro Review, Thomas Cunniffe tells the story behind Concert by the Sea and notes that the remastered and restored sound is better than any previous issues.

It’s always good to be a fan of Count Basie and Lester Young, but with the concurrent releases of Mosaic’s 8-CD box set Classic 1936-1947 Studio Sessions and the National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s second volume of Bill Savory recordings (focused entirely on Basie and Young from 1938-1940), the artistry of these great musicians can be understood in greater detail than ever before. In this extended Retro Review, Thomas Cunniffe notes that the highly inclusive Mosaic set allows listeners to compare recordings that were made for competing record companies, and Savory’s radio broadcasts capture the band live at New York’s Famous Door, Boston’s Southland Ballroom and Chicago’s Panther Room.

In the Thirties and Forties, a young radio engineer named Bill Savory captured broadcast performances of Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, and many others. Up until this year, a double-disc set of Goodman airchecks were the only parts of Savory’s collection available to the general public. However, this fall Loren Schoenberg and the National Jazz Museum of Harlem released the first in a series of digital albums featuring highlights from the Savory archive. As Thomas Cunniffe notes in this Retro Review, the recordings make us reconsider our knowledge of these great jazz icons.

The modern-day discoveries of unreleased recordings keep jazz history an ongoing endeavor. Historians like Loren Schoenberg (of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem) and Zev Feldman (of Resonance Records and other independent companies) have discovered unissued recordings that have changed our perspective on the artists. This month, Thomas Cunniffe reviews the third volume of the Bill Savory Collection and Thelonious Monk’s film score for Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960.

Fred Astaire may not have been a fan of his own singing voice, but Norman Granz was, and in 1952, he called up Astaire to propose a 4-LP set commemorating his career. Astaire turned him down, but after his son reminded him of the JATP concert recordings they listened to at home, Astaire changed his mind. A new double CD reissue of The Astaire Story has just been released, and Thomas Cunniffe details the music and backstory of this timeless recording.

A modern Renaissance woman, Dame Cleo Laine’s 1964 LP Shakespeare and All That Jazz is one of her finest recordings, and one that begs for a CD reissue. Thomas Cunniffe discusses that album and a similar project recorded by Laine’s daughter, Jacqui Dankworth, 32 years later.

By the early months of 1956, Ella Fitzgerald had appeared in concert halls, and nightclubs, as well as on radio and television. She tailored her repertoire to fit each venue. A new release, Ella at Zardi’s, offers the earliest authorized recording of Fitzgerald in a nightclub, and reviewer Thomas Cunniffe notes the casual atmosphere and the banter between Ella and her audience makes this recording significant, enlightening and highly entertaining.