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Dave Brubeck Quartet: “Jazz At Oberlin” (OJC 46)
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.
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Clifford Brown/Max Roach: “Historic California Concerts’ (Fresh Sounds 377)
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…
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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: “Free For All” (Blue Note 84170)
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…
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Count Basie/Joe Williams: “Memories Ad-Lib” (Roulette LP 52021)
In 1958, Joe Williams and Count Basie recorded a small group masterpiece called Memories Ad-Lib. While the performances by Williams and Basie are superb, the real treasure of this album are guitar solos by Freddie Green. Thomas Cunniffe tells of this rare treasure and wonders why no one has reissued it on CD.
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Charles Lloyd: “Manhattan Stories” (Resonance 2016)
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…
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Charles Mingus: “The Jazz Workshop Concerts 1964-65” (Mosaic 253)
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…
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Louis Armstrong: “Columbia & RCA Victor Live Recordings” (Mosaic 257)
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…
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Erroll Garner: The Complete “Concert by the Sea” (Columbia/Legacy 20842)
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…
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Count Basie and Lester Young: Live and in the Studio
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…
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National Jazz Museum of Harlem Savory Collection, Vol. 1 (Apple download)
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…