The Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Paul Desmond   “Jazz Red Hot and Cool”   Columbia Records   An intimate live recording of a small club date at Basin Street in New York City in 1955.   Set includes Lover, Little Girl Blue, Sometimes I’m Happy, The Duke, Indiana, and Love Walked In. This version of the quartet included Bob Bates on Bass and Joe Dodge on Drums.   This is still early Brubeck, with Desmond (blurred there on the left of the cover), but before the “classic” Quartet with Eugene Wright on bass and Joe Morello on Drums in 1958.   (That is the group that played on “Time Out” and the classic sixties “time signature” series of popular Brubeck releases.   Perhaps the last, big sellers in the genre prior to Motown and The Beatles invasion which knocked so many brilliant, jazz musicians to the sidelines of popular culture.)   On a personal note, I pulled this out of my stepfather’s collection at twelve, so the cover is burned in my memory.     Once – perhaps still – you could find this cover in 9 out of 10 dollar bins.

(69 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)

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Richard “Groove” Holmes   “Six Million Dollar Man” (1975) Flying Dutchman Records   Arrangements by Oliver Nelson.     300 lps of funky organ jazz from the big man behind the B3!

One of Groove Holmes’ best albums of the 70s — thanks to some electric blacksploitation arrangements from the great Oliver Nelson! The format’s a bit tighter here than on some of Holmes’ Groove Merchant albums from the earlier part of the decade — an approach that’s almost like soundtrack scoring at times, but which allows Groove to stretch out a bit more on the solos, and take things way past the already-funky head arrangements penned by Nelson. Mike Wofford’s also on the record, throwing in some great electric piano and Arp in underneath Holmes’ own funky Hammond — and other players include Tom Scott, David T Walker, and Oscar Brashear — who all contribute nicely to the record. Titles include “Disc-o-Mite”, “Salsa de Alma”, “Dumpy Mama”, “Mama’s Groove”, “125th & 7th Ave”, and “Six Million Dollar Man”, the theme from the TV show! © 1996-2010, Dusty Groove America, Inc.

(59 votes, average: 2.95 out of 5)

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Randy Weston Trio with Cecil Payne   “With These Hands…”   Riverside Records   (1956)   Standards from Downbeat’s 1955 New Star Pianist including “I Can’t Get Started”, “The Man I Love”, “These Foolish Things” and “This Can’t Be Love”.   Also includes his original “Little Niles,” the title of his 1958 LP and a song associated with Weston throughout his long career.   Randy Weston, Piano; Cecil Payne, Baritone Sax;   Ahmed-Abdul Malik, Bass; Wilbert G.T. Hogan, Drums.

Bill Grauer, Producer;   Orrin Keepnews, Producer, Liner Notes;   Rudy Van Gelder Engineer; Hank Parker, Photography.

(48 votes, average: 3.40 out of 5)

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Claude Bolling Plays Duke Ellington   Fontana Records EP

(60 votes, average: 3.82 out of 5)

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“Ouah, ouah, ouah, ouah”   Errol Parker no. 3   Decca (France)

(55 votes, average: 3.55 out of 5)

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New Orleans Jazz Festival   Turk Murphy Columbia Records   THE New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival started in 1970 with performances by Mahalia Jackson and Duke Ellington, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, Clifton Chenier, Fats Domino, The Meters, The Preservation Hall Band and included parades every day with The Olympia Brass Band and Mardi Gras Indians.   I’ve been to “JazzFest” six times since 1990 and plan on returning this year in April.   I’ve seen everyone from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bob Dylan to countless blues, soul, gospel and zydeco acts over the years.   It’s a music and food and good time orgy of non-stop fun.

(53 votes, average: 3.91 out of 5)

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Sonny Rollins Plus 4 with Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Richie Powell, George Morrow   Prestige 7038 (1956)   This was Rollins’ first release after his very successful album Saxophone Colossus and was the last full recording including pianist Richie Powell and trumpeter Clifford Brown as both died in a car accident three months later.   Designed by Reid Miles.   Liner notes by Ira Gitler.

(56 votes, average: 4.05 out of 5)

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Organist and bandleader Jean-Louis Benoît aka Lou Bennet “(Pentacostal) Feeling”   (1966) Philips Recorded   in Paris with RENÉ THOMAS (g), KENNY CLARKE (dr), THE PARIS ALL JAZZ STARS and DONALD BYRD on trumpet, originally released by FONTANA (PHILIPS in France) and re-issued by EMARCY/UNIVERSAL CLASSICS/GITANES.

As a sideman Lou recorded and / or performed with JACK SELS, KING CURTIS, HERB GELLER, J. J. JOHNSON, MEMPHIS SLIM, EDDIE “LOCKJAW” DAVIS, DONALD BYRD, LEO WRIGHT, TETE MONTOLIU and IDRIS MUHAMMAD.     Bennett has toured and performed at many European Jazz festivals and in films, but has made only one appearance in the USA – at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1964.   Lou passed away February 10, 1997 in a hospital outside of Paris.

This is one in a series of about 25 similar cover designs also on the Fontana label.   (Do a search for Fontana on LPCL to see some others)

(59 votes, average: 3.76 out of 5)

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Babs Gonzales “Voila”   Hope Records

1. Le Continental
2. Me Spelled, M-E, Me
3. Them Jive New Yorkers
4. Lullaby of the Doomed
5. The Preacher
6. A Nite in Tunisia
7. Movin’ and Groovin’

Babs Gonzales (vcl), Johnny Griffin (ts), Charles Rouse (cl), Les Spann (fl), Ray Crawford (g), Horace Parlan (p), Peck Morrison (b), Roy Haynes (d), The Modern Sounds (vcl). Arrangements by Melba Liston. Recorded in NYC, July 16, 1958.

(45 votes, average: 3.64 out of 5)

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Freddie Robbinson   “The Coming Atlantis”   With Orchestration by Monk Higgins.   World Pacific Records.   Freddie cut his teeth with Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf on classic Chess recordings such as “Spoonful” and “Mean Ol’ Frisco” in the late fifties and early sixties before taking the spotlight on this, his first album as a leader in 1968.   This Lp was later reissued with the title “Black Fox”, one of the cuts included and heard here.

(50 votes, average: 3.92 out of 5)

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