A cool jazz compilation on UK Philips. “This is Jazz No. 1” Early sixties.

(20 votes, average: 4.05 out of 5)

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Norman Granz’ JAZZ CONCERT #1. Norgran Records. David Stone Martin illustration. Jazz represents both the highest level of artistry and sophistication as well as humor, whimsy and wit. DSM captured that playful, inside joke of the music with his fun and and equally sophisticated style.

(35 votes, average: 4.54 out of 5)

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The Dave Brubeck Octet on Fantasy. #3-3 (1950)   “Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals”   Cool fifties modern art.

Brubeck, Desmond, Tjader with Bill Smith, David Van Kriedt, Dick Collins, Bob Collins and Jack Weeks.   “The Way You Look Tonight”, “Love Walked In”, What Is This Thing Called Love”, September in the Rain”, “Prelude”, “Fugue on Bop Themes”,   “Let’s Fall in Love” and “IPCA”.

(27 votes, average: 4.26 out of 5)

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Herbie Mann’s “African Suite” by Johnny Rae’s Afro Jaz Septet. United Artists (1959)

(37 votes, average: 3.97 out of 5)

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Sax Sounds. Apollo Records. 1950’s jazz saxophone compilation with amazing graphics.

(29 votes, average: 4.34 out of 5)

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Storyville presents Jackie and Roy. Burt Goldblatt design. (1955)

It’s hard to go wrong with the jazz vocals of husband and wife team Jackie & Roy. After joining forces in 1946, they joined Charlie Ventura a couple years later. Shortly after leaving Ventura in June 1949, they were married and worked together on a regular basis for the next fifty years. Jackie and Roy had their own television show in Chicago in the fifties, worked in Las Vegas during 1957-1960, and settled in New York in 1963. Working in a mode that was deeply informed by bop, Jackie and Roy hit vocal lines that only the hippest of the fifties singers could match. Some cuts on this Storyville 10″ feature scatting, others vocalese, and still others just great straight-up readings of the lyrics. The small combo features Roy on piano, Barry Galbraith on guitar, Bill Crow on bass, and Joe Morello on drums. Titles include “Slowly”, “Thou Swell”, “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was”, “Cheerful Little Earful”, “Hook Line & Sinker”, and “Yesterdays”.

Having raided and fully absorbed my step-father’s one cabinet of records as a kid, I was familiar with a couple Jackie and Roy records growing up. Listening to songs like “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,” “Let’s Take a Walk Around the Block” and “You Smell So Good” didn’t win me any friends and fewer dates.

(26 votes, average: 4.35 out of 5)

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“Hank Jones’ Piano” (1947) A solo showcase produced by Norman Granz on Mercury Records. Jones is working solo throughout. Titles include “Blues For Lady Day”, “Tea For Two”, “You’re Blase”, “The Night We Called It Day”, “Yesterdays’ and “Blue Room”.

(25 votes, average: 4.16 out of 5)

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The cover on top “Music for Your Vacation” is an easy listening lp from Columbia Records Argentina that shares the same stock photo as “Miles Ahead” below.

“Miles Ahead” by Miles Davis was released in 1957. This was the first album Davis recorded with Gil Evans, who combined the ten pieces that make up the album in a kind of suite, each following the preceding one without interruption. Davis is the only soloist on Miles Ahead, which also features a prominent horn section.

Miles was reportedly unhappy about the album’s original cover, which featured a photo of a young white woman aboard a sailboat. He made his displeasure known to Columbia executive George Avakian asking, “Why’d you put that white bitch on there?” Avakian later stated that the question was made in jest. For later releases of the record, the original cover-photo has been substituted by a photo of Miles Davis.

The album features Miles (on flugelhorn) and his band for the recordings consisting of Bernie Glow (lead trumpet), Ernie Royal, Louis Mucci, Taft Jordan, and John Carisi (trumpets); Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, and Joe Bennett (trombones); Tom Mitchell (bass trombone); Willie Ruff and Tony Miranda (horns, with Jimmy Buffington replacing Miranda on one session); Bill Barber (tuba); Lee Konitz (alto sax); Danny Bank (bass clarinet); Romeo Penque and Sid Cooper (flute and clarinet, with Edwin Caine replacing Cooper on one session); Paul Chambers (bass) and Art Blakey (drums). The album features songs from four separate recording dates each with slight modifications of the band members.

A fifth recording date involved Davis alone (re-)recording material to cover/patch mistakes/omissions in his solos using overdubbing. The fact that this album was originally produced in mono makes these inserted overdubbings rather obvious in the new stereo setting.

On the alternate take of “Springsville”, Wynton Kelly features on piano as part of a version that underwent a re-write for the next recording session. Only about 10 seconds of his playing is heard on this track, although about 5 seconds of this can be heard in the master track. Nevertheless, Kelly’s contribution to the album was left uncredited until the reissues came out. (Wikepedia)

(32 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

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Thelonious Monk Plays.   Prestige Lp 189 with Percy Heath and Art Blakey. (1954 Session). Tracks are: “Work”, “Nutty”, “Blue Monk”. “Just a Gigalo”.

Work — Only recorded once, in a trio setting on September 22, 1954 (Prestige PRLP 189), Work is a dissonant, difficult, wild melodic ride that artists have been willing to take. The title speaks for itself. Besides Monk’s version of Work, for which he alone is responsible for stating the melody, one of the few musicians to take up the challenge was soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, who recorded it on his debut album (Prestige 7125) in November of 1957

Nutty — First recorded on September 22, 1954, in a trio setting with Percy Heath (bass) and Art Blakey (drums), “Nutty”  was among Monk’s more popular tunes. Perhaps the most famous recording of it is with John Coltrane, July 1957 (Jazzland JLP[9]46). A few writers have strangely tried to link the title to Monk’s alleged state of mind (!), but any such claims betrays an ignorance of the “hip”  lingo of the day. In the 1940s and 50s (and even later), “nutty”  commonly meant “excellent”  or “cool” -like “insane,”  “mad,”  and “crazy.

Blue Monk — Monk recorded “Blue Monk”  more than any other composition besides “”ËœRound Midnight.”  His first recording dates back to September 22, 1954 (Prestige PRLP 189 LP7027).   Abbey Lincoln added lyrics and recorded it under the title Monkery’s the Blues. Monk himself was summoned to the studio to hear Lincoln’s version and to get his blessings. He approved.

In the early 1950s Monk recorded four albums for Prestige. In 1953 Prestige released two 10-inch LPs, Thelonious Monk Trio (PRLP-142) and Thelonious Monk Quintet with Sonny Rollins and Julius Watkins (PRLP-166), the latter his trio (with drums and bass) augmented by Rollins’ tenor sax and Watkins’ French horn. In 1954 Prestige released two more 10-inch LPs, Thelonious Monk Quintet (PRLP-180), and Thelonious Monk Trio (PRLP-189). The material on these four 10-inch LPs was repackaged and reissued by Prestige on a series of 12-inch LPs in 1956 and 1957 (Thelonious Monk, PRLP-7027; Monk, PRLP-7053; Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins, PRLP-7075), which were themselves reissued with new titles and catalog numbers starting in 1959 and continuing into the mid-1960s (as Monk’s Moods, PRLP-7159, a reissue of 7027; Work, PRLP-7169, a reissue of 7075; and We See, PRLP-7245, a reissue of 7053). (We See was later again reissued as The Golden Monk, PRLP-7363; Monk’s Moods as The High Priest, PRLP-7508; and Work as The Genius of Thelonious Monk, PRST-7656 ““ in “electronically rechanneled”  fake stereo.)

Notes courtesy Robin D.G. Kelley.

(23 votes, average: 4.57 out of 5)

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“A Taste of the Best From World Pacific” 20 Specially Prepared Performances for the Radio and Television Industry. A special DJ only release.

(20 votes, average: 3.10 out of 5)

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