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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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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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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“A Charlie Brown Christmas”   Charles Schulz   (Charlie Brown Records)   The 1966 Emmy and Peapody Award-winning, Primetime CBS-TV special that became an annual holiday ritual for kids of all ages.   Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas.

The soundtrack by jazz composer Vince Guaraldi has become as well-known as the story itself.   In particular, the instrumental “Linus and Lucy”   has come to be regarded as the signature musical theme of the Peanuts specials. Additionally “Christmas Time is Here” has become a popular Christmas tune. A soundtrack album for the special was released by Fantasy Records and remains a perennial best-seller. (While the soundtrack contains some music that does not appear in the TV special, it also fails to include two musical themes which appear in the special. Both of those missing themes are, however, available on another album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio entitled Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits.)

(52 votes, average: 3.81 out of 5)

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Ken Nordine and the Fred Katz Group. “My Baby” Dot Records (1959)   Ken Nordine is a voice-over and recording artist whose deep, resonant voice was featured in many commercials and movie trailers.  He attracted much wider attention when he recorded the aural vignettes on Word Jazz (Dot, 1957) and Son of Word Jazz (Dot, 1958).   His other albums in this vein feature Nordine’s narration over cool jazz by the Chico Hamilton jazz group, recording under the alias of Fred Katz, who was then the cellist with Hamilton’s quintet.

(44 votes, average: 2.64 out of 5)

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Jazz, Baby, Jazz II     Verve Records

(73 votes, average: 4.21 out of 5)

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J.P Teaches You To Rock!! (Columbia Records)

Step 1.   The overexcited greeting

Step 2.   A little air guitar

Step 3.   Laugh at a joke

Step 4.   Lay your cards on the table

Step 5.   “I’m totally broke!”

Step 6:   Always finish with Jazz Hands…

(63 votes, average: 3.92 out of 5)

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“Mad Thad”   Leonard Feather presents Thad Jones   Period Records   NYC, January 6, 1957

Thad Jones (tp) Henry Coker (tb -2,3) Frank Wess (ts, fl) Tommy Flanagan (p) Eddie Jones (b) Elvin Jones (d) with Frank Foster, Jimmy Jones, Doug Watkins, Jo Jones,   Quincy Jones

Bird Song, Cat Meets Chick, Quiet Sip

Late 1956 and early 1957 found Thad Jones in the midst of a rewarding flurry of recording activity.   During time off from Basie, however, Jones poured his energy into composing, arranging, and playing with fires of creativity that led Charles Mingus to call him “the greatest trumpet that I’ve heard in this life.” For Mad Thad, Jones recruited a few of his favorite Basie colleagues and a Basie veteran, drummer Jo Jones. For one session, he brought in his brother Elvin on drums and another fellow Detroiter, pianist Tommy Flanagan. Fully justifying Mingus’s enthusiasm, Jones played at the top of his game of melodic and harmonic invention. His compositions included a blues line that quickly became a jazz standard, “Bird Song.” – Concord Records

(42 votes, average: 4.24 out of 5)

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Illustration by New Yorker cartoonist William Steig who did others in the Epic In Jazz Series.   Here’s “Lester Leaps In” and other swing classics by The Count Basie Orchestra with “the Pres” Lester Young.

(50 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)

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