We use cookies on our website to provide you with the best experience.Most of these are essential and already present. We do require your explicit consent to save your cart and browsing history between visits.Read about cookies we use here.
Your cart and preferences will not be saved if you leave the site.
"It was, all things considered, just an unexceptional whistle stop on a wearying circuit of dance halls and theaters – the night before they had played in Winnipeg, Manitoba and, conveyed by train the 200 miles to this evening’s North Dakota gig, would immediately afterwards find themselves en route to Duluth, Minnesota for their next show. There was certainly no expectation that the on-site recording, made by two South Dakota fans, Jack H. Towers and Dick Burris, on a single acetate disc recor…
Books have been written, recordings analyzed, colleagues questioned, and nevertheless Bix Beiderbecke remains as much an enigma today, ninety-five years after his death, as he was to friends and fellow musicians during his all-too-brief, personally and professionally erratic odyssey through the 1920s. The body of work he left behind both reveals and conceals crucial aspects of his creative reality and unfulfilled potential, while innovating a subtle, eloquent manner of expression that would sugg…
On Hot Five & Hot Seven at 100, Louis Armstrong’s seminal Chicago sides are reborn in vivid new mastering, letting his trumpet solos, daring rhythms and easy charisma speak afresh as the very moment jazz pivots into a true soloist’s art.
King Of The Tenors is a landmark album by Ben Webster, recorded in 1953 and initially released as The Consummate Artistry of Ben Webster, then retitled for its classic 1957 Verve Records reissue. Webster is joined by jazz icons including the Oscar Peterson Trio throughout, as well as Benny Carter (alto saxophone) and Harry “Sweets” Edison (trumpet) on select tracks, resulting in ensemble interplay that balances lush ballads and blues with joyous swing. The program includes Webster originals like…
This is a hitherto unknown recording of the influential Danish composer, pianist, and bandleader Jeppe Zeeberg, dated November 9, 1963. On this recording, Zeeberg is accompanied by a band comprised of several of his generation’s finest musicians. Inspired by the Ellington/Mingus traditions and the new sounds of free jazz emerging from overseas, Zeeberg was the rare individual who could straddle different styles in one performance – even within a single composition. This concert, recorded at Havn…
2009 release ** "Ruby Ruby Ruby are more or less a vehicle for experimental German singer Margareth Kammerer. She has been involved in The Magic ID, a song-based project with Berlin improviser Christof Kurzmann, and also formed Ruby Ruby Ruby to pay homage to Billie Holiday and other jazz singers. This appears to have been a one-off project, there being no indication that the group (consisting of Derek Shirley and Steve Heather alongside Kammerer) has done anything else or is planning to work t…
When time pulled the rug from under Earl Hines in 1983, he was still enjoying a comeback that had lasted almost twenty years. That comeback was one of the most important events in recent jazz history and the music included here was recorded when his return to action was in high gear.
The classic quality that Hines maintained throughout his career, and that dominates these interpretations, was a persistent exuberance, a spirit of engagement. Hines was not incapable of meditative melancholy or the…
Jay McShann secured a lasting place in jazz history on April 30, 1941, when he became the first bandleader to usher Charlie Parker into a studio for a commercial recording session. For years, that was how McShann was remembered, if at all—as an early benefactor of the most influential figure in modern jazz. Shamefully, it took the jazz literati three decades to recognize Bird's old boss as a dynamic force himself.
McShann's advocacy of Parker was hardly his only distinction as a bandleader. A ri…
The Texas Twister is a relaxed, gently probing session; its several highlights begin with the title selection, a thirty-two-bar riff confection with a characteristically willful opening solo by Buddy Tate. His best playing on the date is heard on "Talk of the Town," a memorable example of his ability to invest a ballad with emotional generosity, melodic invention, and playfully rhythmic finesse, and on "Topsy," in which he follows the piano solo with a plaintive, wailing, yet impeccably shaped s…
Original copy in great condition of the first edition of Wolfgang Dauner's 1970 album on MPS with Eberhard Weber and Roland Wittich. Modal jazz weirdness by a composer loosely connected with krautrock with his band Et Cetera.
"After hitting Paris in 1950, saxophonist Bobby Jaspar enthralled jazz fans and jazzmen alike with his smooth, elegant playing, with the lyricism of his tranquil phrases heavily influenced by Stan Getz in particular. So when Jaspar began regularly performing with a small ensemble at the Club St-Germain five years later, he adopted the same instrumentation as that of his idol’s illustrious quintet, with Sacha Distel on guitar and René Urtreger on piano in the roles of Jimmy Raney and Al Haig, res…
*2024 repress* Belgian jazz artist Bobby Jaspar died far too young at age 37 in 1963, but fortunately made a handful of memorable dates as a leader. This is the last studio session under his name. Jaspar sticks exclusively to flute on these December 1958 studio recordings. He’s joined by drummer Kenny Clarke, Sadi Lallemand or Michel Hausser (who also doubles on xylophone) on vibes, and either Paul Rovere or Jymie Merritt on bass, as well as percussionist Humberto Canto (on one of the two sessio…