Trio Records proudly presents a 'live' recording of a quartet featuring the incredible US jazz saxophonist Harry Allen recorded at the Watermill Jazz Club with Italian pianist Andrea Pozza, gifted bassist Simon Woolf and ever popular drummer Steve Brown. Fans of the long linage of the saxophone greats will not be disappointed. Harry Allen can be instantly lined up as a disciple of the late Stan Getz, but he has absorbed far more of the jazz saxophone tradition with elements of Hawkins, Webster, Zoot and Al, and elements from one of his teachers Scott Hamilton. However, Harry Allen's voice is very much his own and as fresh as any on the contemporary scene. With a formidable technique and searing sound Harry Allen continues the tradition of the great saxophonists before him. The material on the CD is a straight blowing set ofjazz standards, a couple of great originals penned by Harry Allen and Judy Carmichael and the theme to Star Trek based on the standard Out Of Nowhere.

This CD reissue (put out in 1990) may be hard to find, now that Savoy has been sold to the Japanese Denon label. Originally issued under flugelhornist Wilbur Harden's name, the 1958 quartet (which also includes pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist George Duvivier and drummer Granville T. Hogan) performs nine Rodgers & Hammerstein songs mostly taken from The King and I, plus a reprise and an alternate take of "Hello Young Lovers." The interpretations are tasteful yet swinging, and include such familiar tunes as "Getting to Know You" and "We Kiss In a Shadow," along with some obscurities. Enjoyable music.

Is this still young but nearly legendary hipster, who almost singlehandedly rekindled jazz's interest in the Hammond B-3 organ, going to the dogs? The folks at Concord Records hope so, sending out a doggie biscuit with their press materials as DeFrancesco gives one of his favorite East Coast jazz singers, Joe Doggs, a prominent spotlight. Doggs' soulful vocals (praised in the liner notes by Quincy Jones and very reminiscent of the passionate Jimmy Scott experience) and fresh, expansive arrangements are at the cool, swinging heart of the collection's 11 cherished standards. Between vocal passages, the organ great also continues his long tradition of working with top trad jazz names like Pat Martino, tenorman Red Holloway, drummer Jeff Hamilton (complementing DeFrancesco's core trio member Byron Landham), and Kevin Eubanks…

Jo Jones shifted the timekeeping role of the drums from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal, greatly influencing all swing and bop drummers. Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson were just two musicians who learned from his light but forceful playing, as Jones swung the Count Basie Orchestra with just the right accents and sounds. After growing up in Alabama, Jones worked as a drummer and tap dancer with carnival shows. He joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in Oklahoma City in the late '20s. After a period with Lloyd Hunter's band in Nebraska, Jones moved to Kansas City in 1933, joining Count Basie's band the following year. He went with Basie to New York in 1936 and with Basie, Freddie Green, and Walter Page, he formed one of the great rhythm sections..

This two-CD sampler is most highly recommended for listeners not familiar with Stan Getz's recordings of the 1950s and '60s. Starting with a version of "Stella by Starlight" that co-stars guitarist Jimmy Raney, this set matches Getz's cool tenor with such artists as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Conte Candoli, trombonist J.J. Johnson, baritonist Gerry Mulligan, pianists Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Chick Corea, valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and vibraphonist Gary Burton. Also included are his two main bossa nova hits "Desafinado" and "The Girl from Ipanema" along with a couple of tracks from Getz's highly-rated Focus album. It's a fine overview of the great tenor's middle years.

Although he plays guitar exclusively on two of the eight selections included on this CD reissue, it is Toots Thielemans' harmonica playing that is most unique. He holds his own on a hard bop blowing date with baritonist Pepper Adams, pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Art Taylor, jamming on such songs as "East of the Sun," "Struttin' with Some Barbeque" and "Isn't It Romantic." Even four decades later, no jazz harmonica player has dethroned the great Toots.

Hawkins's last strong recording finds the veteran, 43 years after his recording debut with Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds, improvising creatively on a wide variety of material on this CD, ranging from "Intermezzo" and "Here's That Rainy Day" to "Red Roses for a Blue Lady" and "Indian Summer." Best is an adventurous version of "Out of Nowhere" that shows that the tenor-saxophonist was still coming up with new ideas in 1965.

Tracks mainly from albums 1957 A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing and 1962 Cast Your Fate to the Wind: Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. Digitally remastered.

Celestial Love contains recordings made in September 1982 at New York's Variety Studios, which had hosted countless Sun Ra sessions since the late 1960s. This was one of the last extended sessions at Variety, and these recordings were the last studio works released on Sun Ra's own Saturn label (though the label did continue to press concert recordings, and new studio recordings did appear on other labels). Aside from their inclusion on Celestial Love, tracks from these sessions landed on the albums A Fireside Chat With Lucifer and Nuclear War. Since Nuclear War's contents overlapped with both Fireside Chat and Celestial Love, we have reconstituted the latter two as complete albums, thus covering all titles from these Variety dates.