This two-CD set (a reissue of an earlier two-LP set plus six previously unreleased numbers) brings back a memorable Carnegie Hall concert that both features and pays tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. The great singer is joined on a few numbers by a Chick Webb reunion band that has a few of the original members (plus an uncredited Panama Francis on drums). Although the musicians do not get much solo space (why wasn't trumpeter Taft Jordan featured?), the music is pleasing. Fitzgerald performs three exquisite duets with pianist Ellis Larkins and then sits out while the Jazz at the Philharmonic All-Stars romp on a few jams and a ballad medley. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge's emotional flights take honors, although tenorman Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and trombonist Al Grey are also in good form. Fitzgerald comes out for the second half of the show and sings 14 numbers with guitarist Joe Pass (including a pair of tender duets) and the Tommy Flanagan trio.

Jay McShann played a pivotal role in the evolution of Kansas City swing, bebop, and R&B. The material presented in this segment of the McShann chronology is mostly based in the blues, with heavy emphasis on vocal talent. A session that took place in Kansas City on November 1, 1944 - with the great Walter Page handling the bass - resulted in four sides that were issued on the Capitol label. "Moten Swing" is mighty fine, and an elegant "Sunny Side of the Street" served as the flip side. Julia Lee hadn't recorded for 15 years when she sat in with McShann on this date. "Come on Over to My House" and "Trouble in Mind" turned out well enough that Capitol responded with a recording contract and her career took off anew…

The central irony in director Dan Pritzker’s film about Buddy Bolden, the first jazz musician to become known for his individual sound, is that no recordings of Bolden are known to exist. (He was active at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, and he died in 1931.) But if the soundtrack to Bolden begins as speculation, that’s not the same as groping in the dark: We know about aspects of the cornetist’s eclectic repertoire and how he transformed it, in an ensemble style which can be gleaned from the sole existing photograph of Bolden, standing amid his band with trombone, two clarinets (in B-flat and C), upright bass, and guitar.

Most of the musicians heard on this fourth installment in the Classics Mary Lou Williams chronology are women. During the second half of the 1940s, this was considered unusual and innovative. Female musicians, with the exception of carefully coiffed vocalists and the occasional pianist, were generally regarded by the public, by the entertainment industry, and by most male musicians as curious anomalies and were not taken very seriously. Mary Lou Williams always preferred to surround herself with musical minds possessing artistic acumen commensurate with her own highly developed musical intellect. The first four tracks were recorded for the Continental label in 1945 with guitarist Mary Osborne, bassist Bea Taylor, and percussionists Margie Hyams and Bridget O'Flynn, a fascinating duo who took turns either handling the vibraphone or the drums…

The Gitanes label has taken it upon itself to reissue on CD some of the late work of gypsy jazz giant Django Reinhardt. The tracks that make up Nuits de Saint-Germain des-Prés come from three Decca sessions dating from May of 1951 to January 1953, the final year of his life. The title comes from the reopening of the infamous club Saint-Germain des-Prés, whose reopening coincided with Reinhardt showing off his bop chops to a host of notable American jazzmen, including Benny Carter, Roy Eldridge, Charlie Parker, Don Byas, and others. The bands on all of these sessions are comprised of Young Turks, most notably a youthful Pierre Michelot on bass. The other constants are drummer Pierre Lemarchand and Hubert Fol on clarinets and saxophone; the latter's brother Raymond is the pianist on two of these sessions…

Bireli Lagrene's debut on record is extraordinary in a couple of ways. He sounds like an exact duplicate of Django Reinhardt (no easy feat), an accomplishment that is more shocking when one realizes that he was 13 at the time. Already a virtuoso with complete control of his guitar, Lagrene (who like Reinhardt came from a gypsy family) romps through the swing-oriented set with a variety of lesser-known European musicians, including two rhythm guitars, bass, occasional piano, vibes, trumpet, and violin. Performances of such tunes as "All of Me," "I've Found a New Baby," and "My Melancholy Baby" are guaranteed to fool even experts on blindfold tests.

Anyone who listens through the previous six volumes of Red Norvo on Classics will likely experience a visceral sense of excitement from 1943 onward as Norvo switches from xylophone to vibraphone and adopts a noticeably modern attitude toward the music. Norvo underwent a profound artistic transformation in 1944-1945, his many years of experience enabling him to settle into a new role as established recording artist and bandleader with an open-minded respect for young artists bearing new ideas. Norvo's remarkable skills as an improviser coupled with a willingness to participate in what music critics call the bop revolution often placed him squarely within the eye of the rapidly evolving cultural hurricane of modern music…

Alone Together, is Grammy winning vocalist Catherine Russell’s seventh studio album as a leader. As with her previous albums, Catherine’s finds songs from the great artists of the past that particularly connect with present times, and manages to give them a modern spin. Selecting tunes which first emerged during the Swing Era, Catherine’s renditions are given birth in the recording studio by the core musicians of her touring band for the past decade. On Alone Together, Catherine Russell’s curatorial skills shine brightly, plucking compositions where the lyric and harmonic structure draw her in on a deeply personal level. The listener invariably is seduced by her interpretive wiles.

The Andrews Sisters came on the scene in 1938 with Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, and closed out their era (early fifties) with the dreamy balled, I Can Dream Can't I? and the monster smashes in between with Rum and Coca-Cola and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy to name just a few. Their blissful passion shines on through in this 4 disc collection of some of their most popular tunes. Disc One and Two are all their Top Ten hits in chronological order. Disc three and four are full of rare tunes that are also quite enjoyable. You can't listen to these tracks and not tap your feet and sing along.

One thing about chronologically arranged reissues - you never know exactly what you're going to bump into. The third volume of the complete recordings of Mary Lou Williams, for example, opens with a pair of tunes sung by Josh White. It's good to hear the lyrics to Williams' cool, bluesy "Froggy Bottom," but "The Minute Man" is one of those obligatory, rhetorical patriotic numbers that cropped up everywhere during WWII and are relevant today only as historical curiosities. Most of the music reissued in this compilation originally appeared on scratchy 78-rpm records bearing the Asch label. Tenor sax archetype Coleman Hawkins is featured on the lush "Song in My Soul" and trumpeter Bill Coleman presides over a laid-back strolling blues with the worrisome title "Carcinoma"…

This CD features the great pianist Mary Lou Williams during her earliest period. She is heard in 1927 on six selections with The Synco Jazzers (a small group that included her then-husband John Williams on alto) and then on the first 19 selections ever recorded under her own name. Performed during the long period when she was the regular pianist with Andy Kirk's 12 Clouds of Joy, Williams is featured on two hot stride solos in 1930, leading trios in 1936 and 1938, playing "Little Joe from Chicago" unaccompanied in 1939 and heading septets in 1940; among her sidemen were trumpeter Harold "Shorty" Baker and the legendary tenor Dick Wilson. Many of the compositions were written by Williams including "Night Life," "New Froggy Bottom," "Mary's special," and "Scratchin' the Gravel;" her version of Jelly Roll Morton's "The Pearls" is a highpoint.

"Stretching Out". Like many studio sessions recorded for United Artists, this 1958 session co-led by Zoot Sims and Bob Brookmeyer can be a bit tricky to find. Brookmeyer contributed most of the charts, including the easygoing blues which serves as the title track, as well as updated treatments of Jelly Roll Morton's "King Porter Stomp" and "Ain't Misbehavin'." Al Cohn is responsible for a swinging chart of "Pennies from Heaven" during which he switches to baritone sax, while Bill Potts wrote and arranged "Bee Kay." The rest of the superb band includes Harry "Sweets" Edison, Hank Jones, bassist Eddie Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, and drummer Charlie Persip. Aside from a few innocuous reed squeaks, the music is essentially flawless and has stood the test of time very well…

This third volume of Lucky Millinder's complete works in chronological order brings together for the first time three Deccas from October 1947, 12 sides recorded for Victor between January and November 1949, and 12 titles waxed for the King label during the year 1950. Millinder is remembered as a shrewd bandleader who accurately assessed the prevailing trends in popular entertainment during the late '40s. His strategy seems to have involved a wide range of musical styles, a spectrum reflected in this grab bag compilation. Millinder clearly tailored the material to fit each record label and its assumed audience. Of course, Victor was selling to a more generalized public while King's clientele was predominately Afro-American. Listening through all 25 tracks is quite an experience…

The Quintessence New York - Hollywood, Vol. 2: 1944-1946 captures a number of gems recorded by Nat King Cole between 1944 and 1946. These 36 tracks include such standards as "Route 66," "Tea for Two," "Sweet Georgia Brown," and "The Christmas Song." While the Frémeaux & Associés releases are recommended to casual fans, as a first purchase The World of Nat King Cole on Capitol would be easier to locate. ~ AllMusic Review by Al Campbell

Les coffrets « The Quintessence » jazz et blues, reconnus pour leur qualité dans le monde entier, font l’objet des meilleurs transferts analogiques à partir des disques sources, et d’une restauration numérique utilisant les technologies les plus sophistiquées sans jamais recourir à une modification du son d’origine qui nuirait à l’exhaustivité des informations sonores, à la dynamique et la cohérence de l’acoustique, et à l’authenticité de l’enregistrement original. Chaque ouvrage sonore de la marque « Frémeaux & Associés » est accompagné d’un livret explicatif en langue française et d’un certificat de garantie.