The obscure music on this CD has rarely been reissued. Pianist Wynton Kelly is heard with a trio (Franklin Skeete or Oscar Pettiford on bass and drummer Lee Abrams) at the age of 19 when he was working as an accompanist for Dinah Washington. Featured on this recording a…
The music on Wizard of the Vibes features Milt Jackson with the Thelonious Monk Quartet in a 1948 session combined with a 1952 date with his bandmates from the Modern Jazz Quartet (at that time including John Lewis, Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke) along with alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson,…
Like his debut, Smithville is another set of thoroughly winning straight-ahead bop from the underappreciated trumpeter Louis Smith. Stylistically, there are no surprises here — this is mainstream bop and hard bop, comprised of original and contemporary bop numbers, as well as standards (“There’ll Never Be Another You,” “Embraceable…
Louis Smith had a brilliant debut on this Blue Note album, his first of two before becoming a full-time teacher. The opener (Duke Pearson’s “Tribute to Brownie”) was a perfect piece for Smith to interpret, since his style was heavily influenced by Clifford Brown (who had died the previous…
Duke Jordan, who played regularly with the Charlie Parker Quintet in 1947, has long been known as a superior bebop pianist whose style was touched by the genius of Bud Powell’s innovations. This quintet album (which also features trumpeter Dizzy Reece and the young tenor Stanley Turrentine) gave Jordan…
Drugs and addictions defined most of Leo Parker’s adult life, finally claiming it entirely in February of 1962 when he was only 36 years old. Only months earlier in 1961, in two sessions held on October 12 and October 20, Parker had played his heart out in what would…
This session (reissued on CD) was a comeback record of sorts for Leo Parker. Briefly one of the leading bebop baritone saxophonists (and an alumnus of Billy Eckstine’s legendary orchestra), Parker shifted to rhythm and blues in the early 1950’s and then mostly dropped out of sight until he…
At the Hickory House is a thoroughly appealing collection of lightly swinging small-combo jazz that draws equally from hard bop and soul-jazz. There’s a soulful lilt to Jutta Hipp’s playing that keeps it engaging and enjoyable. The rhythm section of Peter Ind (bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums) largely stay…
Jutta Hipp, a talented German pianist, came to the United States in the mid-’50s and quickly gained some attention. However, she was soon criticized for sounding too close to Horace Silver and, after recording this final Blue Note album, she gradually dropped out of music. Reissued in 1996 on…
Frank Foster has been largely defined in jazz circles by his long association with Count Basie (Foster was with Basie from 1953 until 1964 and led the orchestra for nine years following Basie’s death), but the tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger led his own recording session as early as…