Count Basie at Newport
Artist: Count Basie

At the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, the music was consistently inspired and often historic. Count Basie welcomed back tenor great Lester Young and singer Jimmy Rushing for part of a very memorable set highlighted by "Boogie Woogie" and "Evenin'"; Young plays beautifully throughout and Rushing is in prime form. An exciting full-length version of... Read More

Best of the Verve Song Books: Love Songs
Artist: Ella Fitzgerald

Are you one of those people who can't walk through the jazz section without mooning over the lavishly packaged and heart-droppingly expensive 16-disc Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books set? If so, you're not alone, and Verve knows it. So to keep you from bemoaning your fate, the company has been releasing single-disc compilations drawn from the... Read More

The Concert Years
Artist: Ella Fitzgerald

On this four-CD set are some of Ella Fitzgerald's finest live performances during the years she was managed by Norman Granz. All of the material (which is taken from ten different performances in 1953, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1983) was previously released on various Pablo albums. Since this is a best-of collection and... Read More

Lester Young Quartet and Count Basie Seven
Artist: Lester Young
Pres and Teddy and Oscar
Artist: Lester Young

It has been said so often that Lester Young's playing declined after his terrible experience in the Army during World War II that it has almost become unanimously accepted as fact. Only trouble is that many of his recordings dispute that theory. In reality, although Young's health declined gradually throughout the 1950s (until his death in... Read More

Groovin' with Buddy Tate
Artist: Buddy Tate
This One's for Basie
Artist: Buddy Rich & His Orchestra

Drummer Buddy Rich put together an interesting 11-piece group for this tribute to Count Basie. The only Basie alumnus present is trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison but the other soloists (trombonist Frank Rosolino and Bob Enevoldsen, Bob Cooper on tenor and pianist Jimmy Rowles) easily fit into the setting. Marty Paich contributed the arrangements,... Read More

Yale Recordings, Vol. 3: Big Band in Europe
Artist: Benny Goodman

The third volume in this important series taken from tapes willed by Benny Goodman to the Yale Music Library focuses on the big band he took to Europe in 1958, a tour that culminated in a week at the Brussels World Fair in Belgium. The orchestra was filled with both young names like Zoot Sims and pianist Roland Hanna and veterans such as... Read More

Yale Recordings, Vols. 1-5
Artist: Benny Goodman

In his will, Benny Goodman gave to Yale not only all of his band arrangements (over 1, 500) but 400 ten-inch master tapes of unreleased studio and concert recordings. Some of the more rewarding sessions have now been issued by Music Masters and this particular box set includes the first five volumes (and a 40-page booklet), six CDs in all (since... Read More

Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book
Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
Community Score: 7.00

Volume 1 is with Ellington's orchestra, Volume 2 is with smaller groups including Ben Webster, Stuff Smith, and Oscar Peterson. Outstanding recordings, worthwhile both as documents of a fertile period for her, and simply as the great music they are. ~ Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide Read More

Jungle Nights in Harlem
Artist: Duke Ellington

This second of three CDs of early Ellington released by Bluebird has the loose theme of his Cotton Club days as an excuse to release a variety of recordings from a five-year period. Highlights include the two part "A Night at the Cotton Club" (essentially a medley), some of the hotter songs from the Broadway musical Blackbirds of 1928 ("Bandanna... Read More

Happy Birthday, Duke! the Birthday Sessions, Vols. 1-5
Artist: Duke Ellington

These five CDs of material, available separately or in a box, were cut at two successive birthday celebrations for Ellington in 1953 and 1954 at McElroy's Ballroom in Portland, OR. They capture Ellington during his period with Capitol Records, which is usually not regarded as one of his better eras, mostly because he and the label never really... Read More

Best of the Song Books: The Collection
Artist: Ella Fitzgerald

For those who cannot afford to slurge on the entire epic 16-CD box of the complete Songbooks -- and I suspect that means most of us -- here's a formidable alternate, up to a point. This three-CD box in effect wraps a slipcase around the compilations The Best of the Song Books, Love Songs: Best of the Verve Song Books, and The Ballads: The Best... Read More