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Lennie Tristano Personal Recordings, 1946-1970
by Peter Rubie
They called it the Cool School, but what's in a name?In this case, quite a lot as it happens. The Cool School included musicians like Chet Baker, John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Dave Brubeck. Under the guidance of arranger and composer Gil Evans, it established itself in an unquestionable way with the release of Miles Davis' album Birth of the Cool (Capitol Records) in 1957, though the music had actually been recorded some eight or ...
read moreJoe Henderson: The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions
by Scott Gudell
If an artist stamps his jazz passport with any one of these labels--Blue Note, Verve, Milestone--it's pretty much a guarantee that you've arrived in style. Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson has traveled with all three and more. The 2021 reissue from the prestigious Mosaic Records focuses on Henderson's 1960s tenure with Blue Note offers a new opportunity to experience an abundance of rich and creative jazz from the decade. Big band and bop were duking it out in the ...
read moreThe Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia & RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946-66
by Skip Heller
Louis Armstrong officially returned to small band leadership May 17, 1947 via a triumphant concert at Town Hall that was less comeback than reaffirmation. It was even the dawn of his second great period, full of recordings that stood tall with his epochal 1920's output, and the subsequently-assembled Louis Armstrong and his All Stars would immediately establish themselves as a staple of the live jazz circuit as well as a powerhouse recording unit. That era--to the purposes of ...
read morePaul Desmond: The Complete 1975 Toronto Recordings
by C. Andrew Hovan
Even if he had never played another note following the break-up of the Dave Brubeck group in 1967, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond would have entered the history books as one of music's most brilliant improvisers. During his 17 years with Brubeck, Desmond proved himself to be an indispensable part of that quartet with a wistful and witty sound that he himself described as akin to a “dry martini." Fortunately, Desmond continued to add to his legacy starting in ...
read moreHank Mobley: The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70
by C. Andrew Hovan
The music world has changed considerably since Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie founded their boutique reissue label Mosaic Records back in 1983. From its inception, vinyl was still the preferred format, shortly to be overtaken by the popularity of the compact disc. At the cusp of vinyl's recent resurgence, Mosaic briefly got back into that format only to find themselves on the brink of closing up shop. Fortunately, the powers that be have forged on and recent CD boxed sets ...
read moreEveryone's Buzzin': The Complete Bee Hive Sessions
by David Rickert
The idea behind Jim and Susan Neumann's Bee Hive label was simple: gather together a bunch of great musicians for recording dates and let them play whatever they wanted. The sessions were led by talented musicians who may not have received the recognition they deserved in the jazz heyday of the fifties and early sixties -names like Sal Salvador, Ronnie Mathews, and Dizzy Reece to name a few--but who still had plenty to say. And for sixteen recording sessions, the ...
read moreComplete Newport 1956 & 1958
by C. Andrew Hovan
It's interesting how time seems to serve an artist when offering a better perspective of a particular time period or body of work. Such is the case with Louis Armstrong. Critics often cite his earliest recordings as the be all and end all, as if he had never recorded another note past 1950. In fact, Armstrong was still a few years away from his 60th birthday when he was captured on tape at Newport doing what he did best-interacting with ...
read moreWoody Shaw: The Complete Muse Sessions
by John Kelman
The past couple years have been banner ones for reviving the legacy of Woody Shaw, a trumpeter and composer who--emerging in the early '60s on albums by extant jazz stars like Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner and Horace Silver, and contributing to on-the-rise names including Larry Young and Chick Corea--has all-too-often been overlooked. Still, with younger horn players like Alex Sipiagin releasing tribute albums like Generations (Criss Cross, 2010), it's clear that, for some, the trumpeter's impact and influence ...
read moreMosaic Select 9: Bob Brookmeyer
by C. Andrew Hovan
Bob BrookmeyerMosaic Select 9 Mosaic Records Although he continues to be a valued jazz artist recording occasionally, the state of Bob Brookmeyer's early catalog until recently was inexplicably in a state of disarray. Of course, we still haven't seen CD reissues of such vintage Verve sides like The Blues, Hot and Cold or the Mercury set Jazz Is a Kick, but things have been looking up since the appearance of this new Select ...
read moreJimmie Lunceford: The Complete Jimmie Lunceford Decca Sessions
by David Rickert
When saxophonist Jimmie Lunceford signed to the Decca label in 1934 he was running one of the best orchestras in the US. He had signed a deal to appear at the Cotton Club (where bandleaders Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway had recently launched into stardom) and was frequently beating others in battles of the bands, all the while leading an outfit with an uncanny amount of precision and professionalism. Even Glenn Miller claimed that when Lunceford's band was at its ...
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