Artist: Charlie Barnet

Artist: Ben Webster & Joe Zawinul

Artist: Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins had one of the longest creative careers in jazz, and this compilation, spanning every decade in which he recorded (and accompanying Ken Burns's documentary Jazz), shows that his imagination was as enduring as his ruggedly bristling tenor saxophone sound. In the 1920s he was virtually the creator of jazz saxophone playing, freeing it from the mushy sound it had in dance bands. By the time Bean recorded his tune "Queer Notions" with Fletcher Henderson in 1933, he was already playing with elements of atonality in his music. His 1939 "Body And Soul" is a breakthrough in the development of the jazz solo, a masterpiece of sustained harmonic invention. While many of his generation resisted the bebop revolution of the 1940s, Hawkins was a notable sponsor, among the first to hire its exponents and to record tunes like Dizzy Gillespie's "Woody 'n' You" and Thelonious Monk's "I Mean You". In the later years of his career, he played across a broad spectrum of jazz. There's a sublime meeting here with fellow swing tenor giant Ben Webster over a Latin beat on "La Rosita". Max Roach's "Driva Man" was one of the first works of explicit social protest in jazz. And Duke Elling...

Artist: Coleman Hawkins

Brilliant, 2010-03-01
I am a massive fan of good old jazz, rather more so than more newer stuff. When I got this I was beaming all over. Hawkins, or more popularly known as Hawk is a legend, and although he could play more than one instrument it is the tenor saxophone that he is best known for. Arguably this was the man who brought the sax to the forefront of jazz. Indeed when you think of jazz the sax is the first thing that comes to mind.

In his lifetime he played with his own bands, as well as some of the really big names. He played New Orleans jazz along with other styles and as this album showcases, he was a consummate player. A big name in jazz and in the development of this music he is definitely someone that anyone in to jazz should listen to.

The recordings on this cd are taken from 1933-1949 and despite the age of these original recordings the sound transfer is fantastic. This is a must have album for your jazz collection.

Artist: Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges

Of all the huge number of Ellington recordings, very few feature his unique piano work at any length, and those that do are usually unpopulated with front-line horns. By contrast, the three tracks here that involve him (and those on the Back To Back album from the same session) show him interacting with Johnny Hodges and trumpeter Harry Edison in a unique sextet. Edison, Les Spann (guitar/flute), Al Hall (bass) and ex-Basie drummer Jo Jones were musicians he was unaccustomed to working with, and the inspirational sparks flew. A storming version of "Stompy Jones" (especially during the piano solo and closing ensemble), the lesser-known "Goin' Up" from the movie Cabin In The Sky, plus Fats Waller's "Squeeze Me" are performances to treasure. More conventional but not inferior are the remaining septet tracks led by Hodges with Billy Strayhorn on piano, Ben Webster, Lawrence Brown and Roy Eldridge. All the tunes are played at various medium tempos, and everything is imbued with relaxed swing. Once more, the combination of a Ducal atmosphere with the non-Ellingtonians Eldridge and Jo Jones (again) makes for a highly successful performance. --Brian Priestley

Artist: Pete Brown

Artist: Dorsey Brothers

Artist: Buster Smith

Artist: Gerry Mulligan, Ben Webster, Ben Webster

There is a tradition in jazz of the "Meet" series, where two musicians, often of differing ages or styles, meet and hopefully produce something fresh and exciting (and the record company hopes, commercially successful, appealing to both sets of fans). Sometimes it works and sometimes it stinks worse than a four-month-old half-eaten egg. So here we have Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster: the king of cool jazz, and a baritone sax player meeting the older swing tenor sax man. The resulting sessions were, thankfully, far from resembling a decaying dairy product and see both men in top form. Mulligan appears to have the greater attraction with Webster playing "cooler" than his norm; but that said Mulligan's compositions are obviously inspired from the swing era. It is that connection which allows both men to play off each other with equal excellence. Their cover of Billy Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge" and Mulligan's "Go Home" are especially brilliant. A must for both Webster and Mulligan fans. --Phil Brett

Artist: Charlie Barnet