The Heart of Saturday Night, largely dispenses with the romance in favor of poetic depictions of the same setting. The album contains the same mixture of folk, blues, and jazz as its predecessor, with producer Bones Howe occasionally bringing in an orchestra to underscore the loping melodies.

Backed by a jazz trio comprising of tenor sax player Lew Tabackin, bassist Jim Hughart, and drummer Shelly Manne, Waits finds the most sympathetic backing of his career to that point and creates his early masterpiece. Small Change is the home of Waits’ favorites like "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me),” the moving soldier’s ballad “Tom Traubert’s Blues,” and the manic slide-show of “Step Right Up.”

After perfecting his seedy beatnik image on albums like "Small Charge" and "Nighthawks At The Diner", Waits refined and expanded on it until the 1983 breakthrough of "Swordfishtrombones". "Blue Valentine" is full of low-rent nightlife imagery and arrangements that leave Waits' jazz leanings behind in favor of a more direct, blues-oriented approach.

Absolutely essential. ANTI- are releasing mastered reissues of Tom Waits first seven albums, originally released through Elektra Asylum Records in the 1970’s. 1977’s Foreign Affairs takes the jazz and poetry that Tom Waits explored on his earlier albums in a more cinematic direction, foreshadowing his own breakthrough work in the 80s. Opening with the instrumental Cinny’s Waltz and featuring some new standards like Muriel and I Never Talk To Strangers, his dramatic duet with Bette Midler, this album gets into some of Waits’ most ambitious storytelling ever. Foreign Affairs also features the jazzy, colourful Jack and Neil and the sweeping, dramatic Potters Field as well as classic Waits ballads Burma Shave and Sight for Sore Eyes.

The 1973 album that introduced a young singer-songwriter to the world at large is a far cry from the wonderfully twisted sonic landscape that would define "Swordfishtrombones" a decade later. The Waits of "Closing Time" was a barroom balladeer too, but one who fit neatly into the early-'70s folk-rock, singer-songwriter paradigm ("Closing Time's opener "Ol' '55," in fact, was covered by the Eagles on their first album). The arrangements here are straightforward, piano-based affairs that present the songs with a minimum of fuss.

The final Asylum album from 1980 couldn't be more different than Waits' '73 debut - his voice sounds like the marvellous ruin that we know and love today, the ballads remain (On the Nickel is beautiful and even Springsteen took a crack at Jersey Girl) but it's the twisted warped blues of the title track that points the way to the extraordinary world of Swordfishtrombones.

The album comprises the pianist/composer's recordings of four preludes and one fugue from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, each followed by an After Bach piece written by Mehldau and inspired by its WTC mate. The album begins with Mehldau's own "Before Bach: Benediction" and ends with his "Prayer for Healing."