The two 1957 sessions that make up this CD featuring Earl Hines with a pickup rhythm section in Paris were recorded originally for Phillips, with bassist Guy Pedersen and drummer Gus Wallez. The pianist is in top form, including just a little of the Dixieland repertoire ("Royal Garden Blues" and "Muskrat Ramble") that typically dominated most of his recordings made in the U.S. during this period, and spending more time exploring favorite warhorses like "Hallelujah" and "Makin' Whoopee," as well as already classic jazz compositions such as "If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight" and "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)." While the tracks are generally brief, the music is consistently swinging at a high level and four bonus tracks have been added to the CD reissue, so it should be considered an essential purchase for fans of Earl "Fatha" Hines.

Four of the five selections on this CD reissue (which also includes "Tenderly") are obscure jazz originals by altoist John Jenkins, tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan, or trombonist Julian Priester. Inspired by both Charlie Parker and Jackie McLean, Jenkins teams up with Jordan, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Wilbur Ware, and drummer Dannie Richmond for some bop-oriented improvising. Strange that this would be one of only two sets led by Jenkins. Although the Blue Note CD, recorded just 16 days later, gets the edge, this is an excellent effort too.

Given that 'Round About Midnight was Miles Davis' debut Columbia recording, it was both a beginning and an ending. Certainly the beginning of his recording career with the label that issued most if not all of his important recordings; and the recording debut of an exciting new band that had within its ranks Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, pianist Red Garland, and an all but unknown tenor player named John Coltrane. The title track was chosen because of its unique rendition with a muted trumpet, and debuted at the Newport Jazz Festival the summer before to a thunderous reception. The date was also an ending of sorts because by the time of the album's release, Davis had already broken up the band, which re-formed with Cannonball Adderley a year later as a sextet, but it was a tense year…

This is the first of Stephane Grappelli's sessions as a leader during the 1950s to be issued on CD, which is rather surprising given the availability of his work from the last two decades of his life. Grappelli is heard exclusively in a quartet with pianist Maurice Vander, bassist Pierre Michelot, and drummer Baptiste Reilles, except for two takes of "Someone to Watch Over Me," when Vander makes an ill-advised switch to harpsichord. The violinist is not nearly as aggressive as he would become in the decades to follow, seemingly concentrating more on achieving a beautiful tone than dazzling listeners with his considerable abilities as an improviser. Most of the material recorded during these three dates remained in his repertoire for the remainder of his career; with up-tempo selections like "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "'S Wonderful" getting the nod over most of the ballad interpretations…

Charles Mingus' three albums for Bethlehem have the misfortune of being sandwiched between albums like New Tijuana Moods and Mingus Ah Um. The music on these three discs, recorded in the mid-to-late '50s, is quieter and less volatile when compared to these other albums. Bill Evans' appearance on East Coasting gives the listener a chance to sample his style a few months before he went to work for Miles Davis. His non-bluesy tone and mellow approach would seemingly be the antithesis of Mingus' modus operandi, but it works well here. He kicks off "East Coasting" with his distinct touch before giving way to the heavy percussion of the ever-explosive Dannie Richmond. One of the things that separates even a conservative (relatively speaking) Mingus effort from its peers is the babble of instrumental voices on a tune like "West Coast Ghost," with horns bursting from one speaker while the drums and bass thump madly from the other…

Julie London wasn't really a jazz singer, but she possessed a definite jazz feeling and many of her finest albums (such as Julie Is Her Name and Julie…At Home) feature small-group jazz backings. About the Blues was aimed at the 1950s pop market, but it may just be her best orchestral session. Since downbeat torch songs were London's specialty, the album features an excellent selection of nocturnal but classy blues songs that play to her subtle strengths instead of against them. Likewise, Russ Garcia's clever arrangements bleed jazz touches and short solos over the solitary strings and big-band charts. Like June Christy, London usually included a couple of new songs in with a selection of standards, and her husband, Bobby Troup, wrote two excellent numbers for the album. One of them, the emotionally devastating "Meaning of the Blues," is the album's highlight, and was turned into a jazz standard after Miles Davis recorded it the same year for Miles Ahead.

Bassist Red Mitchell, who had led two fairly obscure sessions for Bethlehem in 1955, came up with a gem on his lone Contemporary set as a leader. Based in Los Angeles at the time, Mitchell utilized pianist Lorraine Geller and two up-and-coming players: James Clay (who splits his time between tenor and flute) and, in one of his first recording sessions, drummer Billy Higgins. The quartet performs then-recent tunes by Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown ("Sandu"), a pair of Mitchell originals, "Scrapple From the Apple" and "Cheek to Cheek." Despite Higgins' and (to a lesser extent) Clay's connections with Ornette Coleman, the music is strictly high-quality modern mainstream bop of the era. Easily recommended to collectors of straight-ahead jazz.

Actress/vocalist Ilene Woods (born Jacqueline Ruth Woods in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on May 5, 1929) is best remembered as being the voice of Cinderella in the Walt Disney 1950 animated classic film in which she sang Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes and So This Is Love. Accompanied by the Harold Mooney orchestra and The Woodsmen, she also had a national hit single in January 1950 with a different recording of Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, taking it to # 22 on Bluebird 0019 b/w So This Is Love. In doing so she came in third behind renditions by Jo Stafford & Gordon MacRae (# 13 for Capitol) and Perry Como (# 14 for RCA Victor), but finished ahead of Dinah Shore's version for Columbia (# 25). However, while the soundtrack version by Ilene is readily available on several CDs (the best being the 2005 Walt Disney Records release of the Original Soundtrack), finding that Bluebird original hit on CD is so far impossible…

The re-mastering and release of Chuck Wayne's String Fever should begin to focus attention on a musician who was not only a brilliant guitarist but also a subtle and significant composer/arranger. On this recording Wayne became the first jazz guitarist to front a big band. He is the main soloist. He also conducted and arranged all of the compositions. Wayne's solo work, rising above an inspired band, is as good as jazz guitar has been caught on tape as he swings from be-bop to ballads to latin rhythms with a masterful grace and assurance. The extra treat is that the original album was beautifully recorded, and has been exquisitely re-mastered onto CD…

Avid Jazz here presents four classic Dave Pell albums including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered double CD.
The subject may be “Jazz and Romantic Places” and the locations may range from Paris to Rio but the jazz is strictly West Coast and Cool! Dave Pell on tenor sax is joined by the cream of jazz players from the Les Brown band with whom Pell had played for many years. The band having found time between their lucrative “day job” on the Bob Hope TV show to join their old band mate for the trip! For “Jazz Goes Dancing” Dave Pell writes in the original sleeve notes that for this project he was determined to create a jazz album to dance to, just like in the old dance band days…

The seminal quartet recordings compiled on this collection were made during a transitional period in John Coltrane's musical career. He had first joined the Miles Davis Quintet in 1955 and would form his own celebrated quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones in 1960. In the intervening years, he overcame his narcotics addiction and began to expand on his own musical ideas while experimenting with both the Thelonious Monk Quartet and the Miles Davis Sextet (featuring Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderley). Although Trane belonged to both the Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk groups, he also recorded studio sessions with other musicians and presented his own albums during this period. Among them were many quartet sides, all of them featuring Red Garland on piano and Paul Chambers on bass (both of whom he had known from the Miles Davis Quintet).

At 24 years old, Donald Byrd was already among the greatest trumpeters alive at that time. Alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce, who wrote the charts for everything heard on this disc aside from "I Remember Clifford," was an exceptionally talented arranger as well as a gifted composer. Unlike the rest of the Byrd/Gryce recordings from 1957, these have extra horns: Benny Powell's trombone, Julius Watkins' French horn, Don Butterfield's tuba, and Sahib Shihab's baritone sax. The rhythm section players were exceptionally solid: pianists Tommy Flanagan, Wade Legge; bassist Wendell Marshall; and master percussionist Art Taylor. With some of the best arrangements heard in jazz and excellent solos by Gryce, Byrd, and Flanagan, Jazz Lab makes for an excellent introduction to the hard bop catalog.