Exploring vintage jazz vinyl with a focus on label and pressing details, discographical information and critical musings on the music found within the grooves.
Charlie Rouse takes a break from his usual hard bop excellence for a funky and often spiritual soul jazz excursion on the always stimulating Strata-East label. The resulting album might be hard to find, but offers the open-minded listener some excellent and adventurous early-seventies jazz music.
Read MoreOn Merry Go Round the great Elvin Jones leads a large group of musicians including David Liebman, Steve Grossman and Gene Perla (all members of his touring group at this time), as well as his early-Blue Note partner Joe Farrell who was always at the top of his game playing alongside Jones. The resulting LP is a strong early seventies post bop record with some funky soul jazz thrown in for good measure.
Read MoreGood Bait finds Bobby Hutcherson and Orrin Keepnews working together for the first time. The result is a great post-bop record that looks both forward and backwards at the world of jazz circa 1985.
Read MoreStanley Turrentine and Milt Jackson lead a group of ultra-talented players on one of the better early CTI recordings, with tracks that range from soulful hard bop to funky soul-jazz delight.
Read MoreA beautiful 1963 album by the classic Coltrane Quartet that has garnered some controversy over the years, but in the end has proven to be an essential part of his long and varied discography.
Read MoreHarold Land and Blue Mitchell, two legends from the golden age of jazz, team up to lead a talented quintet through a set of tunes that result in an excellent late-1970s post bop jazz album.
Read MoreJimmy Smith once again teams up with Kenny Burrell to produce a mid-'60s classic that shows that while they may have been making more commercial recordings during this time they could still lay down that hard bop groove with the best of them.
Read MoreA stellar 1957 quartet date that is as good as anything Rollins put out before his "retirement" in 1959. It's an album that only gets better with repeated listens as it shows off his complete mastery of the tenor.
Read MoreAn impromptu live set resulted in an excellent and exciting early hard bop session that featured some of the finest jazz musicians of the day, including the members of the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet along with Harold Land, Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson and Dinah Washington,
Read MoreMilt Jackson teams up with Ray Brown once again in the late-1960s, this time in a big band setting led by Brown to create an underrated album of funky and soulful jazz that will appeal to both fans of modern jazz and rare groove collectors alike.
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