Bessie Jones

3 CDs packed with the greatest women Blues singers of all time performing some of their best known songs. They are all here, including, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie, Billie Holiday, Etta James - and many more.

Chest of 10 CDs, an essential guide to delve into 'pre-bebop jazz': there are all of them: from the first 'dixieland' bands, including Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver , Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Earl Hines, Sidney Bechet, Art Tatum, Louis Prima, Benny Goodman, Django Reinhardt, Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Glenn Miller Charlie Christian…

Chu Berry - Classic Chu Berry Columbia and Victor Sessions (2007) {7CD Set Mosaic MD7-236 rec 1933-1941}
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© 1933-41, 2007 Columbia / Victor / Sony BMG / Mosaic Records / BMG | MD7-236
Jazz / Swing / Tenor Saxophone

This is a comprehensive collection with countless pivotal sessions. It features 203 separate recordings on seven CDs and collects both the sessions led by Chu Berry and other sessions where he contributed significantly as a sideman. You can study his remarkable surefootedness as a soloist; remember an era where evolution in the music was running rampant and Chu Berry's tenor saxophone was one of the things making it run.

The 1920s “classic era” of recorded blues was dominated by women who lived and performed in the cities. This Rough Guide explores its glitzy heyday when singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey became the first real stars of the blues.

Various Artists - You Heard It Here First! (2008) {Ace Records CDCHD1204 rec 1954-1968}
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© 1954-68, 2008 Ace Records | CDCHD 1204
Oldies / Hit Rock / Early R&B / Rock & Roll / Early Pop

All collectors like a bit of musical trivia, and “who did it first” is a game that’s often played when the most hardcore of them get together to swap matrix numbers and that sort of thing. Most buyers of Ace CDs will know that many of the biggest hits of the 1960s and 1970s were recycled from earlier 45s that had failed for those who did them originally. And the failure of some of those ‘earlier 45s’ is ‘celebrated’, if you like, by the release of “You Heard It Here First”, featuring two dozen and two excellent tracks – by, in many cases, high-profile talents – that never got to have their day in the sun at the time of their release.

From pioneering guitar legends Blind Lemon Jefferson & Blind Willie Johnson to pre-blues songsters and field holler-inspired singers, the state of Texas has long played a key role in the evolution of the blues. This Rough Guide charts the many different facets to this incredibly rich and diverse of early blues genres.

This set includes music perfect for Halloween that isn't actually about Halloween, although everything included here is definitely scary on one level or another. Consisting of vintage jazz and blues tracks issued between 1925 and 1961, there are plenty of songs here about devils and witches, including Tampa Red's "Witchin' Hour Blues," Sippie Wallace's "Devil Dance Blues," and the Mississippi Sheiks' "I Am the Devil," among others. There's also a classic version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins doing his signature tune, "I Put a Spell on You," this one done with the Leroy Kirkland Orchestra.

Various Artists - From Ragtime To Swing (1898-1952) - La Grande Histoire Du Jazz Vol. 1 (2010) {Box 25CD - 25 of 100}
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© 2010 Le Chant du Monde | 574 1900.24
Jazz / Ragtime / Swing

Each box contains 25 slipcase CDs, a booklet (up to 186 pages) and an index. The booklets contain extensive notes (Eng/Fr) with recording dates and line-ups. 31 hours of music in each box, totalling 1677 tracks Each track has been restored and mastered from original sources. The only reason I can think of for there not yet being a review of these four boxed sets, is that those who own them are just too busy having one hell of a blast listening to them. Some people moan about the 50 year copyright law for audio recordings in Europe, but without it this highly entertaining, eye-opening and educational undertaking could never have taken place. These 100 discs (spread over four boxed sets of 25 discs) tell the story of jazz from 1898 to 1959.

John Coltrane Quartet - Crescent (1964) {Impulse!-Verve Originals 0602517649026 rel 2008}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 255 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 95 Mb
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© 1964, 2008 Impulse! / Verve / UMG | Verve Originals Series | 0602517649026 | LP AS-66
Jazz / Modal Music / Avant-Garde Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

John Coltrane's Crescent from the spring of 1964 is an epic album, showing his meditative side that would serve as a perfect prelude to his immortal work A Love Supreme. His finest quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones supports the somewhat softer side of Coltrane, and while not completely in ballad style, the focus and accessible tone of this recording work wonders for anyone willing to sit back and let this music enrich and wash over you. While not quite at the "sheets of sound" unfettered music he would make before his passing in 1967, there are hints of this group stretching out in restrained dynamics, playing as lovely a progressive jazz as heard anywhere in any time period.