Big Ben Webster Quartet

This edition contains the complete LP "The Art Tatum-Ben Webster Quartet" (1958), as well as all known alternate takes from that glorious session. Acomplete quartet session by Webster with another celebrated pianist, Teddy Wilson, and a beautiful Tatum solo piano rendition of the LP's opening song have been added as a bonus.
The only album-length collaboration between pianist Art Tatum and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster (accompanied by a rhythm section of Red Callender, bass, and Bill Douglass, drums) was this September 11, 1956, session under the auspices of Norman Granz's Verve Records label…

Although he was only a member of Duke Ellington's Orchestra for three years, tenor-saxophonist Ben Webster was linked with Duke Ellington throughout his career. This Storyville release features the great tenor playing nine songs associated with Ellington. The music is drawn from five separate sessions including trio gigs with pianists Kenny Drew and Teddy Wilson and three with The Danish Radio Band. The emphasis is on uptempo pieces such as "Perdido," "Rockin' in Rhythm" and "Stompy Jones;" a special highlight are the two very different versions of "Cottontail."

Most Ben Webster albums on the market today seem to be reissues from his magnificent autumnal years, majestically lush or bearishly brusque. It's good to have a chronological sampling of Webster's work from the mid-'40s, in order to appreciate exactly how he developed into the Ben Webster of 1959 and 1969. After popping up on early big band swing records by Bennie Moten and Willie Bryant, Webster came into his own as the first really exceptional tenor saxophonist to be featured with Duke Ellington's Orchestra. What we have here is the post-Ellington Ben Webster. His tone has gotten bigger and wider, grittily sensuous and invariably warm like a pulse in the jugular…

This outstanding DVD series pays homage to the East & West coast jazz scenes (namely the cities of New York and Los Angeles), where the bulk of modern jazz developed and evolved, and to some of the most important musicians who have spent a major part of their career there. This collection, consisting of 6 separate DVDs, focuses exclusively on live performances ranging from clubs to festivals to TV studio engagements, without any speakers or introducers… Nothing but music!

Recently the fifth album in a great series of unique live recordings was released by the former Dutch Jazz Archive (now: MCN) in its series Jazz at the Concertgebouw. Previous releases contained live recordings by Chet Baker (1955), Gerry Mulligan (1956), J.J. Johnson (1957) and Sarah Vaughan (1958), all originally recorded by Lou Van Rees, then Holland's most well-known producer. The Mengelberg-Noordijk album is the first one which features a Dutch quartet, a legendary group with a certain presence: the Misha Mengelberg - Piet Noordijk Quartet.