Booker Ervin, Pony Poindexter, Larry Young Gumbo! (1963) {prestige Prcd 24229 2 Rel 1999}

Brother Jack McDuff - Live! (1963) {Prestige PRCD-24147-2 rel 1994}
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© 1963, 1994 Prestige / Fantasy | PRCD-24147-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Soul Jazz / Organ

A retitled compilation of two of Jack McDuff's live albums from the '60s, Brother Jack McDuff Live! is an outstanding album, one of the purest examples ever of quite possibly the finest Hammond B3 organ player in the world. These recordings were made with McDuff's classic lineup: Red Holloway on tenor sax and flute, Joe Dukes on drums, and a young George Benson (long before he became a star making formulaic soul-pop albums in the '70s) on guitar.

Buddy Tate & Claude Hopkins - Buddy & Claude (1960) {Prestige PRCD-24231-2 rel 1999}
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© 1960, 1999 Prestige / Swingville / Fantasy | PRCD-24231-2
Jazz / Bop / Mainstream Jazz / Straight-ahead Jazz / Swing / Saxophone / Piano

Mainstream-swing-to-bop's the thing on the two 1960 Swingville gems paired here, both of which feature one of the foremost Basieites on tenor saxophone, George "Buddy" Tate. Tate (1913-2001), whose big-toned blues mastery is his longtime calling card, is an integral part of a lively quintet date led by Claude Hopkins (1903-1984), the first of three fine albums the pianist-composer-bandleader would pilot for Swingville.

Taft Jordan - Mood Indigo (1960) {Prestige PRCD-24230-2 rel 1999}
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© 1960-61, 1999 Prestige / Fantasy | PRCD-24230-2
Jazz / Bop / Mainstream / Trumpet

1999 was the year of the Ellington Centennial, and, as such, the Maestro's music was very much in the air. It was also an ideal year in which to reissue Taft Jordan's first-rate, long-deleted tribute to the Duke, Mood Indigo. It's paired with a fine, equally rare set by the Swingville All-Stars, with Jordan on trumpet. An Ellingtonian from 1943 to '47, Jordan renders some choice material by his ex-boss. Long a first-call New York session man, he's as impressive on open horn as with a mute. Here he's surrounded by two empathetic but distinctly different groups: a younger, more boppish quintet that numbers guitarist Kenny Burrell, and a sextet–whose program offers two more tunes from the Ellington band's voluminous book–featuring three other Ducal alumni (the other horns, plus bassist Wendell Marshall). Mood Indigo recalls the manifold gifts of a trumpeter who seldom recorded as a leader.

The "JFK" Quintet - New Jazz Frontiers From Washington (1961) {Prestige OJCCD-1924-2 rel 1999}
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© 1961, 1999 Prestige / Fantasy | OJCCD-1924-2
Jazz / Cool / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Straight-Ahead Jazz

The young men who comprised the JFK Quintet were looking for greater freedom of expression while never forgetting the elemental black music of their Southern upbringings. The result was a blues-inflected music under the spell of developments put forward by Ornette Coleman and by Miles Davis and Bill Evans in the Davis band that included John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. It was Adderley who discovered the band in Washington, D.C. and brought them to public attention by way of this recording.

The Blackbyrds & Charles Earland - At The Movies (1973-75) {Prestige PRCD-24255-2 rel 2001}
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© 1973-75, 2001 Prestige / Fantasy | PRCD-24255-2
Jazz / Funk / Jazz Funk / Soul / Groove / Blaxploitation

This single-CD reissue pairs two blaxploitation soundtracks by different artists: 1975's Cornbread, Earl and Me, composed by Donald Byrd and performed by the Blackbyrds, and 1973's The Dynamite Brothers, composed and performed by Charles Earland. Cornbread, Earl and Me, which featured the movie debut of Larry Fishburne, is serviceable, routine soul-jazz background film music, varying between funk-jazz-rock vamps (such as the Sly Stone-styled instrumental workout "The One-Eye Two-Step"), snazzy jazzy bits for action scenes, and sentimental orchestrated interludes. There are also occasional vocal numbers in a pedestrian mid-'70s soul-jazz-rock mode, such as "The Cornbread Theme."

Chet Baker - Lonely Star: The Prestige Sessions (1965) {Prestige PRCD-24172-2 rel 1996}
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© 1965, 1996 Prestige / Fantasy | PRCD-24172-2
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Flugelhorn

In 1964, trumpeter Chet Baker returned to the United States after five sometimes-traumatic years spent overseas (which included a long stay in an Italian jail for drug abuse). Baker recorded prolifically during his first 14 months back in the States, including a set for Colpix, two records for Limelight, and, in a busy three-day period, five albums for Prestige titled Groovin', Comin' On, Cool Burnin', Smokin', and Boppin' With the Chet Baker Quintet. The Prestige sets have been long overlooked and only partially reissued in the past, but in 1997 they reappeared as three CDs.

Earl Hines - Another Monday Date (1956) {Prestige PRCD-24032-2 rel 1995}
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© 1955-56, 1995 Prestige Records / Fantasy | PRCD-24032-2
Jazz / Bop / Stride / Piano

Two of pianist Earl Hines's finest recordings sessions of the 1950s are included on this CD. One is a tribute to Fats Waller on which Hines (with guitarist Eddie Duran, bassist Dean Reilly and drummer Earl Watkins) explores songs associated with Waller. The other date is Hines's only solo session of the decade and features him playing his own compositions (including "Everything Depends on You," "You Can Depend on Me," "Piano Man" and "My Monday Date") along with "Am I Too Late?" During the 1950s, Hines was somewhat forgotten in jazz, reduced to playing Dixieland dates, so this two-fer is far superior to his other sessions prior to his "comeback" of 1964.

Charles Earland - Black Talk! (1969) {RVG Prestige PRCD-30082-2 rel 2006}
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© 1969, 2006 Concord / Prestige | PRCD-30082-2 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Jazz Funk / Organ

A pivotal album in the development of the use of the Hammond organ in jazz – and Charles Earland's first exposure to a large audience! Durign the 60s, Charles was bumping around the Philly scene quite a bit – and recorded some small group indie sides that first gave a glimpse of his unique sound on the organ. But with this record, Earland really broke out wide – and hit a huge audience that made him one of the most in-demand players of the early 70s!

Houston Person - Broken Windows, Empty Hallways (1972) {Prestige PRCD-24290-2 rel 2004}
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© 1972, 2004 Prestige / Fantasy | PRCD-24290-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Soul Jazz / Saxophone

It's hard to know what to think when jazz artists record popular songs. Are they recording them because they like the songs and think something new can be brought to them? Or are they hoping that by recording popular songs they too can become popular? Broken Windows, Empty Hallways includes two albums recorded by tenor Houston Person in 1972, the first of the same name and the second titled Sweet Buns & Barbeque. Both albums contain a number of songs that were popular at the time, from the soulful "Don't Mess With Bill" to John Lennon's "Imagine" to Webber-Rice's "Everything's Alright."

Chet Baker - On A Misty Night (1965) {Prestige PRCD-24174-2 rel 1996}
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© 1965, 1996 Prestige / Fantasy | PRCD-24174-2
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Flugelhorn

Chet Baker was quite busy during three days in August 1965, recording five LPs worth of material with tenor saxophonist George Coleman (formerly with Miles Davis), pianist Kirk Lightsey, bassist Herman Wright and drummer Roy Brooks. Baker, sticking to flugelhorn, is heard in fine form on this CD reissue, which (along with Stairway to the Stars and Lonely Star) brings back all of the music in full; each CD also contains all of the liner notes from the five original albums. For this particular reissue, the quintet performs six likable originals by Richard Carpenter, Jimmy Mundy's "Sleeping Susan," three Tadd Dameron tunes, and a Sonny Stitt blues.