Kenny Drew Everything I Love

The talented, if underrated bebop pianist Kenny Drew spent his last few decades living in Scandinavia after emigrating from the U.S. in 1961. This 1996 CD has previously unreleased material recorded by the Danish Broadcast Corporation featuring Drew at three different periods in time. There are four tunes apiece of Drew in duets with bassist Niels Pedersen in 1966, playing unaccompanied solos in 1978, and duets with bassist Bo Stief in 1983. All dozen numbers (seven jazz standards, a Scandinavian folk song, an obscurity and two Drew originals, including two versions of "Blues for Nils") are quite rewarding. The music is straight-ahead, often harmonically sophisticated, swinging and occasionally unpredictable. An excellent sampling of Kenny Drew's talents.

Craft Recordings is pleased to announce the release of Chet Baker’s The Legendary Riverside Albums. The deluxe album set presents the artist’s output as a leader for the renowned jazz label, recorded and released between 1958 and 1959: (Chet Baker Sings) It Could Happen To You, Chet Baker In New York, Chet and Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner And Loewe. The recordings, which feature such icons as Bill Evans, Johnny Griffin and Kenny Burrell, have been cut from their original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.

A wonderful collector's edition of jazz pianists' records in almost all styles from the first ragtimes to modern jazz.

Chet Baker - It Could Happen To You (1958) {Riverside Japan VICJ-41544, Paper Sleeve rel 2006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 242 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 104 Mb
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© 1958, 2006 Riverside / Victor Japan | VICJ-41544
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Trumpet

A classic album from Chet – and one that's got a perfect mix of vocal and instrumental moments, of the sort you don't find easily on other albums! Chet plays trumpet and sings, and is backed by Kenny Drew, Sam Jones, and Philly Joe Jones – a different style of group from his west coast years, but one that helps give the record a fresher sound too! Tracks are still shortish, with those breathy Baker vocals we love so much.

The first of 100 tunes in this collection is a 1937 recording of tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and guitarist Django Reinhardt playing Out Of Nowhere. It was recorded two years before Blue Note Records was founded. The taping was done for EMI’s Capitol label’s French division. This is an ominous hint as to the content of the 10-disc “100 Best of Blue Note” box set, which at first glance appears to have all the trimmings of a slick 21st century collection.

Grant Green - Retrospective 1961-1966 (2002) {4CD Set Blue Note}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.91 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 716 Mb
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© 1961-66, 2002 Blue Note / Capitol | 7243 5 40851 2 3 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Hard Bop / Jazz Funk / Soul Jazz / Guitar

Simply put, this is a very decent four-disc collection of the work of guitarist Grant Green. It features tracks from his many albums as a leader and some as a sideman with others, such as Lee Morgan, John Patton, Baby Face Willette, and Sonny Clark. His early-'60s sides are here along with most of his defining cuts from the '60s, from hard bop to soul-jazz to ballads to gospel – everything most fans would ever want is here, including his late blues sides recorded in the bars of Detroit in 1970. While Green's own albums can never be replaced, this is a solid portrait of one of the most influential jazz guitarists in history.

Buddy DeFranco - The Complete Verve Recordings Of The Buddy De Franco with Sonny Clark (1990) {4CD Set, MD4-117 rec 1954-1955}
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© 1954-55, 1990 Mosaic Records / Polygram | MD4-117
Jazz / Bop / Clarinet / Piano

Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco recorded extensively for Norgran and Verve during 1953-1958. For a little over a year, Sonny Clark was his regular pianist and all of their small-group recordings have been reissued on this limited-edition five-LP set. With bassist Eugene Wright (a couple years before he joined the Dave Brubeck Quartet) and drummer Bobby White completing the quartet, and guitarist Tal Farlow making the group a quintet on its final 11 numbers, DeFranco had one of his strongest bands.