Mean Greens

Soul jazz supergroup Something Else!, led by alto sax master Vincent Herring, revisits the vital, funky grooves of an unforgettable era. The all-star band’s groove-driven debut features Jeremy Pelt, Wayne Escoffery, Paul Bollenback, David Kikoski, Essiet Essiet and Otis Brown III.

Eddie Harris' tenure at Atlantic in the 1960s and '70s was his most productive, but previously it was represented only by a pair of single-album collections. Now a fine two-disc anthology containing selections chosen by Harris and his comments fully covers his Atlantic years. The discs include his huge singles "Exodus" and "Love Theme From the Sandpiper (Shadow of Your Smile)," plus soul-jazz numbers like "Get on Down," "Funkaroma," and "1974 Blues"; his most famous single composition, "Freedom Jazz Dance"; and his remakes of "Giant Steps" and "Love for Sale." Harris has creatively utilized the varitone attachment on his saxophone and the reed trumpet while constructing and playing his blues, soul, and funk solos with zest and a minimum of gimmickry.

Even for a label that likes to catch veteran jazz stars very late in their careers, Telarc nearly outdoes itself by rounding up Harry "Sweets" Edison (81), Clark Terry (76), Frank Wess (75) and Junior Mance (68) and recording them in a West Side New York nightclub a stone's throw from Lincoln Center. Though the flesh is a little weak at times in the trumpeters, the spirit is fortunately more than willing, and plenty of their inimitable trademarks - Edison's terse repeated notes and Terry's slippery phrases - come through in this swinging, blues-dominated mainstream session. Wess is in fine shape on flute and tenor, and pianist Mance contributes a lot of sturdy, stirring, two-fisted blues and a lovely, searching interpretation of "Emily." Edison wrote half of the eight songs on the disc - three blues (including his standard "Centerpiece") and a pleasing token bossa nova ("Sweets' Bossa")…