With a high, detached tone that defined "cool" jazz, Paul Desmond, the longtime saxophone player in Dave Brubeck's quartet, was one of the dominant instrumentalists in '60s jazz. This gorgeously packaged 5 CD set brings together the five discs Desmond made for RCA between 1961 and 1964 with sympatico guitarist Jim Hall: Desmond Blue, Take Ten, Glad to Be Unhappy, Bossa Antigua, and Easy Living. One of the few alto saxmen not influenced by Charlie Parker, Desmond's light airy tone and straightforward approach to melody are a refreshing change.
Although the RCA recordings featuring the Paul Desmond Quartet with Jim Hall were eventually reissued by the original label (also in a boxed set) after the last copy of this limited edition Mosaic box was sold, it is the Mosaic collection which will be remembered as a classic. Only that set includes the initial studio collaboration of Desmond & Hall for Warner Bros.; also present are reprints of Doug Ramsey's warm memorial tribute to the alto saxophonist, as well as Marian McPartland's brilliant portrait (written for Downbeat in 1960) and Desmond's own side-splitting article written for Punch about a Brubeck gig that went slightly haywire, all helping to unfold a portion of the mystery behind this man.
The Perfect Jazz Collection, 25 historic full length album recordings from the vaults of Columbia, Epic, RCA Victor and Bluebird labels. Remastered CD versions with extra tracks were available. Each album is packaged in a card wallet, in a nice facsimile vinyl format. If you want a history of Jazz, this is a bargain. Classic albums included are Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Billie Holiday's Lady In Satin, Nina Simone's Sings The Blues, Erroll Garner's Concert By The Sea, Charlie Parker's Bird and many more!
Dancer, actor, and singer Fred Astaire worked steadily in various entertainment media during nine decades of the 20th century. The most celebrated dancer in the history of film, with appearances in 31 movie musicals between 1933 and 1968 (and a special Academy Award in recognition of his accomplishments in them), Astaire also danced on-stage and on television (garnering two Emmy Awards in the process), and he even treated listening audiences to his accomplished tap dancing on records and on his own radio series. He appeared in another eight non-musical feature films and on numerous television programs, resulting in an Academy Award nomination and a third Emmy Award as an actor. His light tenor voice and smooth, conversational phrasing made him an ideal interpreter for the major songwriters of his era, and he introduced dozens of pop standards, many of them written expressly for him, by such composers as Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Burton Lane, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Arthur Schwartz, Harry Warren, and Vincent Youmans.