Playboy's Centrefolds 1961 1963

Great album by the top Japanese jazz players of the time (Sadao Watanabe, Akira Miyazawa, Hideto Kanai, Takeshi Inomata, Eiichi Fuji…).

Betty Carter recorded only two albums during the 1961-1968 period. Her chance-taking style and unusual voice were mostly ignored and it would not be until the late '70s that she was finally "discovered." This Atlantic CD finds Carter backed by orchestras arranged by Claus Ogerman and Oliver Nelson. Her style was a lot freer than it had been in her earlier records but was still more accessible than it would be. Her repertoire, which includes the title cut, "Theme from Dr. Kildare," "Two Cigarettes in the Dark" and her own "Who What Why Where When" was already becoming eclectic. This is an interesting historic release.

Betty Carter recorded only two albums during the 1961-1968 period. Her chance-taking style and unusual voice were mostly ignored and it would not be until the late '70s that she was finally "discovered." This Atlantic CD finds Carter backed by orchestras arranged by Claus Ogerman and Oliver Nelson. Her style was a lot freer than it had been in her earlier records but was still more accessible than it would be. Her repertoire, which includes the title cut, "Theme from Dr. Kildare," "Two Cigarettes in the Dark" and her own "Who What Why Where When" was already becoming eclectic. This is an interesting historic release.

"Home Cookin'", "Crazy! Baby", "Midnight Special", "Back At The Chicken Shack", "Softly As A Summer Breeze".
A pioneer of soul-jazz who revolutionized the Hammond organ, turning it into one of the most incisive, dynamic jazz instruments of its time. Jimmy Smith wasn't the first organ player in jazz, but no one had a greater influence with the instrument than he did; Smith coaxed a rich, grooving tone from the Hammond B-3, and his sound and style made him a top instrumentalist in the 1950s and '60s, while a number of rock and R&B keyboardists would learn valuable lessons from Smith's example.

Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were (and are) two of the main stems of jazz. Any way you look at it, just about everything that's ever happened in this music leads directly – or indirectly – back to them. Both men were born on the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries, and each became established as a leader during the middle '20s. Although their paths had crossed from time to time over the years, nobody in the entertainment industry had ever managed to get Armstrong and Ellington into a recording studio to make an album together. On April 3, 1961, producer Bob Thiele achieved what should be regarded as one of his greatest accomplishments; he organized and supervised a seven-and-a-half-hour session at RCA Victor's Studio One on East 24th Street in Manhattan, using a sextet combining Duke Ellington with Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars. This group included ex-Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard, ex-Jimmie Lunceford swing-to-bop trombonist Trummy Young, bassist Mort Herbert, and drummer Danny Barcelona. A second session took place during the afternoon of the following day.

Lightnin' Hopkins had a hard and fast approach to dealing with the abundance of record labels he recorded for during his career. The irascible bluesman would show up at the session in question but would refuse to play a note until he was paid his fee upfront. Once paid and satisfied, he'd unpack his stock set of boogie blues riffs and pretty much improvise songs on the spot until he'd fulfilled his agreed upon quota. Then he would leave. This system led to an awful lot of similarly constructed and executed throwaway tracks, but Hopkins had a special gift for personalizing the blues that came through in the best of these improvised songs, and a few gems always showed up in the process. This disc combines 1961's Walkin' This Road by Myself, which features Hopkins with drummer Spider Kilpatrick, harmonica player Billy Bizor, and pianist Buster Pickens, with 1963's solo acoustic Blues in My Bottle…