Ray Ray Brown

Bassist Ray Brown, pianist Benny Green, and drummer Jeff Hamilton make for a perfect team on their Telarc CD. The tight yet swinging arrangements are full of subtle surprises and serve as a perfect format for the players, particularly Green. Highlights include Thad Jones' "Don't Get Sassy," Oscar Peterson's "Kelly's Blues," "Tanga," "Brown's New Blues," and a three-song Duke Ellington medley.

As the story goes, Milt Jackson and Ray Brown would meet up once a year for a run of gigs at Shelly's Manne-Hole, not because they couldn't find work elsewhere, but rather (as the liner notes put it) for "the pleasure of making music". That's The Way It Is comes from a pair of 1969 shows with a stellar quintet that featured three jazz masters (Teddy Edwards and the two headliners) along with the young up-and-comer Monty Alexander, who would go on to have an impressively long and varied career that is still going strong today. The somewhat obscure Dick Berk manned the drummer's chair, admirably laying down the tempo for this set of hard bop jazz that not surprisingly harkens back to a simpler time of blues-based jazz music.

Vibraphonist Milt Jackson teams up with pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Ray Brown and (on six of the eight songs) either Billy Higgins or Frank Severino on drums. Together they play group originals and (on the two drumless pieces) a pair of standards. Although the material was largely new, the swinging style is timeless and Milt Jackson typically sounds in top form; has he ever made an indifferent recording?

If the picture of three grown men hanging onto giant, colored swirl sticks looks a bit odd, or if the title The Poll Winners seems a bit conceited, the music, nonetheless - recorded in 1957 - still sounds great. Besides, guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Shelly Manne really did win polls in Down Beat, Playboy, and Metronome in 1956, and this is precisely what brought the players together. Here, on their first outing, they interpret nine pieces for 40 lovely minutes of modern jazz. After kicking off with a fine take on Duke Jordan's "Jordu," the group delivers an emotionally warm, six-minute version of "Satin Doll," one the album's highlights. While each player is always fully engaged in this small setting, Kessel's guitar supplies the lead voice…

Pianist Hank Jones teams up with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Jimmie Smith for this trio set which has been reissued on CD. An unusual aspect to the music is that on half of the eight standards Jones switches to electric piano; although he does not display as strong a musical personality on that instrument, he plays quite well. Highlights of the boppish set include "My Ship," "Rockin' in Rhythm," "Bag's Groove" and an effective instrumental version of "Your Feet's Too Big."

Highlights: Arthur Brown, the first "Shock Rocker" is outrageous . Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention is on fire tearing it up on violin. Earthy Melanie and Terry Reid are VG. Rare Traffic with Dave Mason was spirited…

Not a vocal session from Ray Charles, but instead a set that showcases his great abilities in jazz - a side of Charles' talents that Atlantic was focusing on a bit more at the end of the 50s! The record's a collaboration with vibist Milt Jackson, who's nicely more loose and gritty here than in the company of the Modern Jazz Quartet - and in addition to piano, Ray also plays a bit of alto sax too - which comes as a nice surprise! Other players include the great Billy Mitchell on tenor sax, Skeeter Best on guitar, Oscar Pettiford on bass, and Connie Kay on drums.

This two-fer reissue combines two live albums released by the Ray Brown Trio in the 1980s, The Red Hot Ray Brown Trio, featuring pianist Gene Harris and drummer Mickey Roker along with bassist Brown, recorded at the Blue Note nightclub in New York in November and December 1985, and Bam Bam Bam, with the trio consisting of Brown, Harris, and drummer Jeff Hamilton, cut in December 1988 at the 2,000-seat Kan-i Hoken Hall in Toyko. Harris, whom Brown had lured from obscurity and retirement in Idaho, was something of the bassist's protégé during this period, so it is not surprising that Brown actually takes a back seat on much of the music here, allowing Harris to be showcased.

This two-fer reissue combines two live albums released by the Ray Brown Trio in the 1980s, The Red Hot Ray Brown Trio, featuring pianist Gene Harris and drummer Mickey Roker along with bassist Brown, recorded at the Blue Note nightclub in New York in November and December 1985, and Bam Bam Bam, with the trio consisting of Brown, Harris, and drummer Jeff Hamilton, cut in December 1988 at the 2,000-seat Kan-i Hoken Hall in Toyko. Harris, whom Brown had lured from obscurity and retirement in Idaho, was something of the bassist's protégé during this period, so it is not surprising that Brown actually takes a back seat on much of the music here, allowing Harris to be showcased.