Sweet November (2001)

Hubert Rostaing's clarinet sang elegant musical phrases. Its beautiful sound captivated Django Reinhardt and Rostaing took place in the Quintet of the Hot Club de France in 1940. Accompanist of Yves Montand, arranger and composer of film music, Rostaing recorded a delicious album for Vega records in 1957 in which his composer's talent is emerging. Martial Solal and Michel Hausser interpret his delicate swing music with great finesse, which is presented as a tribute to Benny Goodman. Maurice Meunier succeeded Hubert Rostaing with Django in 1947. Opened at bebop, he adopted the agreements and offered the instrument new perspectives. Now forgotten, Meunier produced a magnificent album for Barclay in 1956. William Boucaya, Raymond Fol, Rene Urtreger, Pierre Michelot, Christian Garros and Jean-Louis Viale support his modern clarinet.

The two brothers Angelo & Carmelo La Bionda were Italian superstars of the disco era. Having produced Amanda Lear's debut single "La Bagarre / Lethal Leading Lady", 1976, the duo broke big in Southern Europe with their D. D. Sound project, an abbreviation of Disco Delivery Sound…

Dizzy Reece - Progress Report (1956-58) {Tempo–Jasmine JASCD620 rec 2001}
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© 1956-58, 2001 Tempo Records / Jasmine Records | JASCD 620
Jazz / Hard Bop / Trumpet

“Progress Report” on the elusive Tempo label. But this LP is so rare that I had the feeling it would be very, very hard to acquire. It was one of those albums that seemed out of reach in the foreseeable future, if ever. When you talk about rare jazz records from the 50’s, holy grails if you will, this one is in the top 5 for me.

Miles Davis - Blue Moods (2001) {Sony Classical 501793 2}
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© 2001 Sony Classical | 501793 2
Jazz / Cool / Hard Bop / Modal Music / Trumpet

The title says it all – this compilation contains 12 selections from Davis' classic Columbia recordings, all with a hazy, laid-back feel, perfect mood music for when you're feeling a little blue. There are plenty of classic performances here, from both of his classics quintets, plus his lovely interpretation of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time." A pleasant sample of Miles Davis ballads spanning nearly 30 years and all manner of combo sizes. It's hard to criticize these excellent-sounding samples of Miles at his mellow best, even if these pieces are best heard in their original contexts. Makes for smooth listening or as an accompaniment to relaxing or romantic moments.

Volume 1 of the two-volume Genius of Modern Music set comprises the first sessions Thelonious Monk recorded as a leader, on October 15 and 24 and November 21 of 1947. It's impossible to overstate the importance of these sessions…

Shirley Scott - Like Cozy (1960) {Prestige PRCD-24258-2 rel 2001}
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© 1960, 2001 Prestige / Fantasy | PRCD-24258-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Soul Jazz / Hammond Organ / Piano

Shirley Scott was one of the Prestige family's most widely recorded artists, and for good reason: the organ's popularity was peaking during her years at the label and Scott handled what could be an overbearing instrument with sure-handed tastefulness and a jaunty sense of swing. Less well known, though, is her work on piano, which shares the spotlight on the two LPs joined herein. Both were made in 1960 for the Prestige subsidiary Moodsville, whose specialties were warming ballads and medium-bounce standards that placed a premium on melodic content. On these 16 trio tracks, widely familiar tunes, for the most part, Scott sustains Moodsville's trademark relaxed, after-hours groove, whether she's at the organ or piano (her stylings on the latter evince strong ties to Erroll Garner)–or, via overdubbing, performing on both simultaneously.

Although this is technically the third volume in the Classics Bix Beiderbecke chronology, close examination reveals that volumes three and four retrace a timeline already traversed by the earlier installments, resulting in a reshuffled, non-linear progression that is atypical of the Classics Chronological Series yet seems oddly appropriate for an authentically surreal character like Beiderbecke. This volume follows a timeline from November 18, 1927 to April 22, 1928. Because the producers of this series ladled most of the "Bix & Tram" collaborations into the Frankie Trumbauer portion of their label's catalog, the entire Classics "Bixology" initially fit into two volumes (issued in 1996) with two additional volumes (issued in 2002) documenting Beiderbecke's tenure as a sideman with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra during the years 1927-1929…

This two-fer from the Australian Raven label is a part of a series of Delbert McClinton reissues. All of them come with new liner notes, session photos, and bonus tracks. These two albums, from 1980 and 1981, respectively, represent a renaissance for McClinton of sorts. While he never had a fallow period creatively, The Jealous Kind allowed him a renewed commercial viability even if it was short-lived. Both records were issued by the Muscle Shoals Sound imprint of Capitol Records and were produced by Barry Beckett with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section and horns. While the first disc is centered around diversity in its song choices – by everyone from Larry Henley to Bobby Charles to Van Morrison to Al Green to Jerry Williams – and took radical approaches to reinterpreting the material through soul, blues, funk, rock, and country, the latter chose hard-driving Southern-fried funk and R&B and a relatively close-to-the-vest approach in terms of material – most notably covers of "In the Midnight Hour" and Naomi Neville's "Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)".