The Verve Jazz Ensemble East End Sojourn (2014)

The raw immediacy and tight instrumental attack of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's self-titled debut album were startling and impressive in 1965, but the following year, the group significantly upped the ante with its second LP, East-West. The debut showed that Butterfield and his bandmates could cut tough, authentic blues (not a given for an integrated band during the era in which fans were still debating if a white boy could play the blues) with the energy of rock & roll, but East-West was a far more ambitious set, with the band showing an effective command of jazz, Indian raga, and garagey proto-psychedelia as well as razor-sharp electric blues…

The two-CD set Impressions: The Verve Jazz Sessions salvages Wes Montgomery's straight jazz sessions for Verve, leaving the pop-oriented covers and orchestral sessions to the original albums. There are selected numbers from albums like Movin' Wes, Goin' Out of My Head and California Dreaming, illustrating that those albums were hardly worthless - each track proves that Montgomery's touch remained elegant and supremely tasteful. The second disc is devoted to the complete sessions for Smokin' at the Half Note, the legendary recording Montgomery made at Van Gelder Studios in 1965 with bassist Paul Chambers, pianist Wynton Kelly and drummer Jimmy Cobb…

Jah Wobble & The Modern Jazz Ensemble - 7 (2011) {30 Hertz Records ‎30hzcd33}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 255 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 96 Mb
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© 2011 30 Hertz Records ‎| 30hzcd33
Jazz / Electric Jazz / Fusion / Jazz Funk / Bass

This is right up there with the best of them; Miles, Zawinul, Arthur Blythe, Dave Brubeck et al. But its its own thing at the same time. It grooves hard. It just keeps coming at you. Like Mike Tyson. Boxes clever like Ali. Sean Corby reminds me of a young Donald Bird. George King cool and understated on keys. Marc Layton-Bennet is monster on kit. He just eats it up. Clive Bell studiously working his moves; interweaving and threading his flute melodies; bopping and weaving; jabbing and moving. Chris Cookson on guitar, thinking textural, floating just out of range. Jah Wobble on Bass ; orchestrating the moves….. still a contender. I saw this band in London last November. The BEST I have ever seen . Truly.

Osie Johnson - The Happy Jazz Of Osie Johnson (1955) {2014 Japanese Bethlehem Album Collection 1000}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 143 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 99 Mb
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© 1955, 2014 Solid Records / Bethlehem | CDSOL-6136 | LP BCP-66
Jazz / Bop / Bebop / Drums

Reissue. Features the latest remastering. Includes a Japanese description, lyrics. Features original cover artwork. Osie Johnson looks a bit blurry on the cover, but the music on the record is razor-sharp – a great demonstration not only of Johnson's skill on the drums, but also his rare talents as a leader! Osie graced countless top-shelf sessions in the 50s, but only got a rare few chances to work up front – and he does a great job here with a shifting lineup that includes Thad Jones on trumpet, Frank Wess on tenor and flute, Henry Coker on trombone, and Ernie Watkins on alto – all players used in differently-sized groups throughout the length of the set. Most tunes have a nice groove – a bounce that might refer to the "happy" in the title – and Johnson also sings at a few points, with this great raspy R&B style. Titles include "Osmosis", "Cat Walk", "Johnson's Whacks", "The Desert Song", "Osie's Oasis", and "Flute To Boot".

Vol. 16 of the Verve Jazz Masters series features pianist Oscar Peterson, who recorded prolifically for them from his start in the early '50s up to the early '70s. A single CD could never do Peterson justice, but this one, featuring 15 solid tracks, is evenly balanced between trio and guitar-accented small ensembles, with three big-band tracks added in. The hottest numbers are "Woody 'n You," his original (one of only three of his compositions) "Evrev," and "The Honeydripper." The jazz orchestras nearly consume Peterson during "West Coast Blues," "O.P.," and the stringy "Someday My Prince Will Come." No matter; it's the brilliant voice that listeners admire and are awed by that always shines through, and even though his discography for Verve is gigantic, this remains a good place to start, especially for the student or novice to Peterson's genius.

Not all of the installments in the Verve Jazz Masters series contain material originally issued on Verve. Verve Jazz Masters 3, for example, consists of 14 examples drawn from seven Chick Corea LPs released on the Polydor label during the years 1972-1978. Six of these come from Corea's Return to Forever period. The backbone of this collection (tracks one, seven, ten and fourteen) are selections from the highly acclaimed album Light as a Feather (1972) and there are excerpts from Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973) and No Mystery (1975). The other eight titles are traceable to Corea's theatrically costumed and somewhat heavy-handed production albums The Leprechaun (1975), My Spanish Heart (1976), Friends (1978) and The Mad Hatter (1978). This disc will be useful as a vintage jazz fusion sampler or more specifically as an overview of what Chick Corea was up to during the Nixon/Ford/Carter years.