Cool it Carol

Rainy Day Moments is a single-disc collection of songs from Savoy Jazz's relaunching of the Jazz for a Rainy Day series that 32 Jazz made extremely popular in the late '90s. The tracks are taken from the large catalog of the defunct Muse label and feature '70s, '80s, and '90s recordings by many well-respected jazz legends and some up-and-coming youngsters, too. This disc gives a good feel for the makeup of the discs in the series. It is a blend of giants like Grant Green, whose "Iron City" is the disc's highlight; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Sonny Stitt; and lesser lights like Johnny Lytle, Pat Martino, and Carol Welsman. The music is relaxed throughout and the mood is unsparingly mellow. Although the songs date from well-beyond jazz's peak years, the performances are uniformly solid and the disc is a nice collection of mood music.

Benoit was bitten by the jazz bug after watching a Charlie Brown special on television and listening to the music of Vince Guaraldi in 1965. “I was already a fan of the comic strip,” he says, “but when I heard that jazz piano trio, that was the defining moment when I decided that I wanted to play like Vince Guaraldi.”

Eddie Higgins started his professional career in Chicago, Illinois, while studying at the Northwestern University School of Music. An elegant and sophisticated pianist, his encyclopedic harmonic approach and wide range of his repertory made him one of the most distinctive jazz pianists to come out of Chicago, gaining the respect of local and visiting musicians for his notable mastery of the instrument. Higgins also had the unusual ability to sound equally persuasive in a broad span of music, whether he was playing traditional swing, exciting bebop or reflexive ballads, providing the tone and stylistic flavor of each styles, as both a soloist and as accompanist…

When the hour is late, but life goes on, the chilled-out grooves of Simply Jazz After Dark ease you into the wee small hours. This meticulously selected 4CD collection of jazz legends in a mellow mood will take the edge off the day and soothe the soul. Includes informative liner notes on all tracks and artists featured.
Count Basie, Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Cannonball Adderley, Donald Byrd, Ella Fitzgerald, Lee Morgan and many more.