j Robbins

The ultimate compendium of a half century of the best music, now revised and updated. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a highly readable list of the best, the most important, and the most influential pop albums from 1955 through today. Carefully selected by a team of international critics and some of the best-known music reviewers and commentators, each album is a groundbreaking work seminal to the understanding and appreciation of music from the 1950s to the present. Included with each entry are production details and credits as well as reproductions of original album cover art. Perhaps most important of all, each album featured comes with an authoritative description of its importance and influence.

Claude Thornhill & His Orchestra - The 1948 Transcription Performances (1994) {Hep Records HEP CD 17, mono}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 151 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 153 Mb
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© 1948, 1994 Hep Records | HEP CD 17
Jazz / Bebop / Big Band / Sweet Bands

This CD has the only existing performances of the Claude Thornhill Orchestra from 1948, a year when a recording strike kept most bands off of records. With many charts by Gil Evans or Gerry Mulligan, the Thornhill big band was often quite bop-oriented and featured fine solos from clarinetist Danny Polo, altoist Lee Konitz and the tenor of Mickey Folus; a few numbers also include Brew Moore on tenor, baritonist Gerry Mulligan and trumpeter Gene Roland. In addition there are some vocals from the Snowflakes (a vocal quintet) and Joe Derise. The highly enjoyable and somewhat historical CD is easily recommended to bop collectors and listeners who are interested in the later Claude Thornhill Orchestra.

JATP concerts from the 1940s were documented in 1998 on a 10-CD Verve boxed set. But until now, the 1950s concerts have been passed over for a retrospective. In fact, since the CD era began very little of the material from that span has been available at all.

Jimmy Forrest - Most Much! (1961) {Prestige OJCCD-350-2 rel 1989}
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© 1961, 1989 Prestige / Fantasy | OJCCD-350-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Bebop / Saxophone

Jimmy Forrest was a very consistent tenor, able to infuse bop and swing standards with soul and his distinctive tone. With the assistance of pianist Hugh Lawson, bassist Tommy Potter, drummer Clarendon Johnson and Ray Barretto on congas, Forrest explores mostly veteran tunes, such as a jumping "Annie Laurie," and the calypso "Matilda," a sentimental "My Buddy," "Robbins Nest," and even "Sonny Boy." Enjoyable music from the warm tenor.

This amazing document, recorded at the Styriarte Festival in Graz, Austria in June and July, 2009, and conducted by the renowned Nikolaus Harnoncourt, reestablishes Gershwin’s masterpiece as the great American folk opera it was meant to be in the first place – the “American Wozzeck.” . With New Zealand star Jonathan Lemalu as Porgy, Isabelle Kabatu as Bess, and Gregg Baker – who sang the role at the Met in 1985 and at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1986 – as Crown, the performance emphasizes the work’s enormous theatrical and musical qualities, gives it the importance it always deserved, and sets it squarely alongside the greatest pieces ever created for the concert hall.

Digitally remastered edition including three bonus tracks. In April-September 1957, John Coltrane and Mal Waldron embarked on a series of all star sessions which were issued on the albums MAL/2 and WHEELIN' AND DEALIN', with further material from the sessions appearing later on an LP titled THE DEALERS. This release contains the complete sessions including all existing material from the aforementioned LPs, plus three further Coltrane-Waldron collaborations recorded that same year.