Ray Brown Soul

Time and time again, the Manhattan Bop Police have claimed that a jazz album isn't legitimate unless it is recorded in the 212 area code. But if that's true, why did so many jazz heavyweights - from Dexter Gordon to Bud Powell - spend so much time living and recording in Europe? Why have so many important jazz indies (Steeplechase, Storyville, Owl, Black Lion, Timeless, among countless others) had European addresses? The fact is that if you're a serious jazz connoisseur, your CD collection is probably full of recordings that were made in Europe. Ray Brown certainly spent plenty of time performing overseas; Ludwigsburg, Germany, in fact, is where Brown recorded Summerwind, a 1980 session that finds the acoustic bassist forming a quartet with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin (one of the reasons jazz musicians are proud to be from Chicago), pianist Monty Alexander, and British drummer Martin Drew…

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 set features the great Sarah Vaughan in a typically spontaneous Norman Granz production for Pablo with pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Louie Bellson. Sassy sounds wonderful stretching out on such songs as "Midnight Sun," "More Than You Know," "Teach Me Tonight," and "Body and Soul," among others. All ten of the melodies are veteran standards that she knew backwards but still greeted with enthusiasm. A very good example of late-period Sarah Vaughan.

Recorded live in Tokyo on July 14th and 15th, 1963, Nippon Soul is not the Asian-jazz fusion suggested by the title (check out Cal Tjader's Several Shades of Jade and Breeze From the East for that), but a solid live set that showcases one of Cannonball Adderley's finest groups, featuring himself, brother Nat Adderley on cornet, bassist Sam Jones, drummer Louis Hayes, and most notably pianist Joe Zawinul and reedsman Yusef Lateef. Both near the beginnings of their careers, Zawinul and Lateef nonetheless dominate this set; two of the original tracks are by Lateef, including the centerpiece "Brother John," for John Coltrane and featuring an astonishing extended Lateef solo on oboe, an instrument not normally associated with jazz, but which takes on an almost Middle Eastern fluidity and grace in its approximation of Coltrane's "sheets of sound" technique…