Stanley Jordan Standards

Guitarists Stanley Jordan and Kevin Eubanks team up for the 2015 Mack Avenue release Duets. An intimate, relaxed album, Duets features the esteemed journeyman artists playing both acoustic and electric instruments on a handful of classic standards, originals, and newer pop tunes. Rather than a cutting session, Duets works more as a laid-back conversation in which both musicians revel in the warmth of each other's sound. While they share a similar style, favoring a clean, unaffected approach to the guitar, there are enough differences in each player's sounds to easily distinguish them on a given track.

Pat Boone's In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy was a tongue-in-cheek affair that few were willing to acknowledge. How else was one to explain a 63-year-old pop singer (who hadn't had any hits for over 30 years) suddenly covering '70s hard rock classics? By contrast, guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had enjoyed considerable success as lead guitarist for Testament and later Savatage, deserves kudos for essentially scrapping his rock & roll career to study, learn, and play jazz. Upon leaving Savatage after Handful of Rain Skolnick enrolled in the jazz department of New York's New School University. It was there that he began to formulate his notion of applying jazz arrangements to hard rock songs by Kiss, Aerosmith, Scorpions, Black Sabbath, and the Who.

For a short time in the late '50s trumpeter Dizzy Reece was an up-and-coming jazz artist. However, success eluded him and he quietly faded into obscurity, only occasionally releasing material after the early '60s. As a matter of fact, the sessions that became Comin' On! languished in the Blue Note vaults for almost four decades. Rediscovered in 1999, these dates feature six well-rounded hard bop compositions by Reece along with three standards. The tracks from April 3, 1960, not only document the Blue Note debut of tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine but also employ the talents of the Jazz Messengers' rhythm section of the time, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Jymie Merritt, and drummer Art Blakey. By July 17, 1960, the only musician remaining from the previous date was Turrentine, sharing tenor duties with Musa Kaleem, who is also heard on flute. (The later session's rhythm section had changed to pianist Duke Jordan, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Al Harewood.) Neglected, although spirited, sessions from an underrated trumpeter and composer.

The Stanley Brothers - The Early Starday-King Years 1958-1961 (2003) {4CD Collector's Box Set Gusto Records KBSCD-7000}
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© 1958-61, 2003 Gusto Records | KBSCD-7000
Bluegrass / Country / Traditional Bluegrass

The Early Starday-King Years: 1958-1961 is a 109-track, four-disc box set that compiles every track the Stanley Brothers cut for Starday and King during that era. At the time, the group were releasing albums both on Starday and King, so there was an immense amount of confusion between the releases; the box set helps clarify the matters, by gathering all of the music together and presenting it in chronological order. This way, it's possible to hear their progression, as well as the differences between the recordings for the two labels; on the King recordings, the Stanley Brothers tended to be more experimental, working in electric instrumentation. Though there is plenty of fine music on the set, The Early Starday-King Years is, overall, too thorough and extensive for anyone but bluegrass historians.

While "Blue Bacharach" (from 1999) originally had 14 tracks, this version has been whittled down to 12 tracks, nine of which are repeats. The three newly added songs, "The April Fools" by Earl Klugh, "One Less Bell to Answer" by Stanley Jordan, and "Any Day Now" by Lou Rawls, were recorded in 1976, 1986, and 1990, respectively, undermining the overall continuity of the '60s-based arrangements. Still, it's nice to have Bacharach standards played in a lively soul-jazz groove by Stanley Turrentine, Grant Green, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and Reuben Wilson, along with Nancy Wilson's outstanding vocals on "Wives and Lovers" and "Alfie."

Clifford Jordan Quartet - Live at Ethell's (1987) {Mapleshade Records MS 56292 rel 1993}
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© 1987, 1993 Mapleshade Records | MS 56292
Jazz / Straight-ahead Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

Tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan never seemed to record an uninspired album. This Mapleshade CD, cut live at a Baltimore club, matches Jordan with pianist Kevin O'Connell, bassist Ed Howard and drummer Vernel Fournier. In addition to four standards (including "Lush Life" and "'Round Midnight"), Jordan performs Stanley Cowell's "Cal Massey" and three of his own straight-ahead but diverse originals. Excellent advanced straight-ahead jazz from an underrated great.

Abbey Lincoln - Through The Years (2009) {3CD Box Set Verve 532 096-1 rec 1957-2007}
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© 1957-2007, 2009 Verve / UM | 532 096-1
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Standards / Post Bop

Anyone who has followed Abbey Lincoln’s career with any regularity understands that she has followed a fiercely individual path and has paid the cost for those choices. Through the Years is a cross-licensed, three-disc retrospective expertly compiled and assembled by the artist and her longtime producer, Jean-Philippe Allard. Covering more than 50 years in her storied career, it establishes from the outset that Lincoln was always a true jazz singer and unique stylist. Though it contains no unreleased material, it does offer the first true picture of he range of expression. Her accompanists include former husband Max Roach, Benny Carter, Kenny Dorham, Charlie Haden, Sonny Rollins, Wynton Kelly, Benny Golson, J.J. Johnson, Art Farmer, Stan Getz, and Hank Jones, to name scant few.