The Best of The 60,s

Rhino continues with their admirable excavation of the Atlantic vaults with this, their second round of some of the label's '60s jazz highlights. In the spotlight are such instrumental heavyweights as Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Eddie Harris, Charles Mingus, Hank Crawford, and Yusef Lateef, and on the vocal end there's fine work by Betty Carter and Mose Allison. Yes, this album might have a tough time competing with similar collections from the Blue Note and Impulse! imprints. But then again, those labels would be hard-pressed to come up with a selection as varied as this: From the truly idiosyncratic Ellington musings of Kirk ("Creole Love Call") to a taste of Aquarius age jazz by Charles Lloyd ("Dreamweaver: Meditation/Dervish Dance"), this 14-track disc truly runs the '60s jazz gamut.

A candid and charming collection of songs that glisten as beautifully as a clear mountain stream. Singer/songwriter/poet Tom Rush had a wonderful idea in mind for a concept album, working with music business greats Arthur Gorson and Paul Harris to blend the best of the time period's songwriters…

This is one of two albums released by Capitol Records in anticipation of the December 2001 release of the remake of Ocean's Eleven, the 1960 Las Vegas caper film that utilized the talents of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack of entertainers. The original film had no formal soundtrack album, but there was music in the picture and, of course, Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. (along with comedian Joey Bishop and actor Peter Lawford) performed on-stage during the making of the movie. This compilation of studio recordings made in the 1950s and '60s draws not only from the Capitol archives but also from Reprise, for which all three singers began to record starting in the early '60s.