West Coast Live

For years, Led Zeppelin fans complained that there was one missing item in the group's catalog: a good live album. It's not that there weren't live albums to be had. The Song Remains the Same, of course, was a soundtrack of a live performance, but it was a choppy, uneven performance, lacking the majesty of the group at its peak…

The American guitarist Wes Montgomery was one of the greats of jazz. For all friends of this style-defining musician and beyond, Jazzline presents the NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings for the first time and thus never before published.

For years, Led Zeppelin fans complained that there was one missing item in the group's catalog: a good live album. It's not that there weren't live albums to be had. The Song Remains the Same, of course, was a soundtrack of a live performance, but it was a choppy, uneven performance, lacking the majesty of the group at its peak. BBC Sessions was an excellent, comprehensive double-disc set of their live radio sessions, necessary for any Zeppelin collection (particularly because it contained three songs, all covers, never recorded anywhere else), but some carped that the music suffered from not being taped in front of a large audience, which is how they built their legacy - or, in the parlance of this triple-disc collection of previously unreleased live recordings compiled by Jimmy Page, How the West Was Won. The West in this case is the West Coast of California, since this contains selections from two 1972 concerts in Los Angeles…

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Coast To Coast (2000) {Concord Jazz CCD2-4926-2 rec 1984-1986}
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© 1984-86, 2000 Concord Jazz | CCD2-4926-2
Jazz / Hard Bop

Coast to Coast by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers is a two-CD set from Concord Jazz that features a pair of previously recorded "live" engagements in New York City and San Francisco. Disc one contains songs from their 1984 release titled New York Scene and disc two features songs from Live at Kimball's, originally released in 1986. Both discs feature the great drummer in concert with Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Donald Harrison on alto saxophone, Mulgrew Miller on piano, Lonnie Plaxico on bass, and Jean Toussaint on tenor saxophone.

Although it may be difficult to believe now, in the late Sixties and early Seventies Chicago were something of a phenomenon. Their debut LP. b'Chicago Transit Authority', was certified platinum in the US, something no other CBS artist had ever achieved, even though the label boasted such names as Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel. Their second, simply titled 'Chicago', repeated the commercial success of their first, and singles from both sold strongly either side of the Atlantic…

In 1998, Columbia reissued a bunch of CDs by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, often adding one or two previously unissued selections to the sets. Buried Treasures: Recorded Live in Mexico City, however, is something different, for none of the music had been out before. Recorded live in 1967 during a tour of Mexico that also resulted in the album Bravo! Brubeck!, the set features the classic Brubeck Quartet (with altoist Paul Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello) performing seven selections they had previously recorded, which was probably why this particular music stayed in the vaults for decades. The quality is certainly quite high, with Brubeck and Desmond really digging into such songs as "Koto Song" (coming up with some inspired ideas over its vamp), "You Go to My Head," a lengthy "St. Louis Blues," and a fairly concise version of "Take Five," one of the few versions by Brubeck of the hit song that does not have a drum solo. Suffice to say, Dave Brubeck fans only need to be notified of two things: they do not already own this music, and the Quartet is heard throughout in prime form. Recommended.

Gerry Mulligan - I Want To Live! (1958) {Jazz Plaza Music JPM 8800 rel 2009}
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© 1958-59, 2009 United Artists / Jazz Plaza Music | JPM 8800
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Saxophone

Baritonist Gerry Mulligan and a group of West Coast all-stars were heard throughout the soundtrack of the Susan Hayward movie I Want to Live. Although not a soundtrack, this LP features six themes from the movie (all composed by Johnny Mandel) performed by the same musicians, who this time around get an opportunity to really stretch out. Since the band is comprised of Mulligan, trumpeter Art Farmer, altoist Bud Shank, trombonist Frank Rossolino, pianist Pete Jolly, bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Shelly Manne, virtually all of the music is quite interesting with plenty of fine solos and hard-swinging.

The ProjeKcts were/are devised as 'research units' to find possible futures for the fuller Crimson line-up. This box comprises the four live discs and kicks off with Jazz Café (KC have an amazing ability to play the most unlikely places)…

Chet Baker - Out Of Nowhere, Chet Baker Quartet Live, Volume 2 (1954) {Pacific Jazz 27693 rel 2001}
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© 1954, 2001 Pacific Jazz / Capitol Records | 7243 5 27693 2 2
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Trumpet

3 great Pacific Jazz CD's chronicling Chet Baker and Russ Freeman's live performances. This is where you really start to hear Chet find his own sound. He starts branching out on the two My Funny Valentine's found here, and his recordings of Stella By Starlight sound like the one's he did in the 1980's. The recording quality is pretty average in Volume 1, but it improves in Volume 2 and 3, especially considering how noisy American Jazz clubs used to be. Zing Went The Strings of My Heart is amazing, and it's one the fastest tempo tune Baker ever recorded. On several cuts, he plays the "Boo-bams", a bongo-type instrument invented by his friend Bill Loughborough.