John Coltrane - Giant Steps (1959)

1. Giant Steps
2. Cousin Mary
3. Countdown
4. Spiral
5. Syeeda's Song Flute
6. Naima
7. Mr. P.C.
8. Giant Steps
9. Naima
10. Cousin Mary
11. Countdown
12. Syeeda's Song Flute

- Jazz

- Hard Bop

Review:

History will undoubtedly enshrine this disc as a watershed the likes of which may never truly be appreciated. Giant Steps bore the double-edged sword of furthering the cause of the music as well as delivering it to an increasingly mainstream audience. Although this was John Coltrane's debut for Atlantic, he was concurrently performing and recording with Miles Davis. Within the space of less than three weeks, Coltrane would complete his work with Davis and company on another genre-defining disc, Kind of Blue, before commencing his efforts on this one. Coltrane (tenor sax) is flanked by essentially two different trios. Recording commenced in early May of 1959 with a pair of sessions that featured Tommy Flanagan (piano) and Art Taylor (drums), as well as Paul Chambers — who was the only band member other than Coltrane to have performed on every date. When recording resumed in December of that year, Wynton Kelly (piano) and Jimmy Cobb (drums) were instated — replicating the lineup featured on Kind of Blue, sans Miles Davis of course. At the heart of these recordings, however, is the laser-beam focus of Coltrane's tenor solos. All seven pieces issued on the original Giant Steps are likewise Coltrane compositions. He was, in essence, beginning to rewrite the jazz canon with material that would be centered on solos — the 180-degree antithesis of the art form up to that point. These arrangements would create a place for the solo to become infinitely more compelling. This would culminate in a frenetic performance style that noted jazz journalist Ira Gitler accurately dubbed "sheets of sound." Coltrane's polytonal torrents extricate the amicable and otherwise cordial solos that had begun decaying the very exigency of the genre — turning it into the equivalent of easy listening. He wastes no time as the disc's title track immediately indicates a progression from which there would be no looking back. Line upon line of highly cerebral improvisation snake between the melody and solos, practically fusing the two. The resolute intensity of "Countdown" does more to modernize jazz in 141 seconds than many artists do in their entire careers. Tellingly, the contrasting and ultimately pastoral "Naima" was the last tune to be recorded, and is the only track on the original long-player to feature the Kind of Blue quartet. What is lost in tempo is more than recouped in intrinsic melodic beauty. Both Giant Steps [Deluxe Edition] and the seven-disc Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings offer more comprehensive presentations of these sessions.

George Lewis - Jazz Funeral in New Orleans (1953)

1. Ice Cream
2. Down By the Riverside
3. Burgundy Street Blues
4. Just a Closer Walk With Thee
5. Panama
6. Doctor Jazz
7. When The Saints Go Marching In
8. Lou-easy-an-i-a

- Jazz
- Dixieland
- New Orleans Jazz

Review:

This record brings back a classic, one of the greatest sessions ever by clarinetist George Lewis. The title of the CD is actually quite inaccurate, for "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" is the only funeral song included on the date, and there is nothing somber about any of the joyful music. Trumpeter/vocalist Kid Howard, who was often very erratic during the era (particularly on radio broadcasts), sounds in top form; the consistent trombonist Jim Robinson is an asset in the ensembles as usual, the rhythm section really drives the group, and clarinetist Lewis often seems to be quite exuberant. Their version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" is definitive, and other highlights include "Ice Cream" and "Panama." This set of prime New Orleans jazz music (last available as a DCC audiophile CD) belongs in every serious jazz collection.

Louis Armstrong - Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (1956)

1. St. Louis Blues
2. Yellow Dog Blues
3. Loveless Love
4. Aunt Hagar's Blues
5. Long Gone (From The Bowlin' Green)
6. The Memphis Blues (Or Mister Crump)
7. Beale Street Blues
8. Ole Miss Blues
9. Chantez Les Bas (Sing 'Em Low)
10. Hesitating Blues
11. Atlanta Blues (Make Me One Pallet On Your Floor)
12. George Avakian's Interview With W.C. Handy - W.C. Handy
13. Loveless Love (Rehearsal Sequence)
14. Hesitating Blue (Rehearsal Sequence)
15. Alligator Story
16. Long Gone (From The Bowlin' Green) (Rehearsal Sequence)

- Vocal Jazz
- Dixieland
- Classic Jazz
- New Orleans Jazz

Review:

This recording was not only Louis Armstrong's finest record of the 1950s but one of the truly classic jazz sets. Out of print for years, it was reissued quite shoddily in 1986 on a Columbia CD with alternates in place of many of the original versions and no real explanation. It was a complete and inexcusable mess and should be avoided by all but completists. Ten years later, Columbia finally got around to bringing back the original gem, and the music is at last available on CD. Armstrong and his All-Stars (trombonist Trummy Young, clarinetist Barney Bigard, pianist Billy Kyle, bassist Arvell Shaw, drummer Barrett Deems, and singer Velma Middleton) were clearly inspired by the fresh repertoire, 11 songs written by W.C. Handy. Their nearly nine-minute version of "St. Louis Blues" (with witty vocals, roaring Young trombone, and a couple of long majestic trumpet solos) is arguably the greatest version of the oft-recorded song. Other highlights include "Loveless Love," "Beale Street Blues," and a romping version of "Ole Miss Blues." This CD also includes rehearsal versions of three songs, Louis Armstrong telling a joke, and a brief George Avakian interview with W.C. Handy. Essential music for all serious jazz collections.

Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956)

1. You Make Me Feel So Young
2. It Happened In Monterey

3. You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me
4. You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me
5. Too Marvelous For Words
6. Old Devil Moon
7. Pennies From Heaven
8. Love Is Here to Stay
9. I've Got You Under My Skin
10. I Thought About You
11. We'll Be Together Again
12. Makin' Whoopee
13. Swingin' Down The Lane
14. Anything Goes
15. How About You?

- Vocal Jazz
- Jazz-Pop
- Big Band
- Swing

Review:

After the ballad-heavy In the Wee Small Hours, Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle returned to up-tempo, swing material with Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, arguably the vocalist's greatest swing set. Like Sinatra's previous Capitol albums, Songs for Swingin' Lovers! consists of reinterpreted pop standards, ranging from the ten-year-old "You Make Me Feel So Young" to the 20-year-old "Pennies From Heaven" and "I've Got You Under My Skin." Sinatra is supremely confident throughout the album, singing with authority and joy. That joy is replicated in Riddle's arrangements, which manage to rethink these standards in fresh yet reverent ways. Working with a core rhythm section and a full string orchestra, Riddle writes scores that are surprisingly subtle. "I've Got You Under My Skin," with its breathtaking middle section, is a perfect example of how Sinatra works with the band. Both swing hard, stretching out the rhythms and melodies but never losing sight of the original song. Songs for Swingin' Lovers! never loses momentum. The great songs keep coming and the performances are all stellar, resulting in one of Sinatra's true classics.

Peggy Lee - Black Coffee (1956)

1. Black Coffee
2. I've Got You Under My Skin
3. Easy Living
4. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
5. It Ain't Necessarily So
6. Gee, Baby Ain't I Good To You
7. Woman Alone With The Blues
8. I Don't Know What Time It Was
9. When The World Was Young
10. Love Me Or Lkeave Me
11. You're My Thrill
12. There's A Small Hotel

- Torch Songs
- Vocal Jazz
- Traditional Pop

Review:

Peggy Lee left Capitol in 1952 for, among several other reasons, the label's refusal to let her record and release an exotic, tumultuous version of "Lover." Lee was certainly no Mitch Miller songbird, content to loosen her gorgeous pipes on any piece of tripe foisted upon her; she was a superb songwriter with a knowledge of production and arrangement gained from work in big bands and from her husband, Dave Barbour (although the two weren't together at the time). The more open-minded Decca acquiesced to her demand, and watched its investment pay off quickly when the single became her biggest hit in years. Black Coffee was Lee's next major project. Encouraged by longtime Decca A&R Milt Gabler, she hired a small group including trumpeter Pete Candoli and pianist Jimmy Rowles (two of her favorite sidemen) to record an after-hours jazz project similar in intent and execution to Lee Wiley's "Manhattan project" of 1950, Night in Manhattan. While the title-track opener of Black Coffee soon separated itself from the LP — to be taught forever after during the first period of any Torch Song 101 class — the album doesn't keep to its concept very long; Lee is soon enough in a bouncy mood for "I've Got You Under My Skin" and very affectionate on "Easy Living." (If there's a concept at work here, it's the vagaries of love.) Listeners should look instead to "It Ain't Necessarily So" or "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You?" for more examples of Lee's quintessentially slow-burn sultriness. Aside from occasionally straying off-concept, however, Black Coffee is an excellent record, spotlighting Lee's ability to shine with every type of group and in any context. [When originally recorded and released in 1953, Black Coffee was an eight-song catalog of 78s. Three years later, Decca commissioned an LP expansion of the record, for which Lee recorded several more songs. The 2004 Verve edition is therefore a reissue of the 1956 12-song LP.]

Billie Holiday - Billie Holiday Sings (1950)

1. I Only Have Eyes For You
2. You Turned The Tables On Me
3. Blue Moon
4. Solitude
5. These Foolish Things
6. Easy To Love
7. You Go To My Head
8. East Of The Sun

- Vocal Jazz
- Classic Female Blues
- Swing

Review:

Thousands of fans have thrilled to Billie's voice since she cut her first record in the early thirties. Out of the tragedy and bitterness of her own life has come a most peculiarly beautiful manner of singing.
This album marks Billie's return to wax after an absence that was way too long. The tunes Billie does are all ballads and all beautiful numbers. A remarkable voice in jazz history.

Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (1959)

1. Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul
2. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
3. Boogie Stop Shuffle
4. Self-Portrait in Three Colors
5. Open Letter to Duke
6. Bird Calls
7. Fables of Faubus
8. Pussy Cat Dues
9. Jelly Roll

- Jazz
- Avant-Garde
- Post-Bop
- Progressive Big Band

Review:

Charles Mingus' debut for Columbia, Mingus Ah Um is a stunning summation of the bassist's talents and probably the best reference point for beginners. While there's also a strong case for The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady as his best work overall, it lacks Ah Um's immediate acccessibility and brilliantly sculpted individual tunes. Mingus' compositions and arrangements were always extremely focused, assimilating individual spontaneity into a firm consistency of mood, and that approach reaches an ultra-tight zenith on Mingus Ah Um. The band includes longtime Mingus stalwarts already well versed in his music, like saxophonists John Handy, Shafi Hadi, and Booker Ervin, trombonists Jimmy Knepper and Willie Dennis, pianist Horace Parlan, and drummer Dannie Richmond. Their razor-sharp performances tie together what may well be Mingus' greatest, most emotionally varied set of compositions. At least three became instant classics, starting with the irrepressible spiritual exuberance of signature tune "Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul," taken in a hard-charging 6/8 and punctuated by joyous gospel shouts. "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a slow, graceful elegy for Lester Young, who died not long before the sessions. The sharply contrasting "Fables of Faubus" is a savage mockery of segregationist Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, portrayed musically as a bumbling vaudeville clown (the scathing lyrics, censored by skittish executives, can be heard on Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus). The underrated "Boogie Stop Shuffle" is bursting with aggressive swing, and elsewhere there are tributes to Mingus' three most revered influences: "Open Letter to Duke" is a suite of three tunes; "Bird Calls" is inspired by Charlie Parker; and "Jelly Roll" is an idiosyncratic yet affectionate nod to jazz's first great composer, Jelly Roll Morton. It simply isn't possible to single out one Mingus album as definitive, but Mingus Ah Um comes the closest.

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (1959)

1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue in Green
4. All Blues Davis
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. Flamenco Sketches [alternate take]

- Jazz
- Post-Bop
- Modal Music
- Hard Bop

Review:

Kind of Blue isn't merely an artistic highlight for Miles Davis, it's an album that towers above its peers, a record generally considered as the definitive jazz album, a universally acknowledged standard of excellence. Why does Kind of Blue posses such a mystique? Perhaps because this music never flaunts its genius. It lures listeners in with the slow, luxurious bassline and gentle piano chords of "So What." From that moment on, the record never really changes pace — each tune has a similar relaxed feel, as the music flows easily. Yet Kind of Blue is more than easy listening. It's the pinnacle of modal jazz — tonality and solos build from the overall key, not chord changes, giving the music a subtly shifting quality. All of this doesn't quite explain why seasoned jazz fans return to this record even after they've memorized every nuance. They return because this is an exceptional band — Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb — one of the greatest in history, playing at the peak of its power. As Evans said in the original liner notes for the record, the band did not play through any of these pieces prior to recording. Davis laid out the themes before the tape rolled, and then the band improvised. The end results were wondrous and still crackle with vitality. Kind of Blue works on many different levels. It can be played as background music, yet it amply rewards close listening. It is advanced music that is extraordinarily enjoyable. It may be a stretch to say that if you don't like Kind of Blue, you don't like jazz — but it's hard to imagine it as anything other than a cornerstone of any jazz collection.

Nat King Cole - Penthouse Serenade (1955)

1. Penthouse Serenade (When We're Alone)
2. Somebody Loves Me
3. Laura
4. Once In A Blue Moon (Based On Rubenstein's Melody In F)
5. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
6. Down By The Old Mill Stream
7. If I Should Lose You
8. Rose Room
9. I Surrender Dear
10. It Could Happen To You
11. Don't Blame Me Listen Listen
12. Little Girl
13. Surrender Dear (Alternate Take)
14. Walkin' My Baby Back Home
15. Too Marvelous For Words
16. Too Young
17. That's My Girl
18. It's Only A Paper Moon
19. Unforgettable

- Vocal Jazz
- Swing
- Traditional Pop

Review:

The year after he had formally disbanded his trio to turn his attention to vocal pop music, Nat "King" Cole reversed himself and went into the studio with guitarist John Collins, bassist Charlie Harris, and drummer Bunny Shawker and recorded the eight-song 10" LP Penthouse Serenade, a quiet, reflective set of standards like "Somebody Loves Me" and "Laura" that he performed instrumentally at the piano. The album confirmed that, whatever success he might be having as a singer, he hadn't lost his touch. In 1955, with the 12" LP gaining dominance, Cole went back into the studio with Collins, Harris, and drummer Lee Young and cut four more songs to create a 12-track reissue of Penthouse Serenade that was his first full-length LP release. In 1998, Capitol Jazz again expanded the album, putting out a 19-track CD version by appending an alternate take of "I Surrender Dear" from the 1955 session and six tracks recorded with Collins and Harris (and, on most of them, percussionist Jack Costanzo) from January 1952, four of which were previously unreleased. The justification for these inclusions was that they featured the same personnel, and they are interesting in that they include alternate, non-orchestrated versions of Cole hits like "Too Young," "Walkin' My Baby Back Home," and "Unforgettable." But they are not in keeping with the rest of the album in that they are vocal tracks. Nevertheless, it's hard to argue with an album that, over the years, has grown from 23 to 51 minutes in length.

The Everly Brothers - The Everly Brothers (1958)

1. This Little Girl of Mine
2. Maybe Tomorrow
3. Bye Bye Love
4. Brand New Heartache
5. Keep a Knockin'
6. Be-Bop-A-Lula
7. Rip It Up
8. I Wonder If I Care as Much
9. Wake Up Little Susie
10. Leave My Woman Alone
11. Should We Tell Him
12. Hey Doll Baby

- Rock & Roll
- Pop/Rock
- Close Harmony
- Rockabilly

Review:

Although the Everlys hadn't quite fully matured as artists, their debut is a fine, consistent effort divided between original material and respectably energetic covers of early rockers by Little Richard, Gene Vincent, and Ray Charles. Besides their first few hits, it includes some superb, underappreciated tracks that are nearly as good, like "Should We Tell Him" and "I Wonder If I Cared as Much."

Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley (1956)

1. Blue Suede Shoes
2. I'm Counting On You
3. I Got A Woman
4. One-Sided Love Affair
5. I Love You Because
6. Just Because
7. Tutti Frutti
8. Trying To Get To You
9. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)
10. I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')
11. Blue Moon
12. Money Honey

- Rockabilly
- Rock & Roll
- Traditional Country

Review:

Today it all seems so easy — RCA signs up the kid from Memphis, television gets interested at around the same time, and the rest is history. The circumstances surrounding this album were neither simple nor promising, however, nor was there anything in the history of popular music up to that time to hint that Elvis Presley was going to be anything other than "Steve Sholes' folly," which was what rival executives were already whispering. So a lot was unsettled and untried at the first of two groups of sessions that produced the Elvis Presley album — it wasn't even certain that there was any reason for a rock & roll artist to cut an album, because teenagers bought 45s, not LPs. The first of Elvis' RCA sides yielded one song, "Heartbreak Hotel," that seemed a potential single, but which no one thought would sell, and a few tracks that would be good enough for an album, if there were one. But no one involved knew anything for sure about this music. Seventeen days later, "Heartbreak Hotel" was released, and for about a month it did nothing — then it began to move, and then Elvis appeared on television, and had a number one pop single. The album Sholes wanted out of Elvis came from two groups of sessions in January and February, augmented by five previously unissued songs from the Sun library. This was as startling a debut record as any ever made, representing every side of Elvis' musical influences except gospel — rockabilly, blues, R&B, country, and pop were all here in an explosive and seductive combination. Elvis Presley became the first rock & roll album to reach the number one spot on the national charts, and RCA's first million dollar-earning pop album.