Miles Davis - Doo-Bop

Doo-Bop was jazz innovator Miles Davis' final studio album, which would have marked the beginning of the artist's turn to hip-hop-oriented tracks. However, Davis died on September 28, 1991, before the album was completed. Only six tunes for the album had been completed.[1] To finish off the album, producer Easy Mo Bee was asked to take some of the unreleased trumpet performances (stemming from what Davis called the RubberBand Session), and build tracks that Miles 'would have loved' around the recordings. The album's posthumous songs (as stated in the liner notes) are "High Speed Chase" and "Fantasy." A reprise of the song "Mystery" rounded out the album's nine-track length.

The project stemmed from Davis sitting in his New York apartment in the summer with the windows open, listening to the sound of the streets. He wanted to record an album of music that captured these sounds. In early 1991, Davis called up his friend Russell Simmons and asked him to find some young producers who could help create this kind of music, leading to Davis' collaboration with Easy Mo Bee. The result of this collaboration, Doo-Bop, was released by Warner Bros. Records on June 30, 1992, and received mixed reviews. The album won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance

Dirty Dozen Brass Band-What's Going on

On August 29, the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band will release their reinterpretation of Marvin Gaye’s classic LP What’s Going On. Thirty-five years after its original release, the political and social themes of the album are just as relevant as ever. Along with many others along the Gulf Coast, the members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band lost their homes to Katrina. Their take on What’s Going On is not only an attempt to express their feelings about this tragedy and other current events, but also a tribute to the spirit of their hometown of New Orleans.

The Stan Getz Quartet @ Chet Baker - Quintessence V2

Fans of Chet Baker know that the trumpeter and vocalist's career is divided into two distinctly different periods: His elegantly minimalist 1950s work where he helped define the "cool jazz" sound of the period, and his later efforts that were maddeningly inconsistent. This aural document from his later years--recorded in Oslo in 1983--falls into the latter category, and it's a decidedly mixed bag. Baker's voice is, sadly, far from in its top form, and his vocal performances here on standards like "Just Friends" and "But Not For Me" show him straining. Still, there are plenty of reasons to like this live recording. Stan Getz himself is in fine form throughout, his tenor saxophone tone still as rich and full-bodied as ever (especially on his gorgeous opening solo on "I'm Old Fashioned"), and his backing group (Jim McNeely on piano, George Mraz on bass and Victor Lewis on drums) swings superbly. Baker's trumpet playing was also in much finer form than his voice, and during his better moments here--as on his interplay with Getz on a lovely version of "Star Eyes"--a bit of his old self shines through.

Miles Davis - Blue Haze

Blue Haze is an album recorded in 1953 and 1954 by Miles Davis, for Prestige Records. The first track on the album is from the 3 April 1954 session which resulted in half of the album Walkin' (and was originally included on the 10" vinyl version of that album). The remainder is the result of two sessions on 19 May 1953 and 15 March 1954, the first being a quintet with John Lewis, Charles Mingus (on piano, not bass), Percy Heath and Max Roach, and the second a quartet with Horace Silver, Heath, and Art Blakey. Tracks 2 and 7 are wrongly credited as Davis compositions - they are both in fact by Eddie Vinson (see also Donna Lee for possible explanation of this). However, Vinson supposedly wrote these tunes for Davis, and this is probably how the confusion has occurred.

1.I'll Remember April D. Raye, G. DePaul and P. Johnston 7:52
2.Four M. Davis and E. Vinson 4:00
3.Old Devil Moon B. Lane and E.Y. Harburg 3:22
4.Smooch M. Davis and C. Mingus 3:04
5.Blue Haze M. Davis 6:08
6.When Lights are Low B. Carter and C. Williams 3:25
7.Tune Up M. Davis and E. Vinson 3:52
8.Miles Ahead M. Davis and G. Evans 4:28

John Coltrane - Black Pearls

Recorded in the late-1950s, the John Coltrane of BLACK PEARLS is not the shining, legendary beacon of free jazz he eventually became by the mid-'60s. At the time of PEARLS, Coltrane was a member of the Miles Davis Quintet, and this was one of his solo ventures. Like many Prestige discs of this period, it's a straight-ahead hard-bop jam session. Featuring sterling accompaniment by Red Garland (also then with Davis) on piano and Donald Byrd's crackling trumpet, PEARLS displays Coltrane's surging sheets-of-sound approach in full flower.

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on May 23, 1958. Originally released on Prestige

Horace Silver - Doin' The Thing

Doin' the Thing is a live album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note label in 1961 featuring performances by Silver with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor, and Roy Brooks recorded at the Village Gate in New York City.

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars and states "This live set finds pianist/composer Horace Silver and his most acclaimed quintet stretching out". The All About Jazz review of the CD rerelease by Hrayr Attarian called the album "especially unique, not only because of its quality, but because it is the only live recording of his most famous quintet. Although it was recorded 45 years ago (1961), this CD has the power to transport one back in time to the smoky room at Village Gate where one feels the raw energy of the live performance"

Tomasz Stańko - Suspended Night

Tomasz Stańko - Suspended Night

It's entirely marvelous--and almost always unexpected--to encounter a first-class jazz performer moving from a position of prominence to one of absolute top rank. Without a doubt, that is what trumpeter Thomasz Stanko has accomplished on his latest release from ECM. Here he plays with a confidence and presence often glimpsed in his previous recordings but come fully to the fore on this transcendent disc.

As impressive as Stanko is (and he's mighty impressive!), the real heroes here are, perhaps, his Polish quintet. Especially standout are Marcin Wasilewski on piano and Slawomir Kurkiewicz on bass. Not far behind is Michal Miskiewicz on drums. These players consistently set the table for the exact right moods and atmospheres for Stanko, be it elegy ("Song for Sarah"), acquiescence ("Suspended Variation I"), friskiness ("Suspended Variation II," a spirited tango), romance ("Suspended Variation III," a gorgeous ballad), hope ("Suspended Variation IV," another gorgeous ballad), joi de vivre ("Suspended Variation V," the closest thing these guys come to an up-tempo number), mystery ("Suspended Variation VI," a meditation of the vagaries and vicissitudes of life), and so on. This proves, as much as any recent recording, the magic that comes from playing with a working jazz band

Once again, as we have come to expect from engineer Jon Erik Konshaug and producer Manfred Eicher, the sound is ravishingly beautiful--with exquisite detail, presence, and warmth. ECM at the absolute top of its game. Hard to beat.

Surely one of the most purely stunningly beautiful jazz discs ever recorded, Suspended Night instantly vaults trumpeter Stanko to the very front ranks of trumpeters in the history of jazz.

Tracklist

1. Song for Sarah [05:30]
2. Suspended Variations I [08:52]
3. Suspended Variations II [08:24]
4. Suspended Variations III [07:13]
5. Suspended Variations IV [07:04]
6. Suspended Variations V [04:20]
7. Suspended Variations VI [08:54]
8. Suspended Variations VII [03:25]
9. Suspended Variations VIII [04:21]
10. Suspended Variations IX [05:52]
11. Suspended Variations X [04:47]

Personnel:
Sławomir Kurkiewicz - double bass
Marcin Wasilewski - piano
Tomasz Stańko - trumpet
Michał Miśkiewicz - drums