Jazz classics reissued. Limited audiophile edition. DMM mastering.

Jazz At Massey Hall is an album by Quintet, released in 2023. Jazz At Massey Hall includes a.o. the following tracks: “Perdido”, “Salt Peanuts”, “All The Things You Are”, “Wee” and more.

In September 1955, Miles Davis formed a legendary quintet that would go down in history. John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Together with Miles, these unknowns created the new hard bop.

Monk came to Prestige from Blue Note, where he had recorded with several groups of varying sizes, including some trios. At Prestige, his first two recordings (October and December 1952) were exclusively in trio with Art Blakey on the first and Max Roach on the second. Two other pieces, also with Blakey, were from a 1954 trio session, and this album contains the first recordings of “Little Rootie Tootie,” “Bemsha Swing” and “Blue Monk.”

Coltrane – originally released in 1962 – and as a bonus two tracks from the same from the same session, which were not included on the original album.

John Coltrane features all the exciting elements that sparked brilliance on both tenor and soprano saxophones on both the tenor and soprano saxophones. The album features his classic Quartet with bass player Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones and others can be heard above all the outstanding McCoy Tyner, who at this Time had all already integrated their passionate dynamics into the inner whole of the group.

The Miles Davis Quintet of 1955-’57 was a phenomenon that made the jaws of many drop. Their magic and fluid playing in the fast lane was best experienced live on stage. One who witnessed the group’s rise was the usually sober music journalist Ralph Gleason, who later wrote:

I heard this band many nights at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, for which I am grateful … they howled. And they didn’t need to warm up … the sheer intensity was exhilarating. Fast or slow, they made every beat sound like it was born in an atom-splitting burst of energy.

The quintet was a phenomenon. In their exuberant full-throttle phase, the group just had so much to offer: Coltrane’s raw, angular – at times endless – tenor improvisations. Garland’s fiery left-hand chord work. Philly Joe’s exciting cymbal work and driving rimshots. Miles’ restrained, muted trumpet. Chambers’ deft and soulful solos with the bow. For years after the quintet’s debut, jazz journalists were still amazed by their interactivity. “The complexity of the connection between the minds of these musicians has not, in my opinion, been equaled in any other group,” wrote Gleason. Prestige president Bob Weinstock praised them as “the Louis Armstrong Hot Five of the modern era.”

This 1963 release was compiled from two separate sessions at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, in 1958 and includes recordings from the later years of Coltrane’s tenure with Prestige. At just under 40 minutes in length, it includes performances by session players such as Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb and others. It includes Coltrane’s interpretations of compositions by Yip Harburg, Arthur Schwartz, Sammy Cahn and others.

In the 1960s, the adventurous alto saxophonist Jackie McLean crossed the boundaries to the avant-garde several times on his Blue Note albums. But on “Demon’s Dance,” his 21st and also last album for the label, he and his quintet focused entirely on dashing post-bop in 1967. The cover painting by German-French painter Mati Klarwein, who would later design iconic record sleeves for Miles Davis (“Bitches Brew”) and Santana (“Abraxas”), was as impressive as the music.

Blue Note Tone Poet Edition: stereo, produced by Joe Harley, mastered entirely in analog by Kevin Gray from the original tapes, RTI pressing (180g), sturdy tip-on gatefold, padded inner sleeve.

Ugetsu is an album by Art & The Jazz Messengers Blakey, released in 2023. Ugetsu includes a.o. the following tracks: “One By One”, “Ugetsu”, “Time Off”, “Ping-Pong” and more.

Back in New York after successfully battling personal demons, and at the helm of the incredible Horace Silver / Percy Heath / Kenny Clarke rhythm section, Miles Davis cut a pair of sessions in April 1954 that announced where both his own music and jazz in general were heading. The quintet date, with underground legend Davey Schildkraut on alto sax, provided the first inkling of the trumpeter’s haunting muted style and introduced his classic composition “Solar.” Even more influential was the sextet session with J. J. Johnson and Lucky Thompson, which took advantage of long-playing record technology with two extended jams that announced both the return of modern jazz musicians to a focus on the blues and the coming of the funky hard-bop era. Together on the LP Walkin’, this music (among the first to be recorded for Prestige by Rudy Van Gelder) created one of the earliest essential albums in the Miles Davis canon.

Attractive jazz reissue celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Pablo label, which former Verve boss Norman Granz founded in 1973 and ran successfully for many years:

Under the title “Afro Blue Impressions” Norman Granz released on his label as a double LP two outstanding live sessions by John Coltrane, recorded in 1963 in Berlin and Stockholm with sidemen McCoy Tyner, piano, Jimmy Garrison, bass, and Elvin Jones, drums.

To celebrate the double 40th + 50th anniversaries, this recording is now reissued all new in 24-bit remastered, with three previously unreleased bonus tracks, plus new liner notes.

The album was compiled from unreleased material from three separate recording sessions at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio. Coltrane was a sideman on all the original sessions, which were led by trumpeter Donald Byrd, pianist Red Garland or drummer Art Taylor.