A lovely performance of “No More Blues” by the 1965 Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, which is the subject of our Mosaic Set 234, The Verve Philips Dizzy Gillespie Small Group Sessions. Rarely has a small group been so musically precise and loose at the same time. And of course, their improvisational abilities and the clown chemistry between Dizzy and Moody are priceless.

-Michael Cuscuna

Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr Twitter

“Riffs”, an OKeh recording from 1929, is a perfect example of James P. Johnson’s Harlem stride style. Bob Hilbert’s excellent notes to our ninth Mosaic release, The Complete Edmond Hall / James P. Johnson / Sidney De Paris / Vic Dickenson Blue Note Sessions, defines his playing as “…always accurate, sure and perfectly articulated, and it always swung. He had a beautiful touch, instantly identifiable to anyone familiar with his recordings, a powerful left hand and a right hand that ‘sang while it danced’, in the words of one critic”. Johnson was even more improvisational than some others in the stride style as Hilbert remarks, “Due to the complexity of stride piano, most performers develop patterns from which they construct solos. Recordings show that their ‘improvisations’ remain little changed from take to take. With James P., however, spontaneity was the rule”.

-Scott Wenzel

Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr Twitter

Pianist Ahmad Jamal, playing a fresh version of “One,” recorded at Jazz a Vienne 2011. With James Camack, bass Herlin Riley, drums, and Manolo Badrena, percussion.

Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr Twitter

Pianist Ahmad Jamal, no shrinking violet, and still raising eyebrows with his 2012 release, “Blue Moon,” holds court on his prodigious beginnings, the great jazz interpreters of American song, from Ellington to Parker to Coltrane — “Lester Young, Polka Dots and Moonbeams, when he played that — come on!” — his relationship with Miles Davis, and the virtues of the mute button.

-Nick Moy

Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr