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Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963 – 1970
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I could scarcely put it better than Richard Cook and Brian Morton in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: “If Hutcherson were a saxophonist, trumpeter, or pianist, he would be regarded as a major figure in jazz, but the vibes still have a slightly eccentric standing, a prejudice which has kept Bobby on the margins.” He’s still hugging those margins eight years after his death at 75 — even though he expanded the expressive possibilities of his instrument as broadly and definitively as any post-bop innovator.

Hutcherson could make the vibraphone do things no other instrument could, whether applying harmonic latticework beneath and around horn sections or pressing forth his own intricate and arresting variations. Having this seven-disc compilation of Hutcherson’s ground-breaking albums from the 1960s should once and for all make the case for his lasting significance. – Customer Review

A Love Supreme at 60
Thoughts on Coltrane’s Masterwork

Sixty years following the release of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Bill Milkowski elicited reflections on its influence from John McLaughlin, Branford Marsalis, Jeff “Tain” Watts and Ravi Coltrane. – Nick Moy

Five Easy Masterpieces
An Introduction To Jazz Fusion

Reuben Cross selects five recordings that could serve as points of entry for understanding the jazz fusion phenomenon. Your choices may differ, but I’ll attest that at least two of his picks — Head Hunters and On the Corner — spent an inordinate amount of time on my turntable. – Nick Moy

Kenny Clarke
Jazz Pioneer

As Steven Cerra aptly puts it in this article for his CerraJazz Substack, “the truth of the matter is, Kenny Clarke is perhaps more responsible for the evolution of modern jazz drumming than any other single individual”. Included is a marvelous interview conducted by Ed Thigpen with Klook. – Scott Wenzel

Woody Herman
Thundering Herd, 1977

It seems that ever since Woody Herman led his first big band in 1936, he had a knack of bringing together outstanding arrangers and musicians that excelled over other bands throughout the years. One period of the Herman Herds legacy does get overlooked are the bands Woody led during the 1970s. Mike Myers brings the 1977 Herd into better perspective. – Scott Wenzel

Ella Fitzgerald

Will Friedwald is correct in his recent Substack post about the quality of material Ella Fitzgerald chose to perform live and record. A wonderful look at the First Lady of Song’s repertoire is presented here. – Scott Wenzel

Bitches Brew
55 Years Later

Hard to believe that more than a half-century has passed since Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew turned so many heads for the first time.  All the more remarkable that so much of this recording still strikes so many as so fresh. – Nick Moy

Jazz Is Freedom

Jason Moran has been effectively elucidating the wisdom of musical elders — among them, Thelonious Monk, James Reese Europe, and now, Duke Ellington.  Elizabeth Alexander explains why Moran’s efforts matter. – Nick Moy

Classic Don Byas Sessions 1944-1946
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“Don Byas was way ahead of Coltrane on those sheets of sound. He was trying to make the tenor saxophone sound like Art Tatum. He and Coltrane had the same idea for the same reason. They both had heard Art’s seamless runs on the piano. Don was trying to do that on the tenor back then. He was head and shoulders above everyone else. Don was also playing bebop and pre-bop. What I mean by pre-bop is he was playing things that led up to bebop. They were long phrases and new ways of using harmonies so that they sounded like the dominant melody. This stuff hadn’t been done yet until Don started playing them.” – Billy Taylor

London Jazz Review
Track after track in this collection offer ample opportunity to hear Byas’s remarkable versatility in varied environments, formations and styles: quartets, quintets, sextets, jam sessions, V-Disc sessions and even big bands. He gets down and funky for the jukebox market with blues shouter Joe Turner and boogie-woogie pianist Pete Johnson. He recorded prolifically with the fine pianist Johnny Guarnieri who had the ability to move seamlessly between Count Basie minimalism and a more ornamented style. He also cut a couple of storming sessions with irrepressible pianist Erroll Garner, recently arrived from Pittsburgh.

And then, the new movement’s manifesto, some of the earliest pure bebop recordings, now rightfully awarded classic status. In January, 1945, together with leader Dizzy Gillespie, trombonist Trummy Young, Clyde Hart (an excellent pianist who only had two more months to live), bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Shelly Manne, Byas cut Gillespie’s ‘Good Bait’, ‘Salted (sic) Peanuts’ and ‘Bebop’ for the Manor label. The revolutionaries were on the march.
Read Full Review Click Here 

Jazz Lives Review
The expansive essay that accompanies this music is the work of the brilliant Loren Schoenberg, a deep student of the music and a superb explicator (ask his Juilliard students) as well as a renowned tenor saxophonist himself. Photographs completely new to me, and the usual exquisite Mosaic documentation.

I will say that some of my readers, hearing months ago “Don Byas,” “1944-46,” and “Mosaic Records,” in the same sentence, will find this posting superfluous because they have already been delighting in the ten CDs in the box. But for those who might not know or might be tempted to say, “Oh, I’ll get that box when my ship comes in,” I urge them not to wait. Limited editions vanish while good-natured procrastinators dawdle.
Read Full Review Click Here

Thelonious Monk Orchestra
At Town Hall

Unlike fellow modern pioneers Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk did not pay substantial dues in the big bands.  While Monk held the piano chair briefly in Gillespie’s orchestra, and had heard his “Round Midnight” introduced by Cootie Williams’ band, his music seemed resolutely small group oriented.

At the close of 1958, however, with his quartet disbanded and yet another licensing hassle temporarily keeping him out of New York City clubs, Monk embraced his advisors’ idea of presenting a concert featuring both a reorganized quartet and a larger ensemble. – Bob Blumenthal

Herbie Hancock
BBC Interview

Herbie Hancock, early adopter extraordinaire, is still exploring technological waters to quench his thirst for innovation.  And here, he also expounds on the influence Miles Davis exerted on his development. – Nick Moy

Louis Armstrong
Captivates Prague 60 Years Ago

In 1965 the great Armstrong and his All Stars travelled to Prague and played to packed houses during the 10 days he stayed there. Keeping politics aside, the music was a smash hit as discussed by Jakub Ferenčík – Scott Wenzel

Fletcher Henderson

Ethan Iverson tells of the importance and extraordinary piano work performed by Fletcher Henderson during “Smack”s coming onto the scene in the early 1920s. – Scott Wenzel

Maurice Ravel
Jazz Connections

The cross-pollination of Maurice Ravel and the jazz world bore much fruit, both for Ravel and for jazz.  Nate Chinen explains how Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Billy Strayhorn and Herbie Hancock, among others, borrowed from Ravel, and how Ravel’s works in turn reflected the influence of jazz. – Nick Moy

Roy Haynes
Powerhouse Jazz Drummer

Roy Haynes fell just short of marking his 100th birthday.  Kevin Whitehead assembled this lively birthday centennial retrospective of the drummer’s accomplishments. – Nick Moy

Sun Ra’s
Full Lecture & Reading List

Students at the University of California, Berkeley had the chance to see Sun Ra in a professorial light.  Open Culture passes along one lecture from that inspired course offering, along with a syllabus that only Sun Ra would have compiled. – Nick Moy

George Wettling
The most important drummer in the Chicago style of jazz

The hard-driving yet tasteful drummer, George Wettling, knew how to energize the rhythm section, not to mention an entire band, with his flare and enthusiasm. He was a major contributor to the big bands of Berigan, Whiteman and Shaw but it was in those Condon led small groups where he flourished. Steven Cerra relates the greatness of Wettling in a recent Substack. – Scott Wenzel

Classic Vanguard Jazz Piano Sessions

On six CDs, “Classic Vanguard Jazz Piano Sessions” contains 88 compositions, many of which will be new to jazz listeners who weren’t around in the days on 10-inch vinyl. Our deluxe set includes an updated and corrected discography and one of our famous booklets featuring many vintage photos and a track-by-track appreciation by noted jazz historian Thomas Cunniffe.

It’s a shame that the bulk of these recordings have been unavailable for so long. We encourage you to snap up a set before our collection — extremely limited — disappears as well.

As critic Whitney Balliet wrote at the time regarding the Ruby Braff/Larkins duets, “For sheer inspiration and first-rate creativity, these should find a permanent place among the greater efforts of recorded jazz.”

‘A Love Supreme’ at 60

As John Coltrane’s masterwork “A Love Supreme” turns 60, an array of musicians across a broad landscape ponder the recording’s significance and its impact on their lives. – Nick Moy

Jaki Byard
Forgotten Genius

Allen Lowe gives us another chance to appreciate the perpetually neglected Jaki Byard. Don’t miss the clip of Byard’s marvelous duet with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. – Nick Moy

Jimmie Blanton
Before Ellington!

Considered to be one of the first bassists to be featured prominently in either a small group or big band is Jimmie Blanton, whose modern approach to accompanying and soloing was highly influential. Blanton’s very short musical life is captured mostly on record with Duke Ellington, but here, thanks to Playback With Lewis Porter, we have Blanton on record before joining the Duke. – Scott Wenzel

Jimmie Blanton Part 1

Jimmie Blanton Part 2

Sonny Rollins
Audio Interview with Ira Gitler

Lewis Porter unearthed this 1994 interview Ira Gitler conducted with Sonny Rollins, in front of an audience at Manhattan School of Music. Rollins is expansive in recalling his early Sugar Hill days, and in reflecting on some of his venerable cohorts, including Miles Davis and the overlooked drummer Ike Day. – Nick Moy

“A Virtuosity of the Heart”
Early Bebop Piano Reconsidered

Allen Lowe’s analysis of the role jazz pianists made during a period of musical change from swing to bop is ably discussed here in a recent Jazz Times article. – Scott Wenzel

Sidney Catlett

Jazz Lives presents a rare audio clip from an Eddie Condon “Floor Show” television program from 1948 over WPIX in New York. Spotlighted in this clip is the multifaceted drummer Big Sid Catlett. – Scott Wenzel

Louis Armstrong
Stomp Off, Let’s Go

A marvelous in-depth interview on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross interviewing Ricky Riccardi who has just written “Stomp Off, Let’s Go” the last in a trilogy of biographies on Armstrong. – Scott Wenzel

Michael Cuscuna
Interview by Lon Armstrong

Ethan Iverson assembled this cornucopia, including ruminations on Stanley Cowell, the final days of Slugs’, and Art Blakey.  The centerpiece for me: a revival of musings from Michael Cuscuna, on Alfred Lion and the Blue Note legacy. – Nick Moy

Cootie Williams
Jumping in the 1940s

One of the highlights of Mosaic’s Classic Capitol Jazz Sessions (now out of print) was the complete output of the Cootie Williams band. The band was an excellent outfit during a time when many musicians were offering themselves to the war effort and big band personnel changed constantly. Jazzwax brings us some examples of this forgotten group which included at times sidemen Eddie Vinson, Sam Taylor and Bud Powell. – Scott Wenzel

John Scofield Interview

‘The guitar is a monster that you have to try to tame’

This amiable and thoughtful interview with John Scofield delves into the guitarist’s roots in New Orleans and Boston, his approach to music and its business, and, naturally, the guitar.  – Nick Moy

Miles Davis
Agharta & Pangaea @ 50

Miles Davis recorded the music for “Agartha” and “Pangaea” 50 years ago.  Phil Freeman, in his Burning Ambulance, makes a convincing case for their stature in the pantheon of Miles Davis’s work.  – Nick Moy

Bird Lives, Dies, Flies
By Richard Wlliams

Last October the Verve label released on LP and CD a mix of thirteen Charlie Parker items that were never meant for commercial release. All were recorded in Kansas City with four cut at a studio in 1944 with guitar and drums, while the other nine sides are from home discs in 1941 (with Jay McShann’s band) and 1951 (a jam session at the home of a friend). The ones from 1944 have seen the light of day but the rest is newly heard Bird. Here is “Cherokee” from the 1951 date. – Scott Wenzel

Barry Altschul
Before & After Test

Barry Altschul, still active at 82, turns this listening test with Ted Panken into a series of revealing reflections on his decades in a New York teeming with musical innovation.  – Nick Moy

5 Minutes That Will
Make You Love Blue Note Records

This label’s 86-year run has been one of the most storied in jazz — and it’s still going. Hear tracks by Wayne Shorter, Sonny Rollins, Robert Glasper and more from the Blue Note catalog. The New York Times asked 14 musicians and writers to name a favorite song to introduce someone to the Blue Note catalog.

Jimmie Blanton

The bassist Jimmie Blanton is considered to be one of the first to be featured prominently in either a small group or big band and his modern concept was highly influential. His very short musical life is captured on record with Duke Ellington but here, thanks to Playback With Lewis Porter, we have Blanton on record before joining the Duke. – Scott Wenzel

Clifford Brown

The Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet created one of the very greatest string of small-group recordings in jazz history, worthy of consideration alongside the Hot Fives and Sevens of Louis Armstrong and the quintets of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. – Bob Blumenthal

Customer Reviews
A New Feature

Mosaic Records has a long history of receiving thoughtful feedback from our valued customers. In the distant past, we would receive an abundance of letters, which inspired us to create a dedicated brochure showcasing customer reviews (though not the one shown here).

Now, we invite you to share your own experiences on our website. Your insights will guide fellow customers in making informed choices.

We appreciate your contributions!

Freddie Hubbard 1938-2008
A Tribute

Steven Cerra has written a brief homage to Freddie Hubbard — an invitation to listen to Hubbard’s classic composition “Crisis.” Hubbard’s recording of “Crisis” included in Mosaic’s currently available box set, (”The Complete Freddie Hubbard Blue Note and Impulse Studio Sessions”) exemplifies the distinctive trumpet voice that seemed ubiquitous on so many touchstones of the art form.  – Nick Moy

Stomp Off, Let’s Go
The Early Years of Louis Armstrong

Ricky Riccardi’s trilogy of Louis Armstrong is now complete. His latest biography on the life of Louis Armstrong, “Stomp Off, Let’s Go” is what we have come to expect from Riccardi – a deep dig into the early years of Pops that is chock full of eye-opening research and a great read. Michael Steinman explains further in Jazz Lives. – Scott Wenzel

Teddy Wilson
Profiles in Jazz

Teddy Wilson was as tasteful and technically precise (but swinging) as one can find at the piano. He was also breaking racial barriers 12 years before Jackie Robinson did so with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Scott Yanow gives a lesson on the life of Wilson via the Syncopated Times. – Scott Wenzel

Columbia Records in the Late 1970s

In the mid-to-latter years of the 1970s a major American record label was home to an impressive and wide-ranging array of jazz artists such as Dexter Gordon, Weather Report, Woody Shaw, Herbie Hancock, and others who brought the label both critical and commercial success. In the next hour I’ll feature their music, and we’ll also hear from jazz producer Michael Cuscuna, who helmed the records made by Gordon and Shaw and who was close friends with Bruce Lundvall, the Columbia executive who helped shape this notable roster of musicians.  It’s “A Winning Season Of Jazz: Bruce Lundvall And Columbia Records In The Late 1970s”… coming up on this edition of Night Lights. – David Brent Johnson

Chick Webb
The Rightful King of Swing

A quick glimpse into the life of Chick Webb whose drumming had been praised by all who had the good fortune of seeing him perform live. Jazzwax has Marc Myers sends our way some excellent audio examples of the great Webb. – Scott Wenzel

Dickie’s Dream
For the Ages

How can anyone tire of this immortal footage from the CBS TV show “The Seven Lively Arts”? The year is 1957 in this live TV jam on “Dickie’s Dream” and it features Count Basie, Jo Jones, Benny Morton, Joe Newman, Dickie Wells, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Vic Dickenson, Roy Eldridge,, Emmett Berry and . Such power, raw energy and creative solos. For the ages. – Scott Wenzel

Lee Morgan
Whisper Not

Lee Morgan (tp), Kenny Rogers (as), Hank Mobley (ts), Horace Silver (p), Paul Chambers (b), Charlie Persip (d). Arranged by Benny Golson. December 2, 1956

This Lee Morgan session clearly had rich harmonic possibilities with the presence of two saxophones, and they were exploited by turning all of the writing over to Golson and Marshall, who even received billing in the personnel listing on the back of Blue Note 1541. The result is far more attention to organizational detail. Charlie Persip, like Golson, was a mate of Lee Morgan’s in the Gillespie band. Horace Silver returns, and Paul Chambers is on bass.

“I was in tune with everything the day I wrote Whisper Not,” Golson once told Nat Hentoff, “and it was done in half an hour. It came so quickly I could hardly get the melody down.”

The introductory four-bar pickup is the only thing about Golson’s jazz standard that has not become familiar over the years, and this debut recording is further enhanced by the composer’s voicings on the ensemble choruses and in backgrounds to the saxophone solos.

After employing open horn for the theme statement, Lee Morgan mutes his trumpet for two solo choruses precocious in their taste, ideas and swift flashes of technique. If Sharpe was close to McLean, Rodgers fits more comfortably in the Cannonball camp, with a pre-Bird tinge in his sound similar to Julian Adderley’s.

Hank Mobley rolls into a set of changes that show the tenor saxophonist at his best, while tremolo and on-the-beat moments during Silver’s chorus recall one of his “schoolmates,” Freddie Redd. The sextet is really playing as a band on the out chorus, with Chambers’ invaluable cut time a key element. – Bob Blumenthal

Dave Brubeck
How to Make Sense of His Piano Style

Lewis Porter reflects on the oft-maligned piano style of Dave Brubeck, and suggests that there may be more to Brubeck’s method than his detractors may realize. – Nick Moy

Jas Obrecht, author and former editor of Guitar Player magazine, conducted this 1981 phone interview with Barney Kessel. The subject was Charlie Christian who Kessel had known and his wealth of information and keen observations about the guitar legend are startling. – Scott Wenzel

While it is impossible to single out a recording from 1938 that is fully representative of Ellington’s late-thirties compositional methods, “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart” says as much about what he could now do as anything else that he recorded in that year of grace. It opens with a four-bar rhythm-section introduction that sets a medium-slow walking tempo, at the end of which Hodges enters with the main theme, a swooping tune in which an octave-wide leap is balanced by off-beat syncopations.

Hodges, Brown, and Harry Carney pass the melodic baton from hand to hand, alternately accompanied by “ooh-wah” brass riffs and choralelike reed harmonies. In the second chorus, the full band enters and restates the theme (one of Ellington’s favorite structural devices) in a warmly scored block-chord ensemble variation, with Bigard soloing on the bridge. Then the first half of the opening chorus returns, transformed this time into a “sumptuously velvety” twelve-bar coda (Gunther Schuller’s phrase) that fades down and out.

Like “Old Man Blues” before it, this dancer-friendly ballad is structured so imaginatively that the casual listener is likely to overlook the resourcefulness with which Ellington has juxtaposed the instrumental colors on his palette. – Terry Teachout

Classic Vanguard Small Group Swing Sessions
Reviews

Jeff Krow – Full review at Audiophile Audition
These Vanguard sessions are quite special and historical, as many of these albums have not been fully released for over 70 years, outside of the Japanese market. Both John Hammond, and his contemporary, Norman Granz of the Verve family of labels, helped keep the Swing jazz scene vibrant, as bop was emerging.

The seven CDs in this set, most in the 70 minute range, feature the best of recording artists of that period, whether they be veterans like Coleman Hawkins, Lucky Thompson, Sir Charles Thompson, and Edmond Hall, or new comers (and now legends) like Kenny Burrell. There is a contagious joy here, with generous horn solos, sparkling piano, and drummers that are adept on pushing the beat, but also laying back with tasty brush work, letting the front line take charge. The list of pianists involved in these sessions is beyond impressive, as they include boogie woogie, blues, and swing stalwarts. 

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Michael Steinman-Full review at Jazz Lives

This Mosaic set, the first of two devoted to the Vanguards, is a delight. Compact informative notes by Thomas Cunniffe point out details, not only historical but musical, that listeners might have missed. Session photographs, new to me, are delightful. And even though the original microgroove Vanguard issues sounded beautiful, the sound on the seven CDs, taken from the original master takes, is a marvel.

…the fluid swing to be heard on these discs, the remarkable sound of individualists “telling their stories” both in solo and ensemble, has not been surpassed. If you know a younger aspiring jazz instrumentalist or vocalist, a gift of this set would teach more, by subtle sweet osmosis, than a whole Jazz Studies course at some institution devoted to such pursuits. I do not exaggerate. 

Certificate Of Appreciation
Home For Our Troops

Thank you to all our customers who purchased this set and Mosaic Records donated 10% of all sales to Home for Our Troops.

We wanted to personally reach out and thank you and those that supported the Mosaic Records Independent
Fundraiser for Homes For Our Troops (HFOT). Your support helps our mission and allows us to build and
donate even more specially adapted custom homes, empowering severely injured post-9/11 Veterans and
their families who have already sacrificed so much for our country. – HFOT

Duke Ellington
Unknown Interviews and Music

Playback with Lewis Porter continues to delight with two previously unknown interviews with Duke Ellington from 1940 with the Maestro playing his latest composition “Never No Lament” and his thoughts on composers and his own compositions. Also included is an equally rare television appearance over CBS as a masked guest on a Halloween edition of The Faye Emerson Show” in 1950. – Scott Wenzel

Paul Desmond Centennial
He Was Always “Pure”

Paul Desmond has reached his birthday centennial.  Ethan Iverson summons a reprise of an earlier assessment of Desmond’s contribution to the alto saxophone canon; and he further entices us with an encounter between Desmond and Lee Konitz.  – Nick Moy

Sid Catlett
Recollections by Rex Stewart

Big Sid Catlett is the subject of Steven Cerra’s excerpt from “Jazz Masters Of The 1930s” a book written by cornetist Rex Stewart that quickly became one of the all-time great print recollections of this period in jazz. This is a highly recommended read into Stewart’s first hand reminisces of Big Sid and the world of jazz during this period. – Scott Wenzel

50 Great Jazz Albums From 1974

We have, of late, looked to years like 1959 as bellwether years for jazz recordings. Here, Phil Freeman makes a case for 1974, after fifty years now, as another intriguing year for great jazz releases — when free jazz stood shoulder-to-shoulder with fusion. Freeman naturally cites the Cecil Taylor 1974 Town Hall Concert recordings as a case in point; although consider, too, “The Roscoe Mitchell Solo Saxophone Concerts;” Keith Jarrett’s first studio recording with his quartet with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian; Stanley Clarke’s eponymous recording; and an underrated favorite of mine, Clifford Jordan’s “Glass Bead Games.” – Nick Moy

Talking with Trummy Young
A Fan’s Memories

Trummy Young, although a member of Louis Armstrong’s All Stars during the 1950s, is still an underappreciated trombonist who was a major cog in the success of the Jimmie Lunceford band and was an inspiration to many modern trombonists like Eddie Bert. The Syncopated Times brings light to Young’s history and individualistic style. – Scott Wenzel

DownBeat Blindfold Test
Billy Cobham

Billy Cobham makes some astute observations about a number of his percussive cohorts in this wide-ranging DownBeat blindfold test.

Michael Cuscuna (1948–2024)
An Evening of Performances & Remembrances

Monday, December 9 at 7:00pm
Saint Peter’s Church
619 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022
www.saintpeters.org

Featuring: Peter Bernstein, Otis Brown III, Gerald Cannon, Bill Charlap, Billy Harper, Billy Hart, Kevin Hays, Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Renee Rosnes, Charles Tolliver & more…

Michael Cuscuna was one of the best friends jazz music has had. It’s simply too limiting to call him the leading jazz reissue producer of the past fifty years — which he certainly was – but he was much more.

As a producer of new jazz, R&B and rock recordings; As co-founder of the leading reissue record label Mosaic Records; As a historian, journalist and deejay; As the man who singlehandedly kept the Blue Note Records legacy on life support when no one else was paying attention — Cuscuna played a singular role in the world of jazz by not limiting himself to any one lane. His selfless dedication to Jazz and the Jazz community is known around the world, and he leaves behind his own rich legacy of a life well lived.

Classic Vanguard Small Group Swing Sessions
(#280 – 7 CDs)

LOCKED AWAY MORE THAN 70 YEARS —
VANGUARD JAZZ FINALLY GETS A RETROSPECTIVE TRIBUTE

Preorder Sale Price $119; Regularly $129
Expected Release Date December 10th
Preorder Now!

A Night At Birdland
A Historic Jazz Milestone

“We have something special down here at Birdland this evening,” Pee Wee Marquette announces as he introduces the Art Blakey Quintet on Volume 1 of A Night at Birdland. The diminutive, frequently hyperbolic and notorious emcee did not know how special, for the music that Blakey’s band made and the recordings on which it was captured were historic for a variety of reasons. – Bob Blumenthal

Duke Ellington
Man with Four Sides

Duke Ellington not only spent his life composing and arranging timeless hit songs for his big band but another passion was for the stage. Here Lewis Porter shares with us the story and musical examples of one of Duke’s unproduced shows called “Man With Four Sides” which was for the most part written and copyrighted in 1955. – Scott Wenzel

Mike Stern Joins Miles Davis

How did guitarist Mike Stern end up  playing with Miles Davis?  Here’s Stern’s version of what happened. – Nick Moy

Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson, a Charlie Parker-influenced alto saxophonist who played major roles in the invention of two major jazz movements and bridged the gap between jazz, soul and what he called “swinging bebop,” died on November 9. He was 98. – Marc Myers

Classic Bobby Hutcherson
Blue Note Sessions 1963 – 1970

Eleven Classic Studio Albums on Seven CDs!

The set is more than a compilation. It’s music history.

Bobby Hutcherson’s very first date as a leader for Blue Note was “The Kicker” in 1963, though it was held back and went unreleased until 1999, possibly because Joe Henderson on saxophone steals a lot of the thunder from the date’s purported leader. From his second session, “Dialogue,” his growing association with new music was becoming clear. By his third date, 1965’s “Components,” Hutcherson’s authority over the music became established.

From then on, he was writing a substantial number of the compositions on each date and the music was not limited by one style or genre, giving him ample opportunities to offer new work, up-tempo pieces, and ballads. An exceptional writer, Hutcherson had a wonderful approach on ballads and an unparalleled ability to use sustaining notes to move and blend in ways that almost completely disguise the mallet’s attack. There is never an doubt when you are hearing Hutcherson, his style is that distinctive.

Delta Rhythm Boys
Two Film Discoveries of “One O’Clock Jump”

Mark Cantor is the world’s greatest jazz film researcher and historian. His latest filmographies of the Soundies from the 1940s are akin to anything Brian Rust or Tom Lord has done toward jazz discography. Here are some of his latest discoveries of “One O’ Clock Jump” and other examples of the Basie theme as presented by Lewis Porter. – Scott Wenzel

Big Joe Turner
Flip Flop And Fly

“Big” Joe Turner began shouting the blues in the mid-1930s and he continued to do so until his death in . A major influence on rhythm and blues and rock and roll during the 1950s, one of his biggest hits was “Flip Flop and Fly” which was later covered by The Blues Brothers. Here’s a live version from 1966 in Europe. – Scott Wenzel

Classic Jazz At The Philharmonic
Jam Sessions 1950-1957

A First-Ever Collection
JATP 1950s Jam Sessions

JATP concerts from the 1940s were documented in 1998 on a 10-CD Verve boxed set. But until now, the 1950s concerts have been passed over for a retrospective. In fact, since the CD era began very little of the material from that span has been available at all.

Mosaic is proud to correct that oversight with our 10-CD release, Classic Jazz at the Philharmonic Jam Sessions (1950-1957), a defining set that documents the energy and invention of these phenomenal musicians and the adoring response from long-time fans.

Django Reinhardt

“Django Reinhardt’s had the ability to riff with abandon without compromising expressiveness and he could count among his admirers Duke Ellington, Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins.” – Alan Goodman

Tony Williams

One drum legend’s admiration of another: Charlie Watts explains how and why, of all the drummers who played with Miles Davis, Tony Williams most deeply impressed and influenced Watts, and by extension, the propulsive sound of the Rolling Stones.  – Nick Moy

Nat King Cole

In one of early television’s most daring but delightful programs was to let NBC give Nat King Cole his own prime time show even if it was during the short period of November 5, 1956 to December 17, 1957. As guests for the October 15, 1957 show, Nat brought on the Jazz At The Philharmonic troupe along with Norman Granz. Thankfully, there is a brand new clearer print of this remarkable show which we send to you via JazzWax – Scott Wenzel

Don Byas
Review

“Byas dominates the strip of turf between Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker”; before reflecting: “Hard these days to recognize just how highly regarded Byas once was until one actually hears him”. –  The Penguin Guide to Jazz