“...an intriguing recording, because it catches one of the idiom’s most important trumpeters, not merely at the height of his mature powers, but at an interesting point of transition between two of the very best editions of his small bands...” (Chris Sheridan) “.....The heavily blues based styles of Mance and Wright complemented the soulful side of Gillespie who was without question at the peak of his powers at this time....As with all of Nils Winther’s work, the sound is beautifully balanced, and the digital transfers are excellent.” (Cadence)

(2-CD set) “Grappelli told me that Django and Joseph were gypsies. Django had wounded his left hand when he was very young and could only use three fingers, but when he played it was if he had ten on one hand!” Bill COLEMAN. Includes a 40 page booklet with both French and English notes.

No better Joplin cycle exists, and its first complete appearance on CD is long overdue.

Between January and April 1975, the classically trained, multi-award-winning jazz pianist and composer Dick Hyman – whose astounding résumé includes playing with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman, writing and arranging for Count Basie, and scoring most of the films of Woody Allen – went into RCA’s Studio A in New York City and set down the definitive recording of ragtime legend Scott Joplin’s piano works. In 1988, an hour-long selection from the five LPs was released on CD. Now at last, Sony Classical is issuing Hyman’s entire Joplin album on three well-filled silver discs.

This really is Joplin’s complete piano output. It even includes the six short exercises that form his 1908 School of Ragtime, with their printed prefatory remarks read by the 92-year-old Eubie Blake, a friend of Joplin and a distinguished ragtime player in his own right. Also here are Joplin’s less familiar marches and waltzes. And there’s a bonus: the set contains Hyman’s own twelve delightful improvisations on themes by Joplin, which he designed to demonstrate the composer's influence on the development of jazz harmony and melody. When the LPs were first released, Gramophone’s jazz critic wrote that “the eminently musical quality of Hyman’s playing is in evidence throughout the collection; he has the ability to characterize perfectly each piece and somehow to pinpoint every little harmonic subtlety and melodic felicity without in any way detracting from the conception as a whole.... He pays as much attention to matters of tempo, texture, phrasing and dynamics as though he were doing the twenty-four Chopin Preludes. Two for instance I particularly enjoyed were Cascades with its rippling lightness of touch and Scott Joplin’s New Rag in which Hyman’s cleanness of articulation and rhythmic exuberance are a joy. … Joplin well deserves this very handsome and well-recorded tribute.”

CONTENTS:

• Maple Leaf Rag
• Original Rags
• Swipesy
• Peacherine Rag
• The Easy Winners
• Sunflower Slow Drag
• The Entertainer
• Elite Syncopations
• The Strenuous Life
• A Breeze from Alabama
• Palm Leaf Rag
• Something Doing
• Weeping Willow
• The Chrysanthemum
• The Cascades
• The Sycamore
• The Favorite
• Leola
• The Ragtime Dance
• Eugenia
• Lily Queen
• Gladiolus Rag
• Nonpareil
• Heliotrope Bouquet
• Search-light Rag
• Rose Leaf Rag
• Fig Leaf Rag
• Pine Apple Rag
• Solace
• Sugar Cane
• Stoptime Rag
• Euphonic Sounds
• Country Club
• Wall Street Rag
• Felicity Rag
• Paragon Rag
• Silver Swan Rag
• Kismet Rag
• Magnetic Rag
• Reflection Rag
• Antoinette
• Cleopha
• March majestic
• Combination March
• Rosebud
• Great Crush Collision
• School of Ragtime (Exercises Nr. 1-6)
• Bethena (Concert waltz)
• Binks' Waltz
• Pleasant Moments
• Augustan Club Waltz
• Harmony Club Waltz
• New Rag
• +Dick Hyman-Improvisation on Peacherine Rag
• The Entertainer
• Elite Syncopations
• A Breeze from Alabama
• Something Doing
• Gladiolus Rag
• Heliotrope Bouquet
• Fig Leaf Rag
• Stoptime Rag
• New Rag
• Pleasant moments

REVIEW:

The ragtime genre came into full flower from the mid-1890s through the end of World War I, spearheaded by Scott Joplin (1868-1917), whose 1899 composition Maple Leaf Rag became the template and standard bearer for classic through-composed rags. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw newfound interest in Joplin as a serious composer, starting with the New York Public Library’s publication of Joplin’s collected works. Joplin’s 1902 rag The Entertainer figured prominently in the soundtrack for the 1973 Academy Award-winning film The Sting, launching a floodgate of Joplin releases. Even classical artists as unlikely as Itzhak Perlman, James Levine, and E. Power Biggs hitched their stars to the Joplin bandwagon.

However, the most comprehensive, intelligently produced, respectful, and artistically satisfying collection of Joplin’s complete piano works came from RCA Victor in a five-LP boxed set, featuring pianist Dick Hyman. No better Joplin cycle exists, and its first complete appearance on CD is long overdue.

The music is presented by genre, with the rags arranged in loose chronological order by composition, followed by marches and waltzes. Also included is Joplin’s charming “School of Ragtime” Etudes complete with Joplin’s introductory remarks read by composer/pianist and Joplin colleague Eubie Blake, who was 92 when he faced the microphone to speak. Hyman also offers the Grand Crush Collision march both in its original text and in his own ragtime transformation.

Although Hyman’s pianism embraces the entire history of jazz piano, his effortless virtuosity is firmly rooted in classical training. As Rudi Blesh aptly stated in his brilliant and insightful original booklet annotations, the pianist “takes ragtime seriously without becoming solemn and portentous, more as one must do in approaching, say, much of Mozart.”

Two further qualities make Hyman’s Joplin stand out: his intelligent tempo choices, and his ideal fusion of classical projection and jazz time keeping. Take Joplin’s 1899 hit Maple Leaf Rag, for example. Hyman’s vigorous pace, dynamic contrasts, and clear articulation convey pure joy with a soupçon of brashness, so unlike Joshua Rifkin’s effete and rhythmically stiff traversal. The Cascades’ descending runs are as crystalline and transparent as Rubinstein’s Chopin. By contrast, Hyman’s measured tempo and ear-catching inflections of phrase in Elite Syncopations give shape and breathing room to Joplin’s polyphony.

Note, too, Hyman’s lovely legato touch and subtly lilting rubatos in Weeping Willow, Gladiolus Rag, and Solace, while Something Doing is pure lightness and effervescence. The pianist’s characterful animation keeps the episodic Bethena concert waltz afloat and moving. And although Hyman clearly respects Joplin’s texts, the pianist is not above filling out the texture with discreet octave reinforcements in the left hand, as he does in the difficult Euphonic Sounds, a rag that foreshadows elements of stride piano. Because Hyman approaches each piece on its own terms, one gleans more variety and expressive scope from Joplin’s oeuvre than we experience from most other Joplin interpreters.

The original LP edition devoted the tenth side to twelve of Hyman’s improvisations on Joplin themes, which here are spread across the three CDs, most likely for timing considerations. They are sheer delights, from The Entertainer’s bi-tonal coda to a brief and unbuttoned Peacherine Rag that brilliantly burlesques Art Tatum’s 1940 recording of Harold Arlen’s Get Happy.

A Breeze From Alabama is pure, unadulterated barrelhouse and boogie-woogie, while in Joplin’s New Rag Hyman can’t resist interpolating Juventino Rosas’ Over the Waves–better known as the summer camp ditty “George Washington Bridge”. In short, Dick Hyman and Scott Joplin unquestionably belong to the coterie of symbiotic performer/composer pairings that include Schnabel/Beethoven, Gould/Bach, Gieseking/Debussy, Larrocha/Albéniz, and Hamelin/Alkan.

Full disclosure: I met Dick Hyman nearly 60 years ago when I was eight years old, and he has been a friend, a colleague, and a musical father figure to me ever since. We even played two pianos together in several concerts. I vividly remember hearing Dick preparing these Joplin pieces at the time of the 1975 sessions, and marveled at his absolute commitment to the material, his focus and his flexibility in the process of getting all of the music under his awesome fingers. Thanks to Sony/BMG for reissuing and gorgeously remastering an important recording project that belongs in every serious collection.

-- ClassicsToday.com (10/10; Jed Distler)

A long-awaited “jazz” album by the great Ronnie Cuber - “… This new set is a prime of example of Cuber dealing with compositions he knows and appreciates. Material that stands up well to re-examination. He’s in good company and great form.” (Mark Gardner – from the linernotes)

Ella Fitzgerald's "Songbook" records - with her peerless renditions of the best songs from iconic composers from Irving Berlin to Rogers & Hart to Cole Porter to George & Ira Gershwin - are the cornerstone of the Verve catalog and the standard for jazz vocal recordings. Ella never released a live version of these Songbooks. This record, discovered in the private collection of Norman Granz, will make the first time a live Songbook has been released from the First Lady of Song.

Storyville Records proudly presents the previously unreleased live double album, Michel Petrucciani Trio - Jazz Club Montmartre - CPH 1988, by the legendary French pianist Michel Petrucciani. Recorded during a memorable performance at Copenhagen's Jazzhus Montmartre on July 3rd, 1988, the album captures Petrucciani in the company of two jazz icons, Gary Peacock on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. While the trio only came together for a brief European tour in the summer of 1988, the chemistry they shared on stage was undeniable. The trio, propelled by a studio session the previous autumn, radiates synergy, as they explore six of Michel's original compositions with a sense of grace and spontaneity. On this recording, listeners will rediscover Petrucciani's unique lyrical universe, as well as his reverence for modern jazz icons, paying tribute to Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and Paul Bley with special arrangements of classics like Someday My Prince Will Come, Mr. K.J. and Turnaround. From the explosive energy of She Did It Again to the introspective beauty of Autumn Leaves, Petrucciani's virtuosic playing reveals a rare sense of urgency, joy, and an unrelenting passion for life. As Gary Peacock and Roy Haynes were at the height of their careers-Haynes playing with Chick Corea and Peacock with Keith Jarrett-they were drawn to Petrucciani, recognizing the greatness of his artistry. Together, they formed a trio, bound by a shared intuition and respect for one another, and this performance at Montmartre is a testament to that fleeting moment of jazz brilliance. This concert took place at the midpoint of Petrucciani's meteoric career, 12 years after his Paris debut and 11 years before his untimely passing. Despite the physical challenges posed by glass bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta), Petrucciani's fierce determination, boundless love for music, and infectious laughter inspired all who knew him. Now, more than 35 years after that magical evening in Copenhagen, we invite listeners to close their eyes and step back in time. July 3rd, 1988.it could have been last night, or it could be tomorrow morning! A monument over one of the most creative and joyful pianists in jazz ever!

A piece of music history comes alive on Friday, May 10, as Storyville Records releases a new recording capturing the legendary Duke Ellington live in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1958. This recording, Copenhagen 1958 (Bonus: After Hours 1950), offers a rare glimpse into Ellington’s genius during a pivotal period in jazz history. In the late autumn of 1958, Ellington and his orchestra embarked on a whirlwind tour across Europe, leaving a trail of musical brilliance in their wake.

Among the highlights of this tour were two electrifying concerts held at Copenhagen’s iconic sports center, KB Hallen, on November 7. Although the original tapes have been lost to time, segments of these historic performances were broadcasted on separate occasions. Now, these broadcast recordings serve as the foundation for this release, transporting listeners back to a time when Ellington’s music redefined the jazz landscape.

The album opens with Ellington’s signature tune, "Take the A Train," over the vibrant energy of "Newport Up" to the soulful strains of "My Funny Valentine," each track showcasing the orchestra’s talent and Ellington’s innovative compositions. The orchestra was in great form in the late '50s, with the mixture of veterans like Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney, and modernists like Jimmy Hamilton, Clark Terry, and Paul Gonsalves.

One of the highlights is the rendition of "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue," featuring Paul Gonsalves’ legendary solo. In addition to the live recordings from the 1958 tour, this album also includes bonus tracks from after-hours settings in 1950; three tracks from a jam session at the dance restaurant Sct. Thomas in Copenhagen and two solo Ellington tunes recorded at a social charity event in Aarhus.

Copenhagen 1958 stands as evidence of Ellington’s enduring musical legacy, demonstrating that his music remains as pertinent and influential today as it was during its inception!

De l'implacable Fingertips aux furieuses reprises de l'oncle Ray, cette anthologie regroupe entre autres les deux premiers albums de Stevie Wonder. Appele alors Little Stevie, ce genie precoce de 12 ans, egerie de la Tamla Motown, tape fort et pose les premieres pierres de la revolution soul ! Patrick FReMEAUX From his relentless "Fingertips" to the frenzied reruns of Uncle Ray's music, this anthology brings together (among others!) the contents of Stevie Wonder's first two albums, made when he was known as "Little Stevie". At the time, he was already a genius (at the age of twelve) and he became Tamla Motown's muse, a hard-hitting keyboardist who laid the foundations of the Soul revolution. Patrick FReMEAUX THE JAZZ SOUL OF LITTLE STEVIE : FINGERTIPS - SQUARE - SOUL BONGO - MANHATTAN AT SIX - PAULSBY - SOME OTHER TIME - WONDERING - SESSION NUMBER 112 - BAM. TRIBUTE TO UNCLE RAY : HALLELUJAH I LOVE HER SO - AIN't THAT LOVE - DON't YOU KNOW - THE MASQUERADE - FRANKIE & JOHNNY - DROWN IN MY OWN TEARS - COME BACK BABY - MARY ANN - SUNSET - MY BABY'S GONE. 45T : I CALL IT PRETTY MUSIC, BUT THE OLD PEOPLE CALL IT THE BLUES (PART 1) - I CALL IT PRETTY MUSIC, BUT THE OLD PEOPLE CALL IT THE BLUES (PART 2) - LA LA LA LA LA - LITTLE STEVIE WONDER & CLARENCE PAUL - LITTLE WATER BOY - CONTRACT ON LOVE - SUNSET. DIRECTION ARTISTIQUE : OLIVIER JULIEN

Here We Are finds acclaimed jazz vocalist Lori Williams at the heart of a soulful, cross-continental collaboration with top-tier European jazz artists. Born out of friendships from the Poysdorf Summer Jazz Workshop, the album blends original songs and timeless standards with Brazilian grooves, romantic ballads, and classic swing. Williams' warm, expressive voice shines across each track whether delivering heartfelt lyrics or improvising with grace and nuance. Backed by a band that listens and responds as one, Here We Are is a celebration of connection, creativity, and the joy of making music together.

Recorded in NYC November 1988, this album is the first of the series of recordings SteepleChase undertook after a few years of pause from the New York recording scene. Saxophonist Gary Bartz returned to acoustic hard-bop around that time from fusion jazz having played in the 70’s Miles Davis group. “Gary Bartz convinces you his incisive alto would have fit with Monk himself - his ear-catching post-Bird cry, rhythmic snap and blues-sense would have put him in the pocket...he treats the material with the honour it deserves and the spirit it demands.” (Kevin Whitehead, Cadence)

Live archive release from the Jazz legend. Thelonious Monk Paris 1969 is a fascinating and important late-career document of the legendary Jazz pianist and composer in performance with his Quartet at the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris, France on December 15, 1969. The concert also featured a surprise guest appearance from renowned drummer Philly Joe Jones.

Incognito album for sale by Spyro Gyra was released Jun 07, 1994 on the Amherst label. Recorded at Secret Sound Studio, New York. Personnel: Steve Love (guitar, electric guitar); Chet Catallo, Hiram Bullock, John Tropea (guitar); Peter Dimitriades, Matthew Raimondi, Harry Lookofsky (violin); Guy Lumia (viola); Jonathan Abramowitz, Jesse Levy (cello); Frederick Buldrini, Marvin Morgenstern, Lewis Eley, Richard Young, Regis Iandiorio, Harold Kohon (strings); Larry Williams, Tom Scott (flute, saxophone); Toots Thielemans (harmonica, synthesizer); Jay Beckenstein (saxophone, percussion); Gary Grant, Jerry Hey (trumpet, flugelhorn); William Frank Bill Reichenbach Jr. Incognito CD music contains a single disc with 8 songs.

Coryell is the classic 1969 studio album that is known as the best Sounding Larry Coryell release. Rolling Stone - "Play this loud and your life might change forever". Out of print on vinyl until now. This deluxe package includes an OBI strip, Single album jacket, Printed inner sleeve, Original record labels and special Crystal Clear Rose Color Vinyl.

Classic 1974 from The Godfather of Fusion. This is the 1st studio album from The Eleventh House which was a jazz fusion group of the 1970s, led by the guitarist Larry Coryell. The album is Known as Coryell's "Finest Achievement". This deluxe package will include an OBI strip, gatefold album jacket, printed inner sleeve, original record labels and specialty color vinyl. Clear, Blue/Purple/Clear Swirl Color Vinyl

This album was recorded live on June 18, 1971, during the Jazz Festival at Montreux. This is one of the best Jazz Fusion live album... With Larry Coryell (guitar), Chuck Rainey (bass) & the famous Pretty Purdie (drums). A MUST HAVE ALBUM... in Marbled Pink & White vinyl LP.