ACROBAT
234 products
EARLY YEARS: SIX COMPLETE ALBUMS 1957-61
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$23.85
Jan 20, 2023
Quincy Jones has become one of the most prominent personalities in popular music as a trumpeter and pianist who became an arranger, composer, bandleader, record producer and film & TV producer, and winner of a Grammy Legend Award in 1992, and who in 2022 is still active after a 70-year career
ALL THE HITS AND MORE 1927-54
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$30.54
Apr 07, 2023
DUKE ELLINGTON - ALL THE HITS AND MORE 1927-54 - It's a comprehensive overview of his most successful output during a primary era of his career Duke Ellington was one of the most important and influential figures in the entire history of jazz, as pianist, bandleader, composer and innovator, his career spanning half century as the genre evolved from the early days of electric recording. However, while critics and commentators focus on his over-arching significance as a giant of the medium, it's easy to forget that he was a genius at composing tune and songs for the medium of the 3-minute 78rpm single, and during the first three decades of his career before rock 'n' roll changed the pop landscape irrevocably, he had more than 70 records that were credited as chart hits. This great-value 4-CD set comprised all those 77 recordings which are listed in recognised sources as hits, plus another 20 or so which are regarded as significant compositions which became standards, or were hits for other artists. It includes his No. 1s with "Three Little Words", "Cocktails For Two", "I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart", and the Billboard R&B No. 1s "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", "Sentimental Lady", "Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me" and "Main Stem", along with classics like "Mood Indigo", "Sophisticated Lady", "Moon Glow", "Solitude", "Caravan", "Take The 'A' Train" and "I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good". It's a comprehensive overview of his most successful output during a primary era of his career, and a great showcase for the artistry which made the Duke such a revered and iconic personality.
DRUMMIN' MAN: HITS & CLASSIC RECORDINGS 1938-50
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$20.04
Aug 11, 2023
Gene Krupa - Drummin' Man: Hits & Classic Recordings 1938-50 Gene Krupa was one of the most admired and influential drummers in the history of jazz, with his impact extending into the pop era, not least through his effective defining of the make-up of the modern drum kit. As a drummer and bandleader in the swing and big band eras of the late 1930s and '40s, he became known for what the New York Times called his "frenzied, flashy" drumming which was revolutionary in it's day, and elevated the rile of the drummer from pure accompanist to being an important solo voice in the band. This 48-track 2-CD collection features all his 27 career hits on the Brunswick, Columbia, Okeh and RCA-Victor labels, plus selected renowned recordings from across this era. It includes his Top 10 hits "It All Comes Back To Me Now", "High On A Windy Hill", "Just A Little Bit South Of North Carolina", "Along The Navajo Trail", "Chickery Chick" and "Bonaparte's Retreat". There are performances by his noted female vocalists Irene Day and Anita O'Day, and by his other featured vocalists Jerry Kruger, Howard Dulaney, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Desmond, Carolyn Grey and Bobby Scots. It offers a fascinating cross-section of his recordings, from the more mainstream pop material that comprised many of his hits to the hard-hitting big band jazz for which he was especially renowned, and it's an entertaining showcase for his music.
STUDIO AND 'LIVE' COLLABORATIONS 1960-62
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$21.04
Jan 14, 2022
STUDIO AND 'LIVE' COLLABORATIONS 1960-62 - DIZZY GILLESPIE / LALO SCHIFRIN - Lalo Schifrin is an Argentinian pianist, composer, arranger and conductor who studied and played in France in the early '50s before forming his own jazz orchestra in Argentina. He first met Dizzy Gillespie in 1956 and wrote the extended work "Gillespiana" for him. While in New York in 1960, he was offered chance to join Gillespie's Quintet as pianist, and over the next two years recorded a number of sessions with Gillespie as well as performing with Gillespie at recorded concerts and club dates, which established his reputation, providing the basis for his becoming a celebrated composer of film music in later years. This 2-CD set comprises studio and 'live' recordings from the albums "Gillespiana", "Jazz At The Philharmonic In Europe", "An Electrifying Evening With The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet" and "Dizzy On The French Riviera", along with selected other 'live" performances. It includes performances with a number of noted jazz musicians, including Clark Terry, J.J. Johnson. Stan Getz, Benny Carter, Cannonball Adderley, Leo Wright, Chuck Lampkin, Bob Cunningham, Candido Camero, Charlie Ventura, Mel Lewis and others. It's a highly enlightening introduction to Schifrin's early years on the US jazz scene, working with one of the pioneers and architects of bebop, on a range of repertoire that includes his own compositions, bebop classics and vibrant Latin jazz.
BENNY GOODMAN SMALL BANDS COLLECTION 1935-45
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$25.04
Jan 15, 2021
Clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman was one of the giants of the swing era, with his orchestra pioneering the genre in the late '30s and riding the big band wave through into the post-ear era. However, he also greatly enjoyed playing in more flexible small jazz groups, where his superb technique had more of a chance to shine. This great-value 70-track 3-CD set brings together a significant proportion, but excluding vocal performances, of the titles he recorded in Trio, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet and Septet environments the heyday of his swing orchestra, often recording with artists drawn from the current incarnation of his bands. It comprises recordings on the Victor, Columbia and Okeh labels, and not surprisingly features a host of significant jazz personalities, including Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Christian, Cootie Williams, Count Basie, Red Norvo, Slam Stewart, John Kirby, Fletcher Henderson, Johnny Guarnieri, Georgie Auld and many more. It's a thoroughly enjoyable anthology of small band jazz that defies being categorised, ranging across both well-known standards and original compositions, and allows us to hear Benny and his colleagues swinging and improvising in some star-studded line-ups
COLLECTION 1927-34
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$25.04
Jan 15, 2021
The Memphis Jug Band are generally primarily associated with the blues, but in truth they were a more broad-based musical agglomeration, whose music was designed to be danceable, humorous and out-and out entertaining. Their line-up varied across the years, but the essential jug band sound and instrumentation of guitar, jug, kazoo, harmonica, and occasional banjo, mandolin, washboard and woodblocks, remained at the core of their sound, which has provided a template for skiffle groups and modern jug bands ever since, with many of their songs also still being performed by such bands. This great-value 72-track 3-CD set comprises most of their recordings for Victor and Okeh during this era, including recordings as The Memphis Sheikhs and The Carolina Peanut Boys. It features some of those jug band classics which have passed into later bands' repertoires, including "He's In The Jailhouse Now", "Move That Thing", "On The Road Again", and "Bottle It Up And Go". It's a comprehensive overview of their career, and a highly entertaining showcase for their rough-edged but finely-honed skill as entertainers.
ART TATUM COLLECTION 1932-47
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$32.06
Jul 02, 2021
Of all the pianists in the annals of jazz, Art Tatum is the one who is most often cited by the great pianists of the post-war era as a key influence and inspiration, his remarkable speed, dexterity, fluency and sheer relaxed mastery of the keyboard in his prolific interpretations of the standards from the Great American Songbook setting him apart from just about all of his peers. Developing his skill despite his blindness, he astounded observers, who marvelled at his technique, often saying that he sounded like two people playing. This great-value 93-track 4-CD set comprises a significant proportion of his recordings from his studio debut in 1932 through to 1947 - at that point he began recording for Capitol, and after that had a second substantial career phase recording for Norman Granz's labels during the '50s. It primarily features solo recordings on the Brunswick, Decca, Asch and ARA labels as well as V-Disc recordings, plus trio and small band recordings for those labels as well as Comet, and recordings with the Barney Bigard Sextet for Black & White and other bonus offerings. It does not purport to be a complete or definitive cross-section of this first significant era of his career, but it's certainly a substantial and representative showcase for one of the great piano stylists of the genre.
COUNT BASIE COLLECTION 1937-39
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$25.04
Mar 12, 2021
William "Count" Basie was one of the most important, innovative and influential personalities in jazz during the middle decades of the 20th century, both as pianist, composer and bandleader, his music transcending the worlds of small group jazz, big band music, swing and R&B, and with many future stars of the genre coming to prominence playing with his orchestra. Having honed his skills with Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City, he formed his own orchestra in 1936 after Moten's death and after a lengthy engagement in Chicago signed to Decca, recording for them until almost the end of the decade. This 63-track 3-CD set comprises his releases for Decca during those years, which laid down a marker as to the talent and style of his bands, and constitute a significant and satisfying body of work. The collection features many of his well-known compositions like "One O'Clock Jump", "Blue And Sentimental", Blues In The Dark", along with some of the classic standards of the era. A number of the tracks feature vocals by the great singers Jimmy Rushing and Helen Humes, and among the predominantly big band recordings are some by Basie with a trio comprising Fred Green, Walter Page and Jo Jones. Among the other musicians in his line-up were Buck Clayton, Lester Young, Harry Edison and Dickie Wells. It's a substantial, entertaining and enlightening overview of this key era of Basie's career.
ALL THE HITS AND MORE: SELECTED SINGLES 1948-61
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$23.85
Mar 10, 2023
Rosemary Clooney, well-known in recent years as the aunt of movie star George Clooney, was one of the most popular and successful pop singers of the immediate post-war decades, racking up a remarkable string of hits in the early '50s. She called herself "a sweet singer with a big band sensibility"
PARAMOUNT YEARS 1926-32
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$23.85
Mar 10, 2023
Arthur 'Blind' Blake was a blues and ragtime guitarist, singer and songwriter who was a leading pioneer and member of what became known as the Piedmont school of bluesmen, performing in a style that was associated with the south-eastern states of the USA, mainly around Georgia
COLLECTION 1940-51
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$25.04
Apr 09, 2021
Tony Pastor was a jazz and big band saxophonist, singer and bandleader who was with Artie Shaw's orchestra during the '30s before launching his own band in 1940, subsequently enjoying a highly successful chart career through the 1940s with a distinctive style of upbeat and entertaining middle-of-the-road music, including the novelty-flavoured material popular in that era. In the later years of the decade, he provided an early career opportunity for Rosemary Clooney and her sister Betty, who recorded with Pastor through 1948-49, and who are featured on a dozen or more titles here. This 72-track 3-CD set comprises selected A and B sides from his singles on the Bluebird, RCA-Victor, Cosmo and Columbia labels during this era, and features all his fifteen US chart entries, including the Top 10 hits "Maria Elena", "Dance With A Dolly", "Bell Bottom Trousers", Sioux City Sue", "Red Silk Stockings And Green Perfume" and "The Lady From Twenty-Nine Palms". It features at least one side of a significant proportion of his releases during these years. Along with Tony Pastor himself and The Clooney Sisters, featured vocalists include Johnny McAfee, Eugenie Baird, Dorsey Anderson, Kay Little, Elisse Cooper, Kay Foster, Rita McCullough and Virginia Maxey. It's a substantial and enjoyable showcase for the music of an artist who is not much talked about these days but who made a significant contribution to the popular music of this primary decade and more of his career.
HITS COLLECTION 1935-44
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$32.06
Nov 05, 2021
The music of Glenn Miller's orchestra was central to the style and atmosphere of the Swing Era and is inextricably associated with the Allied victory in WWII, his hits keeping people's spirits up on both sides of the Atlantic, with Miller himself becoming part of the war effort until his mysterious disappearance in 1944. Such was his popularity that in the period of less than a decade from his launching his orchestra in the mid-30s through to his demise, he had over 120 hits, both with his instrumental classics and with the new songs of the time. This great value124-track 5-CD set comprises just about all of recordings on the Columbia, Brunswick, Bluebird, Victor and RCA-Victor labels which are listed as hits in standard industry sources, many from the era after the launch of the Billboard record sales charts in 1940. It features an extraordinary tally of 21 No. 1s, including "A String of Pearls", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Moonlight Cocktail", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "Tuxedo Junction", "In the Mood", "Blueberry Hill", "Fools Rush In" and many more. The featured vocalists include Ray Eberle, Marion Hutton, Tex Beneke, Kathleen Lane, Jack Lathrop, Dorothy Claire, Paula Kelly, Skip Nelson and The Modernaires. It's a substantial and entertaining showcase for one of the most important orchestras of the times, and an enormously evocative journey through the popular music landscape of a remarkable era in modern history.
SINGLES COLLECTION 1946-59
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$25.04
May 07, 2021
Born in Mississippi in 1915, Al Hibbler, who was blind from birth, was a baritone vocalist whose career transcended the divide between big band jazz, rhythm and blues and sophisticated pop. Starting with the band of Jay McShann, he became the vocalist with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1943, recording memorable hits with him and staying with Ellington until 1951, but along the way also forging a career as a solo recording artist, enjoying a string of R&B and pop hits, both in the USA and the UK. This 75-track 3-CD set comprises most of his A and B sides on the Aladdin, Sunrise/Miracle, Chess, Atlantic, Mercury/Clef/Norgran and Decca labels during this era. It includes all his career chart entries, most notably his US No. 3, R&B No. 1 and UK No. 2 in 1955 with "Unchained Melody" and his US pop Top 10 hits with "He" and "After The Lights Go Down Low", plus Top 10 R&B hits with "Trees", "Lover Come Back To Me", "Danny Boy" and "What Will I Tell My Heart". It includes a couple of fine recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra. Al Hibbler occupies a unique place in American popular music, and this substantial and comprehensive overview of his primary career as a chart-focused artist provides an enjoyable showcase for his smooth and distinctive vocal style.
ALL THE HITS AND MORE 1937-48
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$21.04
Jun 04, 2021
Larry Clinton was a trumpeter, trombonist and clarinettist who, when in his twenties, became a successful arranger for Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Glen Gay's Casa Loma Orchestra and Bunny Berigan during the mid-1930s before starting his own orchestra in 1937. Playing a mixture of current pop in the "sweet" style, ambitious jazz-styled instrumentals and swing arrangements of classical pieces, he had a string of nearly 40 hits through into the early '40s, and when he picked up the threads after service during WWII. Most of his hits featured the fine voice of his star vocalist Bea Wain, whose contributions were a key element of his success. This excellent-value 48-track 2-CD set comprises all his 38 hits plus other selected releases on the Victor, Bluebird and Decca labels, many featuring Bea Wain, and features the No. 1s "Cry, Baby, Cry", "Heart And Soul", "My Reverie", and "Deep Purple", along with sixteen other Top 10 hits, with many examples of the early commercial recordings of some of the landmark compositions of the Great American Songbook era. Along with Bea Wain, other featured vocalists are Dick Todd, Ford Leary, Mary Dugan, Helen Southern, Peggy Mann and Butch Stone. The collection provides not only a thoroughly entertaining showcase for a top class orchestra about which not much is heard these days, as well as for the vocal talents of Bea Wain, but also an enlightening overview of some of the most popular music of those years.
MOVIE MUSIC OF DIMITRI TIOMKIN 1937-62
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$20.63
Apr 01, 2022
Composer and conductor Dimitri Tiomkin, born in Russia in 1894, but who emigrated to the USA after the First World War, is one of the most successful and celebrated composers of film music in the history of cinema. Nominated for 22 Academy Awards, he won four of them, for Best Original Score for "High Noon", "The High And The Mighty" and "The Old Man And The Sea" and for Best Original Song for "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me". In the process of writing songs and themes for dozens of movies, he had more than 25 chart entries with his compositions when recorded as singles by other artists. This great-value 55-track 2-CD set comprises themes and music from original soundtrack compositions, along with recordings of his movie songs and music by other artists from the first and highly significant first quarter-century of his career. It includes music from all the films for which he won Academy Awards, and a significant proportion of those for which he was nominated. It also features 27 records which made either US or UK charts, including Top 5 hits with Frankie Laine's "High Noon" and "Blowing Wild", Les Baxter's "The High And The Mighty", and Pat Boone's "Friendly Persuasion", as well recordings by many major artists like Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Dean Martin and Gene Pitney. It offers a substantial and varied insight into the work of one of the legendary, but sometime unheralded, figures in the world of movie music via some compositions which are veritable masterpieces of their kind.
FRANKIE NEWTON COLLECTION 1929-46
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$25.04
May 10, 2019
Frankie Newton was a much-admired trumpeter whose recording career spanned two highly significant decades from the 1920s through to the 1940s during which time his adaptable, mellow swinging style made him a popular sideman in many different leaders' bands while he also led his own orchestras and small bands in sessions that produced some marvellously entertaining recordings. The fact that he somewhat lost interest in music in favour of other interests, resulting in him fading from the scene as bebop developed, meant that his influence and legacy has been sadly ignored over the years. This great-value 69-track 3-CD set comprises recordings from across his active career, and features recordings with a startling variety of top names, ranging from Bessie Smith in the 1920s, through the likes of Mezz Mezzrow, Teddy Wilson Willie "The Lion" Smith, Maxine Sullivan and Billie Holiday in the '30s, to Art Tatum, Mary Lou Williams, and Big Joe Turner in the '40s, as well as his own bands such as the Uptown Serenaders and Caf� Society Orchestra. It encompasses a highly entertaining range of jazz styles, showcasing him in a variety of different musical environments, both in the studio and 'live', as a powerful and inventive soloist and sensitive accompanist and ensemble player as well as a leader. It provides a substantial tribute to a musician who merits much more
EARLY YEARS COLLECTION 1948-60
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$31.15
Sep 09, 2022
Blossom Dearie was a jazz pianist and vocalist with a style and technique which skilfully interwove her piano and voice as she accompanied herself. Her approach to piano was distinctive, using chord voicings which inspired the likes of Bill Evans who named her as one of his models of piano playing, while her voice was also highly personal, with a light and airy flavour. Born in 1924, she spent some of her early career in France during the early '50s, which helped shape her style. This great-value 96-track 2-CD set comprises early recordings with Dave Lambert, Stan Getz & Kai Winding and King Pleasure, plus recordings in France with Les Blue Stars, who became The Swingle Singers, and then the complete content of her album Jazz Sweet for Barclay in France, followed by her albums for Verve between 1956 and 1962 Blossom Dearie, Give Him The Ooh-La-La, Once Upon A Summertime, Sings Comden And Green, My Gentleman Friend and Soubrette: Blossom Dearie Sings Broadway Hit Songs. It features recordings in small groups alongside top musicians of the day, including Ray Brown, Jo Jones, Herb Ellis, Mundell Lowe, Ed Thigpen, Cy Coleman Kenny Burrell, Bobby Jaspar, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke. It's a feast of top quality, highly listenable jazz, and a great showcase for her talents both as instrumentalist and vocalist.
MR. DRUMS: THE BUDDY RICH COLLECTION 1946-55
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$25.04
Jun 03, 2022
Jazz drummer Buddy Rich is famous as one of the most extrovert and impressive instrumentalists of his day, known for his virtuoso technique, power and speed, and one of the most influential drummers in the genre. Born in 1917, the son of a vaudevillian couple, he was immersed in the drums from a very early age, as well as being a singer and tap dancer. Having played with Artie Shaw, Bunny Berigan and Tommy Dorsey from the late 1930s, he served in WWII, he was with Dorsey until Frank Sinatra helped finance Rich to form his own orchestra in 1946. This 59-track 3-CD set comprises most of his studio recordings with his own band through 1946-47 for Mercury and on V-Disc, plus selected recordings through to 1955 with his own groups and with bands and small groups led by Charlie Parker, Flip Phillips, Count Basie, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, Roy Eldridge and Harry James, variously appearing on the Mercury, Clef, Norgran, Verve, Pablo and Columbia labels. It features performances alongside many notable musicians of the era, including Nat King Cole, Buck Clayton, Hank Jones, Clark Terry, Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Benny Carter, Barney Kessel, Buddy de Franco, Herb Ellis, Ben Webster, Art Tatum, Illinois Jacquet and many more. Featuring Rich performing in a variety of musical environments, including some of Buddy's vocal outings, it's an entertaining showcase for his legendary versatility and prowess.
GUITAR WIZARD: THE TAMPA RED COLLECTION 1929-53
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$32.06
Jun 03, 2022
Hudson Whittaker, better known as Tampa Red, was a hugely prolific and influential blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, an innovative slide guitarist and the first black musician to play a National steel-bodied guitar. Moving from Florida to Chicago in the 1920s, he started recording in 1928 with Thomas Dorsey, playing in a hokum style as well as blues, over the years incorporating a pop-oriented style with The Chicago Five. Playing electric guitar from the 1940s working with Big Maceo Merriweather, he influenced musicians like Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters and Elmore James, as his Chicago home became a centre for the blues community. This great-value 121-track 5-CD set comprises selected recordings from the 300 and more titles he released during this era on the Vocalion, Bluebird & RCA-Victor labels, as Tampa Red, Tampa Red & Georgia Tom, Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band and Tampa Red And The Chicago Five, referred to on many of his record labels as "The Guitar Wizard". It features his R&B Top 10 hits "It Hurts Me Too/When Things Go Wrong With You", "Pretty Baby Blues", "Let Me Play With Your Poodle", and "Detroit Blues", and many well-known songs that were precursors of rock 'n' roll. It features performances with Black Bob, Sonny Boy Williamson, Joe Williams, Big Maceo Merriweather, Blind John Davis, Ransom Knowling, Walter Horton, Sonny Boy Williamson II and others. It's a substantial overview of a key quarter-century of his career, and an entertaining showcase for one of the most significant personalities in the genre.
SINCE I MET YOU BABY: THE '50S COLLECTION
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$20.63
Mar 18, 2022
Pianist, singer and songwriter Ivory Joe Hunter was a blues balladeer extraordinaire, specialising in a unique brand of highly tuneful and soulful blues songs that bucked the trend for more raucous and extrovert blues in the 1940s and early '50s, although he could rock and boogie with the best of them as well. Born in Texas in 1914 - "Ivory Joe" were his given names and not a nickname - he made his first recordings as a talented youngster for the Library of Congress in 1933. He worked on radio in Texas in the early '40s before moving to Los Angeles, and joining Johnny Moore's Three Blazers for a while before making his first solo records in 1945. He had a string of hits in the late '40s which appear on Acrobat's existing product "Ivory Joe Hunter - Jukebox Hits 1945-50" (ACMCD4208), registering a landmark No. 1 with "I Almost Lost My Mind" in 1950. This great value 51-track 2-CD set picks up the story from that point and comprises selected A & B sides from his releases on the MGM, Atlantic & Dot labels during the 1950s - by the end of the decade his chart career was over. It features all his twelve R&B and pop chart entries from this era, including the R&B No. 1s "I Almost Lost My Mind", "I Need You So" and "Since I Met My Baby", plus the Top 5 hits "Guess Who", "Jealous Heart", "Waiting In Vain", "I Quit My Pretty Mama" and "Empty Arms". The selections in the set include some great grooving instrumentals and rock 'n' roll flavoured material alongside the trademark ballads, and it's a fine showcase for an artist with one of the most distinctive styles in blues
100 CLASSIC RECORDINGS 1925-53
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$32.06
Jul 01, 2022
Willie "The Lion" Smith was a jazz and stride pianist, rivalling James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Clarence Williams in the latter style, who was nicknamed "The Lion" because of his bravery serving in the US Army in France in WWI. By 1910 he was already playing in New York clubs and played on his first recording session in 1920.
HITS COLLECTION 1930-56
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$20.63
May 06, 2022
Cab Calloway was a jazz singer, bandleader, songwriter, dancer and actor who came to fame as a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he blended jazz and vaudeville to establish a niche that stood him in good stead as an entertainer across seven decades, with one of his most famous roles in later years coming in the 1980 "Blues Brothers" movie. He developed a personal style of scat singing, and was able to deliver novelty-flavoured material with swinging jazz credibility, assembling a band that over the years included jazz luminaries like Ben Webster, Milt Hinton, Doc Cheatham, Chu Berry, Cozy Cole, Dizzy Gillespie and others. This excellent-value 48-track 2-CD set features the releases from this era on the Brunswick, Victor, Variety, Vocalion, Okeh, Columbia and ABC-Paramount labels which were credited with chart positions, plus a few bonus tracks. Those 45 hits include the No. 1 "Minnie The Moocher" and the Top 5 hits "Kickin' The Gong Around", "St. James Infirmary", "Tickeration", "Minnie The Moocher's Wedding Day", "Chinese Rhythm", "Moonglow", "Angels With Dirty Faces", "The Jumpin' Jive", "Blues In The Night" and "The Honey Dripper". He was a unique personality, and these recordings underline his skill and versatility in performing fine swinging jazz while giving it a highly individual comedic twist, and we hope this collection of his best sellers from the era provides an entertaining showcase for his distinctive talents.
COLEMAN HAWKINS COLLECTION 1927-56
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$13.02
Aug 12, 2014
Coleman Hawkins was a hugely influential exponent of the tenor saxophone in jazz, being widely regarded as the first artist to establish the instrument as an essential component of the genre's sound. Beginning his career in the early days of jazz in the late '20s, he became a major figure during the swing and big band eras spanning WWII, but also made a significant contribution to the bebop scene into the 1950s. His distinctive but highly adaptable style and sound enabled him to perform over the years in small bands and large orchestras alike both as sideman, leader and featured soloist, and this collection draws on examples of all those elements of his career, from his early recordings with Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra in 1927 through to bebop sessions alongside lush recordings with strings in the mid-'50s. It's a great value 48-track 2-CD, and along the way, there are contributions from many great names of the genre, too numerous to list here, but including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Cozy Cole, J.J. Johnson, Charlie Christian, Benny Carter, and many more. It's a worthy addition to the Fabulous label's Jazz Legends series. It does not duplicate any tracks included on our existing Fabulous label Coleman Hawkins CD 'Bean Soup' (FABCD 136).
SINGLES COLLECTION VOL. 2 1951-62
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$23.85
Aug 16, 2024
SINGLES COLLECTION VOL. 2 1951-62
ART OF FARMER: CLASSIC ALBUMS 1953-55
ACROBAT
Available as
CD
$23.85
Jan 12, 2024
Art Farmer - The Art Of Farmer: Classic Albums 1953-55 / Comprising mainly original material, but with a sprinkling of standards. - Art Farmer was a jazz trumpeter, born in 1928, who came to the fore in the post-war bebop era, and recorded and performed continuously and prolifically in the USA and Europe through the latter half of the 20th century until shortly before his death in 1999. His reputation was enhanced by his recording of "Farmer's Market" in 1952, shortly after which he embarked on the sessions featured here for the Prestige label during the middle years of the decade, which were along his first as a band leader. Those sessions were mixed and matched across several 10" and 12" LPs over the next few years, and this 42-track 2-CD collection comprises the complete contents of the Prestige albums Work Of Art", "Art Farmer Quintet", "Art Farmer Plays", "The Art Farmer Septet", "Early Art", "When Farmer Met Gryce" and "Evening in Casablanca". His bands on these sessions featured a number of noted musicians of the day, including Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Percy Heath, Kenny Clarke, Wynton Kelly, Gigi Gryce, Philly Joe Jones and others. Comprising mainly original material, but with a sprinkling of standards, it captures Farmer at a key moment of his career as he blossomed into one of the most respected trumpeters of the era.
