2018 release. Kamasi Washington's sophomore album Heaven and Earth not only fulfills it's overarching ambition, but illustrates the dialectic between seen and unseen, real and imagined, citizen and culture, self and self, as well as self and other, and does so through the lens of a mature but never jaded revolutionary consciousness. The artist's own words best convey the inspiration behind this monolith of an album "The world that my mind lives in, lives in my mind. This idea inspired me to make this album Heaven and Earth. The reality we experience is a mere creation of our consciousness, but our consciousness creates this reality based on those very same experiences. We are simultaneously the creators of our personal universe and creations of our personal universe. The Earth side of this album represents the world as I see it outwardly, the world that I am a part of. The Heaven side of this album represents the world as I see it inwardly, the world that is a part of me. Who I am and the choices I make lie somewhere in between."

Follow-up to the critically acclaimed CMJ jazz record, New Orbit. Shipp continues to challenge the limits and preconceptions of jazz with this explosive, beats-driven modern jazz recording. Acoustic and electronic rhythm figures serves as a backdrop for a canvas of organic compositions based on improv impluses.

Born in Philadelphia on 11th December 1938, as a youth McCoy Tyner was encouraged to study piano by his mother and began lessons at age 13. Within two years music had become the focal point in his life and Tyner was playing on his neighbour's instrument, but his family soon invested in one of his own for the budding musician, following which he began hosting jam sessions at home. Among his friends were a number of other young musos who would go on to make their mark in the field of jazz, including Lee Morgan, Archie Shepp, Bobby Timmons, Reggie Workman, and most notably, fellow pianist Bud Powell and his brother Richie. McCoy later said, "Bud and Richie Powell moved into my neighbourhood. Bud was a major influence on me during my early teens. He was very dynamic." Tyner later attended the West Philadelphia Music School and the Granoff School Of Music. Also included as part of this collection, is a rare, previously unreleased recording of a jam session undertaken by members of John Coltrane's group in Munich in 1961, led by Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet and McCoy Tyner on piano. This unique and rarely heard recording also featured Reggie Workman on bass, Mel Lewis on drums, and Coltrane himself contributed trumpet to one number. This complete 4 CD collection, containing almost five hours of music, showcases all of Tyner's work with Impulse! As a bandleader, bringing together as it does McCoy Tyner's finest early releases, during a period that the great man went from being a breakaway from John Coltrane's group, to a fully-fledged international and wildly respected jazz band-leader in his own right. This boxed set will thus serve as both welcome reminder of this sublime musician's best ever work, or as a starting point for those not yet flying the flag.

Drummer Chick Webb led one of the most dynamic and exciting Big Bands of the Pre-war era. His abilities for talent spotting led to the discovery and nurturing of two of the 20th century's most influential artists- Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan- both of whom feature in this collection of some of his best known recordings. A perfect introduction to one of the all time jazz greats.

This 4CD boxset features music from the golden era of this superb musician and composer's long musical career, comprising as it does eight original albums first released between the mid-1950s and the early-1960s. Serving as an ideal introduction to Taylor's music, as well as a first class collection of his best work, this set will delight all those who take the time to listen.

Herbie Mann - The Complete Recordings Part III 1959-1962 Having already put out an impressive body of work by the end of 1958, Manns career witnessed a major creative shift thanks to one Sid Torin. Better known as Symphony Sid, Torin was the DJ credited by many as having introduced bebop into the mainstream, and it was he who suggested Mann add a conga player to his group. This, coupled with a State Department funded tour of Africa, influences the Afro-Cuban jazz album Flautista! (Verve, 1959). Recorded live at Basin Street East, New York on 30th June that year and featuring renowned percussionist Carlos Patato Valdes, the record was a vital stylistic development for Mann, and for the jazz genre as a whole. Across the next few years Herbie Mann's albums would become a veritable smorgasbord of legendary jazz percussionists, with 1960s Flute, Brass, Vibes And Percussion (Verve, 1961) regarded as one of Manns finest recordings, due in no small part to the inclusion of Ray Barretto and Ray Mantilla. This four disc collection features eight complete albums from one of the most exciting and experimental phases of Herbie Mann's career, and serves as a perfect illustration of how this unique, exciting and ultimately fearless musician favored the exotic over the traditional or mainstream and in so doing ended up among the most respected jazz men of all time.

One of the most innovative, experimental and outlandish figures in American jazz, saxophonist Ornette Coleman dramatically altered the direction of the genre. A leading musician on the avant-garde scene, Coleman was among the pioneers of the free jazz movement, alongside Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane. His unconventional techniques, stark arrangements and unique playing style opened up a host of possibilities for what could be achieved in the field of jazz, and in so doing he earned himself a reputation that is as potent today as ever it was. This 4CD set compiles all eight Ornette Coleman albums released between 1958 and 1962, from his stunning debut Something Else, through to his final album with the Ornette Coleman Quartet, Ornette On Tenor. Featuring over five hours of music, remastered to the highest standard possible, this collection serves as both an excellent starting point for those new to this musical genius, and as a welcome reminder of Coleman s most acclaimed and respected era, from a career that lasted the best part of 70 years, ended only by the man s passing in 2015 at the age of 85.

Demonstrating the creation of a true jazz icon and tracking his development from his earliest recordings to his departure from the label with whom he made his name, these albums are presented here faithfully remastered form not just the perfect introduction to this master musician, but equally provide an a enthralling glimpse of an essential contribution to American musical history.

Herbie Mann - COMPLETE RECORDINGS: 1955-1957 - A true pioneer of his instrument - indeed his predecessors were few and far between - Herbie Mann was one of the first to take the flute into the mainstream jazz spotlight. Embracing elements of numerous genres throughout his long and decorated career, Mann was lauded for his intricate playing and impeccable sense of groove that would influence generations of flautists to follow. Born Herbert Jay Solomon in Brooklyn, New York on 16th April 1930, Mann became enamored with music at an early age, initially wishing to learn drums but eventually being convinced by a family member to take up clarinet instead. His parents, both of Eastern European descent, were dancers and singers before becoming vocal coaches later on in life. Mann attended Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach, and gave his first ever performance at a resort in the Catskills aged 15. After serving four years in the army including time stationed in Trieste, Italy, where he had played saxophone in the military band, Mann returned to the United States in 1952, only to find the Lester Young-derived style he had adopted now oversaturated the music scene. Fate was on Mann s side however, as he was soon approached by Dutch accordionist Mat Mathews, who was seeking a flautist to appear alongside him on the debut album of the then-unknown jazz vocalist Carmen McRae. These sessions would later be released as Carmen McRae (Bethlehem, 1954), and would enable Mann to distinguish himself as one of the first and most groundbreaking jazz flautists. In December of that year he would also appear on Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown (EmArcy), an album that would go on to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. It was soon after these collaborations that Herbie Mann began taking part in his first studio sessions as bandleader. These would initially be released as the 10 East Coast Jazz/4 (Bethlehem, 1954), and later as a full album with additional recordings as Herbie Mann Plays (Bethlehem, 1956). These sessions also saw the first collaboration of Mann with esteemed jazz guitarist Joe Puma, who would feature on nearly all of Mann s albums over the next four years. Whilst well known for his adoption of different styles as his career progressed, Herbie stayed firmly within the realms of cool jazz during this early period, a direction which received mixed reviews from critics at the time but did little to halt his rising popularity. His proper debut album, Flamingo (Bethlehem 1955) would appear the following year, along with an appearance on The Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet (Bethlehem), a collaboration with one of his few flute contemporaries. Mann would also release two highly-regarded albums alongside Belgian flautist and tenor saxophonist Bobby Jaspar: Flute Flight and Flute Souffle (both Prestige, 1957). This four disc collection contains, in their entirety, the recordings that would prove the crucial foundation for this magnificent musician s career. Remastered in excellent quality and featuring nearly five hours of sublime music, this set captures perfectly the striking ability of Herbie Mann during the earliest period of his recording career, and hints at the potential that, when realized, would go on to establish Mann as one of the finest purveyors of his instrument within the world of jazz.

Herbie Mann - COMPLETE RECORDINGS: 1957-1958 - A pioneer of what has come to be known as world music and one of the first notable jazz flautists, Herbie Mann s unique sound developed throughout his long and eclectic career. With a repertoire that also included the tenor saxophone and clarinet, Mann produced a staggering back catalogue during his lifetime, both as bandleader and alongside such jazz greats as Chet Baker, Count Basie and Art Blakey, featuring prominently as he did on the latter s undisputed masterpiece Orgy In Rhythm. Between 1957 and 1958, a period in which he began to evolve from his roots in bop and cool jazz, Herbie Mann recorded some of his most critically-acclaimed albums of the 1950s, including the well received Salute To The Flute. Featuring a plethora of big name contributors including Oscar Pettiford, Philly Joe Jones and Gigi Gryce, this landmark work also included guitarist Joe Puma in it's line up, a musician who had featured on many of Mann s previous records. 1957 also saw the release of one of Herbie s most curious LPs, Mann Alone, remembered primarily as a solo jazz flute record and previously available only on vinyl. Other notable releases from the period include the classic Yardbird Suite, featuring Mann s interpretation of Charlie Parker s bebop standard, and Flute Fraternity, which saw him collaborate with the legendary Buddy Collette. Demonstrating the musical dexterity of the pair, the album would feature both Mann and Collette playing flute, various saxophones and clarinet. Just Wailin boasted the talents of saxophonist Charlie Rouse, pianist Mal Waldron, guitarist Kenny Burrell, bassist George Joyner and drummer Art Taylor. In December of 1958, Mann had the honour of recording several sessions with the great jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, which would later appear on Chet Baker Introduces Johnny Pace and Chet. 1957 and 1958 marked a true turning point in the career of Herbie Mann as he began to abandon the straight-edge cool jazz style for which he had become best known, and increasingly take influence from outside his traditional fare. This collection, featuring eight original Herbie Mann albums, all now in fully remastered format and providing over five hours of music across four CDs, documents perfectly the beginnings of this master musicians most transitional and challenging period, as it highlights the great man s ability to adopt increasingly experimental forms in a surprisingly subtle manner.

As the 1950s drew to a close, Monk's relationship with Riverside was beginning to sour over disagreements concerning royalty payments. He would not record another studio album for Riverside after 5 by Monk by 5, and a significant number of live albums followed, which showcased a variety of legendary performances across the USA, France and Italy. In 1962, Monk signed to Columbia Records. Working with producer Teo Macero on his debut for the label, the sessions in the first week of November had a stable line-up that had been with him for two years, Monk's Dream, was released in 1963. Columbia's resources allowed Monk to be promoted more heavily than earlier in his career. The album would become the best-selling LP of his lifetime, and on February 28, 1964, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine, being featured in the article "The Loneliest Monk". He continued to record studio albums, including Criss Cross, also from 1963, and Underground, from 1968. Monk had disappeared from the scene by the mid-1970s, and made only a small number of appearances during the final decade of his life. His last studio recordings as a leader were made in November 1971 for the English Black Lion label, near the end of a worldwide tour with the Giants of Jazz, a group which included Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Al McKibbon and Art Blakey. The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz was established in 1986 by the Monk family and Maria Fisher. It's mission to offer public school-based jazz education programs for young people around the globe, helping students develop imaginative thinking, creativity, curiosity, a positive self-image, and a respect for their own and others' cultural heritage. In addition to hosting an annual International Jazz Competition since 1987, the Institute also recently helped, through it's partnership with UNESCO, designate April 30, 2012, as the first annual International Jazz Day. Monk was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Although domiciled in France for much of his career, the unique Sidney Bechet was one of the most skilful and influential clarinettists in New Orleans where he was born in 1897. His style and tone set the model for the Dixieland and Trad Jazz movements of the 1950s and were hugely influential on players such as Chris Barber. This second collection of Sidney Bechet (see FABCD 135) features more of his greatest moments. Bechet was recently the subject of a Radio 2 series narrated by Warren Mitchell. Tracks include "Maple Leaf Rag", "One O' Clock Jump", "Saturday Night Blues", "Mood Indigo" and "China Boy".

Jazz pianist Bill O'Connell has established a well-earned reputation as an innovative composer of jazz and Latin jazz, along with being a veteran working musician. Features long-time associate Dave Valentin on flutes, Bobby Maloch on tenor sax, bassists Charles Fambrough, David Fink and Lincoln Goines, along with drummers and percussionists Steve Barrios, Milton Cardona and Kim Plainfield. With Latin jazz fantasy, O'Connell pulls out all the stops and has created a compelling tour de force, composing songs for small groups and large orchestra with a full string and horn section. It's not only big, but it churns, bubbles and rocks.

Bill Evans is widely considered to be one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. Evans' use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block chords, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continue to resonate today. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey on 16 August 1929, Evans was classically trained and studied at Southeastern Louisiana University. In 1955 he moved to New York, where he worked with bandleader and theorist George Russell. In 1958, Evans joined Miles Davis' sextet, where he was to have a profound influence. In 1959, the band, then immersed in modal jazz, recorded Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album of all time. In late 1959, Evans left the Miles Davis band and began his career as a leader with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, a group now regarded as a seminal modern jazz trio. In 1961, ten days after recording the highly acclaimed Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby, LaFaro died in a car accident. After months of seclusion, Evans re-emerged with a new trio, featuring bassist Chuck Israels. Despite his success, Evans suffered personal loss and struggled with drug abuse. Both his girlfriend Elaine and his brother Harry committed suicide, and he was a long time user of heroin. Many of his compositions have become standards and have been played and recorded by many artists. Evans was honored with 31 Grammy nominations and seven awards, and was inducted in the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. This compilation contains Evans' first 12 albums as leader covering the years 1956 - when he recorded and released his debut record New Jazz Conceptions featuring the original version of his most covered track 'Waltz For Debby' - through to his seminal Empathy album in 1962. Generally considered in jazz circles as the period in which Evans' star shone brightest and the era of his finest work, this 6CD set is as close to the perfect Bill Evans collection as is currently available.

This 26 track CD presents studio output from one of Stan Getz' finest bands, the quintet he co-led with the guitarist Jimmy Raney (featured here) during the early 1950's. These recordings ably demonstrate why Getz had recently become one of the most influential musicians in jazz. Ballads like "Autumn Leaves" and "These Foolish Things" are amongst his finest early work, whilst up-tempo swingers like "The Way You Look Tonight" reveal that Getz could still hit hard without breaking a sweat. Besides the guitar of Raney, Getz sideman on this CD include some of the most talented names in 1950's jazz including the pianists Horace Silver, Al Haig and Duke and the legendary drummer Roy Haynes. Features 2 alternate takes. OMIT-3/13/08-Capitol

First and foremost, Quincy Jones is a musician, composer and arranger of some of the finest music of the 20th Century, and this 4 CD Set houses his very finest work. Eight original albums released by Jones on Mercury and other labels between 1960 and 1963, on which he was leader or co-leader, remain, certainly for jazz fans, the great man's finest hour. This set includes these integral albums in their entirety and in pristine re-mastered form, complete with full musician lists and release details, to make for perhaps the best collection yet of Quincy Jones's jazz recordings which pre-date almost everything this giant of a man remains most famous for.

He may not have known it before, but Toronto-born, New York-based guitarist Matthew Stevens, prized for his forceful, distinctive electric sound was an ideal candidate to make an album fully devoted to solo acoustic guitar: the intimate, unadorned, straightforwardly titled 'Pittsburgh'. September 2020, Stevens was hunkering down in his wife's family's hometown of Pittsburgh, while navigating his way through the crisis. He had with him a vintage Martin 00-17, a small-body mahogany guitar. Practicing daily on the Martin, he began generating a series of short song "starts" - ideas and sketches he thought might lead somewhere. Then one rainy Pittsburgh day, Stevens' bike slid out from under him and he broke his right elbow. Rather than getting derailed musically, he became immersed in a creative process that led straight to 'Pittsburgh': a document of those short song "starts" from the notebook, now hatched as completed compositions. "Playing this music became a big part of my rehab," Stevens recalls. As the album took shape, it became clear to Stevens that he was headed in the direction of a wholly unaccompanied recital, with no overdubs or sound layering of any kind. Just him and this special Martin, two Neumann U89 mics and enough peace of mind across two separate sessions to make 'Pittsburgh' the triumph that it is. 1. Ambler 2. Purpose Of A Machine 3. Buckets 4. Can Am 5. Foreign Ghosts 6. Northern Touch 7. Cocoon 8. Ending Is Beginning 9. Blue Blues 10. Broke 11. Miserere

CD reissue of this 1974 release from the Jazz keyboardist. Herbie Hancock has played with Miles Davis and made a big splash on the Billboard charts in the 1970s with his numerous Jazz Funk albums on Columbia Records. Shortly before his long stint with Columbia, he recorded three albums for Warner Brothers Records. Treasure Chest was released as a two record set in 1974. It encompasses most of his Warner recordings from the albums Crossings, Mwandishi and Fat Albert Rotunda.