Jazz,CLASSICAL

One Art Blakey's greatest albums with the Jazz Messengers, Roots & Herbs, is little known. In 1961, the group featured Lee Morgan (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Bobby Timmons (piano) and Jymie Merrit (bass). Recorded in Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio, it's a...

Recorded in 1967, Oblique is one of two quartet sessions the great vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson recorded for Blue Note. Released in 1979, features Herbie Hancock (piano), Joe Chambers (drums) & Albert Stinson (bass). An incredible journey from bops to exploratory sonic poems, with standouts...

The Ellington Suites is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington which collects three suites recorded in 1959, 1971 and 1972. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band. Interesting fact: Ellington wrote the Queens...

Duke Pearson's opening title track of superb album, The Phantom, sets a stage for one of Blue Note's underrecognized gems. The pianist/composer/arranger gathered a superb cast: Bobby Hutcherson, Jerry Dodgion (flute), Sam Brown/Al Gafa (guitars), Bob Cranshaw (bass), Mickey Roker/Victor Pantojo/Potato Valdes (drums). With...

John Scofield's first guitar solo recording gives a resume of all the influences and idioms he has cultivated over his career in performances on guitar, accompanied by his own rhythmic pulse and chordal backing using a loop machine. Between elegant and personal readings of...

Keith Jarrett

3 giants of West Coast jazz came together in this swinging session recorded in 1953. Alto saxophone master Lee Konitz joins Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone and legendary trumpeter Chet Baker on a half-live/half-studio recording. They are supported by bassists Carson Smith and Joe...

Mark Turner's writing for his quartet on Return from the Stars gives the players plenty of space in which to move, on an album both exhilarating and thoughtful in its arc of expression. Although he has been a frequent presence on ECM in contexts...

In a few short years, Bristol's The Longest Johns have gone from singing sea shanties in a kitchen to playing international festivals, tours, TV appearances, and gaining a huge online following. The success of their first album, Between Wind and Water, spawned the global...