
This album is included in the following sets:
This set contains the following albums:
- Producer's Note
- Full Track Listing
- Cover Art
Charlie Parker's legendary recordings with string orchestra
Newly restored using XR remastering technology
Charlie Parker's three studio sessions with strings came at a time of great ongoing improvements in recording quality, with the innovations of both tape recording and the commercial vinyl record both being contemporary developments.
Hence the first six tracks here were cut directly to disc, in the traditional manner, and with the traditional problems for a restorater to contend with! By contrast I'm pretty certain that both the 1950 and 1952 sessions were taped.
This was a time where recordings were being issued on both the 78rpm shellac and new 33/45rpm vinyl microgroove formats. Each of these performances is timed to fit a single 78rpm side, though the first ten-inch LP, consisting of tracks 1-14, was released in the USA as early as 1950. The four tracks which complete this release found their initial vinyl issue on a 7" 45rpm EP.
So why go back and remaster these recordings, when there's a perfectly well-loved Verve CD on the market? Well personally I've never been 100% happy with the sound - and I've always felt that it's one of those recordings which is tantalisingly close to sounding so much better. Therefore I was fascinated to find out how it would respond to my continuing experimentation in widening the application of XR remastering beyond the realm of classical music.
The effect of the remastering for the listener is to remove what is at times quite a heavy veil over the music, as well as greatly improving on what was at times a pretty poor tonal balance. What the remastering revealed to me, especially with the earlier cuts, was in some instances some really quite flawed originals, which then required a considerable degree of pretty advanced further restoration. Some of damage this is still just about audible in Summertime - you may just notice a slight 'waa-waa' effect in the upper treble at times, a problem previously buried under the murk and one that's particularly time-consuming and tricky to correct. Elsewhere, on I Didn't Know What Time It Was, a small amount of occasional disc-surface noise may be apparent if you're listening closely for it.
Those earliest tracks were also the most unruly with regard to the overall sound balance, with the strings tending to get quite shrieky if given too much free rein in the upper treble registers. I think I've managed to contain them effectively, and it's been a real delight to hear these recordings as if for the first time. I hope you'll enjoy listening to them as much as I've enjoyed working on them!
Andrew Rose
Widely considered the greatest jazz concert ever...
...finally in sound quality that does justice to the playing.
The complete recording without overdubs, newly XR-remastered:
In assembling this release I've tried to bring together all of the available tracks of this historic concert, which has resulted, in the case of the Trio section, in some variation in sound quality. On this recording you will hear only the original recordings, with the bass part as originally played and restored to something closer to an appropriate level by the XR remastering process.
One may ask as to why this concert needs another release? My answer is that, for such a historic recording, all of the previous issues have failed to convey, through their sonic flaws, the full impact of the playing and overall sound. That five men, who'd never rehearsed together or played together as a group, could arrive at a two-thirds-empty hall, missing a saxophone (so playing a plastic one bought that day), half drunk (and more drunk after the interval) with one member on release from a psychiatric hospital, with the two lead players apparently not speaking to each other and conjure up such magic, is incredible. To finally hear it in this quality of sound more than justifies the hours of painstaking work it's taken me to bring this project to fruition. Despite owning copies of this recording for many years, I've heard it anew over the last few weeks, and since its completion it has rarely left my CD player. I hope you'll find similar inspiration from it!
Andrew Rose
Three Jean Sablon albums in one!
Songs of a Boulevardier - rare 1952 US LP
Sablon with Django Reinhardt - eight 1933-36 small group recordings
Sablon with Wal-Berg - eight 1936-39 big band & orchestral recordings
Jean Sablon has long been a favourite of mine, going back to a set of 78rpm discs which came with my first wind-up gramophone, a 1929 HMV free-standing model that had a selection of discs in its storage compartment when I bought it. The songs which stuck in my head were Vous Qui Passez Sans Me Voir, winner of the 1937 Paris Gold Medal for disc of the year, and its flip side, La Chanson Des Rues, both of which feature here.
I later tracked down a large number of Sablon discs, including the rare 1952 LP "Songs of a Boulevardier", an American release which seems to have been ignored by the many compilations of Sablon's material since (a possible sighting of the final track, Ave Maria No Morro, on a nicely presented but poor-sounding Universal double-CD, The French Troubadour, is both mis-labelled and mis-credited). The songs on this LP form the first part of this issue.
We then head back to the 1930's and Sablon's pre-war heyday. Rather than pull together the usual mish-mash of hits I wanted to concentrate on two very important parts of Sablon's work. First we have the small ensemble material with Django Reinhardt, who Sablon had helped to get his first Paris booking, and the earliest recordings of which pre-date the formation of Reinhardt's famous and influential Quintette du Hot Club de France. In the tracks selected here we hear Reinhardt both as soloist and accompanist as the arrangements demand, his distinctive style always clearly evident.
The other key player in the Sablon success story was Wal-Berg, an immigrant of Russian-Jewish descent, born in Constantinople, and one of the foremost arranger-conductors of the era. A musician as equally at home with Jazz and Swing music as he was with the Classical canon, his employment with Sablon's record company in the mid-late 1930's ensured absolutely top-rate arrangements, as heard to great effect on our sample recording Paris Tu N'as Pas Changé, which brilliantly evokes in music and scoring the train journey into the city for the 40 seconds of the song's introduction.
For the first time, these 1930's selections can be heard in sound quality that does them real justice - so many of the re-issues currently available of Sablon's material from this era are characterised by a thick, heavy and dull sound which entirely misrepresents the actual recordings. Thanks to the use of XR remastering we can finally hear the songs as they should have sounded!
Andrew Rose
A milestone in Jazz finally rescued from sonic oblivion!
Festival International de Jazz, Paris, May 1949
These live recordings, taken from French radio broadcasts, have always suffered from pretty dreadful sound quality. In their original Columbia issue the quality is akin to a particularly poor and crackly telephone line. As such, any remastering work presents huge challenges, and outcomes are limited by the frequency and dynamic ranges of the original AM broadcasts, as well as poor microphone placement and acoustics.
The listener to this remastered recording may feel that my priority was Miles Davis' trumpet. Well, yes and no. Of all the musicians here it is of course Miles who we wish to hear as clearly as possible. But we are fortunate that it is his soloing, and that of saxophonist James Moody, which was best picked up by the microphone, and which best cuts through the murk of the original recording. Dameron's piano is much further back, and whilst I've been able to round out the deep double bass notes, the drums remain thudding rather than bright.
Yet these are perhaps secondary concerns. With a recording such as this we want to hear the young Miles cutting loose and free, in front of an adoring audience and effectively leading his own small group for the first time - and just before he succumbed to a drug addiction that would keep him out of the public eye for several years.
So excuse a little hiss and occasional crackle, live with the fluttery sound on Embraceable You
(on which a lot of wayward pitch correction has been possible), and
listen at long last to this vital moment in modern jazz history, now
sounding hugely better than any other issue since those May nights in
1949.
Andrew Rose
Duke Ellington's major breakthrough - sounds amazing!
This excellent recording from mainly clean acetate discs has really
opened out thanks to the application of the XR remastering system. I
took several modern recordings of music by Ellington as starting
reference points with the aim of finding as much authentic fidelity as
possible in the older recording. I was also able to deal with the mild
surface noise, scratches etc., as well as correcting pitch thanks to the
detection of residual 60Hz mains hum in the original - previous issues
of this recording ran slightly fast.
Andrew Rose
An amazing new approach to acoustic and early electric recordings
"An excellent album, and one I can recommend highly ... We’re bound to want more after hearing such fabulous results" - Fanfare
This collection represents the first outing of a new 'variant' of the XR remastering process, tailored particularly for acoustic 78rpm recordings but also very useful in restoring the earliest electric recordings. In this collection we present ten [*see note below]recordings from the pre-microphone era - recorded directly into a horn - and ten from the so-called 'electric' era of microphone recordings.
By using a specially adapted 'double pass' XR approach I've been able to get much closer to the cleaner finished sound I want using equalisation alone, before bringing in digital noise reduction, whilst simultaneously tackling the problems of horn resonances and very uneven tonal response. Where noise is a huge problem, as on acoustic recordings, this is a real step forward - it allows much better preservation of the musical signal and reduces the risk of producing audible digital noise artefacts in the finished recording.
What's been particularly fascinating about the Armstrong tracks is the realisation that, thanks to the sheer energy and harmonic richness of the brass instruments used, there's much, much more on some of these recordings than one might have expected to find. Normally we see acoustic recordings petering out somewhere between 3500 and 4500Hz, yet in occasional instances of particularly high notes I've detected harmonics right up to 19kHz.
The achievement of the new aspects of XR used for this restoration is to preserve these high harmonics much more effectively than before. Sadly they do generally only exist in the really high-energy instruments when they're playing loudly - we're not suddenly going to unearth CD quality from acoustic horn recordings - but the fact that they're not only possible but clearly audible does suggest that a lot of traditional equalisation of acoustic recordings may have been throwing valuable music content away.
*NB. We've listed four recordings by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five as acoustic recordings in our CD booklet, though they fall into the period of time when the electrical recording process was being introduced by record companies during and after 1925. This assumption is based on tonal analysis of the recordings, which display the distinctive bass cut-off and the harmonic irregularities typical of horn recordings. The difference in this bass response can be heard most clearly between tracks 10 and 11 in the sound of the tuba, which suddenly has a depth and resonance not previously captured.
However, the treble response of tracks 8-10 is particularly surprising for an acoustic recording and, following restoration with the XR remastering process, the sound has an added clarity more usually associated with microphone recordings. Thus it is possible that these were poor electric recordings rather than good acoustics. Although 1925 is generally regarded as the start of the electric era, some recording companies continued with the old acoustic system into at least 1927, hence the slight uncertainty expressed here.
Andrew Rose
Duke Ellington in '46 - clear, clean and compelling!
"I must recommend it. The critics hated it at the time, but this was a helluva concert" - Fanfare
Andrew Rose
The all-time Jazz Classic from Miles Davis
A stunning XR-remastering
Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is perhaps an unusual choice for a Pristine Audio remastering - it's almost certainly the best-selling jazz album of all time, and there can be few serious record collections which don't own at least one copy of it.
It's also been an album that's been much-remastered. Yet I don't believe that anyone has ever truly mastered its remastering, because some serious sonic problems with the original recording have, for over half a century, never been addressed.
The biggest problem with this album struck me when listening for perhaps the thousandth time (or probably more) back in May 2009. The sound of the piano, my own instrument, was lifeless, flat, and entirely unlike a piano - as if it were fashioned from cardboard rather than wood. The more I listened, the more I realised this was not the only problem, and that it centred around the lower mid-ranges of the instruments, producing a blurred and at times harsh sound in this register.
As an experiment, and for my own listening purposes only, I decided to see what would happen if I applied XR remastering techniques - most specifically re-equalisation and targeted noise reduction - to the recording. The computer tonal analysis revealed what I has suspected, with significant anomalies in the overall sound balance which, when corrected (using other albums by Miles Davis from the period, in particular the 1956 album 'Round About Midnight, as both authentic and better-recorded references), transformed and opened out the whole sound of the album whilst staying true to Miles Davis' 'sound'.
Kind of Blue was original recorded on a three-track tape system, and over the years different stereo releases have varied the stereo width of the instruments. I've opted for slightly less than the full-width approach which can make headphone and close-up listening quite uncomfortable. I've also employed phase correction software to analyses the phase difference between the two stereo channels and adjust for phase differences present between microphones picking up the same instrument. The effect of this is a subtle but distinct sharpening of the stereo imagery.
I've also worked on the fine-tuning of each track, based on a precise analysis of the harmonic frequencies of the piano, noting that tracks on the current 'official' releases are between 0.3% and 0.5% sharp (raising A440 to between 441.3Hz and 442.2Hz). Some minor tape drop-outs, audible from time to time in the cymbals of So What, have been cured. I've also worked hard to reduce tape hiss without compromising the fabulously open sound of the recording.
Andrew Rose
Wardell Grey - one of the forgotten greats of Jazz
New 32-bit XR-remastered transfers with utterly transformed sound quality
This album came about as one of those happy accidents - a Sunday afternoon leafing through a collection of old LPs donated to Pristine unearthed two volumes on the Esquire label, entitled "Wardell Gray Memorial", which together make up the selection of studio and live recordings presented here.
My initial aim was to rework the rather poor sound quality of the original recordings for my own pleasure, but the results far exceeded my expectations - hence the present issue. Gone is the primitive, almost telephonic sound of the originals - in its place a fuller, much brighter sound that really allows the performers to 'sing'.
Judicious use of Ambient Stereo and a convolution reverb which recreates the acoustic of the Birdland jazz club in New York also help contibute to a fabulously lively and spontaneous sound that really brings this long-forgotten saxophonist's great music back to life.
Andrew Rose
The ground-breaking 1956 album Fontessa in full stereo in a new XR remastering
Plus the MJQ's classic 1959/60 recording Pyramid, also given the full Pristine XR treatment
This remastering aims to correct or reduce as much as possible those flaws and present the stereo Fontessa in as good a light as possible. This has required extensive restoration, removing heavy electrical hum, thumps, bumps, hiss and more. In addition, in order to bring some life to the rather dead sound of the stereo mix, I've used a convolution reverberation which recreates perfectly the live acoustic of Birdland in New York, where the MQJ doubtless played on numerous occasions.
The coupling here, Pyramid, demonstrates what further improvements XR remastering can offer an already accomplished studio recording of the era.
Andrew Rose
- Just Friends
- Everything Happens To Me
- April In Paris
- Summertime
- I Didn't Know What Time It Was
- If I Should Lose You
- Dancing In The Dark
- Out Of Nowhere
- Laura
- East Of The Sun (and West Of The Moon)
- They Can't Take That Away From Me
- Easy To Love
- I'm In The Mood For Love
- I'll Remember April
- Temptation
- Lover
- Autumn In New York
- Stella By Startlight
Tracks 1-6: November 30, 1949; Reeves Sound Studios, New York City.
Tracks 7-14: July 5, 1950; Reeves Sound Studios, New York City.
Tracks 15-18: January 22, 1952; First Ave. & East 44th St., New York City.
Personnel
1949 - Charlie Parker With Strings: Parker (as), Stan Freeman (p), Ray Brown (b), Buddy Rich (d), Mitch Miller (oboe), Meyer Rosen (harp), Jimmy Carroll (arr-cond), strings.
1950 - Charlie Parker With Strings: Parker (as), Joe Singer (French horn), Edwin Brown (oboe), Verley Mills (harp), Ray Brown (b), Buddy Rich (d), Bernie Leighton (p), Joe Lippman (arr-cond), strings.
1952 - Charlie Parker and His Orchestra: Chris Griffin, Bernie Privin, Al Porcino (tp), Will Bradley, Bill Harris (tb),
Parker, Toots Mondello, Murray Williams (as), Hank Ross, Flip Phillips (ts), Stan Webb (bs), Verley Mills (harp),
Lou Stein (p), Art Ryerson (g), Bob Haggart (b), Don Lamond (d), Joe Lippmann (arr, cond), strings, woodwinds.
|
1-6: The Quintet
7: Max Roach
8-14: The Trio (Powell, Mingus, Roach)
- Que Les Temps Me Dure
- Le Fiacre (The Cab Song)
- C'est La Vraie De Vraie
- Pretty Bride (Tire l'Aiguille)
- Favela
- My Heart's At Ease (Le Couer Tranquille)
- Come Back (Reviens)
- Ave Maria No Morro
- Parce Que Je Vous Aime
- Si J'Aime Suzy
- Je Suis Sex Appeal
- Je Sais Que Vous Etes Jolie
- Par Correspondance
- Un Amour Comme Le Nôtre
- Cette Chanson Est Pour Vous Madame
- Rendez-Vous Sous La Pluie
- Ces Petits Choses
- Vous Qui Passes Sans Me Voir
- La Chanson Des Rues
- Il Ne Faut Pas Briser Un Rève
- Sur Le Pont d'Avignon
- La Valse Au Village
- Je Tire Ma Reverence
- Paris Tu N'as Pas Changé
1-8: From the LP Songs of a Boulevardier
9-16: With Django Reinhardt et al
17-24: With Wal-Berg
1-8: Transferred from 10" LP Capitol L344, date-stamped 6/52
Vocal Group & Instrumental Ensemble conducted by Skitch Henderson
9-16: Django Reinhardt (guitar); Eliane de Creus, vocal (9, 10); Germaine Sablon, vocal (14); Michel Warlop, violin (11); Stéphane Grappelli*, violin (15, 16); André Ekyan, clarinet (12, 13); Alec Siniavine, piano (12-14); Louis Volá, bass (14-16)
17-24: Orchestra arranged and conducted by Wal-Berg
*Despite Grapelli being credited on these tracks there is no audible violin playing - and nobody is credited with the piano parts which are key to the arrangements!
1 Riff Tide (4:34)
2 Good Bait (5:48)
3 Don't Blame Me (4:20)
4 Lady Bird (5:01)
5 "Wah" "Hoo" (5:32)
6 Allen's Alley (4:27)
7 Embraceable You (4:03)
8 Ornithology (3:46)
9 All The Things You Are (4:18)
Broadcast Recordings from Salle Pleyel, Paris, May 1949 - Tracks 1-4: May 8th
Tracks 5-9: 9th, 12th, 14th, 15th May
Disc One
1. Blutopia (4:25)
2. Midriff (4:03)
3. Creole Love Call (6:34)
4. Suddenly It Jumped (2:53)
5. Pitter Panther Patter (3:00)
6. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) (3:59)
7. Things Ain't What They Used To Be (5:21)
8. Perfume Suite: Introduction (0:55)
9. Sonata (3:17)
10. Strange Feeling (5:13)
11. Dancers In Love (2:35)
12. Coloratura (3:26)
Disc Two
1. Black, Brown And Beige: Work Song (7:05)
2. Black, Brown And Beige: The Blues (5:29)
3. Black, Brown And Beige: Three Dances (6:33)
4. Black, Brown And Beige: Come Sunday (11:56)
5. The Mood To Be Wooed (4:51)
6. Blue Cellophane (3:18)
7. Blue Skies (Trumpets No End) (3:37)
8. Frankie And Johnny (8:14)
Duke Ellington - leader, piano, arranger
Rex Stewart, Taft Jordan, Cat Anderson, Shelton Hemphill - trumpets
Ray Nance - trumpet, violin, vocal
Tricky Sam Nanton, Lawrence Brown, Claude Jones - trombones
Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Otto Hardwicke, Al Sears, Jimmy Hamilton - reeds
Fred Guy - guitar
Junior Raglin - bass
Hillard Brown - drums
Kay Davis, Marie Ellington, Al Hibbler - vocals
Billy Strayhorn - assistant arranger
Acoustic Recordings, 1923-26
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
1 Chimes Blues (2:58) 5.4.23
2 Froggie Moore (3:06) 6.3.23
Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra
3 Copenhagen (3:05) 30.10.24
Clarence Williams' Blue Five
4 Everybody Loves My Baby (But My Baby Don't Love Nobody But Me) (2:38) 6.11.24
Eva Taylor with Clarence Williams' Blue Five
5 Cake Walking Babies From Home (3:04) 8.1.25
Bessie Smith
6 The St. Louis Blues (3:11) 14.1.25
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five
7 Gut Bucket Blues (2:49) 12.11.25
8 Muskrat Ramble (2:35) 26.2.26
9 Heebies Jeebies (2:58) 26.2.26
10 Cornet Chop Suey (3:05) 26.2.26
Electric Recordings, 1927-40
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven
11 Potato Head Blues (3:02) 10.5.27
12 Twelfth Street Rag (3:11) 11.5.27
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five
13 West End Blues (3:25) 27.6.28
Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Ballroom Five
14 St. James Infirmary (3:19) 12.12.28
15 Tight Like This (3:17) 12.12.28
16 I Can't Give You Anything But Love (3:31) 5.3.29
Louis Armstrong and his Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra
17 I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas) (3:15) 21.7.30
Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra
18 Georgia On My Mind (3:27) 5.11.31
19 Alexander's Ragtime Band (2:40) 7.7.37
20 Cain And Abel (2:58) 1.5.40
Disc One
1 Caravan (4:00)
2 In A Mellow Tone (3:06)
3 Solid Old Man (3:42)
Selections from Black, Brown and Beige:
4 Spiritual (Come Sunday)/Worksong (13:03)
5 The Blues (5:55)
6 Rugged Romeo (4:12)
7 Sono (5:29)
8 Air-Conditioned Jungle (6:21)
9 Pither Panther Patter (2:51)
Disc Two
1. Take The A Train (3:37)
A Tonal Group:
2. Meloditti (8:20)
3. Fugueaditty (3:18)
4. Jam-A-Ditty (4:23)
5. Magenta Haze (5:21)
6. Diminuendo In Blue/Transbluency (8:06)
7. Crescendo In Blue (4:01)
8. Suburbanite (4:36)
9. I'm Just A Lucky So And So (4:54)
10. Riffin' Drill (2:49)
Duke Ellington - leader, piano, arranger
Taft Jordan, Cat Anderson, Francis Williams, Shelton Hemphill - trumpets
Lawrence Brown, Claude Jones, Wilbur de Paris - trombones
Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Otto Hardwicke, Al Sears, Jimmy Hamilton - reeds
Al Lucas - guitar
Oscar Pettiford - bass
Sonny Greer - drums
Joya Sherrill, Kay Davis, Al Hibbler - vocals
Billy Strayhorn - assistant arranger
Live and studio recordings, 1940s:
- Lonesome Graveyard (3:08)
-
Corinne Corrina (2:33)
"Big Joe" Turner, vocal; Joe Thomas, trumpet; Art Tatum, piano; Oscar Moore, guitar; Billy Taylor, bass; Yank Porter, drums. New York, June 13, 1941. - Knockin' Myself Out (4:04)
-
Toledo Blues (3:33)
Art Tatum, piano & vocal on "Toledo Blues"; Chocolate Williams, bass & vocal on "Knockin' Myself Out." New York, July 26, 1941. - Lady Be Good (4:28)
-
Sweet Georgia Brown (7:18)
Frank Newton, trumpet; Art Tatum, piano; Ebenezer Paul, bass; New York, September 16, 1941. -
Rock Me, Mama (2:59)
Same personnel and date as tracks 1 & 2 -
Wee Baby Blues (2:54)
"Big Joe" Turner, vocal; Joe Thomas, trumpet; Edmond Hall, clarinet; Art Tatum, piano, John Collins, guitar; Billy Taylor, bass; Ed Dougherty, drums. New York, January 21, 1941. -
Tea For Two (3:25)
Roy Eldridge, trumpet; Jack Teagarden, trombone; Barney Bigard, clarinet; Lionel Hampton, vibes; Art Tatum, piano; Al Casey, guitar; Oscar Pettiford, bass; Sid Catlett, drums. Metropolitan Opera House, New York, January 18, 1944.
Live Trio Radio Broadcasts, 1950s: - A Flying Home (Theme) (0:49)
- I Cover The Waterfront (4:33)
- Soft Winds (3:23)
- Tenderly (4:58)
- Tea For Two (3:11)
- Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (5:20)
-
Body and Soul (0:59)
Art Tatum, piano; Everett Barksdale, guitar; Slam Stewart, bass. Basin Street, New York, October 1955
- Flying Home (Theme) (1:43)
- Moon Song (5:56)
- Just One Of Those Things (3:48)
- Would You Like To Take A Walk (5:33)
-
You Go To My Head (5:23)
Art Tatum, piano; Everett Barksdale, guitar; Bill Pemberton, bass. Olivia's Patio Lounge, Washington DC, October 1956
- So What (9:27)
- Freddie Freeloader (9:52)
-
Blue in Green (5:39)
Recorded 2nd March, 1959
at Columbia's 30th Street Studio, New York City
- All Blues(11:39)
-
Flamenco Sketches (9:29)
Recorded 22nd April, 1959
at Columbia's 30th Street Studio, New York City
- Twisted (3:07)
- Easy Living (4:25)
- Southside (3:22)
-
Sweet Lorraine (4:09)
Recorded 11 November 1949
Al Haig piano
Tommy Potter bass
Roy Haynes drums
- Blue Gray (2:47)
- Grayhound (3:04)
- A Sinner Kissed an Angel (3:11)
-
Treadin' (3:51)
Recorded 25 April 1950
Phil Hill piano
Johnny Richardson bass
Art Madigan drums
- Move (9:46)
-
Scrapple from the Apple (9:03)
Recorded live at the Hula Hut, Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, California, 27 August 1950
Dexter Gordon tenor
Sonny Criss alto
Clark Terry trumpet
Jimmy Bunn piano
Billy Hadnott bass
Chuck Thompson drums
- April Skies (3:01)
- Bright Boy (2:46)
- Jackie (2:31)
- Farmer's Market (2:47)
- Sweet and Lovely (3:15)
-
Lover Man (2:22)
Recorded 21 January 1952
Art Farmer trumpet
Hampton Hawes piano
Harper Crosby bass
Larry Marable drums
Robert Collier conga
- So Long Broadway (3:09)
- Paul's Cause (2:54)
- The Man I Love (3:07)
-
Lavonne (2:52)
Recorded 20 February 1953
Teddy Charles vibes
Frank Morgan alto
Sonny Clark piano
Dick Nivison bass
Larry Marable drums
Wardell Gray tenor saxophone
Transfers from Esquire LPs 32-016 and 32-023
NB. There is at least one terrible edit in the live recordings - this is as presented on the original LP!
Fontessa
-
1. Versailles (Porte de Versailles) (3:27)
2. Angel Eyes (3:54)
3. Fontessa (11:17)
4. Over The Rainbow (3:57)
5. Bluesology (4:53)
6. Willow Weep for Me (4:53)
7. Woody 'n You (4:54)
Recorded 22 January & [5] 14 February, 1956, in New Jersey & [5] New York
N.B. Track 5 features a different take to that used on the mono release
Producer: Nesuhi Ertegun
Originally issued as Atlantic SD 1231
-
Pyramid
1. Vendome (2:32)
2. Pyramid (Blues for Junior) (10:53)
3. It Don't Mean A Thing (5:04)
4. Django (4:37)
5. How High The Moon (6:18)
6. Romaine (7:25)
Recorded August 22 & 25 and December 21, 1959 and January 15, 1960
Music Inn, Lenox, Massachusetts and Capitol Studios, New York City
Producer: Nesuhi Ertegun
Originally issued as Atlantic 1325