LENNIE TRISTANO - 1947-1951 (2003) CC, 1290 | FLAC (tracks), lossless

This second volume in the chronological Classics anthology of Lennie Tristano from his Capitol and Prestige recordings is where the mature composer and improviser appears from his former skeleton. Beginning with the original version of "Dissonance," featuring guitarist Billy Bauer and bassist Arnold Fishkin, the set concentrates on Tristano's emerging and very complex ideas about melodic improvisation. The masters for early tracks here come from a session cut on New Year's Eve in 1947, and include clarinetist John LaPorta on such visionary compositions as "Through These Portals," with its dual melodic front line playing an extrapolated harmonic counterpoint via the piano and guitar, then being bridged by a common third line played by LaPorta, whose solo is almost a tag upon the two entwining solo lines played throughout. "Speculation" is pure chordal genius, with rhythms cascading in two directions against a nearly expressionistic melodic integration of variously shaded harmonics. The first sessions of both the quintet and quartet with Lee Konitz are here, too, with Konitz's unique phrasing on the shimmering bop of "Progression," "Tautology," and, of course, "Subconscious-Lee." Tristano was a giant of the intellect, and his knotty approach to deconstructing harmonics and creating new melodies from the ruins appealed to Konitz, who was, and remains, a melodist. Later that same year, in 1949, Tristano added second saxophonist Warne Marsh to the mix, and that magical pairing found its voice on the front lines of "Crosscurrent," "Intuition," and the stellar "Marionette." Finally, the 1951 trio sides with Roy Haynes and Peter Ind make clear that these new architectures Tristano was building could be erected by himself and a rhythm section, and in some ways were even bigger as a result of that. These ideas have never been fully integrated into the jazz canon as they should be, but nonetheless, with recordings like this abounding now, it cannot be long before they are
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Tracklist :
1     Dissonance 2:40
Lennie Tristano
2     Through These Portals 2:18
John LaPorta
3     Speculation (Ear, Eyes) 2:2
Horace Silver / Lennie Tristano
4     New Sound 2:19
Lennie Tristano
5     Resemblance 2:24
Lennie Tristano
6     Progression 3:01
Lee Konitz
7     Tautology 2:46
Lee Konitz
8     Retrospection 3:10
Duke Ellington / Lennie Tristano
9     Subconscious-Lee 2:50
Lee Konitz
10     Judy 2:56
Lennie Tristano
11     Wow 3:22
Lennie Tristano
12     Crosscurrent 2:52
Lennie Tristano
13     Yesterdays 2:49
Jerome Kern / Lennie Tristano
14     Marionette 3:06
Billy Bauer
15     Sax of a Kind 3:02
Lee Konitz / Warne Marsh
16     Intuition 2:29
Lennie Tristano
17     Digression (Intuition II) 3:05
Lennie Tristano
18     Ju-Ju 2:16
Lennie Tristano
19     Passtime 3:39
Lennie Tristano

LENNIE TRISTANO - Trio, Quartet, Quintet & Sextet : 1946-1949 (1996) APE (tracks+.cue), lossless

Giants of Jazz presents an exciting tour of Lennie Tristano's three-, four-, five- and six-piece ensemble recordings dating from the mid- to late 1940s. True to the unspoken policy of this label, the material is chronologically scrambled in an apparent attempt to avoid replicating other, tidier Tristano reissues. Six titles were harvested from Tristano's two groundbreaking Keynote sessions of 1946 and 1947; these were trio affairs involving guitarist Billy Bauer and bassists Bob Leininger or Clyde Lombardi. A lesser-known trio session from December 1947 resulted in "Parallel," "Abstraction" "Freedom" and "Dissonance," which were originally released on the Baronet record label. Regarding the quartets: saxophonist John LaPorta recorded "New Sound" with Tristano, Bauer and bassist Arnold Fishkin on the last day of 1947 (this was also issued on Baronet) and the rhythm section from this date reconvened in March 1949 with drummer Harold Granowsky to record "Yesterdays," which was issued by Capitol. A superb session for Prestige New Jazz took place on November 11, 1949, with Tristano, Bauer and Fishkin forming a marvelous quintet with saxophonist Lee Konitz and drummer Shelly Manne. The titles from this date are "Progression," "Retrospection," "Subconscious-Lee" and "Judy." As for the sextets: three choice cuts from a May 1949 Capitol session ("Intuition," "Digression" and Bauer's "Marionette") find the pianist surrounded by saxophonists Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz, Bauer, Fishkin and drummer Denzil Best. This dazzling package closes with a live rendition of "You Go to My Head" culled from a Voice of America radio broadcast from Carnegie Hall on December 24, 1949, with Konitz, Marsh, Bauer, bassist Joe Shulman and drummer Jeff Morton. Altogether an excellent sampler of early modern jazz that is creative, inspired, accessible and very enjoyable. arwulf arwulf  
Tracklist :
1     Intuition 2:27
Lennie Tristano
2     Digression 3:04
Lennie Tristano
3     Marionette 3:06
Billy Bauer
4     Yesterday 2:47
Lennie Tristano
5     Crosscurrent 2:50
Lennie Tristano
6     Interlude 3:06
Dizzy Gillespie / Frank Paparelli
7     Freedom 3:36
Lennie Tristano
8     Atonement 2:28
Lennie Tristano
9     Coolin' off with Ulanov 2:49
Lennie Tristano
10     I Can't Get Started 2:56
Vernon Duke / Ira Gershwin
11     Out on a Limb 2:40
Lennie Tristano
12     I Surrender, Dear 3:06
Harry Barris / Gordon Clifford
13     Progression 2:44
Lee Konitz
14     Retrospection 3:08
Lennie Tristano
15     Subconscious-Lee 2:48
Lee Konitz
16     Judy 2:53
Lennie Tristano
17     Parallel 2:28
Lennie Tristano
18     Abstraction 2:38
Lennie Tristano
19     Dissonance 2:38
Lennie Tristano
20     New Sound 2:16
Lennie Tristano
21     You Go to My Head 4:31
J. Fred Coots / Haven Gillespie
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Lee Konitz (tracks: 1 to 3, 5, 13 to 16, 21)
Bass – Arnold Fishkin (tracks: 1 to 5, 7, 13 to 20), Bob Leininger (tracks: 8, 9), Clyde Lombardi (tracks: 6, 10 to 12), Joe Shulman (tracks: 21)
Clarinet – John LaPorta (tracks: 20)
Drums – Denzil Best (tracks: 1 to 3), Harold Granowsky (tracks: 4, 5), Jeff Morton (tracks: 21), Shelly Manne (tracks: 13, 15)
Guitar – Billy Bauer
Piano – Lennie Tristano
Tenor Saxophone – Warne Marsh (tracks: 1 to 3, 5, 21)

ADA MOORE - Jazz Workshop, Vol.3 (1954-1992) Original Jazz Classics Limited Edition Series | RM | MONO | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The focus of this 1954 set is a seldom-heard session that Ada Moore recorded for Charles Mingus' Debut Records label in 1954. The lineup is certainly nothing to complain about; Moore is joined by guitarist Tal Farlow, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and alto saxman John La Porta (among others), and Mingus helps with the arrangements. Moore has a soulful delivery that is somewhere between Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan, although Jazz Workshop, Vol. 3 is more abstract than what either of them were doing in 1954. The arrangements combine jazz with European chamber music, and Moore's risk-taking pays off on material that ranges from "The Man I Love" and Billy Strayhorn's "Something to Live For" to the folk song "Lass from the Low Country." Meanwhile, "The Devil Is a Woman" is a moody Moore original that almost sounds like a combination of "Black Coffee" and "Blues in the Night." Like much of the music that the Modern Jazz Quartet was providing at the time, Jazz Workshop, Vol. 3 manages to be classical-influenced without sacrificing the feeling of the blues. This session didn't do much for Moore commercially, but it's worth checking out if you appreciate the third stream experiments of the 1950s. Alex Henderson
Tracklist :
1. The Man I Love 4:49
George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin
2. The Man I Love (Take 2) 4:44
George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin
3. Something To Live For 5:24
Duke Ellington / Billy Strayhorn
4. You Came A Long Way From St. Louis 3:45
John Benson Brooks / Bob Russell
5. You Came A Long Way From St. Louis (Take 2) 3:57
John Benson Brooks / Bob Russell
6. The Devil Is A Woman 3:54
Ada Moore
7. The Devil Is A Woman (Take 1) 4:09
Ada Moore
8. Lass From The Low Country 2:33
Traditional
9. Lass From The Low Country (Take 2) 2:31
Traditional
10. Strange Fascination 2:05
Ada Moore
11. Summertime 4:39
George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin / DuBose Heyward
Credits :
Ada Moore : Vocals
Tal Farlow : Guitar
John La Porta : Sax (Alto)
Oscar Pettiford : Bass 

HELEN MERRILL - Dream of You (1956-1992) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 One thing that set Helen Merrill apart from other '50s jazz singers was her acutely dramatic vocal style. Her earnest phrasing, elongated notes, and incandescent tone might even strike the contemporary listener as qualities more appropriate for the Broadway stage than a jazz club. On 1955's Dream of You, though, Merrill found reconciliation, sounding both melodramatic and swinging within Gil Evans' darkly spacious, yet economical arrangements. Suitably, torchy ballads are prominent. On the somewhat grandiose side there's "Where Flamingos Fly" and "I'm a Fool to Want You," which find Merrill in a pensive mood amidst a variety of tempo and timbre shifts. More subdued ground is covered on "I've Never Seen" and "He Was Too Good to Me." Briskly swinging numbers like "People Will Say We're in Love," "By Myself," and "You're Lucky to Me" balance the program and feature the demure, yet fluid delivery Merrill favored on fast numbers. What is most impressive on this date is a group of sultry, medium tempo numbers including "Anyplace I Lay My Hat Is Home," "Just a Lucky So and So," and in particular "A New Town Is a Blue Town." The programmatic quality of Merrill's coyly sensual voice and Evans' slightly askew, bubbling reeds and languid rhythm conjure up dramatic, balmy southern scenes á la Tennessee Williams. In the picturesque arrangements one also hears the seeds of Evans' own future collaborations with Miles Davis. Even though her collaborations with Clifford Brown and others are great recordings, this one with Gil Evans shows off more of Merrill's expressive vocal talents, due in no small part to the sympathetic and urbane arrangements. Stephen Cook   
Tracklist:
1 People Will Say We're In Love 2:34
Written-By – O. Hammerstein II, R. Rodgers
2 By Myself 3:23
Written-By – A. Schwartz, H. Dietz
3 Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home 4:10
Written-By – Arlen, Mercer
4 I've Never Seen 3:30
Written-By – Marcotte, D. Cochran
5 He Was Too Good To Me 3:01
Written-By – L. Hart, R. Rodgers
6 A New Town Is A Blue Town 3:09
Written-By – J. Ross, R. Adler
7 You're Lucky To Me 3:26
Written-By – A. Razaf, E. Blake
8 Where Flamingos Fly 2:44
Written-By – E. Thea, H. Courlander, J. Brooks
9 Dream Of You 2:54
Written-By – S. Oliver
10 I'm A Fool To Want You 4:07
Written-By – F. Sinatra, J. Wolf, J. S. Harron
11 I'm Just A Lucky So And So 3:08
Written-By – D. Ellington, M. David
12 Troubled Waters 3:14
Written-By – A. Johnston, S. Coslow
Credits:
Alto Saxophone – John Laporta (tracks: 3, 6, 8, 11)
Alto Saxophone, Flute – Jerome Richardson (tracks: 3, 6, 8, 11)
Arranged By, Conductor – Gil Evans (tracks: 1 to 12)
Bass – Oscar Pettiford (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9)
Bass Saxophone – Danny Banks (tracks: 3, 6, 8, 11)
Clarinet, Alto Saxophone – John Laporta (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9)
Drums – Joe Morello (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9)
Guitar – Barry Galbraith (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12)
Piano – Hank Jones (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12)
Trombone – Jimmy Cleveland (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9), Joe Bennett (tracks: 3, 6, 8, 11)
Trumpet – Art Farmer (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9), Louis Mucci (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9)
Vocals – Helen Merrill

CHARLES MINGUS - The Jazz Experiments Of Charlie Mingus (1954-2014) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Originally released on two 10" records called Jazzical Moods, The Jazz Experiments of Charles Mingus makes its first appearance in CD. These 1954 Period Records sessions include the work of Thad Jones on trumpet and John LaPorta on clarinet and alto sax, combine old and new forms of classical and jazz for a cool jazz sound. Tracks like "Minor Intrusion" and "Thrice Upon a Time" demonstrate the synergy between Mingus and his players, and display his compositional skills. by Heather Phares

[Japanese Bethlehem Album Collection 1000]

Tracklist:

1 - What Is This Thing Called Love
2 - Minor Intrusion
3 - Stormy Weather
4 - Four Hands
5 - Thrice Upon A Theme
6 - The Spur Of The Moment
Personnel:
Charlie Mingus - bass, piano, leader
John LaPorta - clarinet, alto saxophone
Teo Macero - tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
Thad Jones - trumpet
Jackson Wiley - cello
Clem De Rosa - drums