EARL HINES AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1945-1947 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1041 (1999) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This is a very interesting CD full of rarities. Part of Classics' "complete" series, the disc features the Earl Hines big band after Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie had come and gone. Tenor-saxophonist Wardell Gray was still part of the band and has quite a few solos on their selections from 1945-46. The arrangements are sometimes uncomfortably boppish (they do not really mesh with the leader's piano and the repertoire) and in other spots swinging. Lord Essex has a few high-toned vocals that sound ten years out of date but singers Dorothy Parker and Hines himself (who is heard on "Ain't Gonna Give None Of This Jelly Roll" and the novelty "Oh My Aching Back") are much better. Fortunately there are quite a few instrumentals. While the first 14 numbers are from 1945-46, there is also a small group romp on "Sweet Honey Babe" from 1947 (featuring clarinetist Scoops Cary) and six big band selections from late in the year with four vocals from Johnny Hartman who is heard at the beginning of his career. Other than a few more numbers recorded in Dec. 1947, these were the last recordings of the Earl Hines Orchestra. The music (originally released by the ARA, French Jazz Selection, MGM, Sunrise and Bravo labels) had formerly been mostly quite scarce. Worth exploring. Scott Yanow  
Tracklist + Credits :

ETTA JONES - Don't Go to Strangers (1960-2006) RVG REMASTERS / FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Don't Go to Strangers was Etta Jones' first album for the independent jazz label Prestige when it was released in 1960 (having been recorded in a single session on June 21 of that year), and although Jones had been releasing records since 1944, including a dozen sides for RCA in 1946 and an album for King Records in 1957, she was treated as an overnight sensation when the title tune from the album went gold, hitting the Top 40 on the pop charts and reaching number five on the R&B charts. An elegant ballad on an album that had several of them, including the masterful "If I Had You" and a marvelous reading of "All the Way," a song usually identified with Frank Sinatra, "Don't Go to Strangers" featured Jones' airy, bluesy phrasing and uncanny sense of spacing, and was very much a jazz performance, making its success on the pop charts all the more amazing. Listen to Jones' restructuring of the melody to the opening track, the old chestnut "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," to hear a gifted jazz singer sliding and shifting the tone center of a song like a veteran horn player, all the while leaving the melody still recognizable, but refreshing it until it stands revealed anew. Apparently there were no additional tracks cut at the session, since bonus material has never surfaced on any of the album's subsequent reissues, although that's hardly a problem, because as is, Don't Go to Strangers is a perfect gem of a recording. by Steve Leggett  
Tracklist:
1 Yes, Sir That's My Baby 4:23
Written-By – Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson
2 Don't Go To Strangers 3:51
Written-By – Arthur Kent, David Mann, Redd Evans
3 I Love Paris 4:01
Written-By – Cole Porter
4 Fine And Mellow 5:52
Written-By – Billie Holiday
5 Where Or When 3:41
Written-By – Rodgers & Hart
6 If I Had You 3:51
Written-By – James Campbell, Reginald Connelly, Ted Shapiro
7 On The Street Where You Live 3:45
Written-By – Al Lerner, Frederick Loewe
8 Something To Remember You By 3:45
Written-By – Schwartz & Dietz
9 Bye Bye Blackbird 3:16
Written-By – Mort Dixon, Ray Henderson
10 All The Way 4:39
Written-By – Sammy Cahn & Jimmy Van Heusen
Credits:
Bass – George Duvivier
Drums – Roy Haynes
Flute, Tenor Saxophone – Frank Wess
Guitar – Skeeter Best
Piano – Richard Wyands
Recorded By [Recording] – Rudy Van Gelder
Vocals – Etta Jones