Cool Jazz Music CDs

Even critics who feel (against the recorded evidence to the contrary) that little of tenor saxophonist Lester Young's postwar playing is at the level of his earlier performances make an exception for this session. Young was clearly inspired by the other musicians (trumpeter Roy Eldridge,...

As Gerald Heard's liner notes point out, it's difficult to decide whether Chet Baker was a trumpet player who sang or a singer who played trumpet. When the 24-year-old California-based trumpeter started his vocal career in 1954, his singing was revolutionary; as delicate and clear as...

This Atlantic release has some unusual performances by the Modern Jazz Quartet. Two selections ("Da Capo" and "Fine") combine the MJQ, which is comprised of vibraphonist Milt Jackson, pianist John Lewis, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Connie Kay, with the Jimmy Giuffre 3...

Now listeners can enter the heart of the Paul Desmond/Jim Hall sessions, a great quartet date with Gene Cherico manning the bass (Gene Wright deputizes on the title track) and MJQ drummer Connie Kay displaying other sides of his personality. Everyone wanted Desmond to come up with a sequel to...

With a reputation as one of the originators of cool jazz, it's ironic that over the years tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh gained a following of musicians mainly associated with the avant-garde, spearheaded by multi-reedist Anthony Braxton. These musicians heard what this disc demonstrates:...

June Christy transposed our suburban dreams of the early fifties to a new key. Her husky, relaxed, slightly erotic voice took the veneer off a culture reeking of self satisfaction. The breath-taking title track Something Cool has all the edge of a vodka stinger with false reminiscences about a...

As Dave Brubeck writes in his liner notes for this CD reissue, "Creating a 'hit' out of the odd-meter experiments of Time Out was the farthest from any of our minds in 1959 when Paul Desmond, Joe Morello, Eugene Wright and I went into the studio to record." This is often the...

Capitol's The Complete Birth of the Cool is a double-disc set that's separated into two halves. The first contains all 12 tracks Davis cut in the studio in January 1949 with Gil Evans. The second contains three radio broadcasts that the Birth of the Cool nonet performed in September...

Jimmy Giuffre's small-group recordings of the late '50s and early '60s are renowned for his lyrical tone and intimate chamber jazz settings. Joined by frequently collaborator Jim Hall on guitar and bassist Ray Brown (who easily settles into the mellower atmosphere far removed from...

During 1952-53, baritone-saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and trumpeter Chet Baker formed a magical partnership in the famous Mulligan pianoless quartet. The two horns weaved lines around each other and the subtle interplay sometimes seemed telepathic, gaining a hit in My Funny Valentine and...

Stan Getz, who initially became famous for his playing on the ballad Early Autumn with Woody Herman's Orchestra in 1948, had such a beautiful tone that in the 1950s he was known as the Sound. Getz would have a wide-ranging and very productive career during the next few decades, but he...