Louis Armstrong

Hot Fives and Sevens

JSP Records

Duke Ellington

Early Ellington: Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings

Verve Records

Count Basie

The Complete Decca Recordings

Veve Records

Benny Goodman

Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert

Columbia/Legacy Records

Django Reinhardt

The Very Best of 1934-1939

Stardust Records

LOUIS ARMSTRONG

The Hot Fives and Sevens

JSP Records

These definitive small-group recordings, made between 1925 and 1930, have been released in numerous configurations by many different labels, including Columbia. The four-CD, 90-track JSP edition, released in 1999, gets the nod for its sound fidelity, its more logical sequencing and the small, independent label’s devotion to the music. In brief, these recordings are the equivalent of the Holy Grail of jazz history.

DUKE ELLINGTON

Early Ellington: Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings

Verve Records

This three-disc package, released on Verve in 1994, documents Ellington’s phenomenal artistic genius as his various ensembles emerged and developed from 1926 to 1931. In guises ranging from the Kentucky Club Orchestra and the Cotton Club Orchestra to the Washingtonians and the Jungle Band, Ellington introduced such classics as “East St. Louis Toodle-oo,” “Black and Tan Fantasy,” “The Mooche,” “Rockin’ in Rhythm,” “Creole Rhapsody” and “Mood Indigo.”

COUNT BASIE

The Complete Decca Recordings

Verve Records

Basie’s early fame can be traced to these 63 classic recordings for Decca. Recorded between 1937 and 1939 and released in 1992 by GRP Records on three discs, they are now available on the Verve label. Every track swings with that special pumping exuberance that the Kansas City style epitomizes. Like Ellington, Basie often took a back seat to his remarkable soloists—among them, Lester Young, Herschel Evans, Harry “Sweets” Edison and Buck Clayton.

BENNY GOODMAN

Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert

Columbia/Legacy Records

Rather than choose a broad retrospective of Goodman material, such as the excellent two-disc, 2007 Sony release “The Essential Benny Goodman” or the 1991 three-CD collection of early Bluebird recordings called “The Birth of Swing (1935-1936),” I recommend this somewhat flawed 1999 reissue of the famous Carnegie Hall concert of January 1938, which put Goodman on the map. Indeed, it is considered by many the single most important live recording in jazz history.

DJANGO REINHARDT

The Very Best of 1934-1939

Stardust Records

There are literally hundreds of releases compiling the early recordings of Django Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. They vary widely in sound quality, tune selection and sequencing, but the performances are pretty consistently fantastic. This 32-track, two-disc package on the Stardust label is a good introduction to what makes “gypsy jazz” so irresistibly engaging. Reinhardt and his longtime colleague, violinist Stephane Grappelli, were the most important jazz innovators to come from Europe.