2010
 Essential Recordings

In the second installment of “Jazz Essentials,” we recommended five examples showcasing the early architects of jazz. Among them, of course, was Louis Armstrong, who was influential not only for the bravura trumpet playing that set the standard for jazz improvisation in a group setting, but also for his impact on the jazz vocal art. He not only vocalized with the rhythmic swing and phrasing of an instrument, but also introduced the popular use of scat-singing, often employed when words failed to impart the proper lilt or wit to a given piece of music. Using Armstrong as a springboard to the great jazz singers who followed, we now turn our attention to six more important vocalists of jazz history.

Bing Crosby is best known for his huge popularity as a singer of pop and novelty tunes, a star of radio and TV, and an actor of incredible range, from wacky comedy to heart-rending pathos. But he began as a jazz singer greatly inspired by Louis Armstrong. A contemporary of Armstrong, Crosby influenced countless crooners, including Frank Sinatra. Despite her limited vocal range, Billie Holiday combined an appreciation for the blues, an innate sense of swing, unusual phrasing and a gift for conveying and evoking intense emotions. Unlike most singers who had come before her, she occupied a high, middle ground between the straight blues interpretations of singers like Bessie Smith and the dull, uninflected delivery of most Tin Pan Alley songsters. There was no greater swinger among singers than Ella Fitzgerald. A near-contemporary of Billie Holiday—born two years later—Fitzgerald raised the vocal art to a pinnacle with her unerring pitch, her wide range and her sense of irrepressible joy in every tune. Throughout a career spanning nearly 60 years, she introduced new material with a curious zest, even when it seemed inappropriate or beneath her talents. Sarah Vaughan possessed pipes of operatic potential, capable of multi-octave leaps with a wonderfully controlled vibrato. A transitional jazz singer, Vaughan began her career in the swing era but adapted well to the new sounds and rhythms of bop in the late 1940s. Like Armstrong, Nat King Cole is equally important as an instrumentalist and a singer. His influential piano trio of the late 1930s and 1940s was one of the few to eschew a drummer in favor of a guitarist. Like Crosby, he became a singer of pop standards and occasional novelty songs and was a multi-media star of records, television and movies.

As with other early artists who we have recommended as essentials in any jazz collection, we will focus primarily on multi-disc anthologies. Since recordings of the 1930s and 1940s were initially available only on 78 rpm discs, and even later LPs can be uneven and incomplete examples of the artist’s work, we will suggest more representative collections.

BING CROSBY

Bing! His Legendary Years, 1931-1957

MCA Records

This four-disc set from 1994 is the best package of Crosby’s best years. It documents the arc of his career from the early jazz years, through the crooning radio and film years of the 1940s and into the modern pop-song television era. In doing so, it accomplishes the monumental task of representing all styles with which he is most often associated—swing, ballads, novelties, cowboy songs, holiday tunes and even the travel trifles of Hawaii and Ireland.

Among the early gems included are “I Found a Million Dollar Baby,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Stardust.” From Crosby’s popular holiday songbook are “White Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and “Silver Bells.” But the lion’s share of this 101-song collection is devoted to the standards of the Great American Songbook as interpreted with that marvelous, unmatched Crosby baritone.

For listeners who want more of Crosby from a particular period, we recommend additional jazz recordings from the late 1920s and early 1930s and—for that nostalgic sleigh ride down Santa Claus Lane—a whole album of Christmas music.

BILLIE HOLIDAY

Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles

Columbia Legacy Records

When it comes to Billie Holiday’s most fruitful years on Columbia records, fans have several formats from which to choose. Those on a limited budget can go with the single-disc “God Bless the Child” from 1996 or 2001’s double-disc “Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday.” For the completist, there is the 10-CD “The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia (1933-1944),” also released in 2001.

We recommend the middle path, the wonderful four-disc 2007 entry entitled “Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles,” a collection of 80 superb recordings made between 1935 and 1942. The sound is great, the selections are unimpeachable, and the performances are flawless, reaffirming Holiday as likely the best jazz singer of all time.

Of course, it helps that she is accompanied by some of the great players of the era, including pianist Teddy Wilson, saxophonists Lester Young, Ben Webster, Chu Berry and Johnny Hodges, clarinetists Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Jimmy Hamilton, trumpeters Harry “Sweets” Edison, Roy Eldridge, Buck Clayton and Charlie Shavers, guitarists Freddie Green, Dave Barbour and John Collins, bassists Milt Hinton, John Kirby and Walter Page, and drummers Jo Jones, Kenny Clarke, and Gene Krupa.

ELLA FITZGERALD

Something to Live For

Verve Records

Fitzgerald recorded from the early 1930s well into the 1980s—an incredible output—and much of it is first-rate. But we give the nod to this 1999 two-disc collection of 30 songs, ranging from 1935 to 1966. “Something to Live For” is a companion to the TV documentary of the same name, which appeared on the PBS series “American Masters.”

Importantly, it contains eight selections from her early years with Decca, including the iconic “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” Among the other career highlights are “How High the Moon,” “But Not for Me,” “Ridin’ High,” “Angel Eyes,” a live and swinging version of “Oh, Lady Be Good,” “The Lady is a Tramp,” “Body and Soul,” the scat masterpiece “Airmail Special,” “Mack the Knife,” “Mr. Paganini,” and one of her many excellent renditions of “’Round Midnight.”

Like Holiday, Fitzgerald got the sidemen she so richly deserved. Among those included here are pianist Oscar Peterson, saxophonists Colman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips and Sonny Stitt, trombonist J.J. Johnson, trumpeters Harry “Sweets” Edison and Roy Eldridge, guitarists Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel, and bassist (and former husband) Ray Brown.

SARAH VAUGHAN

Young Sassy

Proper Records

We can recommend 2001’s “Young Sassy,” without reservation, for a number of reasons. Whereas early recordings of Holiday and Fitzgerald were often inferior to their later work—usually due to weak material—Vaughan’s beginnings were more auspicious. Her voice was always magical, and the tunes here are largely drawn from the standards. Also, this four-disc collection contains her entire output between 1944 and 1950, an amazing 94 songs, at the very reasonable cost of less than $30.

Few can complain about a set list that includes “East of the Sun (and West of the Moon),” “Lover Man,” “Mean to Me,” “You Go to My Head,” “It Might as Well Be Spring,” “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” “Body and Soul,” “Time After Time,” “I Cover the Waterfront,” “Tenderly,” “Love Me or Leave Me,” “The Nearness of You,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” and “Black Coffee.”

Great thanks are due the folks at Proper Records, a UK label that has released dozens of modestly priced collections of jazz, blues, country and other great American music in recent years.

NAT KING COLE

The Best of the Nat King Cole Trio: The Instrumental Classics/The Vocal Classics

Blue Note Records

Since Nat Cole’s later recordings often suffer from a poor choice of material and overproduction, it is wise to start at the beginning. The three discs included in “Best of Nat King Cole: The Instrumental Classics/The Vocal Classics” present 62 tracks from the trio’s productive years of 1944 to 1950. The instrumental and vocal excellence presented here may come as a surprise to the unfortunate listener who knows only the Nat King Cole of “Ramblin’ Rose,” “Mona Lisa,” “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer” and “Cat Ballou.”

Among the most notable selections here are “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “How High the Moon,” “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “Sweet Lorraine,” “Frim Fram Sauce,” “Route 66,” “Meet Me at No Special Place,” “When I Take My Sugar to Tea,” “Too Marvelous For Words,” and “For all We Know.”

Cole’s satiny voice, impeccable piano playing and warm delivery require no strings, horns or other production “values,” which often weakened his later recordings. That is what makes these trio sides so important and so supremely listenable. By the way, we must pay our respects to the other players that make these recordings so timeless: Oscar Moore and Irving Ashby alternating on guitars, and Joe Comfort and Johnny Miller alternating on bass.    

FRANK SINATRA

The Capitol Years

Capitol Records

Few critics disagree that Sinatra’s middle period, his Capitol years from 1953 to 1961, produced his finest hours of recorded music in a career than spanned six decades. You can’t go wrong with any of the individual releases of the Capitol decade, so why not own them all? Either save up your money and purchase this 21-CD boxed set or buy the CDs individually, as I have over the last decade or so.

This 1998 EMI British import gets kudos for its purportedly superior sound over the individual domestic re-masters that were issued in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The box contains each of the original LPs packaged as a separate CD, with an additional disc compiling bonus tracks entitled “The Rare Sinatra.” The mammoth 272-track collection is also outrageously expensive, upwards of $600. Proponents claim that Sinatra’s voice is brighter, more alive, here than on the U.S. versions, but these esoteric arguments are subjective and fail to justify the cost, unless you happen to be independently wealthy.

For those of us who have to work for a living—and who have other music on our wish list—the way to go is to acquire the U.S. Capitol reissues as singles, for around $12 each. That way, you also get the bonus tracks that are added to each CD, expanding the length beyond the original 30 minutes or so. Most of Sinatra’s Capitol recordings are classics, so you can’t go wrong by either purchasing them chronologically or by going for your favorites first. Eventually, you should own “Songs for Young Lovers/Swing Easy” (1954), “In the Wee Small Hours” (1955), “Songs for Swingin’ Lovers” (1956), “A Swingin’ Affair” (1957), “Where Are You?” (1957), “Come Fly With Me” (1958), “Only the Lonely” (1958), “Come Dance with Me” (1959), “No One Cares” (1959), and “Nice and Easy” (1960). These 10 recordings represent a seven-year run of brilliance unparalleled in American popular song.  

Once you have satisfied your appetite for Sinatra’s greatest period, supplement your collection with something from his early years with Columbia Records and his later years on the Reprise label. Try to find the four-disc, 97-track “Best of Columbia Years 1943-52,” released in 1998, and go with either 1990’s, four-disc “The Reprise Collection” or “The Very Best of Frank Sinatra,” an excellent double-disc, 40-track overview of the Reprise years released by Warner Bros. in 1997. Happy listening!

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Jazz Essentials, Part 2

Unearthing the very roots of jazz

By Tom Ineck

In our first offering of recordings essential to any jazz collection, we took a look at five releases from 1959, a logical choice in their 50^th anniversary year. But as the decade turns, 2010 calls for a more definitive, long-range perspective, a look at some worthy examples of the early development and refinement of a great American art form that is approaching a century of recorded history.

Several artists suggest themselves—without doubt—as important and influential architects of jazz in the 1920s and 1930s. Louis Armstrong was the seminal jazz improviser, putting the soloist in the spotlight and creating an exciting vocal technique that was part and parcel of that individual sound. Employing a larger ensemble, Duke Ellington used elegant and sophisticated melodies and orchestral arrangements as lush backdrops for his soloists. Count Basie took a simple, riff-based blues form and generated a mighty, horn-driven swing engine that was irresistibly popular among musicians and listeners. Benny Goodman broadened the scope of the swing movement by attracting a younger, whiter audience while continuing to feature some of the best jazz arrangers and soloists available. Django Reinhardt created a new swing vocabulary for stringed instruments, resulting in the effervescent “gypsy jazz.”

Because early jazz artists operated in the pre-LP era, their music was recorded in more piecemeal fashion, first on cylinders then on 78 rpm discs that usually contained two tunes on each side. In recommending some of the best of these classics in the current CD era, one need only point to the outstanding compilations, often available in multi-disc boxed sets.

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.

Armstrong formed the first all-star studio jazz band in history—the Hot Five—while still working as a featured big-band soloist. The band also included Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny St. Cyr on banjo and Armstrong’s wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong, on piano. Together, they work their magic as a seamless whole, nearly bursting with enthusiasm and instrumental virtuosity in a broad range of material that encompasses both the direst blues and the most joyous stomps this side of paradise.

Expanding the ensemble to the Hot Seven, Armstrong included such brilliant collaborators as pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines, trombonist Jack Teagarden and guitarist Lonnie Johnson. Hines sophisticated style is especially noteworthy in his monumental duets with Armstrong.

In brief, these recordings are the equivalent of the Holy Grail of jazz history. Considering their age, the sound quality is excellent and JSP is to be commended for this reasonably priced package.

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 recordings on the Brunswick and Vocalion labels. In guises ranging from the Kentucky Club Orchestra, the Cotton Club Orchestra and the Washingtonians to the Jungle Band, the Hotsy Totsy Gang and the Six Jolly Jesters, Ellington introduced such classics as “East St. Louis Toodle-oo,” “Black and Tan Fantasy,” “The Mooche,” “Rockin’ in Rhythm,” “Creole Rhapsody” and “Mood Indigo.”

Of course, it was Ellington’s featured soloists who made his sound so personal. Emerging here with their own unique voices are trumpeters Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams, trombonist “Tricky” Sam Nanton, clarinetist Barney Bigard, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, and baritone saxophonist Harry Carney.   

With 67 tracks and more than three hours of music, this set is an excellent overview of Ellington’s early years, as he wrote his first, very important chapter in the history of jazz. Of course, he would go on to other significant contributions, but this is where it all began.

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 and Herschel Evans on tenor saxes, and Harry “Sweets” Edison and Buck Clayton on trumpets. Driving the whole band, of course, is the extraordinary rhythm section of Basie, guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Walter Page and drummer Jo Jones. Singer Jimmy Rushing adds his uncanny blues vocals to several tracks, and Helen Humes is an elegant contrast with her more pristine vocal style.

Among the essential tunes of the Basie catalog included here are “One O’Clock Jump,” “Time Out,” “Good Morning Blues,” “Boogie Woogie (I May Be Wrong),” “Swingin’ the Blues,” “Blue and Sentimental,” “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” and “Jive at Five.”

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.

Originally released in 1950, its ’30s vintage virtually assures poor sound quality, but the folks at Columbia/Legacy have managed to re-master the original tapes without obscuring any of the excitement of the occasion. Some surface noise is still apparent, but the listener is advised to concentrate on the consistently high level of artistry and the momentousness of history-in-the-making. Despite its shortcomings, it offers us an excellent look at Goodman’s big band and small-group talents.

With the entire concert spread across more than two hours on two CDs, we can appreciate not only lots of Goodman’s note-perfect clarinet playing, but the top-notch arrangements of Fletcher Henderson and the outstanding performances of such featured musicians as pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, trumpeter Buck Clayton, baritone saxophonist Harry Carney, and drummer Gene Krupa. Among the many highlights are “Sometimes I’m Happy,” “One O’Clock Jump,” “Shine,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Body and Soul,” “Avalon,” “Dizzy Spells,” “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” and, of course, “Sing, Sing, Sing.”

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.

For the uninitiated, Django was a Belgian gypsy born Jean Baptiste Reinhardt in 1910. At eighteen, he lost the use of two fingers on his left hand in a fire, forcing him to create a new guitar-fretting technique. Long before guitars were amplified, his unique acoustic sound and phrasing influenced Charlie Christian and Les Paul. Reinhardt and his longtime colleague, violinist Stephane Grappelli, were the most important jazz innovators to come from Europe. 

In the earliest ground-breaking performances included here, you get not only the virtuosic guitar playing of Reinhardt, but the equally amazing violin pyrotechnics of Grappelli, the flawless, chunka-chunka rhythm guitars of Joseph Reinhardt and Roger Chaput and the solid bass of Louis Vola. Later tracks also feature horns and piano, but the “gypsy” style remains intact.

Completists and purists will argue that many of the Hot Club’s greatest tunes are missing, but among the classic tracks included are “Dinah,” “Tiger Rag,” “Lady Be Good,” “I’m Confessin’,” “Swanee River,” “Ultrafox,” “Avalon,” “Djangology,” and “Chasing Shadows.”

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