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Originally broadcast on CBS April 11, 1976, under the title The Original Rompin' Stompin' Hot and Heavy, Cool and Groove All-Star Jazz Show, this concert ran as part of its parent network's Lively Arts for Young People series. As staged at the Ed Sullivan Theater and directed by Gary Keys, it features performances by a who's-who of jazz legends who were still active at the time, including Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz.

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As one of Cuba's greatest Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz pianists and long an important bandleader, Jesus Chucho Valdes has earned international renown and a devoted audience of jazz fans. However, the imaginative composer and virtuosic improviser does not waiver from his ability to interpret acknowledged classics. Fantasia Cubana: Variations on Classical Themes demonstrates this attribute and reveals Chucho Valdes in peak form. He pays homage to Ernesto Lecuona, the concert pianist and founder of the Havana Symphony who is generally recognized as the most important Cuban musician of the first half of the 20th century.

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A bit more of a purist album than the usual collection of retro-swingers, All Aboard includes several jump blues (the best of which are "The Indigo Swing" and "Regular Joe") plus a good downtempo swinger, "(Today's the Day) I'm Glad I'm Not Dead," and an intriguing cover of Willie Dixon's "Violent Love" (previously done by bands ranging from Dr. Feelgood to Skankin' Pickle).

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This previously unreleased Dixieland set (put out by Jazzology on a 1996 CD) teams trumpeter Max Kaminsky with clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, valve trombonist Brad Gowans, pianist Teddy Roy, bassist John Field and drummer Buzzy Drootin. Taken from radio broadcasts emanating from Boston's Copley Terrace...

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This two-DVD set includes several rare films featuring Duke Ellington in several different settings. Disc one documents his first appearance in the French Riviera at the Côte d'Azur in July 1966, with the pianist making intermittent commentary via voice-over between some selections. While the leader is stuck with an obviously substandard piano (with a horrid muddy bass range) and an outdoor setup that is not conducive to getting ideal sound, Ellington, being an old pro, does his best to make do with the conditions.

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On Casa De Amor, Armik's songs are dreamlike stories that illuminate the passion and the joy of Spanish guitar. Fusing traditional Spanish melodies with jazzy improvisations and progressive rhythms, Armik has concocted a sensuous, passionate and unique sound. Casa De Amor is a genuine masterwork. As a guitarist, he is one of the most adulated virtuosos of the Nuevo Flamenco genre.

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n the development of jazz's avant-garde movement, the late Eric Dolphy remains a pivotal figure. While he expanded the range and possibilities of the alto saxophone and bass clarinet--his technique drew upon vocalized sounds from both those instruments--Dolphy remained grounded in the bebop movement. Simply put, he clung to the swinging theme-solos-theme structure while his innovative, soaring solos embraced freedom. STOCKHOLM SESSIONS is taken from a Swedish television program on which Dolphy and his quintet performed in 1961, and captures Dolphy at his peak. His solos on alto sax and bass clarinet are unfettered, passionate, and hearty, and his flute is possessed of beautiful classical refinement. The band also features some crackling trumpet from Idrees Sulieman and sharp playing from a pair of Scandinavian pianists.

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Legend would have it that Rock'N'Roll was born in Memphis in 1954 when a young truck-driver by the name Elvis Presley opted to sing "Black Blues" his way. A legend that drastically over-simplifies reality, however, for the roots of Rock'N'Roll are already to be found in the early recordings of Blues, Jazz and Country music of the mid-1920. This collection, created by Gérard Herzhaft, shows that the Rock 'n' Roll was not born with Bill Haley and Elvis Presley but before, the fusion of Rhythm and Blues, Western Swing, Country, Gospel - or the whole of popular music from the early twentieth century. This collection has become indispensable, because the history of interbreeding reveals the crystallization and the formation of gender identity as the history of amplified music...

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The Rosenberg Trio with Bireli Lagrene - Djangologists Rather than putting the focus on Django s most famous compositions, Djangologists the Rosenberg Trio s fifteenth album hails the spirit that has guided Django s work, digging into the less known, the unexpected and the unpredictable. It is a tribute to the master paid by masters. The enclosed DVD shows the musicians in the studio while recording this important project and also offers nice interviews with them reflecting their love for Django s music.

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Here's a superb segment of the Art Tatum story, beginning with ten trio sides featuring guitarist Tiny Grimes and bowing, singing bassist Slam Stewart. Six marvelous selections recorded May 1, 1944, were subsequently issued on the Comet label. Each of these performances appeared on 12" 78-rpm records, allowing for well over four minutes of...

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Andy Summers played guitar with Police. Afterwards, he made three solo CDs for Private Music during 1989-1991. This retrospective features performances from each of the three. It sure isn't bad music. It does seem a little hard for Windham Hill, but then music doesn't need to be very hard to be hard for WH. Some of it is jazz, and the rest is pop instrumental.

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"Irakere is Cuba's, and in my opinion, the world's greatest and most influential Afro-Cuban Jazz band ever. There is no better setting to hear this incredible group than a live setting. This CD was recorded live in 1991 at London's famed Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Although many obviously feel that the original version of Irakere, which included Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D'Rivera along with Chucho Valdes, is the best incarnation of the group, there is no denying the incredible power and virtuoso musicianship of this incarnation of the group from the late 80's-early 90's which included Orlando "Maraca" Valle on flute, Miguel "Anga" Diaz on congas and percussion, Cesar Lopez on sax, and Juan Munguia on trumpet.

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Wadada Leo Smith's Mbira is an ensemble that works within the idiom of American creative music but also in the realms of the Mbira music of the Shona culture in Zimbabwe and even traditional Chinese music. With pipa player Min Xiao-Fen and drummer Pheeroan akLaff, Wadada Leo Smith has produced an album that is powerful and instantly captivating, ancient and contemporary at the same time. Dark Lady of the Sonnets contains five compositions by Smith, ranging from a memorial for his late mother Sarah Bell Wallace to the title-track inspired by the great Billie Holiday.

Well, when Dirk Quinn isn’t quoting Nietzsche, he’s making music. The Dirk Quinn Band has just released their third album aptly titled, Live at Home. It’s a compilation of songs recorded on the road in the Philadelphia area, and serves as a testament to their uniquely aggressive, instrumental improvisational repertoire. This album is labeled as “Jazz” for which several names may come to mind: Bird Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis—perhaps, Stan Getz, John Coltrane, Pat Metheny, or, cringingly, Kenny G. If you’ve read about the Dirk Quinn Band, you may have seen references to Medeski, Martin, and Wood or John Scofield, and this is fine—but I’d like to suggest you suspend the urge to slap a label on the music and style of the DQB.

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If there would be a list of afro-cuban orchestras then it would start with the 1973 founded “institution” Irakere. What makes this recording a highlight of the many releases of the band is the tracklisting – from Scott Joplins“Ragtime” over Mozarts “Adagio” right up to Chucho Valdes’s “Misa Negra” – it reads like the Who’s Who in music history.

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