This session comes from close to the end of the line (1959) in the erstwhile swinging company of Barney Kessel on guitar, Ben Webster on tenor, and naysayers will be quick to point out that Lady Day wasn't in peak form here…

This set includes music perfect for Halloween that isn't actually about Halloween, although everything included here is definitely scary on one level or another. Consisting of vintage jazz and blues tracks issued between 1925 and 1961, there are plenty of songs here about devils and witches, including Tampa Red's "Witchin' Hour Blues," Sippie Wallace's "Devil Dance Blues," and the Mississippi Sheiks' "I Am the Devil," among others. There's also a classic version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins doing his signature tune, "I Put a Spell on You," this one done with the Leroy Kirkland Orchestra.

Despite various reissue formats over several decades, the seven original LPs contained in Thelonious Monk - The Riverside Tenor Sessions stood perfectly well on their own at the time of initial release and remain among the highest achievements of a truly golden age. Recorded and released between 1956 and 1961, these seven Monk combo albums were critical in Monk's emergence from a decade of ridicule and neglect to his status at the pinnacle of the jazz pantheon. In addition to some of his best recorded piano performances and more than two dozen of his profoundly personal compositions, these albums provide an overview of the era's major tenor saxophonists, with contributions by Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Johnny Griffin, Charlie Rouse and Harold Land…

Study in Brown features the 1955 version of the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, a group also including tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell, and bassist George Morrow. One of the premiere early hard bop units, this band had unlimited potential. Highlights of this set are "Cherokee" (during which trumpeter Brown is brilliant), "Swingin'," and "Sandu." All of this group's recordings are well worth acquiring.

Originally released in 1958 by the budget-priced Crown label, The Blues collected a dozen sides B.B. King cut for RPM and Kent between 1951 and 1958…

This is a true classic. Altoist Art Pepper is joined by an 11-piece band playing Marty Paich arrangements of a dozen jazz standards from the bop and cool jazz era. Trumpeter Jack Sheldon has a few solos, but the focus is very much on the altoist who is in peak form for this period…

Charles Mingus - Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife (1959) {Columbia CK44050 rel 1988}
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© 1959, 1988 CBS / Columbia | CK 44050
Jazz / Post Bop / Progressive Jazz

It's too bad this one is so rare, it's quite good. Slop is probably the best known track, and is Get It In Yer Soul's little cousin. Song With Orange is underrated (the liner notes call it one of Mingus's less memorable tunes) and makes nice use of muted brass. Gunsling Bird, fully called, "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Lot of Dead Copycats", so you can guess it's a tribute piece. Things Ain't What They Used to Be and Mood Indigo are two lengthy Ellington covers, the former being my favorite Ellington piece. Far Wells, Mill Valley has an awesome title but is an okay song.

Benny More - Voz y Obra (1995) {Milan Latino 7313835777-2 rec 1950's}
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© 1950's, 1995 Milan Latino / BMG | 73138 35777-2
Jazz / Latin / Pop / Mambo / Rhumba / Guajira

"The Barbarian of Rhythm" delves into mambo, rhumba, guajira, and cha-cha-cha on this 19-song collection, which features "Dolor Y Perdon," "Bonito Y Sabroso," "Ensalada de Mambo," "Caricas Cubanas" and "Mi Amor Fugaz.".

Lennie Tristano - Tristano (1955) {Atlantic Japan, 30XD-1036, Early Press}
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© 1955, 1988 Atlantic / Warner Japan | 30XD-1036
Jazz / Bop / Cool / Piano

Lennie Tristano's Atlantic debut was a controversial album at the time of its release. Though Tristano was regarded as a stellar and innovative bebop pianist, he had been absent from recording for six years and had founded a jazz school where he focused instead on teaching. The first four tunes on this set shocked the jazz world at the time of their release (though not critic Barry Ulanov, who was Tristano's greatest champion and wrote the liner notes for the set). The reason was that on those four original tunes – "Line Up," "Requiem," "Turkish Mambo," and "East Thirty-Second" – Tristano actually overdubbed piano lines, and sped the tape up and down for effect.

Various Artists - Boogie Woogie and Blues Piano (1935-1941) {3CD Set, Mosaic Select MS-030 rel 2008}
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© 1935-41, 2008 Mosaic Records / Sony BMG | MS-030
Jazz / Blues / Jazz Blues

While most Mosaic limited-edition boxed sets concentrate on recordings by an individual bandleader or a single record label, Boogie Woogie and Blues Piano features sessions by a number of different artists from several labels active in the 1930s and early '40s, when boogie-woogie was very popular. Fifteen different pianists are featured (if one counts Lionel Hampton playing two fingered-duo piano in a band setting), though it is the giants of the genre, Meade "Lux" Lewis, Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Jimmy Yancey who are given the most exposure.

Louis Jordan - At The Swing Cat's Ball (1999) {MCA Records MCAD-12044 rec 1938-1954}
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© 1938-54, 1999 MCA Records | MCAD-12044
Jazz / Swing / Jump Blues / Jive

Perhaps the most renowned performer from the '40's Jump, Jive and Swing Era, Jordan created a style and songbook that continues to be influential, and he's acknowledged by artists from B.B. King to Brian Setzer. The #1 Black hit-maker of the '40's, Jordan is in every Hall of Fame imaginable. The 1st full-length, in-depth compilation to focus on Jordan's most swinging music features 12 tracks making their U.S. CD debut.

Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars - Satch Plays Fats (1955) {Columbia VCK-40378 rel 1986}
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© 1955, 1986 Columbia / CBS Canada | VCK-40378
Jazz / Jive / Swing / Trumpet

Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller only worked together twice, briefly in 1925 in Erskine Tate's band and four years later in the New York revue Connie's Hot Chocolates. But Waller made an indelible enough impression for Satchmo to record the tribute album Satch Plays Fats: The Music of Fats Waller in 1955, when such ideas were new. The nine tracks feature Armstrong ably supported by his All-Stars on such classics as "Honeysuckle Rose," "Squeeze Me," and "Ain't Misbehavin'." The mid-'50s was a fertile time for Armstrong, and this makes for a stellar package.

Louis Prima & Keely Smith - Breaking It Up (1953) {Columbia–Legacy CK65259 rel 1998}
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© 1951-53, 1998 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | CK 65259
Jazz / Jump Blues / Swing / Big Band

In late 1951, Louis Prima was hot on the heels of a comeback success the year before with "Oh Babe!," and a record so big that it spawned numerous cover versions by everyone from Wynonie Harris and Lionel Hampton to Kay Starr and even a Spanish language version by Lalo Guerrero ("Chitas Patas Boogie" on Imperial and used in the movie Zoot Suit with Edward James Olmos). After three follow-ups went nowhere (one of which was the immortal "Zooma Zooma"), Prima came to Columbia Records and was handed over to A&R chief Mitch Miller. And here was part of the problem. Prima's audience liked a cruder Louis and were used to records cut on shoestring budgets with production values that were as raw as the music they framed, while Miller's production was state-of-the-art squeaky-clean.

Thelonious Monk featuring Johnny Griffin - Complete Live At The Five Spot 1958 (2009) {2CD Set, Lone Hill Jazz LHJ10360}
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© 1958, 2009 Lone Hill Jazz | LHJ10360
Jazz / Bop / Post Bop / Piano

Just after John Coltrane left him and before the arrival of Charlie Rouse, Thelonious Monk formed a quartet with Johnny Griffin, which played at the Five Spot in New York in August & July, 1958. Half of this music was issued on two original Riverside albums: “In Action” and “Misterioso”. This edition contains all known music from these famous gigs plus as a bonus, a rare sextet selection by Monk including Griffin, Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams.

Mac Rebennack, who would gain fame under the pseudonym Dr. John, had become a valued composer, as well as a skilled keybordist and guitarist by his late teens. He played with bands in his home ity of New Orleans, cooking up a gumbo of rhythm & blues, boogie, and rock & roll peppered with unleashed horns and a Creole flavor. His work was influenced greatly by pianist/songwriter Professor Longhair, who is regarded as a trailblazing pioneer of New Orleans-style R&B.