Between 1955 and 1960 Buddy Collette released a number of superb albums on which he acted as leader, put out by a range of different labels (unlike many of his contemporaries, Collette was never associated with one specific record company), such as Contempo, Bel Canto, Speciality, ABC, and EmArcy. He also worked alongside a number of back-up players on these records, but rarely worked with the same bands regularly. It is from this fertile period for Buddy Collette that the eight original albums that make up this collection are drawn. Featuring such fine works as, Tanganyika, Man of Many Parts, Calm, Cool & Collette, Everybody's Buddy and Nice Day with Buddy Collette, this 4CD set provides a great starting place for new adherents to this great man's music and talents, as well as a delightful reminder for those already somewhat versed.

Hampton Hawes, “For Real!” was recorded in 1958 but not released on the Contemporary Records label until 1961. Featuring Hawes (piano) alongside Harold Land (tenor sax), Scott LaFaro (bass) and Frank Butler (drums) the album incudes a mixture of both jazz standards and originals. This new edition features remastered hi-res audio from the original tapes.

Four CD set containing eight albums from the vocalist and activist: Mark Twain, Belafonte Sings the Blues, Calypso, to Wish You a Merry Christmas, Belafonte Sings the Caribbean, Belafonte, An Evening with Belafonte and Love Is a Gentle Thing.

À l'occasion des 100 ans de la naissance de Charles Aznavour, découvrez ses 100 plus belles chansons réunies sur un Best of 5CD.

Billie Holiday was an American jazz musician & singer-songwriter with a career spanning nearly 30 years. Nicknamed "Lady Day," by her friend & music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music & pop singing. The Billie Holiday Verve CD collection contains a selection her best-loved albums. Songs By Billie Holiday, A Recital By Billie Holiday, Velvet Moods - Songs By Billie Holiday, Lady Sings The Blues & All Or Nothing At All are housed in a hard-case boxset.

This seven-CD collection exhaustively documents Columbia Records' first attempt at niche marketing with the Piano Moods series. Born out an impromptu marketing plan by a small Columbia Records staff in 1950, the Piano Moods series was hatched from the marketing discovery that there were more pianos than phonographs (that's record players for all you kids who don't remember vinyl LPs) in the homes of postwar America. The 12" LP had been launched a scant two years before and few titles were available. The Piano Moods series linked 20 albums of the same general type, all of them produced and sequenced by George Avakian, who had created the jazz and pop catalog on LP for Columbia beginning in 1948 – though they were originally released 33 rpm 10" discs to keep the folks with all those 10" 78 rpm discs happy when it came to storage. The sides were cut – usually – with no spirals (spaces) between tunes, giving the side a longer feel than its 17 minutes because the music was continuous. Most pianists preset their sequences and prepared introductions of the key of the preceding tune that modulated into the key of the next one.

86 Track 3-CD set of rare and collectable early Detroit Soul productions, celebrating some of the more obscure recordings from the Motor City. Boasts seven previously unissued recordings and over 20 tracks new to CD! Coincides with the release of Kathryn Bigelow’s much-anticipated new film, Detroit, inspired by the riots of 1967 within the city’s black community. Classic recordings from the vaults of Lu Pine, Sidra, Impact and other highly regarded Detroit labels of the 60s. Includes some of the earliest recordings of Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd and Bettye LaVette, as well as future Motown stars The Supremes (as The Primettes), Marv Johnson, The Contours and Brian Holland. Includes the most influential early soul single ‘I Found A Love’, as well as a host of Northern Soul classics by the likes of Mr. Floods Party, Just Brothers, The Precisions, Gwen Owens, The Falcons and Fork In The Road. All titles recorded between 1957 and 1977, curated by the team behind the Joe Boy and Outta Sight labels.

Blue Note Records has announced an April 26 release of Sonny Rollins A Night at the Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters, a special Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of the legendary saxophonist’s tour-de-force live trio album. The expanded 3-LP set, which can be ordered now on the Blue Note Store, marks the first time Rollins’ complete recorded performances at the Village Vanguard on November 3, 1957 will be made available in a single vinyl package. The collection is also available as a 2-CD set and on all digital formats.

A piece of music history comes alive on Friday, May 10, as Storyville Records releases a new recording capturing the legendary Duke Ellingon, live in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1958.

Jazz from The Pacific Northwest combines two previously unissued concert recordings from one of the greatest jazz drummers of all-time, Shelly Manne. The first recording features Monty Budwig on bass, Russ Freeman on piano, Stu Williamson on trumpet, and Herb Geller on flute and alto saxophone recorded at the Monterey Jazz Festival on October 4, 1958. The second recording features Hampton Hawes on piano, Frank Strozier on flute and alto saxophone, Conte Condoli on trumpet and guest vocalist Ruth Price on two tracks recorded at the Penthouse jazz club in Seattle on September 7 and 15, 1966.

24 Tracks - First time on CD! The first two volumes in Stag-O-Lee's Exotic Blues & Rhythm series were released on limited edition 10 inch vinyl (500 copies per volume) and sold out in next to no time! Enjoy amazing and danceable tunes from the late 50s and early 60s - a handful of Popcorn dancefloor smashes, a few grinding Tittyshakers, awesome Rhythm & Blues - most of them with an exotic twist!!

This fascinating and thoroughly entertaining 3CD set is now available!
Here's what I had to say about it on All Music Guide:
"The idea of ‘banning’ a song from being broadcast over the airwaves is a familiar story here in the U.S., especially when it comes to offensive lyrics. Many of the decisions made by the FCC have been no-brainers and have met with some resistance but were, for the most part, justifiable. But in the UK (especially during the years covered on this three CD set), the BBC’s judgments on what was inappropriate for airplay made U.S. radio sound like a crowded brothel during happy hour!

Bo Diddley, also known as Ellas McDaniel, was one of the most distinctive and influential artists in the transition of popular music from blues and R&B through to rock ‘n’ roll during the 1950s. His music was best-known for his use of the guitar riff based on the 3/2 clave, sometimes known as “shave and a haircut, two bits”, and it was a motif taken up by many artists after he popularised it with his early hits. Although he did not have a huge number of hits, his songs, such as “I’m A Man”, “Pretty Thing”, “Who Do You Love” and “Mona” have inspired and been recorded by a huge number of artists. This great value 84-track 3-CD collection comprises the A & B sides of all his singles for the Checker label from his 1955 debut through to 1962, plus the tracks which were not included on his singles from his first seven albums - “Bo Diddley”, “Go Bo Diddley”, “Have Guitar Will Travel”, “In The Spotlight”, “Bo Diddley Is A Gunslinger”, “Bo Diddley Is A Lover” and “Bo Diddley Is A Twister”. It’s thorough overview of his crucial first few years of recording, which established his unique position as one of the pioneers of the genre.

Born in Detroit in 1932, Dorothy Ashby can be easily recognized as the woman who gave the harp a jazz voice. In her hands, the harp, an originally classical instrument which seemed to just scare people, became a highly versatile swinging voice able to drive a whole jazz rhythm section. Recorded in 1958 by master Rudy Van Gelder and originally released on the Prestige label, Hip Harp is a perfect example of Ashby's artistry. At the head of a fine quartet featuring the great Frank Wess on flute, Herman Wright on bass, and master Art Taylor on drums, Ashby creates a unique combination of deeply jazz elements expressed through a totally new sound.

The term beatnik with its implied allusion to Communism was to inspire fear and loathing in every God-fearing, white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant the length and breadth of 1950s America when it emerged with the disillusionment felt by many young people in post-WWII America who had begun to realize the futility of war, the emptiness of materialism and the brutality of organized religion. In 1943 New York, three men came together and formed the most potent underground art phenomenon of the post war world. Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs would, between them, create the notion of youth culture, without which rock & roll and all that followed in its wake would be unthinkable. This 5 CD box set celebrates the Beat Generation, the art it produced and the influences from which it borrowed. Disc One & Two - The Complete Jack Kerouac; The three albums Kerouac recorded in the late 1950s plus bonus cuts. Disc Three & Four - Beat Generation Jazz; Two CDs featuring the jazz that inspired the Beat Generation. Disc 5 - Diggin' The New Breed; Featuring Interviews with the Beats themselves, plus the testimonials of fellow writers, friends and lovers.