Featuring Art Pepper's 1956 and 1957 Aladdin sessions, which have been issued on The Return of Art Pepper (Jazz West), Collections (Intro), Modern Art (Blue Note), Just Friends (Pacific Jazz), Solo Flight (Pacific Jazz), The Art of Pepper (Omega) and The Art of the Art (Nadja), Mosaic's 3-CD boxed set portrays the alto saxophonist in familiar company, full of life and at his best. The collection includes several bonus tracks, alternate takes, and material that was previously available only on reel-to-reel tape.

Product Description In a remarkably short span of time, Charlie Parker rewrote the rules of jazz and established himself as one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century. Parker made his mark in many ways – as a virtuoso saxophonist, and innovative composer, a trend-setting bandleader, and a galvanizing force in the development of modern jazz. He was on this earth for only thirty-four years, but he left behind several lifetimes' worth of immortal music.

From Jazziz
In the 1940s, Norman Granz was a jazz visionary in several ways; one of these was his incorporation of strings into a variety of recordings. Granz ultimately attracted some of the best jazz artists of the era (and of all time). He managed a yet-to-be-duplicated balance of commercialism and risk-taking, of business and art, that led to the recording of some of jazz's landmark recordings. Charlie Parker With Strings (now on Verve, originally on Clef) is generally acknowledged as the first release to feature a jazz soloist backed by violins. It was just the beginning. Arguably the greatest improviser of all time, Charlie Parker was reputed to have been interested in doing a strings album for years. Granz gave him the opportunity to do it, with strings arranged and conducted by Jimmy Carroll (who was working for Granz at the time). Bird's album was monumental in more than the fact that he added strings - it was also an album of all standards, with Parker clearly stating each melody. "Just Friends" became Parker's biggest-selling single and the record of which he was said to have been most proud.

Jason Moran has a genuinely contemporary vision that's also in touch with a neglected and radical past. On his third CD for Blue Note as a leader (produced by his usual employer, Greg Osby), the young pianist continues to reach across the great divide that separates his often conservative generation from the label's '60s firebrands. This time he's taken that approach still further, working with saxophonist/flutist/pianist Sam Rivers, one of the stalwarts of Blue Note's most adventurous period and still, at 78, a commanding and adventurous musician. The results recall the early work of pianist Andrew Hill. Sometimes moody, sometimes bright, the music can be turbulent and multidirectional with complex, overlapping patterns that fuse the taut structures of hard bop with the density of free jazz, resulting in a music that combines the energies of both. Moran's meeting with Rivers is an extraordinary success. A mutual lyricism touches glowing, subterranean depths on the duet of "Say Peace," and the same empathy shows in the airy, Oriental grace of "Summit." The final "Sound It Out" is more intimate and spontaneous still, beginning with one of Rivers's own exploratory piano solos before he turns to flute, ceding the keyboard to Moran for another charged dialogue. --

With this rich collection of sides by Django Reinhardt from the vaults of HMV and Swing, you can instantly transport yourself to a small French café in the mid '30s, very near the beginning of his recording career, where dedicated fans discovered what made this extraordinary musician - the first real European jazz star -- a raging sensation on both sides of the Atlantic.

Joe Oliver played cornet in Kid Ory's band when the trombonist declared him "King" of the New Orleans horn players, and Oliver took the title with him when bassist Bill Johnson invited him north to Chicago in 1919. Oliver assumed leadership of the band as it gradually took on its ultimate form with clarinetist Johnny Dodds, his brother Baby on drums, trombonist Honore Dutrey, and then its crowning touch, Oliver's young friend Louis Armstrong, arriving from New Orleans in 1922. Playing music that is at once complex and joyous, the Creole Jazz Band combines virtuosic breaks and solos with a tight blend of improvised and rehearsed ensembles, presenting a constantly shifting, delightful palette of fresh musical combinations.

Tommy Flanagan - Jazz Poet (1989)

Thomas Lee Flanagan (16 March 1930, 16 November 2001) was an American jazz pianist born in Detroit, Michigan, particularly remembered as an accompanist of Ella Fitzgerald. He played on a number of critically acclaimed recordings, such as John Coltrane's Giant Steps, Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus , The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, and Art Pepper's Straight Life. The Tommy Flanagan Trio (with bassist Wilbur Little and drummer Elvin Jones) released their first album, Tommy Flanagan Trio Overseas, in 1957. Flanagan's style was both modest and exceptionally musical. He embodied many of the most important qualities associated with jazz: swing, harmonic sophistication, melodic invention, bluesy feel and humour. Interestingly, he appeared on a number of highly innovative albums. (His awkward solo on the extremely fast and harmonically complex title-track of Giant Steps is a rare [if famous] instance on record of the usually unflappable pianist being caught off-guard.)