Name some Prestige CDs you find underrated

[colinmce]

Pepper is monstrous on that record.

[Joe]

Swingville indeed.

Soft spots for Budd Johnson's LET'S SWING, the Shorty Baker - Doc Cheatham date, and Hal Singer's BLUE STOMPIN'.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Joe

[kh1958]

Eric Kloss' two best albums, In the Land of the Giants and Life Force.

[Larry Kart]

Swingville indeed.

Soft spots for Budd Johnson's LET'S SWING, the Shorty Baker - Doc Cheatham date, and Hal Singer's BLUE STOMPIN'.

The way Shavers plays on "Blue Stompin'" and "Hawk Eyes"! I heard Singer once at the West End Cafe in NYC in maybe the early '80s. He was in great form.

[Chuck Nessa]

[paul secor]

I don't know how underrated these are, but they're very good records:

Taft Jordan: Mood Indigo

Zoot Sims: Quartets - dodgy sound on a few cuts, but very good music

Phil Woods with Red Garland: Sugan - one that Chuck turned me on to

Getz, Zoot, Cohn, Eager, and Brew: The Brothers

Elmo Hope Trio: Meditations

Charles McPherson with Carmell Jones and Barry Harris: Bebop Revisited - a good bop date - w. Nelson Boyd on bass - years after the fact

Tiny Grimes with J.C. Higginbotham: Callin' the Blues

two volumes of the Wardell Gray Memorial

Finally, the musicians may not be underrated, but I don't see these recordings mentioned very often:

Jackie McLean Quintet: Lights Out! - with some very fine Elmo Hope

Benny Golson: Groovin' with Golson - He and Curtis Fuller made a fine team.

Art Farmer: Farmer's Market

Gene Ammons: Nice an' Cool

A special tip of the cap to many of the Swingville recordings. My listening and jazz listening in general would be much, much poorer if Prestige hadn't recorded so many swing musicians. No other company did this to anywhere near the extent that Prestige did.

Edited September 4, 2014 by paul secor

[clifford_thornton]

I have some real nice Hal Singer recordings but not the Prestige...

[soulpope]

Edit : Sorry just realized this is about Prestige CD`s - and "Fire Eater" to my knowledge never saw (stand alone) release as CD....but nevertheless this Prestige release is IMO underrated aka unheralded aka not well known.......

Edited September 5, 2014 by soulpope

[paul secor]

A few more:

Benny Carter with Ben Webster and Barney Bigard: BBB & Co. - A Prestige/Swingville date that (I believe) was recorded in California, in spite of the Englewood Cliffs recording location listed on the OJC reissue. Very nice one.

Al Casey: Buck Jumpin'

two by Buck Clayton and Buddy Tate: Buck & Buddy; Buck & Buddy Blow the Blues

Art Taylor: Taylor's Tenors

The Prestige Blues Swingers: Outskirts of Town - more organized than the average Prestige blowing session, due to Jerry Valentine's arrangements

Joe Newman Quintet featuring Frank Wess: Jive at Five

At Ease with Coleman Hawkins

[Scott Dolan]

I find it hard to believe that anything from Hawk or Taylor is "underrated".

[Chuck Nessa]

Two 2fer cds of merit:

Oops, I see Paul already mentioned the Jordan.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Chuck Nessa

[Unk]

Underrated? Not sure just what that means, but I think these are worth a listen:

Wardell Gray - Memorial Vol 1 and 2

James Moody - Swedish Crowns/Sextet sides (1949)

Sonny Stitt and Bud Powell

Possibly the only vocal records you'll ever hear me recommend:

King Pleasure and

Eddie Jefferson - I wanted to choose Letter from Home, but that's a Riverside. So Body and Soul or either of the mid-fifties sessions with James Moody.

Oddly, as much as I love Hampton Hawes, his Prestige stuff is - to my ears - far from his best.

[paul secor]

Tadd Dameron: Fontainebleau

Joe Newman with Frank Foster: Good 'n' Groovy

Edited September 5, 2014 by paul secor

[Larry Kart]

I find it hard to believe that anything from Hawk or Taylor is "underrated".

Maybe a better term here, in some cases, would be "not that well known." For instance, Hawkins' excellent "On Broadway," which combines three Prestige LPs:

http://www.amazon.com/Broadway-Coleman-Hawkins/dp/B000000ZFO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409885535&sr=1-1&keywords=coleman+Hawkins+%22On+Broadway

[Larry Kart]

I'm not a fan of later Phil Woods, but early on he was quite something, and "Phil Woods -- Early Quintets" is some of his best:

http://www.amazon.com/Early-Quintets-Phil-Woods/dp/B000000ZA3/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409885738&sr=1-1&keywords=phil+woods+early

Likewise his "Pot Pie" with Jon Eardley:

http://www.amazon.com/Pot-Pie-Phil-Woods/dp/B000000ZAJ/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409886104&sr=1-4&keywords=jon+eardley

[jeffcrom]

I agree with much that has been said here, but the first album I thought of when I saw this thread was Olio, just another Prestige studio jam session. But what a lineup!

And this thread has been revelatory to me - I had no idea that there was a mid-60s Bobby Timmons album with Wayne Shorter. It's on its way to me now.

[JSngry]

Elvin % Thad together

EDIT{ Whoa, Jeff, same page same time on that one...

I kinda think the Teo Macero side is worth some listening too...Teo was playing jazz tenor and not thinking of the instrument as "jazz tenor", if that makes any sense...lots oc "classical" informings in in his voice...intersting, if not necessarily "underrated" in the sense of whoa, you need to know this one. And he's not as overtly Warne-ish as he was early on (although even then, he had his own slant).

[jeffcrom]

Great minds....

[Larry Kart]

Zoot Sims' “Quartets"

http://www.amazon.com/Quartets-Zoot-Sims/dp/B000000YDM/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409886315&sr=1-2&keywords=zoot+sims+quartets

Webster Young’s “For Lady” with Paul Quinichette

http://www.amazon.com/Lady-Webster-Young/dp/B000000Z50/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409886599&sr=1-1&keywords=webster+young+for+lady

[Guy Berger]

I really like the Monk Prestige albums, they usually get overshadowed by the Blue Notes before and Riverside after.

Yes! Some of the finest Monk was on Prestige; stronger batting average than on Riverside, IMHO.

[paul secor]

Walt Dickerson, of course, is perennially underrated. Not throwing shade on Bobby Hutcherson, but Walt went there first, and then some.

And Walt stayed there.

If Prestige hadn't recorded Walt Dickerson - 5 albums worth, I believe - so much would have been lost. And the later recordings for Steeplechase and Soul Note might never have happened.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

If we're going to extend our reach to Prestige's subsidiary Swingville, there's Coleman Hawkins' fantastic "Hawk Eyes" with Charlie Shavers, the Pee Wee Russell with Buck Clayton, the Tiny Grimes with Hawkins (the one with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along"), "For Basie" with Paul Quinichette, Shad Collins, Nat Pierce, Walter Page (his final recording), and Jo Jones, and a good deal more.

'Hawk eyes' was a Prestige album (7156) which was reissued on SV.

I assume you mean Kenny Burrell, not Tiny Grimes, 'cos 'Until the real thing comes along' was on Hawk's LP 'Soul' on PR7149 (another reissued on SV).

But speaking of REAL Swingville albums - I love Al Casey's 'Buck jumpin'' (SV2007) in which Rudy Powell replaces King Curtis in the King Curtis band, under Casey's leadership - OK, I AM a sucker for the one and only Herman Foster, but this is a totally splendid album.

Also, one of the greatest albums ever

Coleman Hawkins & Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis - Night Hawk SV2016 - every time I play this I'm laid flat.

There were some damn fine albums on Moodsville, too:

Jaws & Red Garland - Moodsville 1 MV1

Jaws & Shirley - At ease MV4

Arnett Cobb - Ballads by Cobb MV14

Willis Jackson - In my solitude MV17

Gene Ammons - Nice n cool MV18

Gene Ammons - Soulful mood of MV28

Kenny Burrell with Hawk - Bluesy Burrell MV29

MG

[Joe]

Agree with Larry... you can't go wrong with that Webster Young record, mostly because Quinichette just brings it on every tune.

All of George Wallington's Prestige records are worth hearing, especially the early trios and live Cafe Bohemia date with the Byrd - McLean line-up (originally issued on Status, though, so maybe it doesn't quite qualify?) Some nice Phil Woods to be heard on THE NEW YORK SCENE.

Also, a little bit more buttoned-down that I would like (more Dave Burns, please), but the James Moody small group records merit some attention, as Moody was trying something different in terms of balancing arrangements and "blowing"...

[Shawn]

Jerome Richardson, ROAMIN' WITH RICHARDSON (featuring a beautiful, beautiful rendition of "Warm Valley," featuring JR on baritone sax)

You beat me to it, that was the very first title that popped into my head.

[CJ Shearn]

Definitely Jack McDuff "Screamin" and "Crash" (the twofer) George Benson, "The New Boss Guitar" which doesn't seem to get mentioned that much in comparison to "It's Uptown", "Cookbook", the A&M, CTI or Warner period. Don Patterson "Boppin and Burnin" is real nice as is Arnett Cobb, "Blow Arnett Blow",is one of the greatest two tenor records I've ever heard.. Some of the Prestige jams, like "The Cats"(technically New Jazz) I like a lot too, but that is probably the least underrated of the lot b/c it features Trane, but Kenny Burrell and Idrees Sulieman are terrific on that, too.