JSngry

There's another one w/Davis, not as strong an overall group (a matter of degree, though, not of level), but Ford is doing it for real.

This is a good one: As is this one: There's a third Candid with that group. They're all nuts, those albums. Then there's the two sides w/Mal Waldon on Ford's Muse sides make an interesting journey taken as a whole. Sometimes you find them as cutouts, so be on the lookout. Ricky Ford kinda started out kinda funny, like he was going to end up like a hardboppy Scott Hamilton or some such. But then he started going kinda left (well, not really "going" in was in there from the beginning (and oh yeah, don't miss his recordings with Ran Blake, none of them), and next thing you know, he's playing really, really intensely all the time. Those Candid sides get "uncomfortable" at times, in a good way, if you know what I mean. And now, I guess he lives in France.

Stuff Smith Sniff 'n' The Tears Scruff McGruff

Stick To Me...had one of the great side-ending songs of the era, "Clear Head" iirc, Found it: It's laughable now to think back on how "radical" stuff like that sounded then. Too fast for "hard rock", too brash for "album rock", too simple for all the proggers, too straight a beat for all the crunchers...hell, for somebody like me who started listening to AM pop & rock in the late 50s, fast straight-eight notes with snarly vocals sounded like a freakin' homecoming or something!

24 Robbers A Thief In The Night Hal Crook

The former.

The Hawk set is an incredible (and incredibly engrossing) collection, but...where are you getting "the black church" thing out of this? Just wondering...

Bill Barron Bill Collector Bill Toomey

or, if you want something easier to find: The first one is ostensibly "rhythm & blues", but...that's semantics/marketing/cultural myopia/whatever. The second is some of ostensibly both, but again, whatever. This is the one set I can think of off the top of my head that meets all of your criteria in pretty much unambiguous form. You might think that the larger box violates the No Hard Bop clause, but a lot of this stuff (even the "R&B") actually inspired Hard Bop as a "genre" rather than the other way around, so I think the Historically Significant To The History Of Jazz clause FTW is the right play. Otherwise, as far as your B & C, hey, no brainer.

Money in Joe South's bank!

Cars and bathrooms, where else can you ever be really alone with your thoughts and your odors...and have no concerns about either?

Eddy & The Falcons Eddie Ray Eddie LeBaron

Chicken Little Rooster Cogburn A Roofer Who Got Burned

That's the only thing that there's just too little of.

Pony Boy Pretty Boy Prissy Britches

I have no idea what that is...

Kenton, definitely, and a really good player at that.

Are we talking melodies or changes? If it's the latter, "I Got Rhythm" wins by a light year, I'd think. Infinite number of riffs/melodies recorded over those changes.

Harpy Phineus Jose Feliciano

Who was that in place of Ivan Dixon? A musical bunch, overall...

Things and stuff.

Kitty Carlisle Kitty Kallen Kitty Killer

Paul Terry Paul Richards Terry Richardson