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Release date April 21: Remastered, reconfigured and repackaged high energy live recordings from the 1940s & 1950s featuring the legendary Charlie Parker, backed up by other jazz luminaries including Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Art Blakey and Woody Herman, with liner notes by Keith Emerson and Cory Weed.

Release date April 7: Hazel Scott was a jazz pianist and singer, about whom we hear very little these, but who was a stylish and respected performer, especially known for her jazz interpretations of classical pieces and styles, but also a noted composer as well as a fine vocalist with a sophisticated approach to the Great American Songbook. This 69-track 3-CD collection brings together a significant proportion of her recordings during the primary era of her career, before she largely relocated to France in the wake of McCarthy-ite persecution as a committed civil rights activist. It features solo piano recordings, plus piano and vocal performances with small groups and orchestras, so offers an entertaining cross-section of her output for the Bluebird, Decca, V-Disc, Signature, Columbia, Capitol and Debut labels. It includes most of the titles from her albums Swinging The Classics, A Piano Recital, Great Scott, Grand Jazz, Relaxed Piano Moods and Round Midnight, and features recordings with Charles Mingus, Max Roach, J.C. Heard, Sidney Catlett, Toots Camarata, Charlie Shavers, Ernie Caceres, Red Callender, Everett Barksdale and many others. It's a substantial and enjoyable showcase for a talented artist whose work deserves a much higher profile than she has generally enjoyed.

Release date April 7: Twenty-eight years ago, in March 1994, Mike Melito's fellow Rochesterian, Chuck Mangione, presented a traveling festival in upstate New York. He hired Roy McCurdy to play with Nat Adderley - with whom McCurdy had played on 7 leaders, plus another 19 with Cannonball Adderley, between 1966 and 1979 - in a band that included pianist Don Menza and Rochester guitar stalwart Bob Sneider. He assigned Melito to the other act, James Moody, in a unit including then up-and-coming pianist Danilo Pérez. Roy and I hit it off right away, Melito says. I'd obviously been checking him out for years. We played the same set of drums, same cymbals - and I learned a lot about sound. He didn't talk to me about anything. I watched him, and figured out what he was doing that I wasn't. I believe you're a student forever. I work a lot on my sound, on my hands, on my cymbal beat. My goal has always been to sound as authentic as possible as a player and strive for the same sound as my heroes. Melito offered this self-assessment after relating an encounter some thirty years ago with iconic drum conceptualist Max Roach, whom he'd studied closely since age 12, when Melito heard the 1947 Charlie Parker-Miles Davis-Roach classic Dewey Square on the first jazz record I ever bought on my own. Another Rochester friend, trumpeter John Sneider, had played Roach some tapes featuring Melito, and the maestro noticed. I met Max and he gave me one of the greatest compliments I've ever received, Melito recounts. He said, 'You really know how to phrase; the snare drum...' - and gave me a big hug. The 56-year-old master offers a highly personalized refraction of Roach's late 1950s investigations of the possibilities of 3/4 waltz time towards the end of his eighth self-released album, To Swing Is The Thing, a title that efficiently encapsulates the imperatives that have driven him through 40 years as a professional drummer.

Release date April 21: Louis Hayes' music is full of life and humanity. It is sometimes refreshingly simple and sometimes intricately complex, sometimes light, sometimes dark, but it is always interesting and consistently engaging. Through it all, Louis Hayes has always remained indefatigably optimistic and his latest Savant release is all those things. Throughout the album Hayes, a 2023 NEA Jazz Master, coaxes concise, well-conceived tracks from his players where everybody swings with loads of feeling, and no self-indulgence. From the first note to the last, Hayes creates performances that take veteran jazz listeners into deep jazz waters while at the same time allowing recent converts to safely wade into the invigorating flow of ideas. As difficult times often beget new beginnings, the COVID-19 quagmire gave birth to alto saxophonist Eric Alexander. To some, a tenor-to-alto switch may not seem to be a newsworthy matter, but for the initiated it's the stuff of headlines. An inveterate tenor at the apex of the scene for more than three decades, Eric put the alto away in his teen years and never looked back. "But with the dearth of opportunities to play during the pandemic, I started to work on it," he confesses. After successfully pitching the idea of using his second saxophone-with-strings project as a debut on alto, the present recording is quite simply astounding. Working with his regular rhythm section and adding ace string arrangements, this altoist delivers one revelatory performance after another.

Release date March 17: 2023 release. For his third Mack Avenue Records release, 5-time Grammy Award-winner Billy Childs assembles an all-star quartet with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade. On The Winds of Change, the critically acclaimed pianist/composer offers 5 brand new original compositions alongside exhilarating arrangements of Chick Corea's "Crystal Silence" (originally on Corea's 1972 ECM recording of the same name with vibraphonist Gary Burton) and Kenny Barron's "The Black Angel" (originally on trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's 1970 Atlantic recording of the same name) to push the creative boundaries of the group and inspire a collective new sound to pay homage to jazz legends and the artistry.

Release date April 7: This release in a series of live recordings of concerts from the Fabrik in Hamburg-Altona, one of those hidden treasures from the archive of the NDR, was intended to bring back the memory of changes and revolutions in the world of jazz of more than four decades ago. It has now turned into an obituary - at the end of September 2022 the tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders passed away at the age of 81. This recording of the Sanders Quartet from 6 June 1980 is so far the oldest from the Fabrik, predating the great jazz-epoch of the venue. An era, which even today Thomas Engel, the first program planner of the Fabrik, describes as a very special period for popular and not-so-popular culture in Hamburg and far beyond. Furthermore, this concert formed part of the then fifth edition of what was still called the New Jazz Festival, a summit of German, European and US-American musicians. Only thanks to the NDR Bigband, top-class jazz was performed at the old industrial site on Barnerstrasse in Altona at all. In the mid-1970s, the band was brave enough to leave its familiar recording studio and perform rousing concerts at the Fabrik. Since 1976, the New Jazz Festival organised by Wolfgang Kunert, the program planner of the big band, institutionalised jazz music at this exceptional location.

Deutsche Grammophon 111 - The Violin, disc 10.

He was excellent on Roy Brooks's "Understanding," and, of course, his work with Miles. RIP.

I was the head of my college's jazz concert commission, and we put on Weather Report in November 1974. I remember Wayne played far more, and far more emphatically, than on the WR albums, and he really helped push the band. It was one of the hottest concerts I still can recall. One student on the college's radio station brought a stack of Wayne's Blue Note albums, and had him sign them; she had almost a groupie's awe about her. I also saw his quartet play Houston in April 2014.

Thanks for the guidance on etiquette, Randy. OK, so I'll try to use a lot of this's, and at least say how I came to identify these: 2. The intro trumpet was very nice and restrained, but the big clue happened when the band came in. The arrangement sounded like Thad. I downloaded this album a long time ago (inexpensive Amazon d/l), and matched the track by the timing. 3. The tune is so identifiable. I've owned the album for awhile, and of course Sonny's choice of an obscure tune seemed funny, but then I heard Rosemary Clooney's version of it (from this) and it slayed me. 4. I bought this LP just a couple of months ago, based on a mention by someone on this board. I owned the Mercury twofer (""Jug" Sessions"), but was amazed to learn of still more early Jug. In fact, just a few days ago, I found on Ebay the Chess CD "Young Jug," which should complete most of the early Ammons picture. 6. The sound quality was a big tipoff. I mean, Webster but not Webster, Lester but not Lester, Hawk but not Hawk, so who's left? I was curious about Byas, and someone on the board recommended some titles. I identified it as off this. 9. The pianist started off restrained, but after about a minute had to be himself. So Hines + Duke = this (an old eMusic download). 10. Ornette has never been one of my favorites, to put it mildly. But, boy, for someone who's perpetually portrayed as misunderstood, he sure has always had the hype machine cranked up to 10, hasn't he? I remember when this album came out, and reviewers pointed to it as akin to the second coming, but it sure just sounded like more Ornette to me. Someday I'll figure out the allure of this perpetually misunderstood musician, but today's yet again not that day. 11. The big clue for me was Bill Frisell - that sound. He has a sound that's as identifiable, in his own way, as Ben Webster's. So, working from there, I figured the trumpet to be Wadada, and it's a trio, so it could have been one of Wadada's recent releases, but then the notion of Cyrille clicked for me. The track is "Pretty Beauty" from this; I played the album once and filed it. (I gotta mention here, each track's showing its total time in Tom Keith's software is a big help in sleuthing.) 13. I could kinda tell the time period from the hard pan, but the rest was a mystery until I heard Grant Green's unmistakable tone and phrasing (see Bill Frisell above). I know most of Green's work, so, since it sounded like a larger ensemble, and Grant was probably not the leader, and having the total time of the track, led me to this, which I own as both a standalone CD and on the Mosaic Parlan box. 15. The sound quality immediately pegged it as '50's Sun Ra, along with the uncoordinated big band and the apeshit piano solo. What else but "Medicine For A Nightmare" from this, which I own on Evidence.

Wow. I've never identified so many on a BFT before (9 out of 16)! So what's the etiquette - do I list them and claim bragging rights, or withhold my knowledge so that others can play? I can tell you that I've identified #2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 15. I'll keep silent on those for now. Here's my impressions of the others: 1. Lush Life. Bassoon? I actually liked it better without the band. Bassoon player is very expressive. Rahsaan? 5. Sounds Ellington-ish. Can't name the sax or piano, but very nicely done. Pianist sounds like Mal Waldron. Is that Steve Lacy? 7. Tenderly. Soulful rendition. 8. Over The Rainbow. Billy Eckstine? 12. This does not appeal to me. I might have had more patience for this sort of performance when I was younger. Everyone involved obviously has massive chops, but the effort does not move me. 14. Another trumpeter who's listened to Miles (I guess, who hasn't?). Organ sounds like an accordion at times (plus the drone!). Track doesn't do much for me. 16. Bari + bowed bass? Interesting. Live track. Hamiet Bluiett? Kind of a riff piece, but doesn't really go anywhere; might be their "marching off the stage" song. Fun BFT!

Great one.

I aspire to the rank of agitator.

Happy 20th anniversary! What a great site!

Very sad. I saw his quartet in Houston in April 2014, and in 1975 with Weather Report. A long career, filled with many highlights. RIP.

Thanks; I've ordered it.

This is one of my favorite box sets:

How is it?

Deutsche Grammophon 111 - The Violin, disc 9.

One brand that hasn't yet been mentioned is Zojirushi. We use it for hot coffee, and it can easily keep coffee scaldingly hot through the afternoon. Excellent Japanese build and design quality.

The mp3 download is available from Amazon.

Walter Bishop Jr., not Walter Davis.

It’s funny that they’re rereleasing Todd Rundgren’s A Wizard A True Star. That thing’s almost 60 minutes, and was heavily compressed for its original release (and very prone to skipping). Would have been much better to release it over 3 or 4 sides and remix it.

Was it this, recorded May 1961?