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Ken Burns's Jazz: The Story of American Music

This five-CD box set soundtrack to filmmaker Ken Burns's 10-part, 19-hour documentary Jazz spans nearly a century of jazz styles, from the martial rhythms of James Reese Europe to the soul-jazz of Grover Washington Jr. It includes time-tested classics like Benny Goodman's 1938 classic, "Sing, Sing, Sing"; John Coltrane's chanting 1965 immortal track, "A Love Supreme"; Billie Holiday's blue-ember ballad, "God Bless the Child"; and Ella Fitzgerald peeling off "A-Tisket A-Tasket." Bebop is represented by Charlie Parker's orchestral bop version of "Just Friends"; Thelonious Monk's nocturnal calling card, "'Round Midnight"; and Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts" and "Groovin' High."
The jazz-instrumentalist-as-singer comes to life on Coleman Hawkins's "Body and Soul" and Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers' "Doodlin'." Clifford Brown and Max Roach's "I Get a Kick out of You" epitomizes the hard-bop era, while Miles Davis's "So What" stands as the modal masterpiece. The cool school is in session with Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan dishing out "Walkin' Shoes," and the Modern Jazz Quartet's soulful elegy "Django" straddles all the above musical orbits. As for Django Reinhardt, he's featured on "Shine" with the justly famed Le Quartet du Hot Club de France.
Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" and "Potato Head Blues" and Duke Ellington's rousing rendition of Billy Strayhorn's anthem, "Take the A Train," and his moody "Solitude" show why they are the Olympian masters of this art form--and the most frequently featured artists in the series. Although Ken Burns tries bringing the music up-to-date with Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, and two jazz-hip-hop-influenced tracks--Herbie Hancock's robotic "Rockit" and the French-language "Un Aige en Danger" by MC Solaar and bass legend Ron Carter--there are significant holes here. After Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman, the avant-garde period from the late 1960s to the 1980s is lacking. And aside from the bossa nova hit "Desafinado," Latin jazz is also missing. It's a tough task summarizing jazz in five CDs, and Burns has given us a vibrant and vivid multicolored aural portrait of the music. --Eugene Holley Jr.
Ain't Misbehavin' (1978 Original Broadway Cast)
The Greatest Ragtime of the Century
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 1

Art Tatum
20th Century Piano Genius

Art Tatum

For Art Tatum, the piano was a veritable playground, a forum for endless invention. His supreme command of the instrument and his unparalleled sense of timing and touch allowed him to seemingly accomplish whatever he wished. Songs were puzzles to be dismantled and reassembled; melody, harmony, and rhythm were merely variables in the never-ending creation process. This two-CD set collects all of the recordings Tatum made at two private parties hosted by Warner Bros. musical director Ray Heindorf; the bulk of the material comes from July 1955, the remainder is from April 1950. All of the trademark Tatum elements are here: the grand melodic flourishes, the harmonic magic tricks, the flirtations with various tempos and musical styles. But what also emerges is Tatum's effervescence, his joy, and his humor. He seems to celebrate and mock these timeless melodies all at once. Is that "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" hiding in "Body and Soul"? The results are always compelling and almost always thrilling to hear. You can hear his friends gasp and chuckle along with music, and you will too. --Marc Greilsamer
The Very Best of Fats Waller

Fats Waller
The Very Best of Fats Waller

Fats Waller
Alone with Three Giants

Marcus Roberts

It's not unusual for contemporary musicians to record tributes to Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington, but Marcus Roberts showed some character on this 1990 session when he extended his reach to include the relatively neglected Jelly Roll Morton in this solo invocation of the three great pianist-composers of jazz. His strong feeling for the early jazz versions of the blues is apparent in the performances of Morton's "Jungle Blues" and "New Orleans Blues." The feeling carries over directly into the early Ellington classics like "Mood Indigo and "Black and Tan Fantasy." Roberts plays Monk with a keen sense of Monk's roots in early jazz piano music, apparent in "Trinkle Tinkle," and there's also a refreshing look at some neglected Ellington in "Shout 'Em, Aunt Tillie." --Stuart Broomer
The Art of Jazz Piano

Art Tatum: The Art of Jazz Piano is still the only documentary portrait of the greatest jazz pianist ever. Using photographs and some rare footage of Tatum and his contemporaries, the film reconstructs his genius. Included are interviews with musicians
If I Could Be With You

Marcus Roberts
If You Got to Ask, You Ain't Got It!

Fats Waller
Thinking About Bix

Dick Hyman

* Definitive performances of Bix Beiderbecke's five original piano pieces, plus new Hyman arrangements and improvisations on classic Beiderbecke recordings.
* A spectacular recording by seven-time Grammy nominee Keith O. Johnson, at the famed Skywalker Sound.
* Hyman was composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist for many Woody Allen films including Bullets Over Broadway and Mighty Aphrodite. Other film scores have included Moonstruck and Billy Bathgate.
"Stunning virtuosity and audio fidelity that sets an unprecedented standard for recording that most recalcitrant of instrument, the grand piano. An extraordinary pianist with great taste, in total command of a magnificent instrument, recorded with awesome presence and fidelity!" -- JazzTimes
"A once-in-a-lifetime record that does everything right. The band is hot, and the sound is front-row center, the players set up in a virtual-reality semicircle inches from your face. It is the most enveloping recording in my collection, and my numero uno desert island LP." -- Stereophile
Piano Starts Here

Art Tatum
The Joy of Joplin

Marcus Roberts

On this recording, the tradition-conscious pianist Marcus Roberts delivers a satisfying and surprisingly modern take on ragtime composer Scott Joplin's music. Instead of performing like a human piano roll, Roberts--who has already recorded tributes to piano greats Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Jelly Roll Morton--interweaves ragtime with a number of musical genres. With an agile right hand that never sacrifices form for the sake of fluff, and a strong left hand that emulates the low-frequency tuba-bass beats central to the ragtime style, Roberts brings out the best of Joplin's compositions, including the stride/boogie-woogie interpolations on "The Entertainer," the strolling rhythms of "Bethena's Waltz," and the habanera-Spanish tinges of "The Magnetic Rag." Roberts's own compositions in the ragtime idiom reveal his rare gift for emulation and innovation, as evidenced by his Chopinesque and impressionistic "Hidden Hues"; the cascading,Teddy Wilson-ish runs on "Play What's Written"; the supersonic, swinging pace of "From Rags to Rhythm"; and the stop-and-start melody of "After the Party Is Over." --Eugene Holley Jr.
The Original James P. Johnson 1942-1945

James P. Johnson
The Butch Thompson Trio Plays Favorites

Butch Thompson
Best Off

Lizzy Mercier Descloux

Leading Light of New York Underground in the Late 70s and Throughout the 80s, Lizzy Co-created the French Magazine "Rock News" with Michel Esteban, Published a Collection of Poems and Photographs, "Desiderata", Prefaced and Illustrated by her Friend Patti Smith, with Contributions by Richard Hell and Recorded Six Fantastically Lauded Albums for the Ze Label.
The Best of Art Tatum

Art Tatum
The Album

Art Tatum, Ben Webster

This album by pianist Art Tatum and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster (assisted by bassist Red Callender and Bill Douglass on drums) is often called one of the milestones in recorded Jazz history. This CD reissue presents the album in it's entirety and adds bonus solo piano tracks from Tatum. Essential Jazz. 2006.
Gershwin for Lovers

Marcus Roberts