Elvis Presley – Elvis Is Back!
Military service temporarily interrupted Elvis Presley’s meteoric rise to superstardom, but it did nothing to diminish his talent. When he returned to the recording…
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Latest Reviews
The Everly Brothers – A Date With The Everly Brothers
Rock and roll was barely five years old when the Everly Brothers released A Date with The Everly Brothers in 1960, yet Don and…
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Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Some albums define a genre. Others redefine what music itself can be. Kind of Blue belongs firmly in the latter category. Released in 1959,…
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Dave Brubeck – Time Out
Jazz was evolving rapidly during the late 1950s. Bebop had already rewritten the rules of improvisation, hard bop was flourishing, and artists like Miles…
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Marty Robbins – Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
Western music had been a cornerstone of American culture for decades before Marty Robbins released Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in 1959, but few…
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Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book
The Great American Songbook has inspired countless recordings, but very few have achieved the artistic ambition and enduring brilliance of Ella Fitzgerald Sings the…
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Ray Charles – The Genius of Ray Charles
By 1959, Ray Charles had already transformed rhythm and blues with a string of groundbreaking hits that blended gospel, blues, jazz, and country into…
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Ravi Shankar – The Sounds of India
By the late 1950s, Indian classical music remained largely unfamiliar to Western audiences. While jazz, classical, and folk traditions had begun crossing cultural boundaries,…
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Billie Holiday – Lady in Satin
When Lady in Satin was released in 1958, Billie Holiday was nearing the end of a career that had forever changed the art of…
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Count Basie and His Orchestra + Neal Hefti Arrangements The Atomic Mr. Basie
By the late 1950s, Count Basie had already secured his place among the giants of jazz. His original orchestra had defined the Kansas City…
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Sarah Vaughan and Her Trio At Mister Kelly’s
Live jazz albums often reveal an artist more completely than even the finest studio recordings. Without endless retakes or carefully edited performances, the singer…
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Machito – Kenya
Machito & His Afro-Cubans: Kenya — The Album That Redrew the Map of Jazz Released 1957 (Roulette Records) | Genre: Afro-Cuban Jazz / Mambo…
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Tito Puente – Dance Mania
By the late 1950s, few musicians had done more to bring Afro-Cuban and Latin dance music into the American mainstream than Tito Puente. A…
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Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – Jack Takes the Floor
Long before the folk revival reached its commercial peak in the early 1960s, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott was already carrying traditional American songs from coffeehouses…
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Thelonious Monk – Brilliant Corners
By 1957, Thelonious Monk had spent years earning the admiration of fellow musicians while remaining something of an enigma to the broader jazz audience.…
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