Jimmy Smith – Back at the Chicken Shack
By the dawn of the 1960s, Jimmy Smith had already accomplished something extraordinary. In just a few years, he had transformed the Hammond B-3…
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– Jazz
Bill Evans Trio – Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Few live albums have captured the fragile magic of musical conversation as completely as Sunday at the Village Vanguard. Recorded on June 25, 1961,…
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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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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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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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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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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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Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool
Few albums have altered the course of jazz as profoundly as Birth of the Cool. Although the recordings were made between 1949 and 1950…
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Sabu – Palo congo
When discussions turn to the greatest jazz albums of the 1950s, names like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Charles Mingus usually dominate the conversation.…
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Duke Ellington – Ellington at Newport
Few live albums have altered the course of a musician’s career quite like Ellington at Newport. Recorded on July 7, 1956, at the legendary…
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Louis Prima – The Wildest!
Few entertainers have ever embodied pure joy quite like Louis Prima. A singer, trumpeter, bandleader, comedian, and consummate showman, Prima built his reputation on…
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Frank Sinatra – Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!
Just one year after exploring heartbreak and loneliness on In the Wee Small Hours, Frank Sinatra made a dramatic change in mood with Songs…
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Frank Sinatra – In the Wee Small Hours
By the middle of the 1950s, Frank Sinatra had already experienced more highs and lows than most artists encounter in an entire lifetime. Once…
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