Louis Armstrong and the All Stars
Looming like a Colossus behind all great jazz soloists is Louis Armstrong. This collection, which documents the years 1949-1957 (his last great creative period), has visits from drummer Gene Krupa, saxophonist Bud Freeman, pianist Earl Hines and trombonist Jack Teagarden and, of course, celestial trumpet: showers of bent notes and skyward runs, Armstrong's huge, resonant sound seeming to originate inside your head. (Mosaic Records, 35 Melrose Pl., Stamford, Conn. 06902)
FRANK SINATRA—THE COLUMBIA YEARS 1943-1952: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS
Sinatra was once dubbed Swoonatra because his dreamy balladry made girls go weak in the knees. On this 12-CD collection of 285 recordings, more than half of which have been unavailable since the 78-rpm era, he comes across as a vulnerable young suitor not yet wise to the ways of the world. The treacly string and choral arrangements are dated, but Sinatra's phrasing is impeccable and his purling legato free of the grit that has crept into his later work. (Legacy/Columbia)
Janis Joplin
It took three years to gather these 50 rare tracks and remastered greatest hits, and every minute was worth it. With such highlights as a birthday tribute to John Lennon that Joplin recorded eight days before her death, this superb set preserves the explosive passion and poignant charm of a woman who was buried in the blues. (Legacy/Columbia)
Various Artists
From the late '40s through the '60s, the Chicago-based Chess blues label boasted a roster that included Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy and Sunnyland Slim. Among these 101 songs on four CDs are well-known Chess classics like Waters's "Hoochie Coochie Man" and Wolf's "Killing Floor" and an abundance of such rare gems as Clarence Samuels' "Lollypop Mama" and Rocky Fuller's "Funeral Hearse at My Door." (MCA)
THE COMPLET ELLA FITZGERALD SONGBOOKS
This 16-CD set is a consummate collection of jazz standards. Between 1956 and 1964, Fitzgerald paid homage to Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer in a series of songbook albums that have been reproduced here in miniaturized form with all of the original label artwork. Fitzgerald's flawless intonation, rhythmic agility and natural effervescence make this collection a monument to the joy of swing. (Verve)
Django Reinhardt
Raised in a gypsy settlement outside Paris, Reinhardt was a vagabond genius who developed an utterly distinct style on guitar after losing the use of two fingers on his left hand in a caravan fire in 1928. Among these 243 tracks are his Depression-era recordings with violinist Stephane Grappelli and the Quintette Du Hot Club de France. Reinhardt's rhythmic and harmonic sophistication is most apparent on the 1937 tune "Minor Swing." (Blue Note)
GREAT DAYS: THE JOHN PRINE ANTHOLOGY
John Prine has been writing songs for more than 30 years that careen between humor and heartbreak. Like Bonnie Raitt, he has lived on the edge of country, rock, blues and folk. This superb two-CD anthology includes a duet with Raitt on "Angel from Montgomery" and a live version of "Big Old Goofy World" from 1991's Grammy-winning The Missing Years. (Rhino)
THE MUSIC OF JOHNNY MATHIS: A PERSONAL COLLECTION
Before there was Harry Connick Jr., romantics turned to Johnny Mathis for their enchanted evenings. This 86-song lovefest suggests why Mathis has often been blamed for the last 10 years of the baby boom. If you aren't a fan, this set will make clear why he and his songs are survivors. (Legacy/Columbia)
OTIS! THE DEFINITIVE OTIS REDDING
Before dying in a '67 plane crash, Otis embodied the era's lost dream of racial harmony and social progress. The four-CD collection runs from his early work to the great stuff, including "I've Been Loving You Too Long," "Respect" and "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." One disc is concert cuts: "Try a Little Tenderness," with which Otis tore up the '67 Monterey Pop Festival, is one of the most thrilling live rock recordings. (Rhino)
Graham Parker
This set captures all the phases of one of the best singer-songwriters of the past 20 years. Though he sprang to semi prominence during the punk era, Parker was always more listenable than his peers because he chose memorable melodies over alienating thrash to get his angry ideas across. From his rockin' soul period ("Heal Treatment," "White Honey") to his Next-Springsteen days ("Squeezing Out Sparks") to his power-of-positivist-pop material ("Life Gets Better," "Wake Up Next to You"), this collection is the ultimate testament to one of the better musicians you've never heard. (Rhino)
Ornette Coleman
The 57 tracks in this six-CD set, recorded between 1959 and 1961, comprise the Rosetta Stone of the free jazz revolution. More than 30 years after Coleman abandoned the chord-based harmonic changes of swing and bebop for a more open-ended approach to improvisation, his blues-inflected musings on sax sound as urgent and poignant as ever. "If you listen to it as natural music," he once said, "you hear the pure emotion." (Rhino)
>MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY: HOLIDAY MUSIC FROM BING TO STING by Dave Marsh and Steve Propes
You don't have to listen to "Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer" anymore. Marsh and Propes will ensure that you never own (or give) any bad Christmas music with this great guidebook to the songs, singers and the surprisingly rich history of the genre. Helpful lists abound. (Little, Brown, $14.95)
- Contributors:
- Tony Scherman,
- David Grogan,
- Michael Small,
- Anthony Kosner,
- Joyce Wansley,
- Craig Tomashoff,
- John Hassan.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
