Journey Through The Penguin Jazz Guide

[Zeeba Neighba]

Jimmy Raney - A (1957, recorded 1954-1955)

First encountered this in my jazz series years ago - just a really cool jazz guitar album

 

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Bud Shank Quintet/Lou Levy Trio - Jazz in Hollywood

 

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Johnny St. Cyr - Johnny St. Cyr

Benny Goodman - B.G. in Hi-Fi (1954)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Oscar Pettiford - Nonet & Octet

Dinah Washington - Dinah Jams (1955)

 

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Sarah Vaughan - Sarah Vaughan (1955)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Barney Kessel - Volume 3: To Swing or Not to Swing (1955)

 

[axolotl]

^ / ^^ I tend to like the ones I know I have.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Hampton Hawes - Trio Vol. 1 (1955) and This Is Hampton Hawes, Vol 2 The Trio (1956)

Nice piano trio albums including pianist Hawes, 27 here, with some great recordings over 20 yrs (granted interrupted by heroin addiction and arrest - pardoned by JFK in 1963) until he died of a brain hemorrhage very young at 48 in 1977

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Erroll Garner - Concert By The Sea (1956)

 

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Ruby Braff & Ellis Larkins - Two by Two: Ruby and Ellis Play Rodgers and Hart (1955)

First listen for me and a nice discovery care of Penguin. Love the songs of Rodgers and Hart, and this is a nice album of piano-trumpet duet standards. Braff's trumpet has a great sound.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Frank Morgan - Frank Morgan (1955)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Johnny St. Cyr - Johnny St. Cyr

Benny Goodman - B.G. in Hi-Fi (1954)

The recent run of Penguins has been an interesting mix of the familiar and the obscure. I’m not sure I would put either of these albums on a recommended list, but they do make for good listening.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - Sing a Song of Basie (1958)

Carl Perkins - Introducing... (1956)

No, not that Carl Perkins...the jazz pianist who was another case of gone too soon/wasted talent as he died in 1958 at age 29 of a drug overdose
Interesting tidbit from Wiki:

His playing was influenced by his polio-affected left arm, which he held parallel to the keyboard. He used his elbow to play deep bass notes. He was thus known as "the crab".

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Clifford Brown & Max Roach - Alone Together: The Best of the Mercury Years

 

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Helen Merrill - With Gil Evans & Clifford Brown

 

[Ojai Sam]

Must be hot where you are. I see you are experiencing a Brownout.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

The Essential Jo Jones

 

[axolotl]

^ Is it essential?

If it's essential, why do I not have it?

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

^ Is it essential?

If it's essential, why do I not have it?

It says that it's "Essential" - who am I to argue?

It is very good combining a couple of sessions where Jones is the session leader (not very common). Lucky Thompson on one session is a talented lesser known smooth tenor

But I think you probably could spend money elsewhere and still eventually leave this world fulfilled

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Coleman Hawkins - The Stanley Dance Sessions (comp. recorded 1958)