Disc #1
1. Django Reinhardt & Coleman Hawkins - Out Of Nowhere
2. Charlie Parker - Ornithology (Live - Storyville)
3. Ike Quebec - Topsy
4. Bud Powell - Bouncin' With Bud
5. Paul Chambers With John Coltrane - Trane's Blues (aka John Paul Jones) (Instrumental)
6. Miles Davis - Jeru
7. Gerry Mulligan - I'll Remember April (Live)
8. James Moody - Moody's All Frantic
9. Count Basie - Sleepwalker's Serenade
10. Billie Holiday - Detour Ahead
Disc #2
1. Louis Armstrong And The Duke Ellington Orchestra - Azalea
2. Gil Fuller & The Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra Featuring Dizzy Gillespie - Man From
3. Count Basie & Sarah Vaughan - You Go To My Head
4. Fats Navarro And Tadd Dameron - Lady Bird (Instrumental)
5. Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims - Violets For Your Furs
6. Serge Chaloff - All The Things You Are
7. Hank Mobley - Remember
8. Stan Getz - Lullaby Of Birdland
9. Chet Baker - My Funny Valentine (Vocal)
10. Thelonious Monk - Ruby My Dear
Disc #3
1. Herbie Nichols - Lady Sings The Blues
2. Duke Ellington & Louis Armstrong - Solitude
3. Lou Donaldson - Carvin' The Rock
4. Thad Jones - April In Paris
5. Duke Ellington - Fleurette Africaine (African Flower)
6. Sonny Clark - Dial S For Sonny
7. Charles Mingus - Summertime
8. John Coltrane - One And Four
9. Freddie Hubbard - A Night In Tunisia
10. Wayne Shorter - Footprints
Disc #4
1. Johnny Griffin - Mil Dew
2. Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers - Look At The Birdie
3. Lee Morgan - The Sixth Sense
4. Joe Henderson - Mode For Joe
5. Donald Byrd - Three Wishes
6. McCoy Tyner - Contemplation
7. Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
8. Holly Cole / Javon Jackson - Hum Drum Blues
9. Joe Lovano - I'm All For You
10. Stanley Jordan - Freddie Freeloader
Disc #5
1. Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else
2. Michel Petrucciani - Limbo (Live)
3. Horace Silver - Que Pasa
4. Walter Davis Jr. - Rhumba Nhumba
5. Herbie Hancock - Oliloqui Valley
6. Kenny Cox - Diahnn
7. Dexter Gordon - Love For Sale
8. Blue Mitchell - Fungii Mama
9. Donald Byrd - Shangri-la
10. Sonny Rollins - Misterioso
Disc #6
1. Kenny Dorham - Una Mas (One More Time)
2. Miles Davis - Weirdo
3. Pete La Roca - Lazy Afternoon
4. Tina Brooks - Minor Move
5. "Baby Face" Willette Quartet - Somethin' Strange
6. Milt Jackson - Bags' Groove
7. Bobby Hutcherson - West 22nd Street Theme
8. Stanley Turrentine - River's Invitation
9. Kenny Burrell - Chitlins Con Carne
10. Big John Patton - Soul Woman
Disc #7
1. Jimmy Smith - See See Rider
2. Grant Green - The Final Comedown
3. Lonnie Smith - Turning Point
4. Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Thème De Yoyo
5. Don Ellis Orchestra - Passacaglia And Fugue (Live)
6. Clifford Brown - Easy Living
7. Wayne Shorter - House Of Jade
8. Gil Evans - Straight No Chaser
9. Kenny Drew - Undercurrent
10. Jackie McLean - Frankenstein
Disc #8
1. Eric Dolphy - Something Sweet, Something Tender
2. Tony Williams - Tomorrow Afternoon
3. Ornette Coleman Trio - Dee Dee (Live)
4. Andrew Hill - Siete Ocho
5. Chick Corea - Song Of The Wind
6. Don Cherry - The Thing
7. Larry Young - Visions
8. Wynton Marsalis - Donna Lee
9. Sam Rivers - Luminous Monolith
10. Grachan Moncur III - Monk In Wonderland
Disc #9
1. Jacky Terrasson - Un Poco Loco (Alternate Take)
2. Lee Konitz - 'Round Midnight
3. Patricia Barber - Morpheus
4. David Axelrod - Holy Thursday
5. Terence Blanchard - Flow Part 1
6. John Scofield - Do Like Eddie
7. Stacey Kent - Never Let Me Go
8. Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Silencio (Silence)
9. Dianne Reeves - Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
10. T.S. Monk / Ron Carter - Evidence
Disc #10
1. Joe Lovano - Oh!
2. Lionel Loueke featuring Herbie Hancock - Seven Teens
3. Martial Solal - Body And Soul (Live 01)
4. Cassandra Wilson - The Very Thought Of You
5. Jason Moran - Blue Blocks
6. Medeski, Martin & Wood - Partido Alto
7. Marc Moulin - What?
8. Robert Glasper - Maiden Voyage / Everything In Its Right Place
9. Norah Jones - The Nearness Of You
10. Amos Lee - Colors
Wholenote Discoveries - May 2011
The first of 100 tunes in this collection is a 1937 recording of tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and guitarist Django Reinhardt playing Out Of Nowhere. It was recorded two years before Blue Note Records was founded. The taping was done for EMI’s Capitol label’s French division. This is an ominous hint as to the content of the 10-disc “100 Best of Blue Note” box set, which at first glance appears to have all the trimmings of a slick 21st century collection. It comes in a box you’d expect to contain two or three CDs, not 10 with 10 cuts on each of them. Individual disc covers please the eye, the name of each track leader coloured differently from its successor. The same design is employed on the back, with each tune named. However, a closer look shows that’s just about all the information you’ll get, forcing listeners into guess-that-sideman mode. Most recordings here don’t have just the named leader in action while there are numerous odd selections taken from albums that contain much better jazz. Just one example is on CD2 where Gil Fuller and the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra featuring (trumpeter) Dizzy Gillespie plays a feeble version of Man From Monterey. The same LP has Gillespie and Charlie Parker roaring through Groovin’ High… no contest. While it’s too easy to be picky, these sorts of choices nonetheless make you wonder what organizers were thinking and who chose the music. It’s compiled by EMI Belgium, tracks selected by 2Sounds. I’m sure most jazz fans believe the Blue Note golden years were the 1950s and 60s, fruitful times when hard bop had taken over from bebop and torrents of vinyl LPs were illustrated with gorgeously expressive player portraits. This music was distinctive, the ancestor of modern mainstream. Jazz changes its forms, but jazz history does not. Given the convulsions in the music business and ownership changes, it’s not surprising that the EMI empire has many labels under its belt, with the result that recording dates in the terse accompanying notes cover a period far longer than the Blue Note heyday and cite labels other than Blue Note. Overall most recording dates are meaningless in that a large number are reissues. I delight in re-experiencing vintage classics such as Sonny Rollins Misterioso with Monk, Silver, J.J. Johnson, Chambers and Blakey, and appreciate the fresh recognition given Golden Age stalwarts such as Tine Brooks, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Ike Quebec, Baby Face Willette, Donald Byrd and Jimmy Smith. At the same time I wonder about the inclusion of bands like the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Chick Corea, Patricia Barber, David Axelrod, Stacey Kent, Lionel Loueke and, heaven help us, Norah Jones however good that was for sales. The sole piece of Canadiana is Holly Cole singing Hum Drum Blues with saxman Javon Jackson. Enough said. Geoff Chapman
