Vibraphonists Cal Tjader, Milt Jackson and Lionel Hampton, drummers Art Blakey, Ed Thigpen, and Shelly Manne, and jazz vocalists Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Frank Sinatra, Al Jarreau, and Ray Charles. Included in this list are Hammond B-3 organists Jimmy Smith, Johnny “Hammond” Smith, Screamin’ Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Big John Patton, “Baby” Face Willette, and Shirley Scott. Purchasing one or two albums by any of these jazz performers will indeed put you in good standing with any jazz aficionado.

The next step in creating a solid and interesting jazz collection will be to include a few CD albums of the “Big Band” and “Orchestra” genre. A few of the musicians that will brighten and set off any collection are “The “Stan Kenton Orchestra”, “Woody Herman’s Third Herd”, “Louis Bellson Big Band”, “Terry Gibbs Dream Band”, “Maynard Ferguson’s Big Band”, and “The Buddy Rich Big Band”. As you purchase more and more jazz CD albums, you’ll want to include a few to “knock the socks off” some of your friends by playing (or displaying) albums such as “Ellington At Newport”, “Miles & Quincy – Live At Montreux”, “Dizzy Gillespie At Newport”, Bill Evans At the Montreux Jazz Festival”, “Ray Charles At Newport”, “The Gigi Gryce – Donald Byrd Jazz Laboratory & The Cecil Taylor Quartet At Newport”, the little known album of “Newport In New York ‘72”, and “Q’s Jook Joint”. All of these jazz CD albums will have your CD player rockin’ and rollin’ (pardon the pun).

There may be some of you who are starting a jazz collection that have never heard of the famous “Jazz At The Philharmonic” (JATP). JATP was considered to have been the world’s greatest jazz concert(s). This was the innovative creation of jazz entrepreneur Norman Granz, who was able to bring together some of the greatest jazz musicians ever assembled in one place to play together in concert. It was literally a roadshow with Granz assembling a troupe of a dozen or more of the best jazz musicians at the time and recreating the atmosphere and mood of those cutthroat jam sessions that took place in after-hours joints of years ago. He would then put together the highlights of the concerts on record discs to sell. Granz’ amazing talent was that he was able to persuade the best out of the most complicated artists, or gather a group of seemingly unsuited talents in the same studio and produce exciting and coherent music. He considered JATP to be a variety show presenting the finest jazz for the public to hear. At the JATP concerts, jazz greats such as tenor saxophonists Lester Young, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips and Coleman Hawkins would jam with one another on stage. They might be followed by trumpet icon Dizzy Gillespie jammin’ with Roy Eldridge. In fact, those who attended the one night in the mid-40’s are still talking about the time when Charlie “Bird” Parker faced off with his mentor Lester Young, and they dueled it out in a jam session. For your information, the tune which is considered to be the JATP anthem is the uptempo version of “How High The Moon”.

My next article will be the final part of this series and will cover some of the more recent jazz performers and a partial list of jazz albums that I suggest should be included in a solid Jazz CD Collection. Stay tuned!

"Stay tuned, there's more to come." Remember to “Keep Jazz Alive” by “Supporting Live Jazz!” Jazz fans – do you have any feedback? I would like to hear from YOU! You may email me at: JazzJamm@aolcom