u/Green_Drag_9548

Dorothy Ashby - Harp; Frank Wess - Flute; Ed Thigpen - Drums; Eddie Jones - Bass; Wendell Marshall - Bass. Engineer - Rudy Van Gelder

The debut album by harpist Dorothy Ashby with Frank Wess on flute, recorded in August 1956 and released in March 1957 is a joy. It's groovy and soulful in a laid back way. Ashby wasn't the first jazz harpist, that is thought to be Casper Reardon who played with Jack Teagarden amongst others. Adele Girard and Ruth Berman wete also early jazz harpists.Ashby really was a pioneer though and made the harp a core bebop jazz instrument. An excellent record.

Jean-Luc Ponty - Electric Violin; George Duke - Electric Piano; John Heard Amplified Bass; Dick Berk - Drums; Dick Brock - Producer; David Brand - Engineer.

Recorded live at Thee Experience, Hollywood, Los Angeles, September 1969.

Excellent jazz fusion album from Ponty with superb backing from the George Duke Trio. The musicianship from all the players is at a very high standard and the album is very well recorded. I bought this on a whim on a dig recently and I am glad I did.

Esbjörn Svensson - Piano, Dan Berglund - Bass, Magnus Öström - Drums. Recorded on a tour of Sweden in 1995. Very accomplished playing from all the musicians concerned. Svesson is a very technical player rather than lyrical but it does diminish how good this album is. An excellent record.

A seminal work by a master musician recorded in Köln on 24th January 1975. Just Jarrett and a piano. A work of beauty and genius. A perfect record. I first heard this whilst sitting in the car in a carpark in 1988 and was mesmerised. It never fails to deliver. Wonderful.

Interesting take on the Mike Oldfield tune.

Dave Lambert, John Hendricks, Yolande Bavan - Vocals; Gildo Mahones - Piano; George Tucker - Bass; Jimmie Smith - Drums; Thad Jones- Cornet and Flugelhorn; Booker Ervin - Tenor Sax. Recorded live at The Village Gate in New York City.

As always Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan nail it in this superior live recording. Sri Lankan singer Yolande Bavan had joined Dave Lambert and John Hendricks when Annie Ross had a break from the group. She fits in perfectly and holds her own with the close harmony singing and the sometimes one hundred miles an hour vocal gymnastics. The Gildo Mahones Trio are joined by the fabulous Thad Jones and Booker Ervin for this session. It swings baby.

Art Blakey - Drums; Sam Dockery - Piano; Jimmy De Brest - Bass; Bill Hardman.- Trumpet; John Griffin - Tenor Sax; Ferris Bender - Alto Sax. Recorded in New York on 2nd and 8th April 1957 this is an absolute classic in the Jazz Messengers catalogue. The album starts with a blistering version of Dizzy Gillespie's A Night In Tunisia which lit up Jazz Dance floors in the London club scene in the late 1980s. This might not be a particularly well known line up but they rip it up. A fantastic record..

Bill Evans - Piano; Scott LaFaro - Bass; Paul Motian - Drums.

The trio's fourth album and companion piece to Sunday At The Village Vanguard this is a superb album of a a jazz trio at height of their powers. Evans, as you would expect is masterful and Paul Motian subtle and supportive but it is LaFaro that steals the show for me. An enormous talent he was tragically killed in a car crash just 10 days after this recording.

Evans was so badly affected he didn't play for many months only returning to his piano to be part of Mark Murphy's seminal Rah album after being persuaded by producer Orrin Keepnews. This is a beautiful record and quite rightly cited as a masterpiece.