Smooth Jazz For Seductive Nights - Various Artists

Advantages: Fantastic
Disadvantages: There are none

...A History of Jazz just has got to be one of the most comprehensive programmes on the history of jazz that I have ever come across. It is subtitled Bluesland A portrait In American Music. It shows the very heavy Blues influence on the original forms of jazz. The first section is called: Everybody got the Blues. It starts with a haunting Blues refrain, as the camera look along some railroad tracks to some plaintive blues music. The camera then shows some typical scenes of life in the south of America. A steam train, black people working on the farms and playing and singing the blues. Then, comes the introduction to the programme, proper, by the host, Keith David, with Albert Murray and Robert Palmer. Keith David points out that everyone gets the blues, and that everyone develops methods of coping with the blues. His favourite... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic range of great tunes and songs
Disadvantages: None

...(So Many Times and Peg 'o' My Heart) show the smooth and terribly sophisticated side of Jack Teagarden's music, whilst the next track, Swingin' on the teagarden Gate, is entirely different. So full of the jazz ethos that you can almost see the people dancing to it. So Many Times and Peg 'o' My Heart are for slow dancing. Then it's back to the smoother sound with Teagarden's rather melancholy Can't we Talk It Over, a ballad about a young man bemoaning the fact that he and his girlfriend are on the verge of splitting up. After four great (but different)classics from Teagarden we next hear from a young Louis Armstrong. The first track from Louis is Melancholy Blues. This is a great blues and jazz crossover. Yes, it is jazz, but yes, at the same time it could pass muster for a blues classic, too. The other Three tracks form Louis... Read review

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Advantages: Some really good tracks
Disadvantages: Some are "so-so"

...Vintage Jazz Volume 4 is another of my all-time favourite jazz CDs, as it does exactly what it sys on the label, it IE.. it contain some really fine examples of some of the best classic jazz. Coleman Hawkins as his All Star Jam Band, featuring every example of the best jazz instruments, guitar, drums, clarinet, all performing together as one on Honeysuckle Rose. And please note the use of the word "jam" in the name of the band. As they say, there really is nothing new under the sun! The next track is also by Coleman Hawkins and His All Star Jam Band, but is a totally different style of jazz as they give a rip-roaring, jumping version of Sweet Georgia Brown. Crazy Rhythm is the next track an is also from Coleman Hawkins and His All Star Jam Band. Crazy Rhythm? Well, no all that crazy, and it is another example of the multi... Read review

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