CD 1 - Classic Jazz Vocals
1. I Left My Heart In San Francisco - Julie London
2. Something Cool - June Christy
3. My Funny Valentine - Chet Baker
4. Misty Blue - Ella Fitzgerald
5. Darn That Dream - Nancy Wilson
6. Autumn In New York - Jo Stafford
7. April In Paris - Dinah Shore
8. Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me - Abbey Lincoln
9. Day In, Day Out - Mark Murphy
10. It Had to Be You - Dinah Shore
11. Angel Eyes - Jack Jones
12. The Man I Love - Carmen McRae
13. It Don't Mean a Thing - Annie Ross
14. Here's That Rainy Day - Sue Raney
15. Stars Fell on Alabama - Jack Teagarden
16. Blue Moon - Billie Holiday
17. A Foggy Day - Dakota Staton
18. Exactly Like You - Dianne Reeves
19. I Ain't Got Nothin' but the Blues - Lou Rawls
20. Something to Live For - Lena Horne
CD 2 - Latin Jazz
1. Machito - Stan Kenton
2. Jahberu - Tadd Dameron
3. Tin Tin Deo - James Moody & Chano Pozo
4. Basheer's Dream - Kenny Dorham
5. Congalegra - Horace Parlan
6. Mambo Inn - Grant Green
7. Poco - Gerald Wilson
8. Agua Dulce - The Jazz Crusaders
9. Favela - Clare Fischer
10. I'm On My Way - Candido
11. Oye Como Va - Bobby Hutcherson
12. Caravan - Chucho Valdes
13. Contagio - Gonzalo Rubalcaba
14. Dance of Denial - Ray Barretto
15. The Time Is Now - Eliane Elias
CD 3 - Jazz Ballads
1. Someone to Watch over Me - Coleman Hawkins
2. Easy Living - Clifford Brown
3. It Never Entered My Mind - Miles Davis
4. Violets for Your Furs - Jutta Hipp & Zoot Sims
5. Moonglow - Benny Goodman
6. Like Someone in Love - George Shearing
7. Stairway to the Stars - Bill Evans & Jim Hall
8. Dancing in the Dark - Cannonball Adderley
9. I'm a Fool to Want You - Dexter Gordon
10. Yesterdays - Stan Kenton
11. The Good Life - Hank Mobley
12. God Bless The Child - Stanley Turrentine
13. Nature Boy - Ike Quebec
14. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most - Zoot Sims
15. Laura - Joe Lovano
Is there any way to make sense of the 50 best anything, let alone EMI's presentation of the 50 best jazz tunes? That seems unlikely, and after listening to this compilation the answer is still, probably not. However amongst all the inferior offerings there are some good cuts.
On disc 1 which is devoted to jazz vocals, June Christy's interpretation of Something Cool allows her unique phrasing to give meaning to this story of loneliness, and Annie Ross gives Ellington`s It Don't Mean a Thing a terrific reading with some great support from Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax. No matter the lush setting, Jack Teagarden conveys a jazz empathy to Stars Fell on Alabama. The live version of Blue Moon by Billie Holiday sounds as if she and the supporting musicians were in separate rooms and thus adds little to the package. Confirming her status as one of the premier jazz vocalists of the day, Dianne Reeves delivers a swinging rendition of Exactly Like You, and the closer from the impeccable Lena Horne is the Ellington/Strayhorn standard Something to Live For.
Disc 2 offers a potpourri of Latin jazz with some worthwhile tracks including the lightning fast guitar of Grant Green on Mambo Inn and the ever-inventive orchestra of Gerald Wilson on Paco. The underappreciated West Coast pianist Clare Fischer delivers a Brazilian touch to his own composition Favela and Bobby Hutcherson switches to marimba from vibes on the Tito Puente old favourite Oye Como Va.
On disc 3, why EMI chose to present a selection of jazz ballads remains inscrutable unless they expected the disc to be used as musical wallpaper to a romantic evening. Among the selections, Jutta Hipp & Zoot Sims provide some interesting interplay on Violets for Your Furs and Bill Evans & Jim Hall burnish their unassailable reputations on Stairway to the Stars. Among the tenor-sax offerings, Dexter Gordon is at his melancholy best with I'm a Fool to Want You and Joe Lovano gives magical expression to his rendition of Laura. Finally Ike Quebec takes his big tone to the pop-chart tune Nature Boy which in the liner notes is incorrectly attributed to Duke Ellington rather than its true composer Eden Ahbez.
EMI owns both Capitol Records and Blue Note Records and their extensive jazz back catalogues which were used as the source for this compilation. The real tragedy is not so much for what this release is, but for what it might have been.
Pierre Giroux
CD Reviews
EMI 6 31694 2
