Groovin' High by Dizzy Gillespie

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Dizzy Gillespie's long, fruitful career is peppered with a number of high-profile summit meetings with a variety of jazz royals, and this 1957 date ranks with the best of them. Gillespie facilitated this battle between tenor titans Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins and even, according to legend, stoked their competitive fires with well-timed phone calls prior to the session. The good-natured opener "On the Sunny Side of the Street," complete with a lighthearted Dizzy vocal turn, doesn't even hint at the serious business to follow it. "The Eternal Triangle" is a quintessential bop fracas filled with inspired, white-hot improvisation. Rollins and Stitt exchange mighty blows, in solos and in trades, and Gillespie's trumpet work is no mere afterthought, bristling as it does with creativity and authority. The ensemble catches their collective breath with "After Hours," a tasty slow blues introduced by Ray Bryant's mood-setting piano, before they unleash a ripping reading of the chestnut "I Know That You Know." You get the sense that the more artful (and "jazz's new thing") Rollins was dragged into a real street fight by the fiery Stitt, who was unbeatable on his own blistering bop turf, but each man—Gillespie included—rises to the occasion in spirited fashion. —Marc Greilsamer

CD is conducted and arranged by Chico O'Farrill, and is part of the Hertitage Jazz series. Contains the following tracks: Oro, Incienso Y Mirra Calidoscopico Pensativo Exuberante.

Django Reinhardt was both the first great jazz-guitar soloist and the first European jazz musician to have a significant influence on American musicians. Just as Earl Hines had found a way to transfer Louis Armstrong's assertive solo style to the piano, Reinhardt did it with the acoustic guitar, mixing inventive melodic improvisation with a decorative gypsy-guitar idiom and vigorous rhythm. He did it most often with the Hot Club of France, a quintet including violinist Stephane Grappelli, two rhythm guitarists, and a bassist that created its own distinctive style, a lightly propulsive mix that was an ideal setting for Django's mix of drive, invention, and charm. The recordings here range from 1936 to 1948 and showcase Reinhardt with the Hot Club, clarinetist Hubert Rostaing, and trumpeter Rex Stewart. Included is a brilliant solo performance of his "Naguine." It's an excellent introduction to one of the most original voices in jazz of the period, to a fine composer as well as a unique guitarist. —Stuart Broomer

Romance With The Unseen

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