The Complete Swingville Sessions on

I'd been contemplating buying these three albums individually on CD but glad I didn't as this double disc remaster is the way to go. Joe was eager to break ranks with Count Basie's orchestra and strike out on his own with a small ensemble for the sake of some blowing space and it's just as well he did. It sounds like he's taken the more contemporary setting of the Horace Silver Quintet (the one with Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook on trumpet and tenor), and applied his Basie experience to that. The result is a wonderful amalgam of traditional swing with the clarity of small group modern jazz. On the Jive At Five disc, Frank Wess is on tenor sax. Good 'n' Groovy has Frank Foster on tenor and Joe's Hap'nins is a trumpet quartet session (recorded 1960/60/61). There's a good consistency throughout the three albums and after all this time I was still struck by the freshness of it all. The 24-bit remaster has given extra crackle to the tenors and drums and brings out Joe's clear and bluesy smearing of notes. The tasteful arrangements for tenor and trumpet create quite an expansive sound and from the liner notes I was surprised to read about Joe's high regard for Dizzy Gillespie; an influence that comes searing through on Mo-Lasses. Fresh Sound Records (along with Avid Jazz) have released a number of these remastered doubles recently and the results are terrific!

I love this album the musicianship is great. I look for other CDs by this artist.