Sunday, October 2, 2011

The Mercury Records Jazz Story (1995)

Mercury's jazz division had two distinct and important fathers. John Hammond brought his expertise and connections when Mercury bought Keystone Records in the late 1940's. And Mercury was the issuing company and distributor for Norman Granz's pre-Norgran/Verve recordings. Although both Hammond and Granz had departed Mercury by the mid-50's, they established the company in the jazz world.
Mercury, under its Emarcy label, released LPs by many important post-swing and bebop artists including Clifford Brown and Max Roach, Clark Terry, Dinah Washington, Nat and Cannonball Adderley, Sarah Vaughn, Maynard Ferguson, Jimmy Cleveland, Herb Geller and others. By the early 1960's, Mercury was releasing jazz under the flagship label and was an early leader in the new stereo sound releases.
Highlights of the early and mid-60's included albums by Quincy Jones, Buddy Rich, Cannonball Adderley, Charles (then called Charlie) Mingus, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Max Roach and others.

In the early 1950's, Norman Granz started his own record company, Norgran, which later became Verve. In an ironic twist, both Mercury and Verve are now owned by Universal Music Group and Mercury's jazz library falls under the Verve division. Since the early 1990's, Verve has reissued many Mercury jazz titles on CD, often taking care to use original master tapes and including session material not included on the original LPs.
In addition, Mosaic Records in Stamford CT has issued several box sets spotlighting the Mercury and Verve recordings of various artists including Max Roach, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie and Buddy Rich. (en.wikipedia.org)

Disc 1
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01. Gene Ammons - Idaho [2:53]
02. Muggsy Spanier - Feather Brain [2:54]
03. Dinah Washington - I Cried For You ( Now It`s Your Turn To Cry Over Me) [2:28]
04. Paul Quinichette - I'll Always Be In Love With You [3:03]
05. Ben Webster - The Iron Hat [2:58]
06. Paul Gonsalves - Don't Blame Me [3:20]
07. Art Blakey - Eleanor [2:54]
08. Art Madigan - Moroccan Blues [3:07]
09. Helen Merrill - 'S Wonderful [3:13]
10. Erroll Garner - I've Got To Be A Rug Cutter [2:21]
11. Gerry Mulligan - Demanton [5:36]
12. Clifford Brown & Max Roach - Flossie Lou [4:03]
13. Max Roach - Love Letters [8:57]
14. Cannonball Adderley - Hoppin' John [4:39]
15. Max Roach - My Old Flame [3:37]
16. Sarah Vaughan - Three Little Words [3:45]
17. Eddie South - I Hadn't Anyone Till You [3:33]
18. John Coltrane - Weaver Of Dreams [5:36]
19. Conte & Pete Candoli - Willow Weep For Me [4:31]
20. Buddy Rich - ( Back Home Again In) Indiana [3:18]




Disc 2
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01. Charles Mingus - Take The 'A' Train- Exactly Like You [3:38]
02. Quincy Jones - The Midnight Sun Will Never Set [4:35]
03. Al Cohn & Zoot Sims - Improvisation For Unaccompanied Saxaphones [2:27]
04. Coleman Hawkins & Sol Yaged - I Can't Get Started [4:32]
05. Pete Rugolo - Struttin' With Some Barbecue [2:26]
06. George Wein - Sugar (That Sugar Baby O' Mine) [4:38]
07. Buddy DeFranco & Tommy Gumina - Scrapple From The Apple [4:49]
08. Julius Watkins - Mood Inidgo [3:05]
09. Terry Gibbs - The Big Cat [4:29]
10. Roland Kirk - 3-In-1 Without The Oil [2:34]
11. Art Farmer - Raincheck [3:42]
12. Art Hodes & Truck Parham - Washboard Blues [2:40]
13. Woody Herman - El Toro Grande [5:00]
14. Oscar Peterson & Clark Terry - Squeaky's Blues [3:29]
15. Art Blakey - Waltz For Ruth [5:46]
16. Lee Konitz - Blues For Bird [5:42]
17. Dizzy Gillespie - Groovin' High [6:05]
18. Paul Bley - Kid Dynamite [3:15]
19. Jimmy Smith - Sometimes I'm Happy [4:46]



Recorded from June 1947 to July 1977.
Label: Polygram / Verve
Released: 1995
Catalogue: 528 688-2