The Gig

by Nate Chinen

Reissues have comprised a crucial part of the jazz landscape ever since Yale undergrad George Avakian produced “Hot Jazz Classics” -- the first-ever jazz anthology series -- for Columbia Records in 1940. In the years since, the practice of refurbishing old recordings has increased exponentially, for a number of reasons (not the least of which was the advent of the compact disc). Today it might be safe to parse reissues into two categories. They’re either geared for broad commercial appeal (see for instance Blue Note’s Rudy Van Gelder series) or groomed for more specialized tastes (an extreme case: Revenant’s lavish Charley Patton box).

The newest entry to the mass-appeal race is Bluebird’s First Editions series, which consists of titles exhumed from the RCA Victor catalogue. Since starting up last fall, the series has reintroduced albums by Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, Carmen McRae, Lena Horne, Joe Williams and Della Reese. There’s an obvious vocal bias here, and it’s hardly mitigated by a gem like Paul Desmond’s string session Desmond Blue (touted anecdotally in the liner notes as “good to make love by”). Thankfully Bluebird has also seen fit to unleash less gauzy fare like Gil Evans’ Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix, which sounds fantastic: simultaneously urgent and unforced. (A recent performance of this material at Joe’s Pub in New York was, alas, just urgent.)

At the other end of the spectrum lies Winter & Winter’s JMT Edition, a series of 81 albums being resuscitated in batches, chronologically, over the next three years. So far 18 of these out-of-print titles have been reintroduced -- among them, the illuminating debut recordings of Steve Coleman, Herb Robertson, Greg Osby and Cassandra Wilson. For a certain breed of aficionado, this has been a very long time coming.

Finally, complicating the commerce/art dichotomy quite a bit, ECM has just launched :rarum, a series of artist samplers compiled and annotated by the artists themselves. The first group of titles consists of Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Bill Frisell, Terje Rypdal, Bobo Stenson and the Art Ensemble of Chicago -- with each disc remastered in 24 bits and, in a departure for the label, packaged in vibrant colors. Given the musicians’ involvement in assembling the tracks (including, in some cases, great stuff that’s otherwise unavailable), this series proves far more thoughtful, and useful, than your garden-variety Greatest Hits. With luck, each of these discs will serve as an ideal entry-point for the neophyte and a valuable supplement for the completist -- both at once.

To report a gig -- or any other jazz-related news -- e-mail Nate Chinen at n_chinen@citypaper.net.