Wanna get on the fast track to understand various styles and genres of jazz? These 2 cd sets put out by Sony cover everything from mainstream to fusion with a bit of smooth in between. The great factor of these sets is that they serve as excellent intros. Their weakness is that with stars like these, you’ll eventually end up getting all their records, so why bother? Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but someday…here’s looking at you, kid.
Stan Getz had arguably the best tone of any tenor saxist. Even John Coltrane admitted to wanting to sound like him. This collection of his Columbia recordings has him in a variety of settings. You can hear his wonderful work on ballads on “Early Autumn,” his lovely samba work 
with Tom Jobim on “Double Rainbow,” and songs from one of his all time best albums, Captain Marvel, on “500 Miles High.” This was a guy who you just keep going back to, and this serves as a welcome intro to one of the real giants.
Guitarist John McLaughlin along with drummer Billy Cobham formed the definitive jazz fusion band for guitar freaks with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. They put out a trio of unbelievably frenetic and virtuosic albums that still set the standard for intricate technique. The material from the album Birds of Fire still sounds years ahead of the present time. Expected essentials like “Meeting of the Spirits” and “Dance of the Maya,” while the later incarnation of the band with Jean Luc Ponty is represented here as well with “Smile of the Beyond.” Still crazy after all these years.
Charles Mingus’ tenure with Columbia was one of the zeniths of his whole career, with 1959’s Mingus Ah Um one of the Desert Island Discs for any collection. Before then, on RCA he recorded his classic Tijuana Moods and after that period, he returned to Columbia to release the thrilling Song of A Fisherman’s Wife . Thrilling pieces like “Ysabels Table Dance” and “Better Git It In Your Soul” are like musical roller coaster white knucklers, while one of the all time great ballads “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” includes the haunting tenor of Booker Ervin. Wonderfully tumultuous.
Tenor and soprano saxist Grover Washington Jr was one of the first guys to play what is now derisively termed “smooth” jazz, only then it had some guts and testosterone. This 2 cd set covers both the mainstream and smooth side of the artist, with him on sessions featuring the likes of Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock. He does some nice things with the soul hit “Soulful Strut” as well as “Take Five” but sounds pretty comfortable with B3er Joey DeFrancesco on a cooking “Work Song.” This cat holds up well over time!
Weather Report was part of the BIG THREE jazz fusion bands (along with Mahavishnu and Return to Forever) with the core of Joe Zawinul/key and Wayne Shorter/ss-ts going through rhythm section faster than the Kardashians through boyfriends. Their early years were a branch off from Miles Davis, with tunes such as “Orange Lady” and “Directions” still able to raise eyebrows. The funky years of the early 70s elicited the important “Mysterious Traveller,” and the exotic “Badia.” The next incarnation with trend setting bassist Jaco Pastorius had the band at their apex with hits like “Birdland” and inspiring creations like”Havana” and “Elegant People”. Some of the material here is simply awe inspiring.
Sony Legacy Records
www.sonylegacy.com