Discovery Records has been reissuing a series of Legendary Jazz Albums which include wonderful pictures by French photographer Jean-Pierre Leloir. These latest three feature albums by artists that made their styles infused with that thing called “swing.”
One of the all time classic big band swing albums, The Atomic Mr. Basie introduced the “New Testament” orchestra with Neal Hefti’s arrangements to the world in 1957. Including the tenor sax team of Frank Wess and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis as well as the overdriving rhythm section of Basie with Freddie Green/g, Eddie Jones/b and Sonny Payne/dr set the world on fire with speaker busting albums like “Whilrly-Bird” and “The Kid From Red Bank.” The understated “Li’l 
Darlin’” became a highly influential piece, while “Flight of the Foo Birds” showed what a horn section can do. The 1958 follow-up Basie Plays Hefti includes similarly exciting pieces such as “Cute” and “A Little Tempo, Please” making this a swinger’s delight.
Soprano saxist Sidney Bechet played with a vibrato so wide that you could land a plane on it. After being a major innovator in the US, he moved to France where he basked in the adulation. This reissue has him still in strong form even though this is during the autumn of his years, as he creates a quartet with pianist Martial Solal, Lloyd Thompson/b and Al Levit for a 1957 session that has him creating arias out of “I Only Have Eyes For You,” “Once In Awhile” and “These Foolish Things.” With Pierre Michelot/b and Kenny Clarke/dr, Beche and Solal bounce through “All of Me” and sway on “Rose Room.” A collection from 1951 has the front line of Bechet with clarinetist Claude Luter with two stepping delights like”Kansas City man Blues” and “ Together.” Old world sound in a modern world.
Django Reinhardt’s 1953 album The Great Artistry of Django Reinhardt was not only one of his very last recordings, but because it featured him on the electric guitar, it created one of the great “What If” questions in jazz. Because Reinhardt died not too long after this recording with Maurice Vander/p, Pierre Michelot/b and Jean-Louis Viale/dr, he was not able to stretch out his ideas on the electric guitar. While he doesn’t sound tentative on pieces such as “Night and Day” and “Blues For Ike” his style is still in a nascent form, uniquely light and unaffected by any other electric guitarist. He teams with Martial Solal on piano, vibist Fats Sadi, drummer Pierre Lemarch and and Michelot on a rich “I Cover the Waterfront” and “Le Soir” whereas an earlier session from 1947 has him in a more comfortable setting on Post war swingers with clarinetist Hubert Rostaing on “Topsy” and “I Love You.” Influential strings.
Discovery Records