If you want to get the basics of swing and bop, you’d be hard pressed to do better than the UK-based label Avid Group, which puts out a handful of classic-era jazz each month. Get them while the getting’s good!
Trumpeter Donald Byrd was the prototypical hard bop trumpeter. He’s on a million 
sessions in the 50s and 60s, and even had a few million sellers when he crossed over to R&B in the early 70s. These four albums from the mid 50s find him at the earliest part of his career. All Night Long is a casual jam session with Kenny Burrell that is the essence of late night hip, with Byrd stretching out on “Body and Soul” and the title track. Byrd’s Word has him with a vintage team of Frank Foster/ts, Hank Jones/p, Paul Chambers/b and Kenny Clarke/dr and mix originals as well as standards like “Star Eyes” and “Someone To Watch Over Me” with aplomb. Beacon Hill has Byrd in a quartet setting and his tone glows on “What’s New,” while the last session is essentially the Jazz Messengers with Byrd’s name on top. Blakey, Silver, Watkins, Mobley and fellow trumpeter Joe Gordon sizzle like hash browns on “El Sino” and “Doug’s Blues.” Archtypal hard bop for the ages.
Buddy DeFranco was one of the few clarinetists that was able to conquer bebop, and he did carries the torch to this very day. 1953’s Mr. Clarinet is a sizzling session with Art Blakey/dr, Kenny Drew/p and Milt Hinton/b and the fever gets pitched on “Buddy’s Blues” and gets fluid and lyrical on “It Could Happen to You.” The 1952 session has DeFranco with Drew rotating with Jimmy Raney/g, Teddy Kotick-Curly Russell/b and Art Blakey-Art Taylor/dr cooking through some infectious pieces like “Carioca” and “Lover Come back to Me” and burning through “The Way You Look Tonight.” A pair of session s from 1954 with the soulful piano of Sonny Clark along with Gene Wright/b and Bobby White /dr sears through “Titoro” and “Now’s the Time” while waxing eloquent on “Autumn in New York” and “You Go To My Head.” This stuff sets the standard for licorice stick styled bebop
Gene Krupa defined swing drumming back in the 30s and 40s, but still carried the torch as on these 50s sessions. Along with Teddy Napoleon or Bobby Scott/p and either Milt Hinton or John Drew /b, Krupa uses the underappreciated multi instrumentalist Eddie Shu, who blows a smoky tenor, a fluid clarinet and a klezmorim harmonica. The trio of Krupa, Shu and Napoleon on Sing, Sing , Sing has him revisiting his stint with Benny Goodman on a 53 recording with returns to a Texas tenured “Don’t Be That Way” and the title track, but he also brings in a few originals such as the infectious “Harmonica Sh’boogie” and “Infected.”In 1955 he brought back a pair of quartet albums, with The Jazz Rhythms boasting Eddie Shu on harmonica and accordion along with bassist Milt Hinton, with some nice sounds coming out of “Tee Pee” and “Krupa’s Wail.” A quartet session from 1955 has some drum spotlights for the leader on “Undecided” and “Krupa’s Wail” while Krupa Rocks from 1957 keeps with Swing Era songs with some basic blues originals. A keeper for fans of jazz before bebop was spoken.
Is there any material left by Anita O’Day that Avid hasn’t reissued yet? She sure put out an impressive catalogue as this, the fourth set of 2cd sets of the bopping vocalist, is still planes above 95% of today’s canaries. O’Day and arranger Billy May both knew how to swing, and they tackle the Rogers and Hart songbook with a vengeance, getting some vintage vo-cool out of “Bewitched” and “Lover,” while even going for the gusto with “Ten Cents a Dance.” She shows her bop chops on the 1958 Winners album that has her completely comfortable with Miles Davis’ “Four” and Benny Golson’s “Whisper Not” while still keeping a toe in the Swing Era with “Don’t Be That Way” and “Frenesi” . In 1962 she teamed up with vibist Cal Tjader’s combo and does some wonders with “Peel Me A Grape” and “The Party’s Over”. But, for my money, the ringer here is the 1963 meeting with Gene Harris’ Three Sounds band where she sounds like she owns the world on “All Too Soon,” “You and the Night and the Music” and “Someday My Prince Will Come.” This one is a desert island doozy!