Original Jazz Classics

The legend of Bill Evans really begins with this album, his second. The pianist had just spent most of 1958 as part of one of the major units in jazz history: the Miles Davis Sextet that also featured John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. His fellow musi

Between the spring of 1957 and the winter of 1958, during which time Lush Life was recorded, the music of John Coltrane was developing in giant steps, thanks in great part to a six-month 1957 stint with Thelonious Monk that had much to do with sharpening

Walkin' contains two of the classic Miles Davis sessions of 1954 which made all the critics who hailed his appearance at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival a "comeback" seem like a pack of Rip Van Winkles. "Walkin'" and "Blue 'n' Boogie" are quintessential bl

Vinyl LP repressing of this 1960 album by jazz great Thelonious Monk. East Coast meets West Coast for a session of high energy bop at San Francisco's Blackhawk. Monk is spurred to play more in the groove by the hepcat audience, and his standard quartet fe

On March 7, 1958, John Coltrane and guitarist Kenny Burrell co-led this session at the Van Gelder studio in Hackensack, NJ. They recorded "Lyresto," "Why Was I Born," "Freight Trane," "I Never Knew (that Roses Grew)" and "Big Paul." This session was relea

Undeniably one of the best small bands in the history of jazz, the Miles Davis quintet of the mid-1950s made history at the Cafe Bohemia on Manhattan's Barrow Street and in the New Jersey studio of Rudy Van Gelder for Prestige. This is the third in a seri

The soulful and sublime tone of Art Pepper’s alto sax was never captured better than on this all-tube stereo recording (from the microphones to the tape deck) and his playing was superbly supported by Miles Davis’ rhythm section of the time: Red Garland,

This is the second of two Riverside albums made up of selections recorded by the classic Bill Evans/Scott LaFaro/Paul Motian trio at their legendary live recording session of June 25, 1961. Although originally issued a half-year later than Sunday at the

Of Miles Davis' many bands, none was more influential and popular than the quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. Davis' muted ballads and medium-tempo standards endeared him to the public and the horns' searing expo

Eric Dolphy had left his native California and come East as part of Chico Hamilton's group, settling in New York in 1960 and becoming part of Charles Mingus's group. This first recording as a leader brought comparisons with Ornette Coleman, but the two we

This is the last album Bill Evans made for his first label. That fact alone would give this at least historical significance; and there is surely also some importance to its being one of only two occasions on which the pianist was recorded for Riverside d

Bill Evans' 1962 studio sessions with bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Paul Motian produced two of the jazz legend's most popular sets with both Moon Beams and How My Heart Sings! Displaying more of a mid and even tempo flair than the all ballads Moon Be

Few albums in the history of contemporary American music can be more deserving than this one of the designation 'Original Jazz Classic.' It is the first of two Riverside albums derived from the legendary final appearance of the first Bill Evans trio, tape

The famed extended recording sessions of the Miles Davis Quintet, wherein they taped the band’s basic repertoire (and what a marvelous mixture of jazz originals and standards) in the manner of nightclub sets rather than the repetition of the usual studio

During his early years, Thelonious Monk was considered one of the “most challenging, provocative and disturbing figures in modern music.” His music was regarded as difficult to listen to and understand, causing many fans initially to shy away from trying

Almost every one of the eleven albums featuring Bill Evans that were issued during his pivotal early years (1956-1964) with Riverside were trio performances. Of the two exceptions, one was strictly speaking not an Evans record (Know What I Mean?, a quarte