Recorded 50 years ago this month, Joe Henderson’s ‘Power to the People’ features perhaps his most varied track listing and his best-ever backing band.

Though it’s always existed in the shadow of Wes Montgomery’s earlier Incredible Jazz Guitar, there is much to recommend about this easy-swinging 1961 follow up for Riverside — beginning with his able young sideman Ron Carter. You May Also Like: Wes Montgomery – ‘The Complete Full House Recordings’ (2023) WesRead More

by Nick DeRiso Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, a spirited, bluesy and always fun performer, seemed to burst out from a series of early live recordings during a period when that was rare. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there were just too many logistical nightmares, from getting good takes inRead More

Scott LaFaro, Bill Evans and Paul Motian (photo: Steve Schapiro)What can be said about Bill Evans’ classic Sunday At The Village Vanguard that hadn’t already been said so many times over? If you’re new to jazz, here’s what you need to know: it is the beginning and the end ofRead More

There was, for a pairing of musicians so closely associated with other forms, an irrepressible blues feel to 1961’s “Bags Meets Wes,” reissued this year as part of the Keepnews Collection. That makes a chance meeting between Milt Jackson (longtime member of the complex, often formal Modern Jazz Quartet) andRead More

It must be tough to make a name for yourself as the little brother of such a towering figure in jazz as alto sax great Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley. Nat Adderley never did quite reach the legend status that his elder sibling did, but did manage to gain acclaim as aRead More

Richard “Blue” Mitchell may not have been the best trumpeter in straight-ahead jazz but he’s among the best who didn’t become a household name. Mitchell didn’t display the the sharp timbre and fanciful trips up and down scales like contemporaries such as Freddie Hubbard or Booker Little. He never developedRead More

The story of one of jazz’s most important pianists continues… Last year brought the reissue of Bill Evans’ second album, the delightful but overlooked Everybody Digs Bill Evans, remastered with updated liner notes from original producer Orrin Keepnews. Last month, Evans’ follow-up album has also been released again as partRead More

NICK DERISO: Art Blakey demanded bravado from his bands, and this one was perhaps his most intense and adventurous. Debuting here on Riverside, “Caravan” opens with Blakey’s audacious drum solo — then moves quickly into an assertive and simply awe-inspiring take on a track once defined by Duke Ellington. ARead More

by S. Victor Aaron The classic record showcasing the masterful piano of a just-maturing Bill Evans is back. More to the point, it returns in 24-bit remastered form as part of Orrin Keepnews’currently running “Keepnews Collection” reissue campaign, straight from the original producer of such notable jazz records by ChetRead More