Pure Jazz (2001) (Simone/Basie/Baker/Davis/James)

Product Summary Label: Uni/utv UPC: 00731452019127 Release Date: 6/12/2000 Buy.com Sku: 60457558 Item#: MLTQ4Y Buy.com Sales Rank: 25079 Format:  CD Song Listing Disc 1 Song Title Sample 1. My Baby Just Cares For Me - Nina Simone ~ Various Artists 2. April In Paris - Count Basie ~ Various Artists 3. Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong ~ Various Artists 4. In The Mood - Glenn Miller & His Orchestra ~ Various Artists 5. Misty - Sarah Vaughan ~ Various Artists 6. Everything Happens To Me - Chet Baker ~ Various Artists 7. 'Round Midnight - Miles Davis ~ Various Artists 8. Girl From Ipanema, The - Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto/Astrud Gilberto ~ Various Artists 9. God Bless The Child - Billie Holiday ~ Various Artists 10. What A Diff'rence A Day Made - Dinah Washington ~ Various Artists 11. Sing Sing Sing - Benny Goodman ~ Various Artists 12. Mack The Knife - Ella Fitzgerald ~ Various Artists 13. Unforgettable - Nat "King" Cole ~ Various Artists 14. Take Five - Dave Brubeck ~ Various Artists 15. Peel Me A Grape - Diana Krall ~ Various Artists 16. Night Train - Oscar Peterson ~ Various Artists 17. At Last - Etta James ~ Various Artists 18. What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong ~ Various Artists   Album Notes and Credits Notes & Personnel Info Compilation producers: Ken Druker, Jeff Moskow. Digitally remastered by Doug Schwartz (Audio Mechanics). Though it's part of the Pure series, Verve's Pure Jazz almost seems more as part of the Ken Burns Jazz multi-disc series, especially since it was released during that documentary's airing on PBS. Any of the tie-in discs to Ken Burns Jazz were designed to give an overview, either of an artist or an entire jazz style, while Pure Jazz is designed to be a single-disc, 18-track overview of the entire genre, from Nina Simone to Diana Krall. There are certainly some major players missing here, especially because this is designed not to be comprehensive but cohesive. Therefore, this is smooth, accessible music, playing into romantic ideas of what jazz is all about, at least for mainstream tastes. That means when Louis Armstrong is featured, it's for the crooner of "What a Wonderful World," not the groundbreaking musician who led the Hot Sevens and Fives. That's not necessarily a criticism, since this isn't designed for purists or collectors or scholars. It's designed for dabblers, the kind that love Miles Davis' "Round Midnight" for its smoky ambiance, Dave Brubeck for "Take Five"' s collegiate cool, Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing" and Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" for their intoxicating swing, Getz/Gilberto's "Girl From Ipanema" for its bossa nova seduction. Yes, this isn't what collectors would like (and it's hard not to wonder what Etta James is doing on here; she's a blues singer, not jazz), but for casual jazz fans, this is a nearly ideal sampler. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine We have to assume that the ABC's-of-jazz primer that is PURE JAZZ was assembled and released to coincide with Ken Burns's ten-part JAZZ documentary and Burns's own jazz-history box set and single-disc compilation. At the same time, we have to admire PURE JAZZ for covering so many bases within such a short amount of musical space-time. This is a whirlwind tour of many disparate avenues in the jazz world. The listener is guided from the early swing of Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing" to Dave Brubeck's pioneering odd-metered, cool-jazz anthem "Take Five" to the bossa-jazz of "Girl from Ipanema by Stan Getz and Joao & Astrud Gilberto, all on a single disc. All the cuts included here are classics, and all will be familiar to jazz fans, but PURE JAZZ is created for, and will be of service to the jazz neophyte.   Technical Info Release Date : 01/09/2001 Original Release Date : 2001 Catalog ID : 520191 Label : UTV Number of Discs : 1 Studio/Live : Studio Mono/Stereo : Mixed SPAR Code : n/a UPC : 00731452019127    Product Image