The first surprise was "Old Laces," a beret-and-goatee style take on a theme by Telemann: finger-snapping bass, cool flute, transposing baroque order into '60s swing. Jethro Tull's "Bourée," it turns out, is a complete rip-off of Schifrin's idea here. Not that it makes Tull's record (which has just that much more pop savvy) any less effective - but you'd think Ian Anderson could have acknowledged the debt in an interview or two...The second and more pleasant surprise was that Lalo Schifrin, who I knew basically by rumor and by his theme for "Mission Impossible," was jazz. Really. No doubt his primary métier was the kind of Latin-inflected big band show-tuney pop that dominates our recreations of non-counterculture '60s pop culture. That is, Lalo Schifrin as a composer and arranger made groovy lounge music. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, and Lalo did it with a lot more class than some others I've heard: "The Wave," from 1962, is one of the best of it's kind that I've heard. (Not to mention its basic piano riff is familiar from showing up in a UFO track - "The Planet Plan," from 3rd Perspective.)
But he's not just schlock: Lalo comes to this territory with the chops and sensibilities of a real jazzer. What else would you call his three-and-a-half-minute-long virtuoso piano solo on "Samba Para Dos" (1963)? It takes off from Latin syncopation to encompass Monkish lurches and Brubeckian timeplay, balls-to-the-wall blues and groovy abstraction. It's simply killer.
And what else would you call his stint with Dizzy Gillespie? He composed an album-length suite for the man, and recorded it with his big band: 1962's "The New Continent," three movements of which are included here.
This disc is out of print, but it's well worth tracking down. It's part of a series of artist comps (plus a few themed multiartist sets) that Verve released around the turn of the decade to cash in on the acid jazz/club jazz craze: Talkin' Verve. I have three or four of these, and so far they're pretty satisfying: as I've said, I really dug the club jazz thing when it was around, and these discs cater to exactly me. Plus, dig those irresistible late-'90s graphics!
Has anybody been as gonzo with the anthologies as Verve? They were a major jazz label: not as important to the evolution of the music as Blue Note or Impulse, say, but important enough. But ever since the dawn of the CD era they've been flooding the market with series of anthologies of their artists. The amazing thing is, these all seem to be unique collections, with only partial overlap. Most of them are out of print, but available cheap used: good for the casual collector like me.
For most of them I've been unable to find a master list on-line, and Amazon doesn't always index its discs by series title. So here's what I've been able to find. Needless to say, I only have a bare smattering of these titles; I offer this only as reference.
One last note: you may find, as I do, that this gets pretty comical after a while. It's utterly silly for them to keep rehashing the same catalog so many different ways (not that you can't find some gems in each of these series that aren't available elsewhere). But I wish more jazz labels (or their modern corporate dungeoners) were half as aggressive at making their best stuff available in attractive packages.
Standards: Great Songs/Great Performances (Great American Songbook; these are really short discs, mainly aimed not at CD buyers but at the mp3 market; 2010):
Oscar Peterson
Quincy Jones
Billie Holiday
Lester Young
Kenny Burrell
Stan Getz
Carmen McRae
Dinah Washington
Ella Fitzgerald
Louis Armstrong
Fred Astaire
Plays The Hits: Great Songs/Great Performances (part of the abovementioned, but instead of Great American Songbook these are covers of contemporary pop tunes: think Wes Montgomery playing Beatles songs; 2010):
Jimmy Smith
Wes Montgomery
Grover Washington, Jr.
Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66
Ramsey Lewis Plays The Beatles Songbook
Jazz Club (Verve is one of the main participants, with Polygram and some other labels, in this European series focusing, again, on club-oriented jazz and lounge; 2009):
Electric Jazz Lounge (V.A.)
Jazz Samba (V.A.)
Jazz For Broken Hearts (V.A.)
Smooth Jazz Christmas (V.A.)
Let's Dance Jazz! (V.A.)
Great Vibes (V.A.)
Electric Bossa (V.A.)
Do It Again (V.A.)
Jazz Goes Hollywood (V.A.)
Talkin' Jazz (V.A.)
Organized! (V.A.)
Summer In The City (V.A.)
Blues Masters (V.A.)
Bar Jazz (V.A.)
Cocktail Jazz (V.A.)
Jazz For The Road (V.A.)
Jazz Remixed (V.A.)
Disco Jazz (V.A.)
Sampled! (V.A.)
Christmas In Cuba (V.A.)
Beatles Vs. Stones (V.A.)
Latin Jazz (V.A.)
Jazz For Lovers (V.A.)
Saxophone Ballads (V.A.)
The Sound Of Dixieland (V.A.)
Jazz Rock (V.A.)
Bossa Nova (V.A.)
Spaced Out Jazz (V.A.)
Thriller Jazz (V.A.)
Swingin' Big Bands (V.A.)
Jazz Swings Motown (V.A.)
Chill-Out Jazz (V.A.)
Bossa Nova Guitar (V.A.)
Swinging Jazz Piano (V.A.)
Coffee Time Jazz (V.A.)
Exotic Jazz (V.A.)
Psychedelic Jazz (V.A.)
Bossa Nova Singers (V.A.)
Soul Jazz (V.A.)
Henry Mancini Songbook (V.A.)
Cole Porter Songbook (V.A.)
Cool Jazz (V.A.)
Black Power (V.A.)
The Coolest Rhythm & Blues (V.A.)
Mambo Fever (V.A.)
Norway Nights (V.A.)
Movie Themes Go Disco (V.A.)
The Soul Of Jazz (V.A.)
Swinging Evergreens (V.A.)
The Best Of Talkin' Loud (V.A.)
Kurt Edelhagen - Up Up And Away
Eugen Cicero - Classics In Rhythm
Chick Corea - Electric Chick
George Duke - Keyboard Giant
Astrud Gilberto - Non-Stop To Brazil
Shirley Horn - Swingin'
Horst Jankowski - Walk In The Black Forest
Jimmy Smith - Plays Red Hot Blues
The Swingle Singers - Swinging The Classics
Kai Warner - Fantastic Sound Of
Quincy Jones - Swinging The Big Band
Stephane Grappeli - Tribute To Django Reinhardt
Nat King Cole Trio - Honeysuckle Rose
Horst Jankowski - For Night People Only
Oscar Peterson - Fly Me To The Moon
Antonio Carlos Jobim - One Note Samba
Connie Francis - Cocktail Connie
Lalo Schifrin - Mission Impossible And Other Thrilling Themes
Kai Winding – Jazz For Playboys
Max Greger – Greger’s Groove Party
Max Greger – Hallo Kleines Fraulein
Walter Wanderley – Hammond Bossa From Brazil
George Shearing - Swinging In The Latin Mood
Ingfried Hoffman - Hammond Bond
Old Merry Tale Jazzband - Am Sonntag Will Mein Süsser...
Stan Getz - Body And Soul
Ella Fitzgerald - Lady Be Good
Don Ellis - Soaring
Ella Fitzgerald - Live In San Francisco
Dizzy Gillespie - Live In Berlin
Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares
Charlie Parker - Now's The Time
Pure Bossa Nova (originally by Universal Music Ltda. Brazil, released in the US by Verve; there's another series out there by the same title with some of the same artists, but the Verve one can be identified by its cool graphics and by the subtitle "A View On The Music Of..."; I have all of these, and they're excellent, if short; 2008)
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Lúcio Alves
Vinicius de Moraes
Sylvia Telles
Walter Wanderley
Tamba Trio
Os Cariocas
Roberto Menescal
Nara Leão
Carlos Lyra
Diva Series (female vocalists, each volume called Diva Series; mid-2000s):
Ultimate Diva Collection (V.A.)
Ella Fitzgerald
Anita O’Day
Dinah Washington
Sarah Vaughan
Nina Simone
Carmen McRae
Billie Holiday
Astrud Gilberto
Blossom Dearie
For Lovers (romantic ballads; mid '00s):
Paris (V.A.)
New York (V.A.)
Rio (V.A.)
Around The World (V.A.)
Christmas (V.A.)
Johnny Hartman
Astrud Gilberto
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
Stan Getz
More Stan Getz
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Louis Armstrong
John Coltrane
More John Coltrane
Ben Webster
Nina Simone
Bill Evans
Chet Baker
Ella Fitzgerald
Charlie Parker
Oscar Peterson
Dinah Washington
Carmen McRae
Billie Holiday
Verve Unmixed (no individual artist comps, but it's worth mentioning anyway: this is a series of four numbered discs plus a Christmas disc that was released to go with a corresponding set called Verve Remixed, with contemporary mixers turned loose on the Verve catalogue; early '00s)
Talkin' Verve (aimed at acid jazzers; late '90s-early '00s):
Roots of Acid Jazz (V.A.)
Swingin’ (V.A.)
With A Twist (V.A.)
Mambo-Mania (V.A.)
Groovy (V.A.)
Cool (V.A.)
Roland Kirk
Quincy Jones
Cal Tjader
Buddy Greco
Les McCann
Walter Wanderley
Dizzy Gillespie
Astrud Gilberto
Jimmy Smith
Wes Montgomery
George Benson
Willie Bobo
Shirley Scott
Lalo Schifrin
Finest Hour (broad cross-section of Verve artists; early '00s)
Anita O’Day
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Art Tatum
Astrud Gilberto
Ben Webster
Benny Carter
Bill Evans
Cannonball Adderley
Carmen McRae
Charles Mingus
Chuck Mangione
Clifford Brown
Count Basie
Crusaders
Dinah Washington
Duke Ellington
Erroll Garner
Fred Astaire
Gato Barbieri
Jimmy Smith
Joe Williams
Mel Torme
Nina Simone
Oscar Peterson
Quincy Jones
Ramsey Lewis
Roland Kirk
Sarah Vaughan
Sonny Rollins
Stan Getz
Tal Farlow
Wes Montgomery
Willie Bobo
Woody Herman
Definitive (this is kind of confusing: it's a series of cross-licensed discs by Verve and Blue Note, and "Definitive" is such a generic title that it's hard to figure out exactly how many there were; early '00s):
Cannonball Adderley
Chet Baker
Clifford Brown
Nat “King” Cole
Stan Getz
Joe Henderson
Bud Powell
George Shearing
Jimmy Smith
Art Tatum
McCoy Tyner
Sarah Vaughan
Dinah Washington
Joe Williams
Ultimate (the gimmick here was to have a famous musician pick the tracks - an idea better suited to a magazine article than an actual CD; 1999 or so):
Charlie Parker
Jimmy Smith
Art Tatum
Shirley Horn
Tony Williams
Oscar Peterson
Sarah Vaughan
Stan Getz
Nina Simone
Ray Brown
Wes Montgomery
Ella Fitzgerald
Billie Holiday
Dinah Washington
Bill Evans
Dizzy Gillespie
Cannonball Adderley
Anita O'Day
Clifford Brown
Bud Powell
Coleman Hawkins
Ben Webster
Joe Williams
Cal Tjader
Lester Young
The Best Of The Verve Years (the title is a rare acknowledgment that many Verve artists only came to the label after having done more important work elsewhere; all of these had titles and graphics that varied by artist, but I believe it's all one series; early '90s):
Joe Williams - Every Day
Stan Getz - The Artistry Of (2 vols.)
Billie Holiday - The Lady In Autumn
Roy Eldridge - Little Jazz
Jimmy Smith - Walk On The Wild Side
Louis Armstrong - Let's Do It
James Cotton (no subtitle)
Illinois Jacquet - Flying Home
Slim Gaillard - Laughing In Rhythm
Dizzy Gillespie - Dizzy's Diamonds
Flip Phillips - Flip Wails
Verve Jazz Masters (even broader cross-section, numbered volumes; early to mid '90s):
1. Louis Armstrong
2. Count Basie
3. Chick Corea
4. Duke Ellington
5. Bill Evans
6. Ella Fitzgerald
7. Erroll Garner
8. Stan Getz
9. Astrud Gilberto
10. Dizzy Gillespie
11. Stephane Grappeli
12. Billie Holiday
13. Antonio Carlos Jobim
14. Wes Montgomery
15. Charlie Parker
16. Oscar Peterson
17. Nina Simone
18. Sarah Vaughan
19. Dinah Washington
20. Introducing Jazz Masters
21. George Benson
22. Billy Eckstine
23. Gil Evans
24. Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
25. Stan Getz & Dizzy Gillespie
26. Lionel Hampton & Oscar Peterson
27. Roland Kirk
28. Charlie Parker Plays Standards
29. Jimmy Smith
30. Lester Young
31. Cannonball Adderley
32. Chet Baker
33. Benny Goodman
34. Coleman Hawkins
35. Johnny Hodges
36. Gerry Mulligan
37. Oscar Peterson Plays Broadway
38. Django Reinhardt
39. Cal Tjader
40. Dinah Washington Sings Standards
41. Tal Farlow
42. Sarah Vaughan: The Jazz Sides
43. Ben Webster
44. Clifford Brown & Max Roach
45. Kenny Burrell
46. Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Sides
47. Billie Holiday Sings Standards
48. Oliver Nelson
49. Anita O’Day
50. Sonny Stitt
51. Blossom Dearie
52. Maynard Ferguson
53. Stan Getz Bossa Nova
54. Woody Herman
55. Harry James
56. Herbie Mann
57. George Shearing
58. Nina Simone Sings Nina
59. Toots Thielemans
60. The Collection
Compact Jazz (amazingly broad collection, mid to late '80s, seems to contain lots of acts that aren't strictly Verve, since it was the early days of CDs and labels seem to have been a bit more willing to cross-license):
Count Basie
Chick Corea
Bill Evans
Ella Fitzgerald
Erroll Garner
Stan Getz
Astrud Gilberto
Stephane Grappelli
Billie Holiday
Chuck Mangione
Wes Montgomery
Gerry Mulligan
Oscar Peterson
The Singers Unlimited
Jimmy Smith
The Swingle Singers
Sarah Vaughan
Dinah Washington
Best Of Dixieland
Nina Simone
Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong
Charlie Parker
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Count Basie Plays The Blues
Best Of Bossa Nova
Dizzy Gillespie
George Benson
Miles Davis
Best Of Latin Jazz
Count Basie & Joe Williams
Chet Baker
Count Basie: The Standards
Arthur Prysock
Duke Ellington & Friends
Buddy Rich
Mel Torme
Harry James
Ella & Duke
Gene Krupa & Buddy Rich
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
Billy Eckstine
Benny Goodman
Ben Webster
Sonny Stitt
Jean-Luc Ponty & Stephane Grappelli
Anita O’Day
Clifford Brown
Best Of The Jazz Vocalists
Modern Jazz Quartet Plus
Chick Corea In The Seventies
George Shearing
Lionel Hampton
Gene Krupa
Dizzy Gillespie Big Band
Oscar Peterson & Friends
Toots Thielemans
Oscar Peterson Plays Jazz Standards
John McLaughlin
Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Band
Charlie Parker Plays The Blues
Coleman Hawkins & Ben Webster
Quincy Jones
Dinah Washington Sings The Blues
Jimmy Smith Plays The Blues
Michel Legrand
Betty Carter
Sidney Bechet & Friends
Sarah Vaughan Live
Lester Young & The Piano Giants
Bud Powell
Woody Herman
Stan Getz & Friends
Art Blakey
Cannonball Adderley
Django Reinhardt In Brussels
Cal Tjader
Best Of Blues
Best Of The Big Bands
Helen Merrill
Sonny Rollins & Friends
Johnny Hodges
Maynard Ferguson
Stan Getz With Strings
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