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A gift supreme

Wise choices for the jazz buff on your list

by LEN DOBBIN

Whew! It’s that time again. In the buy-Canadian department, we have new seasonal CDs including Noël en jazz by Bernard Primeau and a fourth Justin Time for Christmas anthology featuring Carmen Lundy, Hank Jones, Ranee Lee, Oliver Jones and more. The same label has Noël en harmonie by a Michel Donato trio. Donato also has Et ses amis européens on Effendi. Another bassist, the late Skip Bey, has left us the wonderful Live at Quartier Latin.

In the piano department, try Oscar Peterson’s A Night in Vienna, also available as a DVD, while Hush, featuring Mike Murley, is the debut for Holly Arsenault. Guitarist Peter Leitch is superb on Autobiography. More for the saxophone lover, Mandala is a not-to-be-missed release by Joel Miller, while Live at Upstairs from Kevin Dean’s Organ Band has sparks from Murley and John Nugent.

In what used to be the “odd instruments for jazz” category, there’s According to Gordie, a wonderful collection of the work of the late bebop accordionist Gordie Fleming, Transparency by violinist Lenny Solomon, Amerikois by vibe-playing Jean Vanasse and Road Ragas, on which Harry Manx brings out the mohan veena.

From south of the border, there’s Maria Schneider’s Concert in the Garden, baritone saxophonist Claire Daly’s Heaven Help Us, Keith Jarrett’s The Out-of-Towners, singer Bob Dorough’s Sunday at Iridium and, for blues fans, Slingshot Professionals by Kelly Jo Phelps.

Box sets are always nice, and in that category, there’s The Complete Improv Recordings of Tony Bennett and, from England, the affordable Proper Box label series. Their newer four-disc sets include collections of Bessie Smith, Mel Torme, Charles Mingus, Roy Eldridge, Benny Carter, Fats Waller and an anthology called The Arranger’s Touch.

Then there’s the DVDs, including Gospel Christmas with Ray Charles, a live recording of A Love Supreme by Branford Marsalis that also includes a CD and Lennie Tristano’s superb solo outing The Copenhagen Concert. There are some books I would suggest as well—Living With Jazz by Dan Morganstern is a reader of items from the head of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers, and, closer to home, Nancy Marrelli’s Stepping Out: The Golden Age of Montreal Night Clubs comes complete with photos, menus and postcards of pre-Drapeau Montreal nightlife.