Jazz CD Recommendation

i don't know if any of you take my advice on music, but here's one anyway. Dizzy Gillespie's 1959 recording, Have Trumpet, Will Excite.

i love Dizzy. i'm going to name my son after him. "Not "Dizzy," but "John Birks." How does "John Birks Rodriguez" sound?

The personnel on this record are not well known to me, but they sound great together. i'm especially impressed by the piano player Junior Mance. Check out the first tune for some great piano work.

The second tune, "My Man," is fun with its long moody intro, which leads to a bouncy piece that references two other unlikely classics "O Solo Mio" and "Moten Swing." Dizzy's great sense of humor is on display in this one.

"Moonglow" is a standard, and here it features a long swinging flute solo by Les Spann. On "St. Louis Blues," Spann switches to jazz guitar for another uptempo solo.

"Woody 'n' You" is a Gillespie written tune that always swings no matter who does it, even more so when the author is blowing. High note fans, like myself, should be happy with the man's solo.

"Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" is another standard, with Dizzy blowing a muted trumpet up and down the scales. It's also the longest song at 7:13.

The next song is "There Is No Greater Love." The title sounds like something Coltrane might have written during his religious years, so i checked the liner notes. But no, it was written by Isham Jones, an old bandleader from the 20's and 30's, who should win the award for "white musician with the most black sounding name." Dizzy's version is a romantic tempo song that's probably the best thing on this CD.

The rest of the CD is three more alternate takes of "No Greater Love" and two alternate takes of "I Found A Million Dollar Baby In A Five And Ten Cent Store." i don't know why Verve does this. It's not like you're getting more music, since the alternate takes don't sound any different to my ear.

But if you're into jazz at all, take my advice, this is a pretty decent CD.