First-Class Works on Top 10 CD List

With holiday gift giving on the minds of most everyone, here is the Jazz Notes Top Ten CDs for 1993. This broad assortment of first-class recordings includes saxophonists and singers, big bands and piano trios, offering enough variety for you to find something for those picky jazz fans on your shopping list:

*

1. Joshua Redman, “Joshua Redman,” Warner Bros. There’s more to this 24-year-old tenorman’s debut than just music--he exudes a joyous, commanding presence that reaches way beyond the bandstand. These are amazingly mature performances, from the grit of “I Got You” and “Groove X” to the joie de vivre of “Blues on Sunday.” This man is lighting up the jazz world for reasons that are captured here.

*

2. John Scofield, “What We Do,” Blue Note. The strong appeal of this album--a bold mix of country twang, rock edge, jazz fluidity and atonal dissonance--is derived from the guitarist’s compositions: unique and fresh songs born of a merging of free and traditional jazz approaches. These numbers receive unrelentingly musical interpretations by the leader and his sidemen: saxman Joe Lovano, bassist Dennis Irwin and drummer Bill Stewart.

*

3. Mulgrew Miller, “Hand in Hand,” Novus. Pianist Miller offers us his finest hour, armed with distinctive ‘90s originals that reflect the rich melodies of ‘60s and that are intensely rhythmic and decidedly diverse. A swell team of players including saxmen Joe Henderson and Kenny Garrett, vibist Steve Nelson, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Lewis Nash make consistently rewarding passes at this sumptuous material.

*

4. Shirley Horn, “Light Out of Darkness,” Verve. In a daring move, the smoky-voiced, introspective Horn takes on songs done by the never-less-than-direct Ray Charles. Getting better as the calendar pages flip over, singer-pianist Horn shows that she can handle such tomes as “Hit the Road Jack” and “Drown in My Own Tears” and, in her quiet, compelling way, make them hers.

*

5. Joe Henderson, “So Near, So Far,” Verve. With an incantatory touch, the august tenorman leads a quartet, delivering luminescent renditions of tunes recorded by Miles Davis. The selections range from the boppish 1947 “Milestones” and the evocative “Flamenco Sketches” and “Teo” to the smoldering “Joshua.” The foursome, rounded out by guitarist Scofield, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Al Foster, is simply exquisite.

*

6. Franco Ambrosetti, “Live at the Blue Note,” Enja. It’s just a jam session but fluegelhornist Ambrosetti’s bandmates--particularly pianist Kenny Barron and newcomer saxman Seamus Blake--bring a phenomenal amount of pizazz to the proceedings. “Body and Soul” is appropriately tender, but the oozing, bossa-novaish “Phantom,” where Barron leads Blake into a stunning, shifting-mood solo, is ear-boggling.

*

7. Steve Grossman, “Do It,” Dreyfus. Invigorating looks at timeless jazz classics by the tenorist and a crack rhythm team of Barry Harris on piano, Reggie Johnson on bass and Art Taylor on drums. Grossman, a man with a tone that’s hard in the center and wispy at the edges, essays Bud Powell’s “Oblivion” and “Dance of the Infidels,” Monk’s “Let’s Cool One” and Bird’s “Chi Chi,” giving them a ‘90s currency that would make their composers proud.

*

8. Ryan Kisor, “On The One,” Columbia. A smashing follow-up to Kisor’s prosaic debut, this album reveals a 20-year-old trumpeter with originality and spine, a man who can play with feeling far beyond his years--as evidenced on tracks such as “Thinking of You”--and who can crackle with the best of them. Pianist Mulgrew Miller, saxmen Chris Potter, David Sanchez and Mark Turner, and the ever-present McBride assist.

*

9. Benny Green, “That’s Right!” Blue Note. Shedding a bit of the blues blush that has marked his work in the past two years, the pianist continues to reach for that long-sought-after artistic goal: the original voice. These flavorful numbers sometimes seem too cute, but they hold up. Bassist McBride and drummer Carl Allen are aces.

*

10. Mingus Big Band, “Nostalgia in Times Square,” Dreyfus. This large ensemble manages to stand firmly on the ground the late, renowned bassist treaded, the narrow strip of aesthetic turf between chaos and sentiment. The arrangements of tunes such as “Moanin’,” “Ecclusiastics” and “Mingus Fingers” brim with life, and the soloists shout. Among the music makers: Randy Brecker, Ronnie Cuber, Lew Soloff and Kenny Drew, Jr.

Top 5 Reissue Packages: For those of you with larger budgets, you might want to consider these first-rate box sets as gifts:

* Dave Brubeck, “Time Signatures--A Career Retrospective,” Columbia Legacy.

* Ornette Coleman, “Beauty Is a Rare Thing,” Rhino/Atlantic.

* Ella Fitzgerald, “The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks,” Verve.

* Jackie McLean, “The Complete 1964-66 Blue Note Recordings,” Mosaic.

* Wes Montgomery, “The Complete Riverside Recordings,” Riverside.