Horns a-Plenty: Trumpet Titans on CD

Louis Armstrong may not have invented jazz, but he might as well have. His huge sound, high-wire-walker rhythmic agility and gargantuan gift for melody combined to make him the music’s first nonpareil improviser, and he employed similar facets with his gravelly, buoyant voice to set the standard for jazz singing.

“Pops” is featured on “Let’s Do It” (Verve), a two-CD set that’s one of several fine recently released reissues spotlighting trumpet masters.

The 34 tracks on “Let’s Do It,” recorded mainly in Hollywood between 1956 and 1965, showcase both Armstrong’s bravura trumpet style and his splendid vocals on such classics as “What’s New,” “Summertime” and “Stars Fell on Alabama,” the latter one of many tracks including Ella Fitzgerald. Armstrong is variously accompanied by the likes of Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Russ Garcia’s orchestra and his own band.

One of Armstrong’s musical grandchildren was Fats Navarro, the be-bop giant whose genius was tragically short-lived: He died in 1950 at age 26 of tuberculosis exacerbated by heroin addiction. Fortunately, Navarro, who, along with Dizzy Gillespie, was the major trumpet voice of bop, recorded extensively during his brief time in the limelight.

“The Complete Blue Note and Capitol Recordings of Fats Navarro and Tadd Dameron,” a two-CD, 38-track collection, documents numerous key sessions from 1947 to 1949, finding the unwaveringly brilliant trumpeter playing with composer-arranger Dameron, pianist Bud Powell and others. “Dance of the Infidels,” “Our Delight” and “Lady Bird” are among the evergreens here.

Navarro’s influence on the next generation of trumpeters was immense and perhaps no one better revealed his spark, articulation and devotion to beauty than did Clifford Brown, another giant who died young, in a car accident in 1956, also at age 26.

The four-CD set “Clifford Brown: The Complete Blue Note and Pacific Jazz Recordings” includes 49 tracks made between June 1953 and August 1954. The sessions were led by Brown, co-led with altoist Lou Donaldson and under the direction of drummer Art Blakey and trombonist J.J. Johnson.

Such vehicles as “Joy Spring,” “Wee Dot” and “Confirmation” are explored and each track demonstrates Brown’s bold, crackling sound and hard-swinging, inventive soloing.

In the late ‘50s, two Brown devotees rose to jazz prominence: Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. Morgan’s style, built around a sassy, singing tone and alternately witty and heated improvisations, continued to grow during his short lifetime--he was just 34 when shot by his common-law wife at Slug’s jazz club in New York City in 1972.

“The Procrastinator” (Blue Note), recorded in 1967, reveals both the trumpeter’s regal bluesiness (on “Party Time”) and his modernity (on “Stopstart”), and he’s in fine company, with Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson and Herbie Hancock on board.

Hubbard’s career has teeter-tottered since the mid-’60s but when he is on, there is no one better. “The Freddie Hubbard-Woody Shaw Sessions” is chock-full of prime Hubbard, as he and trumpeter Shaw tear through such favorites as “Down Under” and “Eternal Triangle,” with calmer numbers such as “Lament for Booker” as balance. Mulgrew Miller and Kenny Garrett play solid supporting roles.