Jazzing Up Holidays With World of Sound

Sleigh bells are ringing and the clock is ticking, but your holiday shopping list still has a few gaps--especially around the names of those hard-to-please jazz and world music fans in your family. Here are a few choice picks:

* “The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings of Miles Davis and Gil Evans,” Columbia (6 CDs) and Mosaic (9 LPs, released last August in a limited edition of 5,000 sets). The partnership of trumpeter Davis and arranger-composer Evans was one of the most symbiotic creative alliances in jazz history. Their brilliant work together in three classic recordings--”Miles Ahead,” “Sketches of Spain” and “Porgy and Bess”--is chronicled in painstaking detail in this superb collection.

* “Turn Out the Stars: The Final Village Vanguard Sessions, June 1980,” Warner Bros. (6 CDs), and “Bill Evans--The Secret Sessions, Recorded at the Village Vanguard, 1966-1975,” Milestone/Fantasy (8 CDs). The playing of the great pianist on the Warner Bros. recording is never less than compelling, even over the course of 6 CDs. The “Secret Sessions,” however, will primarily be of interest to hard-core Evans followers. Recorded by an inveterate Evans fan who smuggled a small, hidden tape recorder into the club, the recordings demand that the listener hear past the flawed audio and inevitable club noise.

* “Dexter Gordon, the Complete Blue Note ‘60s Sessions,” Blue Note (6 CDs). A broad survey of the great tenor saxophonist’s playing at a particularly prolific time in his roller coaster career. Working in the company of players such as pianist Barry Harris, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Philly Joe Jones and trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Donald Byrd, Gordon is at his bold, upfront, magisterial best, bringing a solid sense of swing to his singular version of post-bebop jazz.

* “Ella Fitzgerald, Best of the Song Books, the Collection,” Verve, is a three-CD set of selections from the first lady of song’s extensive Verve tributes to American songwriters. The first disc is highlighted by items such as “Miss Otis Regrets” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” with the second CD devoted to ballads, and the third to love songs.

* “The Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet,” Pacific Jazz (4 CDs), should bring smiles to West Coast jazz fans. Mulligan and Chet Baker team up on such classic items as “Bernie’s Tune,” “Walkin’ Shoes” and “My Funny Valentine,” and there is the added bonus of Lee Konitz’s stunning performances in nine collaborations from 1953.

* “Lee Morgan: Live at the Lighthouse,” Blue Note (3 CDs), includes nearly two hours of new material from a live performance by the superb trumpeter. Only 33 and just beginning his rise to stardom when he was fatally shot by a girlfriend, Morgan had the talent--obvious in this invigorating collection--to have become a major jazz figure.

* Sonny Rollins’ “Silver City: A Celebration of 25 Years on Milestone,” Milestone (2 CDs), covers the period from 1972 to the present, with the early tracks superb, the later recordings--especially during an era when his rhythm section featured electric bass--considerably less so.

* “Stan Getz, the West Coast Sessions,” Verve (3 CDs), showcases the legendary tenor saxophonist at the peak of his powers, performing in the ‘50s with groups of highly compatible West Coast players.

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World Music: Ellipsis Arts, an always dependable source for gift packages, has three attractive new CD-book combinations. Each packs a CD inside a hardcover book filled with colorful photos and detailed descriptions of the music and its cultural sources. “Deep in the Heart of Tuva” surveys the remarkable, overtone-filled vocal style that originates in the outer reaches of Siberia. “Notes From the Wild, the Nature Recording Expeditions of Bernie Krause” includes highlights from Krause’s field journals during visits to Alaska, the Amazon and Africa, with actuality recordings from the same areas. “Tibet: The Heart of Dharma” reaches into the dark, meditative sounds of Buddhist chanting, and “Harvest Song” crosses the globe to reveal the music inspired by the fruits of harvest. . . . The “20th Anniversary Album” from the Green Linnet record company is a kind of mini-study of the burgeoning popularity of Irish music over the past two decades.

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Books: William Claxton’s photographs of jazz musicians have set the standard for decades, and “Jazz” (Chronicle Books), now available in a paperback edition, includes some of his finest work. . . . “Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage and Criticism from 1919 to Now” edited by Robert Gottlieb (Pantheon) is billed as the largest, most comprehensive collection of writings on jazz ever published and it just may be . . . “Jazz Veterans: A Portrait Gallery” by Chip Deffaa (Cypress House) also includes attractive photos by Nancy Miller Elliot and John and Andreas Johnson, but its real appeal lies in Deffaa’s intriguing interviews with such lesser-known but important players as Ellis Larkins, Johnny Griffin, Harold Ashby and Charlie Rouse. . . . And the “All Music Guide to Jazz,” with its reviews and ratings of more than 13,000 recordings, is exactly what just about anyone needs to make up his or her gift list for next year.