Classic Material You Might Have Missed

It’s another big spring full of jazz reissue collections, many of them representing the kind of classic items that belong in every significant jazz collection.

Here are some of the highlight items:

* Ornette Coleman. “The Complete Science Fiction Sessions” and “Skies of America” (Columbia Legacy). Scheduled to be in stores on May 2, the albums chronicle a series of 1971 and 1972 sessions. The two-CD “Science Fiction” album includes two complete LPs, “Science Fiction” and “Broken Shadows,” with three previously unreleased tracks.

Performers include such Coleman regulars as trumpeters Don Cherry and Bobby Bradford, saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden and drummers Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell. Other tracks feature ballads by Indian singer Asha Puthli, appearances by Cedar Walton and Jim Hall and poetry by David Henderson (on the title track).

In many respects, the music is a climactic assembly of the avant-garde currents coursing through the ‘60s, initiated to a large extent by Coleman, and here appropriately summed up in his own distinctive fashion.

“Skies” was a step in a far more expansive direction, a large-scale orchestral work--with some soloing by Coleman--that projects the melodic and the iconoclastic qualities of his music in an intensely dramatic symphonic setting.

* The Verve Master Editions. Ten new releases in this extremely valuable series featuring Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Harry Edison, Chick Corea, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington and Ben Webster. If that sounds like a long list of jazz greats, that’s exactly what it is, a reflection of the major jazz contributions from Verve in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

The highlights are far too numerous to list, but a few must be mentioned: “Sarah Vaughan,” a 1954 album with stunning work from the Divine Sarah and gorgeous accompaniment from an ensemble that featured Clifford Brown, Herbie Mann and Paul Quinichette (be sure to check out Brownie’s superb chorus on “September Song”); “Clifford Brown and Max Roach,” with such immediate classics as “Parisian Thoroughfare,” “Delilah,” “Daahoud” and “Joy Spring” (with alternate takes on the latter two and “The Blues Walk”); “Laughin’ to Keep From Cryin’,” with Eldridge, Edison and Young making a rare appearance on clarinet (recorded in 1958, a year before Young’s death); “Ella and Louis,” with Fitzgerald and Armstrong taking on a set of standards; “Ben Webster and Associates,” a marvelous encounter between three tenor sax masters.

* “Hollywood Swing & Jazz” (Rhino). Sound like a contradiction in terms? Think again. Some first-rate jazz really was recorded there from the ‘30s through the ‘60s. Much of it, of course, didn’t make it past the film editor’s cutting block, and other parts were buried in the mix. But Rhino has done a good job of recording some fascinating items in a two-CD collection with 51 tracks, 29 of them previously unavailable.

One of the most unusual items is a Duke Ellington selection originally done for the 1937 Marx Brothers film “A Day at the Races,” which restores passages of “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm” that never made it on screen. There also are nine numbers from “The Subterraneans,” featuring Andre Previn, Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper and Art Farmer, five of which have been unreleased. A Count Basie octet (for the film “Maid in Paris”) performs three previously unavailable Quincy Jones pieces featuring Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. There are vocals from Mel Torme, Billy Eckstine, Louis Armstrong, Dorothy Dandridge and a stunning rendering of “I’ll Get By” by Lena Horne, never before available and reportedly recorded for Louis B. Mayer’s personal use.

Passings: The recent death of trombonist Al Grey deprived the jazz world of one of its most entertaining artists. Always a master of the plunger mute, he employed it in a fashion that was both humorous and creative. Although not as initially influential as J.J. Johnson, Grey had a broader-based style, mixing swing references with bop, and eventually came to have a significant, if largely unacknowledged impact upon younger trombonists.

Riffs: The Lexus Jazz at the Bowl summer series finally seems to be locked in. The season opens July 12 with Cassandra Wilson and concludes Sept. 13 with trumpeters Nicholas Payton, Roy Hargrove, Jon Faddis and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Other events showcase Nancy Wilson (July 19), Jesus “Chucho” Valdes (Aug. 2), Joshua Redman and Michael Brecker (Aug. 9), Dave Brubeck (Aug. 16), Jimmy Smith (Aug. 23), Maureen McGovern and Cleo Laine (Sept. 6). Once again, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra will serve as the resident jazz ensemble. . . .

Can there be a more elegant and relaxed way to enjoy jazz than a cruise aboard the QE2? For those with time (and funds) to enjoy such pleasures, the Cunard Line is offering two marvelous fall cruises. The first is the 10-day “Floating Jazz Festival,” departing from Miami to Southampton, England, on Oct. 27. The lineup includes Phil Woods, Diane Schuur, Jon Hendricks & Co., the Roy Hargrove Quintet, the Roy Haynes Quartet, the Heath Brothers Quartet and the Houston Person Quartet with Etta Jones. A second cruise, “Big Bands at Sea,” will appeal primarily to swing fans. The 10-day trip, departing from Southampton to Miami on Oct. 12, showcases the “ghost” bands of Glenn Miller, Erskine Hawkins and Jimmy Dorsey. Prices range from $995 to $3,995. Information: (800) 5-CUNARD.