I'm currently on an Ella Fitzgerald kick, working my way through her songbook series recorded by Norman Granz on Verve during the mid-to-late 1950s.

I've listened, so far, to the Cole Porters, the Irving Berlins, The Gershwins, the Jerome Kern and am now listening to the Harold Arlen songbook. Still to come Johnny Mercer & Ellington.

The best of the bunch is the Gershwin, originally five LPs, but now conveniently on a three-disc CD.

Mark Elf: Liftoff (Jen Bay)

Ella [Fitzgerald] & Duke [Ellington] at the Cote D'Azur (Verve)

Ella at Duke's Place (Verve)

Ella & Louis [Armstrong] Again (Verve)

Porgy & Bess: Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald (Verve)

Ella Fitzgerald: The Duke Ellington Songbook (Verve)

Jazz @ the Santa Monica Center '72 (Basie, Ella, Tommy Flanagan et al w/ some phenomenal scatting by Ms. Fitzgerald on disc 3) (Pablo)

Bruce Williams Quartet: More to Go (Brushwood Music)

Starting a Jim Rotondi Fest:

Introducing Jim Rotondi (Criss Cross)

Jim's Bop (Criss Cross)

More Jim Rotondi:

Reverence (Criss Cross)
Excursions (Criss Cross)
The Pleasure Dome (Sharp9)
New Vistas (Criss Cross)
Destination Up (Sharp9)

Bruce Williams:
Brotherhood (Savant)
Alto City (Savant)
Jim Rotondi: Iron Man (Criss Cross)
Cedar Walton: One Flight Down (HighNote)
Helen Sung:
Helenistique (Fresh Sound New Talent)
Push (Fresh Sound New Talent)
Richard Bona: Tiki (Decca)
One For All: Killer Joe (Venus)
Wycliffe Gordon: The Joyride (Nigel-Hayer)
Freddie Bryant & Kaliedoscope: Live at Smoke (Fresh Sound World Jazz)

I've been listening to a lot of the more challenging style of jazz fusion lately.
Vital Techtones and other projects involving Scott Henderson in particular

I've been playing my recent purchases:

Peter Zimmer Quintet: Burnin' Live at the Jazz Standard (Tippin Records

Zoot Sims/Harry "Sweets" Edison: Just Friends (Pablo/OJC)

Harry "Sweets" Edison: Edison's Lights (Pablo/OJC)

Jimmy Amadie Trio w/ special guest Phil Woods: Let's Groove: A Tribute to Mel Torme (TPR)

Winard Harper Sextet: Make it Happen (Piadrum)

Charles Owens: Live at Smalls (Superbalanced Records)

Bootsie Barnes Quintet: Boppin Round the Center (Harvest Records)

Jed Levy Quintet: Mood Ellington (Steeplechase)

Bill Mays: Live at Maybeck Recital Hall (Concord)

Oscar Peterson Quartet: A Tribute to My Friends (Pablo/OJC)

Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra: Groove Shop (Capri)

Anthony Wilson: Anthony Wilson (MAMA)

Charles McPherson:

Bebop Revisited! (Prestige/OJC)
Con Alma! (Prestige/OJC)
From This Moment On (Prestige/OJC)

One For All: The Lineup (Sharp9)

Roy Haynes & the Fountain of Youth Band: Whereas (Dreyfus)

Charles McPherson:

Horizons (Prestige/OJC Ltd. Edition)

The Quintet/Live! Recorded at the Five Spot (Prestige/OJC Ltd. Edition)

Live at the Five Spot (Prestige)

Yusef Lateef - Eastern Sounds (Prestige/RVG Remasters Edition)

Roland Kirk - The Inflated Tear (Atlantic/Rhino)

Donald Byrd - Royal Flush (Blue Note/The Rudy Van Gelder Edition)

Louis Prima album "I Beeped When I SHould Have Bopped". WOw! This guy had some fun singing and playing! Youcan find his stuff under Jazz, but he plays all kinds of small orchestral stuff. Keely Smith, his wife and solo vocalist is wonderful. This is stuff from the fifties. You like good music? Check out Louis Prima.

Panera Bread's jazz mix. Ugh.

I fell in love with jazz last year; ate it up. But then I got this job, where all I listen to is really really BAD jazz all day, and I find that when I listen to jazz now, work is the only thing that comes to mind! (But when Brubeck comes on there, I still get happy. It's the exception to the "bad jazz" I was just whining about)

Help!

Currently listening to "Mervat", a cut from Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band's Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band Present Egyptian Jazz: Ramadan In Space Time cd. These are recordings from 1968-73 and as far as I know, collected on cd for the first time. Excellent mix of jazz and Egyptian sounds. A few tracks remind me a little of older Sun Ra stuff but not too out there. I love that Egyptian beat and it's here a-plenty with very nice jazz horns, keyboards and percussion. So far my favorite tracks are "Ramadan In Space Time", "Egypt Strut", and "Kleopatra" though there's not a bad tune here.

Freddie Redd Quartet w/ Jackie McLean - Music from The Connection (Blue Note/The Rudy Van Gelder Edition)

album "The Roots of Swing"
big band

I've really been into solo piano lately! So right now I am listening to The Ultimate Art Tatum. The music is fantastic and the recording quality matches!

Next: Hank Jones Live at Maybeck

I went to hear Freddie Redd the other night so I've been spinning his CDs. First up was THE CONNECTION on Blue Note.

Andrew Hill: Point of Departure.
Sounded like a mess when I first heard it yrs ago, now it's a canonical work for me.