Best Vibes in Jazz

Lionel Hampton! Lionel Hampton!

Abstract,Try to find these;
Dave Pike>>> Pike's Peak (Reissue Columbia LP is also great)
Bobby Hutcherson>>> Total Eclipse, Happenings, Stick Up, Cirrus, Good Bait
Milt Jackson>>> Plenty Plenty Soul (Atlantic)
This List to be added to the above great picks....Frank

Milt Jackson with the MJQ! "Django" on Prestige is just a great record (OJC vinyl reissue is quite good btw), but since this is an audiophone forum, check out just about any of the Atlantic releases (most were engineered by Tom Dowd) and also interesting is "Very Tall" with Milt J. and the Oscar Peterson Trio with Ray Brown (nice MoFi lp and Verve cd reissue). And then there's the "Very Tall Band Reunion" on TelArc, featuring Milt J., Oscar & Ray B., recorded live at the Blue Note in NYC just a few years ago, only months before Milt J.'s death. (I was in the audience -- what a show!) Happy listening, Jim

Frap and Jbaxley: Thanks for the very specific suggestions--I'm going to buy those, assuming I can find them.
Kubla and SD: Sounds like I need some Lionel Hampton--did you know his name appears on no less than 150 albums? Since I'm probably not going to get all of these--at least initially--can you all suggest maybe the top three that I should get?

We recorded a NY vibist, Joe Locke, a number of years ago who's supposed to be awesome. (We haven't released the recording yet, so I haven't heard it first hand.) I saw a nice write up on Joe recently in Down Beat (?) recently and he has a new album out that sounded worth checking out.

We have releases a few CDs that feature vibes too. I'm sure you'll be knocked out by the recordings. There's:

Andy McCloud's "Blues For Bighead" - one of Andy's Gentlemen is vibist Steve Nelson. The music's largely improvised, bluesy jazz.

John Cocuzzi "Swingin' and Burnin'" - 30's/40's hot jazz a la Benny Goodman, and my favorite of the three.

Warren Smith's "Cat's Are Stealing My $hit" - There are either vibes or marimba's on a handfull of tracks here. This CD's sort of a jazz percussion smorgasbord.