"hard bop" jazz heads....

A few pianists that are often overlooked:

Sonny Clark
Mal Waldron
Kenny Drew
Bobby Timmons

Also, check out Jimmy Smith's Blue Note work.

My favorite "hard bop" is Art Blakey & The Jazz Messangers. To me, they difine this sub category of jazz. Some recording to consider by Art are:
--Moanin'
--The Freedom Rider
--Indestructable
--Free For All (this is heavy metal jazz!)
--Mosaic

You can't go wrong with any of these.

My favourite is The Cannonball Adderley Quartet "Live in San Fran at the Jazz Workshop" and I have a few by everyone AlbertPorter mentions. Nothing grooves live this session.

Download Bluenote radio. Their entire catalouge is online with some sampling tracks available on certain artists. Click the classics section during playback and most of the artists noted above on the blue note label will be on the playlist. Look for the RVG editions..Regards, John