Jazz label and CD review

Category: Music

This will be a short post - I'm working on another long review which I'll put on the forum in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I wanted to alert the jazz lovers in our readership to a relatively new label, called "Label M". The label is the personal effort of John Dorn, who is releasing a specially selected group of recordings that are of special meaning to him. Many -- perhaps most -- of the recordings were done by non-professionals, but they capture some superb jazz (rather like the private Dean Benadetti recordings of Charlie Parker). From what I've heard from the few Label M releases I've bought, this label ought to have special meaning to everyone who loves REAL jazz.

The CD I bought this afternoon, "The Buddy Rich Big Band: Wham!" (495717) is a good example of the this label's quality. This recording was done by Alan Gauvin, a member of the Buddy Rich Band, who made the live recordings in 1977 and 1978. If you dig a really tight, driving big band, this band is a tight as a gnat's ass on a cold night. Every number swings like hell, and the energy this group generates nearly wears you out listening to them!

The audio quality is reasonably good, but not up to the best commercial standards. But, as I said, the recording was done by a band member, and given that, the audio quality is pretty damn good. I don't think you'll care much, however, that the recorded sound is maybe a 7 on a 10-point scale: the music's the thing here.

Label M Records now has recordings available by artists including: Ray Bryant, Gary Burton, Ron Carter, Al Cohn/Zoot Sims, Paul Desmond (one of my favorites in this group), Stan Getz, Dr. John, Freddie Hubbard, the MJQ, Charles Mingus, Roland Kirk, Sonny Stitt, Cedar Walton, and Joe Williams.

For more information about Label M, I direct you to their (very good) Web site: http://www.labelm.com/scstore/labelmframeset.html

Buy a couple of your favorites -- I think you are going to be very pleased with Label M's releases. And if you are a big-band fan, you MUST add the Buddy Rich recording to your collection. It's a gas!