Best Vibes in Jazz

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.

The Modern Jazz Quartet: Together Again-Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival. This digital recording was made in 1982 and mastered by Joe Tarantino of Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California. It features nine of MJQ's best work. The sound quality of the recording is excellent. The music is very cool!

If you are interested in learning more about Lionel Hampton (one of the grand old men of jazz), check out the following sites:

http://www.downbeat.com/sections/artists/text/bio.asp?from=go&id1=3793

http://people.a2000.nl/ahbone/Hampton.html

http://www.duke.edu/~hlh2/

Enjoy!

For the best vibes sound that I've heard, you might want to get Mapleshade (Wildchild) "Swingin' and Burnin'", by the John Cocuzzi Quintet. John plays the vibes. I'd never heard of him, and I'm no expert (though I've heard all the others so far mentioned in this thread), but he sounds good to me musically too. The recorded sound, like most of the Mapleshades, is remarkable. They sell at $9.50 each plus shipping if you order at least four, and you can send them back for a replacement if you don't like them.