156. Chet Baker / The Italian Sessions (1962)

Baker's groups in Europe were a mixed lot. Sometimes they were great but sometimes it was just the opposite. Then after a lifetime of drugs, alcohol, and legal trouble, his tone and technique suffered hugely.  I like this disc because it is none of those things. It features Baker on the front line of a charging hard bop sextet. He holds his own flanked by piano, tenor sax, and guitar. His lines are so forthright and aggressive, so strident and even verbose (for Baker) that it hardly even sounds like him. I'm dying to put it in a blindfold test because it's such a curveball. The high spirited band gets started on the first track. "Well You Needn't" is one of two rhythmically thorny pieces in the session, the other being Charlie Parker's "Barbados." In the Monk tune, Baker careens along filling the space above and below him with a clarion tone and fast but thoughtful flits into the upper register. The drummer, Daniel Humair, drives the thing right over the top. Every track is short and concise -- no wasted space, no excessive showboating, no lost attention or bad takes. If you know the Let's Get Lost Chet Baker, the Californian bebop sensibility, the underplayed moody ballads and minimalistic statements in the lower register only, then you could revise that understanding, or at least enrich it, with these eight performances. They even do "Star Eyes," which is one of my favorite tunes by anyone.

113. Duke Ellington / Far East Suite (1967)

Last month, I rolled down the windows of my car after working a 12-hour day, twisted the cap off an ice cold Virgil's Orange Cream soda, and enjoyed the drive home while listening to this record. The Far East Suite is one of Duke's last recorded works, and one whose material might sport the familiar names and faces of orchestras past but its compositions have a unique flavor among others in the Duke canon. It's been on regular rotation at my house since that evening with the soda pop. Between the grooves are  yards of punchy counterpoint between reeds and brass, and some of Johnny Hodges' sweetest work on wax ("Isfahan"). And of course we are treated to equally fine work by the likes of Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, Russell Procope, Harry Carney, et al. The recording is memorable throughout thanks to Duke's direction of the sublimely cohesive band. It is nice to hear Duke melding his percussive piano blues with sophisticated orchestral textures and touches of middle eastern music or orientalism in tracks like "Mount Harissa," "Ad Lib on Nippon" or the opening "Tourist Point of View." I was swept up by the tidal wave of sound, which is what usually happens when I listen to Mr. Ellington.

91. Duke Ellington & His Orchestra / Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band (2003)

This superb 3-disc set from Bluebird compiles all the master takes  from 1940-42, plus a handful of juicy alternate takes. These sides are for the Duke catalog what the Complete Decca Recordings are for Basie. The comparisons should generally end there, but I just want to convey how important they are not only to the group, but to the notion of jazz itself. And finally, justice was done to this historic music in terms of packaging and audio quality (I say finally, but we've had this set for 10 years now), a clear improvement over previous digital offerings. If you already own RCA's Complete Duke Ellington set and you're only a casual listener, then there isn't much to entice you into repurchasing. But if you lean the way of the completist, or you're more serious about your collection, then you really need to have this on your shelf. It's many people's favorite Duke orchestra, and in hindsight the stand looks like a murderer's row of jazz legends. Of course you get Ben Webster and Jimmy Blanton, but there's also Cootie and Cat Anderson, Sonny Greer, Juan Tizol, Ray Nance, Rex Stewart.... the list goes on and on, without even getting into the vocalists. I'm not going to bother talking about individual tracks because we all have our favorites, and there isn't a lemon in the bunch. Above all, this music proves that eloquence is truly timeless.