Great Jazz Albums: 'Rediscovered', 'unearthed', 'Lost & Found', etc.

They keep coming, thank god: someone comes across some missing or unknown tapes, and we have a brand new piece of the puzzle! Or, I suppose, some irrelevant debris. Anyway, one of my very favorites of the genre is the recently released Hasaan Ibn Ali - Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album. Recorded in 1965 and promptly forgotten, this burning session adds vital material to the discography of the storied but mysterious Philadelphia pianist. More than doubles his output, in fact. (Only other release: The Max Roach Trio featuring The Legendary Hasaan).

Other records in the category include a couple Monk & Trane discs, Charlie Parker @ Town Hall, a couple Impulse Coltrane sessions, Monk in Palo Alto...you could go back at least to the 1978 Book Of The Month Club release of Duke Ellington At Fargo, 1940 LIVE. And we're not talking standard record company barrel-scraping, but out-of-the-blue revelations.

Any personal favorites you want to comment on/add to the list? Or any wish list items?

 

Grits, Beans and Greens by Tubby Hayes is up there as a previously unknown stone-cold classic. Thanks for the info on the Hassan Ibn Ali!

 

That Monk/Coltrane recording from Carnegie Hall has to be the absolute peak. A legendary performance of two jazz titans in startling sound quality . . .

There have been so many previously unreleased Blue Note sessions issued on Japanese LPs and then on domestic CDs that I no longer have any idea what was or wasn't released in "real time" when perusing the catalogs of any of their signature artists.

 

A couple more that I treasure:

My favorite Sonny Rollins has always been the 1962 Village Gate recording Our Man In Jazz, an adventurous foray into Free Jazz. 3 Tunes: Doxy, Dearly Beloved and an endlessly inventive 24min Oleo. Never a hint of outtakes, even on The Complete RCA Recordings, from 1997. Then, around 2014, an unexpected flood of bootlegs, followed in 2015 by the European gray market Complete Live At The Village Gate 1962: a six cd box of the unedited original LP plus hours of bonus material. Unbelievable, a complete surprise. Fantastic sound, obviously from the same master tapes.

Evan Parker/Derek Bailey/Han Bennink - Topographie Parisienne. A hitherto unknown sequel to iconic free improv classic Topography Of The Lungs [1970], the 3 protagonists reconvene in Paris in 1981 for an exhaustive 4cd follow-up [released in 2019]. Admittedly a somewhat more specialized item than the Rollins box, but an utter cornucopia for the fan of non-idiomatic improvised music. Solos, duos and trios by Parker (reeds), Bailey (gtr) and Bennink (drums) - 3 of the pioneers of the genre.