Flying Home: The Best of Verve Years (1951)

About this title: Illinois Jacquet's reputation as a premier improvising swing-to-bop tenor saxophonist is firmly cemented via these 20 selections, actually the best of the Clef label recordings in the '50s produced by Norman Granz. This is a well-chosen collection, with groups ranging from small ensembles and spirited organ combos (check out the very hip "Port of Rico") to a select few big bands. Many tracks such as "Speedliner," "Heads," "The Kid and the Brute," and "Achtung" were perfect jam vehicles, and are great inclusions here, but Jacquet was not only known in that format. His extraordinary ballad work ... read more

Tracks:

1. Speedliner [Jacquet]
2. Pastel [Callender]
3. Groovin' [Jacquet]
4. Cotton Tail [Ellington]
5. Boot 'Em Up [Jacquet/Salim]
6. Bluesitis [Jacquet/Salim]
7. Lean Baby [Alfred/May]
8. Port of Rico [Jacquet]
9. Where Are You? [McHugh/Adamson]
10. Heads [Jacquet]
11. It's the Talk of the Town [Livingston/Neiburg/]
12. The Kid and the Brute [Jacquet/Webster]
13. Sophia [Edison/Jacquet]
14. Honeysuckle Rose [Waller/Razaf]
15. Stardust [Carmichael/Parish]
16. Las Vegas Blues [Eldridge]
17. Achtung [Jacquet]
18. Have You Met Miss Jones? [Rodgers/Hart]
19. No Sweat [Davis]
20. Flying Home [Goodman/Hampton/Rob]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.