AMG Review of Best Jazz 50

Steve Leggett
All Music Guide

This three-disc, 50-track budget collection hops all over the jazz map in a seemingly random fashion, although each disc is thankfully thematically grouped, with disc one consisting of jazz vocals (including “My Funny Valentine” by Chet Baker, “Autumn in New York” by Jo Stafford, and “Stars Fell on Alabama” by Jack Teagarden) and the second disc compiling Latin jazz tracks (“Mambo Inn” by Grant Green and “Caravan” by Chucho Valdés, among others), while the third gathers assorted jazz ballads (Clifford Brown's “Easy Living,” Miles Davis' “It Never Entered My Mind,” and Dexter Gordon's “I’m a Fool to Want You”). Each disc is pleasant and fun, if somewhat random in feel, and there are enough cool stretches in the set list to makes this package a passable (but hardly essential) budget purchase.