Mel Powell - The Best Things in Life

1999 European CD collection.

This is another compilation album in the superb Jazz Showcase series that gathers tracks from the original John Hammond-produced vinyl series that so raised the sound standard of jazz recordings in the fifties and proved just how commercial they could be. In this instance there are four mid-fifties Mel Powell albums involved: Mel Powell Sextet (1953), Thigamagig (1955), Out On A Limb (noted as circa 1956), and “The Mel Powell Bandstand”, (1956). All had a clutch of tracks chosen from them for this comp, aside from the earliest one that is represented by the sole track ‘You're Lucky To Me’ that features Buck Clayton on trumpet.

You Are My Thrill
Button Up Your Overcoat
Rosetta
California, Here I Come
Beale Street Blues
The Best Things in Life Are Free
Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)
Thigamagig
Ev'rything I've Got
Easy Swing
Firebug
Ezz-May
You're Lucky to Me
Three Little Words
Ain't She Sweet
Bouquet
Take Me in Your Arms