On "The Night of the Cookers", Freddie Hubbard plays with Lee Morgan, James Spaulding, Harold Mabern, Jr., Larry Ridley, Pete LaRoca and Big Black. Recorded on April 9 & 10, 1965 and released that same year, the album has been described as "one of the most compelling documents of a live band in full flight" (Maxwell Chandler, Jazz Police).

The big star on the Japanese Venus Records' roster and one of the top tenor saxophonists of his generation, Eric Alexander's latest release is a Latin jazz album. Leading his regular quartet consisting of the powerful Harold Mabern on piano, Nat Reeves on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums, Alexander blows his powerful horn on the bossa nova and Cuban rhythms.

Harold Mabern and his piano join together with George Mraz, bass, and Joe Farnsworth, drums, to compile a 10-track SACD full of jazz's favorite staples from Harold Arlen, Michael Leonard and many more. A great piano trio album full of driving swing feel, groove and dynamism.

With a title like "Body Talk", and a lead-off track called "Dance", George Benson - a guitar-god-on-the-rise when this album originally hit shelves in 1973 - makes it clear that this music is all about feeling the groove. While a good number of Benson projects on CTI benefited from Don Sebesky's arrangements, the guitarist needed a funkier feeling for this album, and Pee Wee Ellis was just the man to provide it. Ellis helped to create the sound that defined the music of James Brown in the late '60s, becoming an important presence as an arranger on Creed Taylor's "Kudu" imprint, making him the perfect person to tap for horn arrangements here.

Harold Mabern is a hard bop, post-bop and soul jazz pianist and composer. He is described in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings as "one of the great post-bop pianists". This album has been released on the Japanese VENUS label.

Dippin' is an album by jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley released on the Blue Note label in 1966. It is the second of nine Blue Note sessions to feature Mobley alongside Lee Morgan during the trumpeter's second stint with the label. It is also the second of nine consecutive Hank Mobley recording sessions to feature Billy Higgins.

It can be argued with some validity that one's overall movement through life is reflected in his creative endeavor, and Eric Alexander's strength and versatility on the saxophone can be viewed from this perspective. At this point in his career, Eric has certainly covered a lot of territory, both literally and figuratively. He himself has lost count of how many albums feature his playing; our guess is 100 or more. While he has garnered critical acclaim from every corner, what has mattered most has been to establish his own voice within the illustrious bop-based jazz tradition which is exactly what he does on his latest HighNote release. The close-knit ensemble of a band of regular buddies, coupled with the bass-clef contributions of the extraordinary Bob Cranshaw, make for a listening experience not soon forgotten.

"The Gigolo" has no weak moments, featuring jazz aficionados Wayne Shorter, Harold Mabern, Bob Cranshaw and Billy Higgins. Produced by Alfred Lion. Recorded June 25 & July 1, 1965 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Harold Mabern is a hard bop, post-bop and soul jazz pianist and composer. He is described in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings as "one of the great post-bop pianists." On this release, Mabern is joined by Nat Reeves on bass, and Joe Farnsworth on drums.

Trombone master Steve Davis pays tribute to the music of legendary jazz trombonist and brilliant composer J.J. Johnson, including rare Johnson gems as well as perhaps his most famous composition, "Lament". For SAY WHEN, he's enlisted the support of the very best - Eddie Henderson, Eric Alexander, Harold Mabern, Nat Reeves and Joe Farnsworth - to breathe new life into six Johnson compositional gems, as well as Cole Porter's classic "What Is This Thing Called Love", Warren and Gordon's "There Will Never Be Another You" and Coltrane's "Village Blues".

Freddie Hubbard leads two ensembles of stellar musicians, an octet and septet, on this 1965 session of all-original material. Included in the lineup are unconventional jazz instruments such as congas and euphonium, even flute, resulting in a varied hard bop set that displays soul-jazz and Latin influences.

Harold Mabern is a hard bop, post-bop and soul jazz pianist and composer. He is described in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings as "one of the great post-bop pianists." On this release, Mabern is joined by Nat Reeves on bass, Joe Farnsworth on drums, and Eric Alexander on tenor sax.

Harold Mabern was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1936 and spent some of his early years in Chicago before moving to New York in the early 1960s. There he began to work with Lionel Hampton, Art Farmer's Jazztet and J.J. Johnson. Mabern has accompanied many vocalists including Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan, Dakota Staton, Irene Reid and Arthur Prysock. He's also worked with Roland Kirk, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Roy Haynes, Wes Montgomery, Clark Terry, Billy Harper, Joe Newman and George Coleman. On this record, he's joined by Joe Farnsworth and Dwayne Burno.