VA - The History Of Blue Note: The New Era, Volume 6 (2009)

I bought this collection with a tinge of trepidation. Initially, 'The New Era' of Blue Note records was synonymous with the kind of jazz-funk that now sounds pretty diluted compared to that of Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Jimmy Smith and other giants of the label's golden age.
I needn't have worried. This is a marvellous eclectic compilation that starts with Donald Byrd's breezy '(Falling Like) Dominoes' from 1975 and ends with Greg Osby's rather more demanding 'Miss D'Meena' from 1996. In between there are goodies to suit all tastes. Everything from Ronnie Laws' dangerously danceable 'Always There' - later covered by Incognito and Side Effect among others - to a furious, turbo-charged version of Monk's 'Well You Needn't' by the Cuban pianist, Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Elsewhere, Freddie Hubbard and fellow trumpet great, Woody Shaw, unite for some unfettered 'old era' blowing; McCoy Tyner plays a lesser known number of ex-employer, John Coltrane; Stanley Jordan plays some nice conventional jazz guitar on Rod Temperton's 'Lady in My Life'; Rachelle Ferrell demonstrates her extraordinary vocal range; John Scofield is accompanied by the old Atlantic label tenor man, Eddie Harris, for a viciously funky 'I'll Take Les'; and Joe Lovano, spurred on by Michel Petrucciani, shows why he is considered a modern-day giant of the tenor sax.
What's more, surprises like Charlie Hunter's swinging 'Fistful of Haggis', which features the first Nashville pedal steel guitar I have ever heard in a jazz context, and Cassandra Wilson's haunting 'I Can't Stand the Rain', accompanied only by a bottle-neck acoustic guitar, are almost worth the price of admission alone. If, like the Bonzos, you believe jazz is 'delicious hot [and] disgusting cold', I can recommend without hesitation producer Michael Cuscuna's quirky compilation. It certainly goes to prove that there's still lots of life left in the old label.