Dizzy Gillespie - Diz Big Band (1954)

This impossible-to-find LP (which, like Dizzy Gillespie's other Verve recordings, should be reissued on CD) features the great trumpeter with two different large bands: a string orchestra arranged by Johnny Richards and a big band with more standard instrumentation that plays charts by Buster Harding. This music predates Gillespie's globetrotting orchestra and puts the focus almost entirely on his trumpet. Most unusual is this version of "Roses of Picardy" (a song at the time closely identified with Sidney Bechet) and Gillespie's vocal on "'Lo Solo."