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The Modern Jazz Quartet - Concorde; Fontessa / Two Original Albums / Factory Of Sounds Audio CD 2018 / FOS 2205161

Name: The Modern Jazz Quartet - Concorde; Fontessa / Two Original Albums / Factory Of Sounds Audio CD 2018 / FOS 2205161
SKU: 8719039004782
Price: 69.79 USD
Availability: InStock

UPC 8719039004782

The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) was a jazz combo established in 1952 that played music influenced by classical, cool jazz, blues and bebop. For most of its history the Quartet consisted of John Lewis (piano), Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Percy Heath (double bass), and Connie Kay (drums). The group grew out of the rhythm section of Dizzy Gillespie's big band from 1946 to 1948, which consisted of Lewis and Jackson along with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Kenny Clarke. They recorded as the Milt Jackson Quartet in 1951 and Brown left the group, being replaced on bass by Heath. During the early-to-mid-1950s they became the Modern Jazz Quartet, Lewis became the group's musical director, and they made several recordings with Prestige Records, including the original versions of their two best-known compositions, Lewis's "Django" and Jackson's "Bags' Groove". Clarke left the group in 1955 and was replaced as drummer by Connie Kay, and in 1956 they moved to Atlantic Records and made their first tour to Europe.

Concorde is an album by the Modern Jazz Quartet, recorded in New York on July 2, 1955, and first released that year as an LP, Prestige 7005, with liner notes by Ira Gitler. The album was reissued in 2008 as part of the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters collection.

The album is the first to feature drummer Connie Kay, who replaced Kenny Clarke in 1955. It is also the first Modern Jazz Quartet LP conceived from the beginning as a long playing record; previous MJQ recordings had been released as 78's, 10 inch 33's or reissues of these formats on a 12-inch LP. The liner notes acknowledge the additional playing time of the LP format by asking the listener to regard this album as a performance set "at one of America's leading jazz rooms".

Fontessa is a 1956 album by the Modern Jazz Quartet released on Atlantic Records. It was the first of their albums released on Atlantic. The album was released in the USA in mono on the black Atlantic label with catalogue number 1231. It was released in the USA in stereo on the green Atlantic label with catalogue number SD 1231. The prefix SD stands for Stereo Disc. The current internationally available CD release is the mono version. A Japanese CD exists of the stereo version. Additionally both mono and stereo versions were released in many other territories, for example the UK with London LTZ-K 15022 for the mono and London SAH-K 6031 for the stereo. The 11-minute title tune by the group's pianist and musical director John Lewis was inspired by Commedia dell'arte, and the four characters depicted in it are pictured on the cover.