We close out Black History Month with not only one of the most important Black musicians, but one of the most important musicians in the history of the art form, Ray Charles.  Known worldwide for his inimitable vocal style, today’s track, “How Long Blues” recorded in 1958 features Ray’s equally impressive piano virtuosity.  Combined with the smooth sounds of vibraphonist extraordinaire Milt Jackson, this track is the perfect way to head into the weekend and end a month-long celebration of some of the greatest music ever recorded.

Recommended by: Tristan Cheesman

He oversaw THE most successful recording of all time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller–even though Epic Records initially rejected him as Michael’s producer.  His musical resumé is unmatched, spanning seven (!)decades now while producing and arranging everyone from Ray to Duke to Count to Sinatra to Michael to both “We Are The World” sessions.  You could say his life resumé is peerless, too:  composer, media mogul, best-selling author, philanthropist, social activist, father, mentor.  “Q” is simply synonymous with quality–case in point, this 1969 piece featuring–among others–Freddie Hubbard, Roland Kirk, Hubert Laws, Eric Gale, Bob James and Valerie Simpson.  Quincy Jones is truly a renaissance man’s renaissance man.

Recommended by: Gary Moore

Seriously.  How can you not love a song called “Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am”?  A decade before David Bowie made it rock & roll vernacular; Charles Mingus featured a track named for a phrase he attributed to Max Roach on a classic album whose other song titles include “Eat That Chicken” and “Oh Lord, Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me.” Plus, Oh Yeah featured Mingus, normally a bassist, on piano and vocals.  Yeah, vocals.  And while Mingus isn’t exactly “easy” by default, this album is – simply put – a trip.  “Wham Bam” almost sounds like a Raymond Scott arrangement of a Thelonius Monk Ellington pastiche, performed by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band.  It coasts and swerves but the band never loses grip on the wheel.  A musician friend once told me that jazz was more fun to play than to listen to.  Maybe, but not this time!

Recommended by: Lee Lodyga

Chicago saxophonist Harris is best known for his 1961 crossover hit “Exodus,” his ’70s collaborations with pianist Les McCann (“Compared to What”) and the raw raps he put down on The Reason Why I’m Talkin’ S—t (1976). Here, though, he stretches out on a slab of sulphuric funk-jazz that riffs in the vein of “Green Onions” or the innumerable covers of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Help Me” cut by Brit bands of the ’60s. Piano, guitar, drums and bass (the latter played by the MGs’ Duck Dunn) provide kindling for a slo-burn jam that Harris, on amplified sax, and trumpeter Ira Sullivan crash and splash through for seven-plus minutes. So ceaseless is the track’s big fat groove, it could be a loop. When it feels this good, why stop?

Recommended by: Gene Sculatti

There are very few artists who can actually be identified by simply using their first name.  Frank is one of those artists.  No one is going to mistake who you’re talking about when you say: “Frank sang this one back in 1961,” which is exactly when this DFD gem was originally recorded and released as the lead off track on his Reprise debut album of the same name.  “Ring-A-Ding Ding,” a Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen composition is classic Sinatra and a perfect choice today as we celebrate Old Blue Eyes’ birthday (which is technically tomorrow December 12).

Recommended by: Jimmy Edwards

This is the song that got me interested in the amazing voice of the incomparable Mel Torme.  It may not be one of his most famous songs, but it was the perfect theme song to the movie of the same name starring Jane Fonda, Cliff Robertson and Rod Taylor.  Please seek it out if you’re a fan, as I am, of those mid-’60s romantic, slapstick, mistaken-identity type films.  After I heard the song in the movie, I found the song on Mel’s Atlantic album, Songs Of New York and to my rocker’s ears, the whole album swung.  Hopefully this song will do for you what it did for me . . . . . it made me a huge fan of Mel Torme and all of his great music.

Recommended by: Dave Kapp

We at Rhino realize that jazz is not the genre of choice for many DFD regulars, but the aim of Damn Fine Day is to expose you to music we think is great, even if that means leaving your comfort zone.  This track from Coltrane’s classic 1959 Atlantic Records debut Giant Steps, produced by the legendary Nesuhi Ertegun, features one of the greatest quartets ever: John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Paul Chambers (bass, and the person for whom the song is named), Tommy Flanagan (piano), and Art Taylor (drums).  There are only a handful of jazz albums that have crossed-over into mainstream notoriety and success; Giant Steps is one of them and it’s an album that belongs in every music lover’s collection.

Recommended by: David Dorn

“Blow what you feel–anything! Play the thought, the idea in your mind… Break away from the convention and stagnation–escape!”–Ornette Coleman, 1960. When saxophone colossus and jazz prophet Ornette Coleman titled his third Atlantic LP This Is Our Music, it wasn’t an explanation, it was an exclamation: This is our music! Recorded during three fervent and fertile sessions in the summer of 1960 (with Coleman on plastic alto sax, Don Cherry on pocket trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums), This Is Our Music (and its landmark follow-up, Free Jazz), shucked off all remaining shackles of musical convention to capture the essence of pure emotion. On the LP’s slyly-named “Humpty Dumpty,” a tart and tasty swinging workout, the quartet joyfully scrambles the harmolodic ovum by shattering its shell into glistening splinters of sound, putting its poor namesake back together into a greater whole by breaking him completely to pieces.

Recommended by: Keith Gorman

Imagine this: a stadium filled with thousands of revved-up headbangers screaming in anticipation for their metal gods to hit the stage. Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinny Appice—the Mob Rules Black Sabbath lineup, currently touring and recording as Heaven & Hell—are getting ready backstage, where there’s a flurry of the usual pre-show activity. But somewhere, powerhouse bassist Geezer Butler is listening to something before he fills the stadium with his thunder, and it’s not of the loud, fast, and hard variety. “This is one of the songs I stretch and chill to before going onstage,” says Butler of the Billie Holiday classic. It’s brooding, to be sure, but Billie always gets the job done.

Recommended by: Geezer Butler