Jazz Library

This month, Chicago-born pianist Ramsey Lewis celebrates his 75th Birthday and the recent release of Songs From The Heart, his latest trio recording. This acoustic format has been a central component of Lewis' sixty-year career, bringing chart success in 1965 with 'The In Crowd', a track recorded live at Washington D.C.'s Bohemian Caverns where the audience's whoops and claps became, in Ramsey's words, the 'fourth member of the band'. But, as Alyn Shipton finds out in this programme, Lewis' catalogue of discs is richly varied, including interpretations of Beatles ballads, forays into fusion (with the help of Earth, Wind & Fire) and a large-scale gospel album alongside his many trio outings. A natural storyteller, Lewis remembers his father introducing him to the virtuosity of Art Tatum (prompting the question: 'Dad, who are they?') and, in conversation with Alyn Shipton, he describes how Western Classical tradition holds an important position in his musical thinking.

Prior to his appearance at the 2010 Cheltenham Jazz Festival, guitarist John Scofield joins Alyn Shipton to choose key albums from his extensive recorded catalogue. As well as his most recent disc, Piety Street, he chooses discs with Medeski Martin & Wood, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny and Gary Burton.Scofield is one of the most famous jazz guitarists on the planet. As he tells Alyn Shipton in this programme, he was once more popular in Europe than in the USA, but that all changed after his albums A-Go-Go and Bump, which put him firmly at the centre of the dance-based "jam-band" movement. So in this programme as well as sampling his work with jazz heavyweights such as Gary Burtion, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, we also hear him in full flight with members of Sex Mob, Deep Banana Blackout and Medeski, Martin & Wood.

Bassist Ron Carter is one of the most influential and revered instrumentalists in jazz, famous for his work with Miles Davis's 1960s quintet. He joins Alyn Shipton to select the highlights of his recording career, ranging from his work with Miles to string orchestras and his current quartet.Producer: Alyn Shipton.

Trombonist Al Grey (1925 - 2000) was one of the most distinctive soloists in big band jazz, working with many of the most famous swing orchestras. In an archive interview, recorded just before his death 11 years ago, Al selects his key recordings with, among others, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie.With his gap-toothed grin, pith helmet and extrovert trombone style, Al Grey was one of the most colourful characters in jazz. He and Alyn Shipton first met when Radio 3 broadcast Lionel Hampton's Golden Men of Jazz, for whom Al was musical director. They kept in touch, and not long before Al's death in March 2000, Alyn visited him at his home in Great Neck Long Island to pick the trombonist's favourite recordings from his voluminous catalogue.

Celebrating Ornette Coleman's 80th birthday in March 2010, Alyn Shipton was joined by Scottish saxophonist Paul Towndrow to select the key recordings by Coleman, the saxophonist who developed free jazz in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Jazz Library pays tribute to the drummer Ed Thigpen who died in January. He was such a consummate percussionist that he was known as "Mr Taste". A lynch-pin of the bands of Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Oscar Peterson, Thigpen joined Alyn Shipton during one of his last visits to Britain to select the recorded highlights of his career.

The British-born pianist Marian McPartland has become an American national treasure, not least through her long-running radio show Piano Jazz. In this edition of Jazz Library she joins Alyn Shipton to celebrate her 92nd birthday next month, and to select the highlights both from her recordings with her own trio, and also from available CDs of her radio series.Producer: Alyn Shipton.

Pianist Keith Tippett is a musician of extraordinary breadth and vision. His projects range from the vast 50-piece orchestra Centipede - so large it had its own private plane for touring - to introspective improvised solo concerts. He joins Alyn Shipton to pick the highlights of a recorded catalogue that spans over forty years, and which not only contains his ensembles large and small, but several surprises as well.Keith Tippett is one of Britain's most inventive musicians, although nowadays he something of a prophet without honour in his own land, celebrated in Europe, but performing infrequently at home. This edition of Jazz Library demonstrates just what local audiences have been missing, in a fascinating spread of music in which Tippett handles sprawling big bands with the same sureness of touch as he applies to his own piano playing. The programme includes his large groups Tapestry, Ark and Centipede, his current band Mujician, the celebratory Dedication Orchestra which commemorates the cream of South African jazz players, and Keith's long musical partnership with his wife, Julie Tippetts, who was formerly known as the pop singer Julie Driscoll, with her top ten hit for Brian Auger "Wheels on Fire".

On 6 February 2010, Sir John Dankworth died aged 82. In this special edition of Jazz Library, Alyn Shipton introduces an archive interview in which John Dankworth selected some of his finest recordings. These range from his work with the Johnny Dankworth Seven and his big band to the settings he wrote for Cleo Laine, as well as music composed for films and television.

Erroll Garner was one of the most distinctive and original pianists in jazz. To select his finest recordings, Alyn Shipton is joined by the young British pianist Neil Cowley. The programme includes examples of Garner's earliest stride style, covers the emergence of his own individual jazz voice, and features his most popular album "Concert by the Sea". Producer Alyn Shipton.

Focusing on the jazz side of Bing Crosby, Gwyneth Herbert joins Alyn Shipton to pick Bing's jazziest recordings, ranging from his Paul Whiteman days to the swing bands of Buddy Bregman and Billy May, and including Bing's immortal discs with Louis Armstrong.

One of the highlights of 2009's London Jazz Festival was pianist Stefano Bollani's residency at Kings Place, where the Italian gave solo performances as well as concerts in duo, trio and quintet settings. Recorded in front of an audience at the festival, Alyn Shipton talks to Bollani about his varied recording career, including his latest trio outing for ECM.

Swing guitarist Lawrence Lucie died in 2009, aged 101. Not long before his death, Lucie met Alyn Shipton in New York to look back over his remarkable career, which not only included stints with Fletcher Henderson, Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter, but a long stay in Louis Armstrong's orchestra. Lucie was also the longest surviving member of Jelly Roll Morton's band, and he looks back on his work with the self-styled "inventor of jazz".

Few people did more to promote the cause of jazz in Britain than Graham Collier, who died on September 9th. He led a succession of pioneering ensembles over the last 45 years, and was a key figure in Jazz Education. Collier was still actively writing and composing right up until the time of his death. In this special memorial edition of Jazz Library, Alyn Shipton presents an archive interview with Collier, who selected highlights from his long career, from early triumphs such as Down Another Road to his last issued album Directing 14 Jackson Pollocks.

Critic and pianist Brian Priestley joins Alyn Shipton to select recording highlights from the career of drummer, vibraphonist and pianist Lionel Hampton, one of the greatest musicians of the swing era. Including his work with Benny Goodman, his many studio recordings from the 1930s and the regular working bands he led from the 1940s for the rest of his life.