This week, a slight detour…instead of telling you what you’ll be hearing on WDCB in the next few weeks, I’m going to suggest a few CD sets that you could give to a Jazz loving person in your life.

Emily Remler – Cookin’ at the Queens (Resonance Records)

Cookin’ at the Queens, a 2 CD or 3 LP set that features guitarist Emily Remler at the top of her form, in front of an audience, swinging hard and digging deep with bassist Carson Smith and drummer Joe Pisci. It’s a shame that more bits and pieces of live Emily Remler haven’t been found and made available already; she’s regarded as an under-recorded giant for a reason. With this set being made available, we’re at least get a taste of what she was like when she was in the moment with no second takes. And how that was is awesome.

Sun Ra – Lights on a Satelite: Live at the Left Bank (Resonance Records)

Another Resonance Records release for the 2024 holiday season, this time with the Sun Ra Arkestra at the helm, is called Lights on a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank. The Left Bank Jazz Society hosted weekly Sunday concerts at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore, and someone with a basic cassette recorder had been basically spinning gold from the mixing board for years. 32 Jazz put out a bunch of these a couple of decades ago, and now we’re lucky to have Zev Feldman to pick up the slack and keep getting these kinds of recordings out into the world. The good news is, this is pretty standard fare for a 1970s Sun Ra show, which is to say, it’s exquisite, and with songs dating back to the 20s and 30s rubbing up against newer material, the AACM’s tagline of “Ancient to the Future” seems to apply here, too.

Miles Davis – Miles in France 1963 & 1964: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Columbia/Legacy)

Columbia just unearthed a few French concerts from 1963 and 1964 by the Miles Davis Quintet that they didn’t know they had. And we’re the richer for it. Those years tell us a story: that’s when Miles was slowly assembling a band that would later be called his “Second Great Quintet.” Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams are on board throughout this box set, but we see a change between the 1963 and 1964 discs as to who the tenor saxophonist would be. In 1963, it would be the hard driving, hard swinging, always ready for action George Coleman. By 1964, some of the earliest performances of the quintet with Wayne Shorter would be happening, and sparks were already starting to fly. You can check out those first few flickers of light yourself this holiday season if you ask Santa to drop this one in the stocking!