Craft Recordings announces six new reissues from Original Jazz Classics (OJC), the audiophile series celebrating critically lauded, fan-adored seminal jazz albums. The latest installment features newly remastered editions of Bill Evans’ Interplay and Moon Beams, Lee Morgan’s Here’s Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter’s Introducing Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson’s Gone With Golson, and Ken McIntyre & Eric Dolphy’s Looking Ahead. Spanning the late ’50s through early ’60s, these albums capture pivotal creative moments from some of the genre’s most revered figures. The Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter titles mark the first titles from Vee Jay Records to be included in the Original Jazz Classics series. All six albums will drop between May 30 and July 25 and can be pre-ordered here.
Continuing OJC’s commitment to quality, the reissues feature lacquers cut from the original stereo tapes (AAA) by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI, and tip-on jackets reproducing the original artwork. All titles will also be released digitally in 192/24 hi-res audio, launching alongside their physical counterparts.
Bill Evans – Interplay (Available May 30, 2025)
A pianist’s pianist, Bill Evans influenced countless jazz musicians after him, and his knack for warmly effervescent harmonies can be heard throughout Interplay. The album’s title is telling: Evans was famous for nurturing interplay between his bandmates’ instruments, and here, with a set predominantly of standards, he brought that to new heights in a quintet featuring trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and guitarist Jim Hall.
Bill Evans Trio – Moon Beams (Available May 30, 2025)
In 1961, Bill Evans’ prodigious bassist Scott LaFaro suddenly passed away at age 25 in a car accident. Moon Beams, a collection of ballads, is the first album Evans (who receive a posthumous GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994) released after nearly a year of grieving his departed friend. Chuck Israels stepped in on bass here — with Paul Motian picking up again on drums — to incredibly moving, gorgeous effect. “It’s a classic, a template for the future, a slice of pure genius,” PopMatters wrote.
Lee Morgan – Here’s Lee Morgan (Available June 27, 2025)
With Here’s Lee Morgan, the jazz trumpeter (and acolyte of Clifford Brown) shows off the self-assurance and dexterity he previously nurtured as part of Dizzy Gillespie’s big band as a teenager, and later in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Returning the favor, Blakey appears on Here’s Lee Morgan, as part of this quintet, on drums. Original compositions such as the life-affirming jam “Terrible ‘T’” and the effortlessly cool, upbeat “Mogie” would presage a career marked with commercial success, until Morgan’s tragic murder in 1972 at a New York City jazz club.
Wayne Shorter – Introducing Wayne Shorter (Available June 27, 2025)
This debut album from Wayne Shorter features bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb (aka Miles Davis’ rhythm section), and those associations pay off richly. Despite Shorter’s nascency as a bandleader, Introducing Wayne Shorter shines a light on the improviser’s bright future. He’d just joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and five years later would spend several years as a part of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet.
Benny Golson – Gone With Golson (Available July 25, 2025)
By 1959, this Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie alum was recording his fifth album, Gone With Golson. The future International Academy of Jazz Hall of Famer was a powerful presence on the saxophone, and this album shows off his prowess in top form. Tellingly, just after this release, he’d form the famed Jazztet with Art Farmer.
Ken McIntyre & Eric Dolphy – Looking Ahead (Available July 25, 2025)
Fresh from receiving his degree at the Boston Conservatory, McIntyre released this, his first album, which finds him on the sax and flute. In contrast, Eric Dolphy (who here plays sax, flute, and bass clarinet) had already found fame in Chico Hamilton’s quintet and had just joined Charlie Mingus’ Jazz Workshop. For many, this was an intriguing intersection between an avant-jazz newcomer (who’d go on to become a storied college-level music teacher), and a very skilled improviser who’d be name-checked as an influence by everyone from John Coltrane to Frank Zappa.
