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This two-CD set is actually two distinctive albums: Rip, Rig & Panic, and Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith. The tracks, covering everything from blues to avant-garde electronica music, provide a comprehensive introduction to Kirk, who could play three reed instruments simultaneously.

Just in time for Fat Tuesday, critic Michelle Mercer has a review of the four-CD set Big Ol' Box of New Orleans. It features a number of different musical styles popular in the Big Easy throughout the years.

"Falling in love music." That is how jazz commentator Murray Horwitz describes John Coltrane's sensual 1962 album, Ballads. The 2002 re-release of the record contains a bonus disc with previously unreleased tracks, including multiple versions of "Greensleeves."

John Lewis, the artistic director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, once said that Charlie Parker was the "only jazz artist whose every single solo was perfect." Confirmation: Best of the Verve Years captures "Bird" at the height of the bebop era when he was still in his twenties.

Born in Tippo, Mississippi, Mose Allison, known as the "William Faulkner of Jazz," grew up playing a piano in back of a gas station — and never stopped. Allison, a prolific songwriter, pianist and singer, brought his down-home Southern bluesy style to jazz. This album illustrates the versatility of a man said to play "blue-eyed soul."

Roy Hurst reports on jazz violinist Billy Bang, a Vietnam War veteran releasing a new album called Vietnam Reflections, dedicated to his war experience.

In the 1920s, Sidney Bechet developed a distinctive, vibrato style on soprano saxophone that won him wide acclaim. His career lagged until 1949, when he went to a jazz festival in Paris and became an overnight sensation. His skilled improvisation is highlighted in this box set, which covers 1923 to 1950.

Ed Gordon speaks with jazz guitarist Chuck Loeb about his prolific career and his fourteenth CD, When I'm With You.

Bossa nova, the Brazilian dance, swept the United States in the 1960s. Stan Getz was at the forefront of the movement, along with Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto. The trio teamed up to produce this highly successful bossa nova album, which commentator A.B. Spellman calls a "cool ocean breeze."

According to jazz commentator Murray Horwitz, listening to Sketches of Spain is akin to being in a gypsy camp on the hills of Andalucia. Recorded near the middle of Davis' nearly 50-year career, this jazz adaptation of classical compositions features such gems as "Concierto De Aranjuez."