Someone famously called jazz the sound of surprise, but all too often, what is on offer is the dull hum of routine. Or something like that. This historic reissue is, however, anything but routine.

This is not the first time that Teddy Reig's Savoy sides have been reissued (was he also the mysterious Buck Ram listed as producing one track?), but Craft Recordings took a lot of trouble to produce this very fine selection. If a listener were, say, twenty years old in 1946, well, congratulations to a prospective centenarian. For the younger reader or listener, especially one hearing some of these often-imperfect masterpieces, get ready for a few surprises: good, not so good, and, well, just surprises. Some very big names eventually turned out to sound rather different than they did fifty years later. Some unfamiliar names that would presumably have gone on to be very big names by virtue of their playing simply disappeared. Some rhythm sections cooked, and others occasionally got lost. Not everyone had mastered their instrument, especially when the horn, the French horn specifically, was new to jazz. Even modern remastering can't rescue a few hopeless recordings, but they are mercifully few indeed. Other Savoy reissues, such as Black California ( Arista, 1976) were not quite as well done.

A couple of players came out of the gate smoking. Others followed a slower development. Not everyone liked early bop or "rebop." There were ears that were closed and those that were receptive. What one finds is the messiness of creation, birth, and the process of discovery. That is the real, substantive contribution of the reissue: history as it was, not as we want it to have been. For some, that is very exciting. For others, it will be disappointing or even annoying. This is your Father's Oldsmobile. There were no hybrids. So be prepared for both the good and the not so good, the successes and the train wrecks. That is how history works, by fits and starts; not in straight, predetermined lines that necessarily suit our sensibilities.

One of the first things that jumps out at you is the sound. If a listener has spent a lot of time with earlier recordings, especially of swing outfits like Benny Goodman or