"Left & Right" is an album by jazz multi-instrumentalist 'Rahsaan' Roland Kirk. It was originally released on the Atlantic label in 1968 and features performances by Kirk with Jim Buffington, Julius Watkins, Frank Wess, Ron Burton, Vernon Martin and Roy Haynes with Warren Smith, Richard Williams, Dick Griffith, Benny Powell, Daniel Jones, Pepper Adams, Alice Coltrane, Jimmy Hopps and Gerald "Sonny" Brown featuring on an extended track and arrangements by Gil Fuller.

On the 1958 recording "Misterioso", jazz legend Thelonious Monk leads a star-studded quartet that features tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik. The upbeat masterwork with divine synergy is filled with gorgeous solos showcasing each musician’s technical assurance and musical genius. The centerpiece on the album is the title track, arguably one of Monk’s greatest compositions.

As Oliver Nelson is known primarily as a big band leader and arranger, he is lesser known as a saxophonist and organizer of small ensembles. Blues and the Abstract Truth is his triumph as a musician for the aspects of not only defining the sound of an era with his all-time classic "Stolen Moments," but on this recording, assembling one of the most potent modern jazz sextets ever.

Among Thelonious Monk's brilliant musical associations, the one with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin sometimes gets overlooked. This 1958 recording catches the quartet with bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik and drummer Roy Haynes on its home turf, New York's Five Spot Cafe. Griffin's gruffly compressed sound and high-speed, coiling lines are a fine foil for Monk's spare and pointed comping, bringing a distinct and special intensity to Monk's music. Together the group turns in classic renditions of familiar Monk tunes, including a brilliant Griffin performance of "Blue Monk".

Sonny Rollins made his debut for the Riverside label with this album, recorded and released in 1957, the same year he was named New Star of the tenor saxophone by the critics of DownBeat. Rollins is surrounded by top names, including pianist Sonny Clark, bassists Percy Heath and Paul Chambers and drummer Roy Haynes on a programme of covers and standards, with one original Rollins song.

This 1954 studio date, a self-titled album recorded for Emarcy, was later reissued as Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown to denote the involvement of one of the top trumpeters of the day. Vaughan sings nine intimate standards with a band including Brown on trumpet, Herbie Mann on flute, and Paul Quinichette on tenor.

Sonny Rollins made his debut for the Riverside label with this album, recorded and released in 1957, the same year he was named New Star of the tenor saxophone by the critics of DownBeat. Rollins is surrounded by top names, including pianist Sonny Clark, bassists Percy Heath and Paul Chambers and drummer Roy Haynes on a programme of covers and standards, with one original Rollins song.

A 1962 set from the Roy Haynes Quartet – which, at the time, consisted of Haynes, Henry Grimes on bass, Tommy Flanagan on piano and Roland Kirk on saxes, manzello, stritch and flutes. The album is a delightful mix of technique in arrangement and performance, with all of the musicians delivering terrific work – Haynes' drumming is absolutely wonderful here, lightly dancing around the other instruments. Flanagan's piano playing is equally light and delicate, and Grimes' bass work is outstanding. There's not much that can be said about Kirk's sax and flute work that hasn't already been said a hundred times.

Oliver Nelson meets Eric Dolphy on this frequently exciting sextet session with trumpeter Richard Williams, pianist Richard Wyands, bassist George Duvivier, and drummer Roy Haynes. Although Dolphy is too unique and skilled to be overshadowed in a setting such as this, Nelson holds his own. He contributed five of the six compositions (including "Screamin' the Blues," "The Meetin'," and "Alto-Itis") and effectively matches wits and creative ideas with Dolphy. This edition is a part of the ultimate audiophile Prestige Stereo reissues from Analogue Productions - 25 of the most collectible, rarest, most audiophile-sounding Rudy Van Gelder recordings ever made.

Roy Haynes is a legendary drummer who's had a very long and illustrious career, and he is still going strong with incredible energy and vitality. For this album – now considered a classic – Eighty-Eight's producer Yasohachi Itoh put together an all-star, intergenerational band around him: Kenny Barron and David Kikoski on piano, Dave Holland and Christian McBride on bass, Joshua Redman on sax and John Scofield on guitar.

Jazz pianist Andrew Hill wasn't a household name but his music had a far-reaching influence on jazz music of the 1960s. "Black Fire", his debut for Blue Note, was produced by Alfred Lion who called the pianist his "last great discovery." Hill is joined on this album of all-original material by a superb group of studio musicians including Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Roy Haynes, performing in various trio and quartet combinations.

Genius + Soul = Jazz is a 1961 album by Ray Charles featuring big band arrangements by Quincy Jones and Ralph Burns. Charles is accompanied by two groups drawn from members of The Count Basie Band and from the ranks of top New York session players. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

This was Etta Jones' first album for Prestige Records when it was originally released in 1960 (having been recorded in a single session), and although Jones had been releasing records since 1944, she was treated as an overnight sensation when the title tune from the album went gold, hitting the Top 40 on the pop charts and reaching number five on the R&B charts. The album was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

The Blues and the Abstract Truth is an album by American composer and jazz saxophonist Oliver Nelson recorded in February 1961. It remains Nelson's most acclaimed album and features a lineup of notable musicians: Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Roy Haynes. Baritone saxophonist George Barrow does not take solos but remains a key feature in the subtle voicings of Nelson's arrangements.

Miles Davis is backed up by two different groups on these songs taken from various 10-inch vinyl releases, recorded in 1951 and 1953 and released in 1956. The earlier session features Sonny Rollins on saxophone, Bennie Green on trombone, John Lewis on piano, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Roy Haynes. The 1953 session also features Lewis, with Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and Sonny Truitt joining Davis on the front line, backed by the rhythm section of bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Kenny Clarke.