Coming off of his success as a sideman with Miles Davis' sextet, Riverside Records gave Kelly an opportunity to expand on his solo career. Kelly Blue was his second LP for the label. The songs feature Kelly and bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb. Together they had formed the rhythm section for the Miles Davis bands. Guests include Nat Adderley, Bobby Jaspar and Benny Golson. Producer and jazz critic Orrin Keepnews described the album as "a repertoire ideally suited to the blues concept on which the album is based".

Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. All About Jazz's Jack Bowers stated "At age eighty-seven, saxophonist Benny Golson is one of the last surviving links to the Golden Age of modern jazz".

Blues-ette is an album by American trombonist Curtis Fuller recorded in 1959 and originally released on the Savoy label. The Allmusic website awarded the album 4½ stars stating "Sessions in any genre of music are all too often described as "sublime," but seldom has that description been better deserved than with this relaxed hard bop classic. Any serious jazz collection is incomplete without this record".

"Moanin’" is the seminal hard-bop masterpiece by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. It features arguably the band’s finest lineup, which includes Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt. The musicians display uncanny chemistry and deliver breathtaking solos. The work includes the timeless jazz classics: “Moanin'”, “Along Came Betty” and “Blues March”. "Moanin’" is a pivotal addition to jazz history and a must-have for any jazz collection.

Anna Marie Wooldridge, known professionally as Abbey Lincoln, was an American jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress. She was a civil rights activist beginning in the 1960s. Lincoln made a career not only out of delivering deeply felt presentations of standards but writing and singing her own material. "It's Magic" is her third album featuring tracks recorded in 1958 for the Riverside label.

Recorded for Riverside, this set mostly features the influential pianist Wynton Kelly in a trio with his fellow rhythm-section mates from the Miles Davis bands, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb. "Kelly Blue" and "Keep It Moving" add cornetist Nat Adderley, flutist Bobby Jaspar and the tenor of Benny Golson to the band for some variety. Kelly was renowned as an accompanist, but as he shows on a set including three of his originals and four familiar standards (including "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise" and "Willow Weep for Me"), he was also a strong bop-based soloist too. A fine example of his talents.