Laurindo Almeida Quartet Featuring Bud Shank (1955)

Before landmark bossa nova records like Antônio Carlos Jobim’s The Composer of Desafinado, Plays (1963) and Getz/Gilberto (1964), there was Laurindo Almeida Quartet Featuring Bud Shank (1955). This quiet trailblazer of Braz-jazz not only meets all the criteria for Midnite Jazz, but also captures the nocturnal side of midcentury Brazilian samba/West Coast Jazz fusion.