Today's Mix:

* Charles Mingus, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

*Erroll Garner, Concert By the Sea

*Duke Ellington, Live at Newport (includes"Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue," my favorite of all jazz performances and one guaranteed to improve any day on which it is played. The key here is tenor sax maestro Paul Gonsalves, who takes the Ellington group through a stunning 27 choruses; a glorious example of a player reaching his limit and then -- while we all listen in amazement -- sprinting past it with mad glee. It would be a sin for anyone reading this to die without having heard this cut many, many times.)

*Dexter Gordon, Settin' the Pace.

*The Best of Cannonball Adderly: The Capitol Years.

*Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain.