In 1960 Prestige label owner Bob Weinstock launched a new series of records called Moodsville, as a response to the popularity of 1950s "mood music" albums, ushered in to a large extent by Jackie Gleason‘s Capitol LPs featuring trumpeter Bobby Hackett. Prestige attempted to stake a somewhat higher aesthetic ground, stating
We at Prestige feel that there is room for honest jazz performances of ballads wherein the musical integrity of the artist is maintained and at the same time the original beauty and feeling of the ballad is not lost.
What emerged was a sort of thinking-man‘s jazz-ballad alternative, or jazz-for-jazz-loving-lovers. We‘ll hear music from the very first Moodsville record, featuring pianist Red Garland and tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, as well as music from Moodsville LPs by Kenny Burrell, Coleman Hawkins, and Oliver Nelson.
