Best sounding CD (or hi=rez). jazz releases?

Try:

The Big Band Hit Parade on Telarc (515760Y), CD from 1988.  Features Brubeck, Calloway, Severinson and more.  Erich Kunsel and the Cincinnati Pops provide the orchestra.  It's my go-to acoustic test CD for horns and I love all of the tunes on it.

David Sanborn timeagain on Verve (440 076 155-2) SACD from 2003.  It's the only SACD with a 2 channel track that really takes advantage of the SACD format.  I haven't tried the multichannel on it and thought the Red Book track was not so much of a much.  That said, the tunes are great and it is comparatively recent.

Happy listening!

Clark Terry "Portraits". SACD.  Music and sound to die for.  Terry's trumpet images to the right of the right speaker!  Great disc to help you assess the quality of your system set-up.  If that trumpet isn't tightly focused and coming from the right wall of the room adjustments to system set-up are needed.  

Ray Brown  Monty Alexander  Russell Malone

It's available on SACD and Cd.  You can find the SACD on ebay.  Great music.

russellrcncom
My Reference: Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething (2004) Verve CD or SACD.  Other excellent selections via Chesky, ECM and Telarc labels.
Happy Listening!

Sound Liaison´s new series of " One Mic Recordings" are outstanding.
I think they are in a class of their own.
Latest release is Reinier Voet and Pigalle44 but the albums with Carmen Gomes and the Feenbrothers are equally stunning.
https://www.soundliaison.com/http://

The advantages of the One Microphone approach to recording are obvious; phase coherence, perfect imaging, great sense of depth, superior realism.
Another advantage is that it it forces the band being recorded to really play. There is nowhere to hide, no fixing it in the mix, so this is where it helps being a real band.

Reinier Voet and Pigalle 44 are just that; a real band, road tested, with years of experience playing clubs and concert halls all over Europe. When recording with one microphone the mix is done before we start to record.
We have to make the complete sound stage on the spot by carefully moving each instrument closer or further away as well as left and right in relationship to the microphone.
Reinier Voet & Pigalle 44 immediately understood the situation, and their great live experience made getting the sound just right a breeze.

McCoy Tyner’s 1970s album Sama Layuca sounds great to me even today -- I use the CD as a demo disc when friends come over. The title tune is a showcase of percussion sounds and wonderful playing.

It may not sound quite as pristine as an audiophile-label release; but unlike many such releases, the music is well worth listening to.

Al Jarreau    Tenderness
It's one of my favorites and beautiful reference disc.

Check out any of the three cds offered by Tonian Labs