Canadian Brass teamed up in a unique collaboration with names such as Don Gillis and Liona Boyd to produce these two recordings from the 1970s. Here, they're both presented as an homage to the history of jazz.

In the early 1970s, the five classically trained young men of the Canadian Brass radically changed the perception of musical boundaries. By looking beyond narrow genre definitions, they virtually invented the "classical crossover" concept. First came "Rag-Ma-Tazz", a ragtime-influenced recording, which was helped by interest in the works of Scott Joplin at the height of America's ragtime craze, and by the popularity of the film "The Sting". In 1977, "Unexplored Territory" was recorded and became the first ruanaway best-seller for the Brass - the result of unique collaboration with contemporary jazz pianist/composer Don Gillis, along with names that have become a who's-who of Canadian artists, including Liona Boyd. It was about this album that "Stereo Review" remarked, "Canadian Brass has entered their golden age". In "Jazz Roots", for the first time in one CD package, both albums are presented as bookends, and as an homage to the history of jazz.