Jazz for aficionados

Mary_jo, That is so incredible. Any time you were very close to a musician, there is something special about each and every note emanating from your speakers when you hear them.

I'm sure his music keeps you warm on these chilly evenings.

Keegiam, Sonny Rollins was on the first jazz record I ever bought.

This one is for you Mary_jo;


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAA_LUCb0QE

Ahmad Jamal is a jazz pianist who is one class act. I saw him when I was staying at the Holiday Inn, on North Shore Drive in Chicago in the mid 80's. He was appearing at "Ricks Cafe", which was located in the hotel. The place was designed to recreate the bar made famous by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the movie classic "Casablanca."

He was appearing with Frank Gant on Drums, and Othello Molineaux on steelpan. Those are two of the musicians I remember because we had drinks together after the show.

As always, he put on a fantastic performance that was made so unusual by including Othello Molineaux on steel drums. Miles always admired Ahmad, "Play like Ahmad,” Miles Davis would tell his pianist Red Garland in the 1950s."

It was in the mid 50's that I first became aware of Ahmad; I was staying with my cousin who lived two blocks from the Pershing Lounge on the South Side of Chicago. That was about the time he made his most famous album, "Ahmad Jamal At The Pershing" with his unforgettable version of "Poinciana".


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0e2G32f3IU


I had followed Ahmad Jamal's music from that time, till seeing him live in the ambiance of a night club that was modeled after "Ricks" club in the movie "Casablanca". it was by far the most memorable evening I can recall, as far as seeing a musician live. Once you enjoy the experience of seeing one of your favorite musicians in a nightclub where you are so close that you can see the changing expressions on the musicians face, there is no way you can relate to that "arena thing" anymore.

After the show Frank and Othello joined me for drinks where we had a long discussion in regard to a jazz musician making a living in the States. Frank told me he had tickets in his pocket for Japan, and it would be tough without fans outside of the US.

Othello was in very high spirits because he had almost stole the show; while Chicago fans had seen Ahmad many times over the years, they had never seen him with a steelpan drummer, and Othello could jam. (Why else would he have been with Ahmad). He was still high from his fantastic reception in Chicago, and said he hoped they would return after Japan.

As a "jazz aficionado" I have so many fantastic memories to reflect on, and they come in handy during this "Covid Lock down".

Frank Gant, Othello Molineaux, and Ahmad Jamal are still with us and performing; that's a relief. It seems that almost all of the jazz musicians that I know are dead; I'm so glad they're alive and well.

It will take forever to bring you up to speed on my Ahmad Jamal collection, but I'll start; one at a time;


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ_Op8dP5Iw

Vince Guaraldi is my go to guy this time of year. I once got stranded in a hotel in LA for Thanksgiving. No matter what you might think about LA as a fun city, it's not the place to be on Thanksgiving; everybody has vanished, especially in downtown LA.

The only thing I had to let me know it was Thanksgiving was some Vince Guaraldi cassettes.


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ0XTlof8bc&list=RDndnvgBdPms0&index=2


This is the music I heard at home with family and friends plus a giant turkey, every Thanksgiving, and now it was all I had in a hotel room to let me know it was actually Thanksgiving. To this day I cherish Vince Guaraldi's music over the holidays.

The "only" thing that's continues in regard to Jazz is the word. Pied Piper Charlie Parker brought a whole new game to town, and it's been going on every since.

Some of the best jazz in my entire collection is on this album.


"Out of This World" (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer)
"Curro's" (Donald Byrd)
"It's a Beautiful Evening" (Ray Rasch, Dotty Wayne)
"Mr. Lucky Theme" (Henry Mancini) (theme of TV-series Mr. Lucky)
"Bird House" (Donald Byrd)
"Day Dreams" (Duke Ellington, John Latouche, Billy Strayhorn)


Personnel
Pepper Adams – baritone saxophone - ballad feature on Day Dreams
Donald Byrd – trumpet
Herbie Hancock – piano
Laymon Jackson – bass
Jimmy Cobb – drums
Teddy Charles - vibes on It's a Beautiful Evening.


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmW_iRcs3D0


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNk3qtzNM_s

      
         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux2qH8CMVr4

When is the last time you played one of the CD's from the 100 best jazz tunes of the 1950's?  I think CD-3 is the best, I'm listening to it now.

Since there are no jungles in St. Louis, I have to do everything in my power to suppress that mood, or else they would call it "streaking".

Rok, this post;  


rok2id5,914 posts
11-21-2020 6:53pm
If you're at home on a Saturday night: LOUD!

Polks are recommended, but not a requirement.


brought back a lot of good memories of my misspent youth (wish I could misspend it all over again); especially this tune;


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBG3qpYj5DU&t=48s


"The Bump" was the only dance I mastered; I was "The Bump Meister", and them skin tight britches always seemed to be white so I could spot em in a crowd. I know you remember "The Bump.

This is an artist who always moved to the beat of a different drummer, that's why I like him.

He was inspired by his time in Vietnam as a "tunnel rat", the most dangerous job of all; to write this music.


        Here is "Saigon Phunk";


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0GwWi_VfUg

Dr. John, "Big Band Voodoo";


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kioZj1ez96k


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QfSb7br2ho


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KmU6nOlO_s

Here is an artist I can hardly stand to hear; especially since I upgraded my rig; Leon is in the room, we caught grasshoppers together in a field behind the houses where we lived,

Me, him his younger brother and friends went swimming together at the public pool. You were never supposed to eat anything before you went swimming or you would catch a cramp; he always ate half a chicken, but never caught a cramp;


          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSYwGEiowHg


          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoYnvw-97II


         

Not only that Keegiam, you didn't even respond to the music. Lately, I seem to be the subject of discussion as opposed to the music, and in a negative sort of way..

I can handle that, but what bothers me even more than that is what I consider "mediocre" music. Maybe we'll get some new aficionados with better taste in music and maybe we won't, but in the meantime I'll keep wishing and hoping.

Keegiam, you misunderstood my post so badly, that there is no way I can respond to your post.

"People who throw rocks should not live in glass houses"


"Truth is that you tend to use this thread as a vehicle for personal story telling (not all real, by your own admission);"


Frogman, I wish others would use this thread for their own personal story telling, it would make it a lot more interesting. In regard to not all real, you did everything to debunk my account of seeing "Trane", but I responded with accounts of even more detail each time. If my stories were not real, I wouldn't tell them.


When you posted, you knew I was going to respond; as a matter of fact, that brings a story to mind. A big guy called "Big John" jumped on my cousin, and had him down beating him back in the alley. This was at a time when we had coal sheds in St. Louis. (I was about 4 or 5) Immediately, I scampered to the top of the coal shed and began bouncing lumps of coal off of Big Johns big head. It wasn't long before he ran down the alley crying, looking like "Little John". I always respond, I've been responding since I was 5 years old, and I haven't changed.


It's too bad others don't have stories to tell, maybe they lived boring uneventful lives?

Keegiam, you have adequately explained yourself; it was due to my inability to communicate.

I can even understand your disdain for the music, a lot of the music on this forum makes my ears ache. There are even people I consider "reverse barometers'; how much they dislike the music is an indicator of how good it is.

Not that you're one of those people, but I understand how you wouldn't be thrilled.

Awhile back a guy posted who said he had been reading this thread religiously for years.  I asked why he didn't post, and his answer was vague, but I detected that he lacked confidence in his writing abilities.

Somehow I got him to post a few more times, and discovered he was knowledgeable in regard to jazz, and was the kind of aficionado we wanted, but I just couldn't get him to post.

Unfortunately we have more "silent admirers" than posters; we have had 1,773,579 views over the years and 24,142 posts; somehow that doesn't add up, but I bet Frogman has the answer, and it's my fault.

It's not  my fault if you don't have any stories to tell?

Frogman, I have more stories to tell, but I will only tell them with your permission. My next story centers around this song;


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP6mX_HtgGI

When I saw "Trane" he was blowing the Soprano sax, it was the same one Miles had given him. Miles said that John Coltrane had helped to make both of them legends.

According to Miles; "Trane was the loudest, fastest saxophonist I’ve ever heard. He could play real fast, and real loud at the same time and that’s very difficult to do.

After I gave him that soprano saxophone, it had an effect on his playing, his style changed; while he sometime played like Bird, Stitt, Lockjaw, or Dexter Gordon before, after he got that horn, he didn’t sound like nobody but himself. He found out he could play lighter and faster on the soprano than he could on the tenor. He found he could think and hear better with the soprano than he could with the tenor. When he played the soprano, after a while it sounded almost like a human voice, wailing"

That’s what Miles had to say about Trane.

This is the album that was hot when I saw John Coltrane;


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWG2dsXV5HI


The place was packed with professional musicians (minus girlfriends). If I had come minus girlfriend, I would not have had one when I got home; she liked Trane as much as I did. We were fortunate enough to have "Kenny Rice" a professional drummer, sit at our table.

All those professional musicians were there for a reason, which I was soon to discover; Trane didn’t repeat what was on the album, but played a much extended version, that was long enough to take me to a place that I had never been, but always wanted to go; a blissful musical heaven.

This was in a nightclub setting and we were close enough to the musicians to see every bead of sweat, and the expressions on their faces as they took us through different moods; naturally, Elvin Jones, the drummer was dripping with sweat as he propelled Trane to higher ground.

Near the end of the set, Trane really stretched out, that was what the professional musicians came to hear; "Coltrane unleashed", going places where no musician had gone before, out into the far reaches of the seventh galaxy. He reworked and extended "My Favorite Things" into a 35 minute tune. A grand time was had by all.

Ahmad Jamal is a jazz pianist who is one class act. I saw him when I was staying at the Holiday Inn, on North Shore Drive in Chicago in the mid 80's. He was appearing at "Ricks Cafe", which was located in the hotel. The place was designed to recreate the bar made famous by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the movie classic "Casablanca."


After the show Frank and Othello joined me for drinks where we had a long discussion in regard to a jazz musician making a living in the States. Frank told me he had tickets in his pocket for Japan, and it would be tough without fans outside of the US.



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVnCnmIrDgU





I wonder if Frank and Othello would remember this?

Do you think Kenny Rice would remember talking to me and my girlfriend when he sat at our table while watching John Coltrane perform at a nightclub in St. Louis?


        https://www.discogs.com/artist/397123-Kenny-Rice

       

I saw this guy every weekend for an entire Summer, not only was he a fantastic guitarist, but a fantastic person as well.




    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e5FVMt0FVw

Frogman, not real by my own admission should be easy to prove; what did I say and when did I say it? Not only did I fabricate, but I admitted these fabrications. I must have had amnesia when this occurred, because I don't remember it.

Could you kindly post that event?

Mary_jo and Alex, I will write more, and when I write, I will have you two in mind.

I don't know how many albums I have with Wynton Kelly as leader, but I sure got a bunch with him as sideman.


            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajL5MbW9Vxc


       

Each of the artists you picked has a volume of works. Since John Coltrane and Miles have been featured often, I'll choose Dave Brubeck to focus on.


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2AlqTfQ8Mc


          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ieHdRYGCdg



I recall seeing Dave live at a free outdoor concert. It was at "Our Lady of The Snows Shrine", in front of the main shrine, on a golden, warm Fall afternoon. He was accompanied by the most beautiful modern dancers who wore gauzy pastel dresses; they did choreography to his music. That day was unforgettable.

This is my first time hearing Sacha and Barney Wilen on sax; they swing, Sacha sounds a little like Skeeter Best. Skeeter Best really shined on "Blue Funk"; I can't find him as leader.

Mary_jo, Ahmad Jamal has two versions of this one song, which one do you like best?
 

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVnCnmIrDgU


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jAn4_0AUmM


The title is "If I find You Again"; that's such a beautiful thought; I imagine we all have experienced a time when the sun was always shining, even when it was raining if we were with a particular person. Paradise was right here on earth, as long as we were with that particular person. This song makes me think of that impossible thought "If I Find You Again"

I'm sure if you rifle your memory, there is someone in your past that this song applies to. Whether there is or not, maybe you still think this is a beautiful song.

Frogman, and Alex; how would you guys critique this tune? The reason I'm asking is because my perception of music is so different from that of a musician.


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHold6ylvEM

Mary_jo, fortunately, or unfortunately whichever the case may be, no one can ever change history.

Titles to songs usually have a meaning; that was the meaning that came to my mind, maybe I was wrong, maybe it's irrelevant.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE88Q15AprM



It's not my fault that I couldn't forget her.



      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkBOXMRIud4


That's what she told me many years ago, and sometime I still see the shadow of her smile.

When me and my fellow aficionados first heard Mingus in 1960, we didn't know what to make of him, but kept playing his album "Mingus Ah Um" over and over.

The term "musical genius" has been overused, but I got to use it one mo time for Mingus.

I never heard the record before either, Frogman

Hey you military dudes, don't leave me out. I just found a card that states: Mobility position card     Aircrew    73rd Trp Carr Sq:   carry this card at all times.  When alerted report to 73rd Trp Carr Sq Bldg S-680.


How's that for some "boni fides".

Mary_jo, it's impossible to live in the past or the future while dealing with the present.

I have fond memories of the past, but like everyone else, I have to deal with present realities, consequently, I don't go around lost in a fog thinking about yesterday; that's kind of like moving forward while looking in your rear view mirror; it's not a good idea.

Today I'm reviewing music that Rok calls noise, but he has a pretty narrow range. This is the music;


                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz9iPxElk0k


There is a lot of it coming out of the UK to review.

If only we knew?


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7vx4u-d-ps

I was listening to Milton Nascimento just before I responded to this post.,

Rok, that music sounds just like the music my newly acquired friend in the Air Force would get on his transistor radio and turn up real loud when he wanted me to pay him a visit.

He knew I would come charging down the barracks and make a kind request; "If you don't turn that %^&* music down, I'm going to shove that radio where nobody will hear it"

He would just laugh his head off, and I would ask him, "Now that you got me to come down here, what do you want?"

Alex, that Jimmy Forest was so beautiful and nostalgic; it was recorded in 59, when there were so many nightclubs to spend an evening sipping drinks and listening to good live music; now, our cities are gone.

Now, I remember, Jimmy Forest was playing the local clubs around St. Louis as well; there were a lot of clubs in the St. Louis area.

Rok, accidents will happen, I know you meant to post that on another thread and accidentally got this one. There is an edit function that will allow you to remove it and give it to it's rightful owner.

Alex, I'm not a grumpy old man, old but not grumpy, and I'm the biggest fan of the music you post, I just don't understand how you got it. If you bought it from a record store on the South Side of Chicago, I would understand. BTW, where is your record store?