O10, you seem confused. I recently bought an original, unopened copy of "Changes Two," which means it isn't "used."
Jazz for aficionados
Jazz for aficionados
I'm going to review records in my collection, and you'll be able to decide if they're worthy of your collection. These records are what I consider "must haves" for any jazz aficionado, and would be found in their collections. I wont review any record that's not on CD, nor will I review any record if the CD is markedly inferior. Fortunately, I only found 1 case where the CD was markedly inferior to the record.
Our first album is "Moanin" by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers. We have Lee Morgan , trumpet; Benney Golson, tenor sax; Bobby Timmons, piano; Jymie merrit, bass; Art Blakey, drums.
The title tune "Moanin" is by Bobby Timmons, it conveys the emotion of the title like no other tune I've ever heard, even better than any words could ever convey. This music pictures a person whose down to his last nickel, and all he can do is "moan".
"Along Came Betty" is a tune by Benny Golson, it reminds me of a Betty I once knew. She was gorgeous with a jazzy personality, and she moved smooth and easy, just like this tune. Somebody find me a time machine! Maybe you knew a Betty.
While the rest of the music is just fine, those are my favorite tunes. Why don't you share your, "must have" jazz albums with us.
Enjoy the music.
I'm going to review records in my collection, and you'll be able to decide if they're worthy of your collection. These records are what I consider "must haves" for any jazz aficionado, and would be found in their collections. I wont review any record that's not on CD, nor will I review any record if the CD is markedly inferior. Fortunately, I only found 1 case where the CD was markedly inferior to the record.
Our first album is "Moanin" by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers. We have Lee Morgan , trumpet; Benney Golson, tenor sax; Bobby Timmons, piano; Jymie merrit, bass; Art Blakey, drums.
The title tune "Moanin" is by Bobby Timmons, it conveys the emotion of the title like no other tune I've ever heard, even better than any words could ever convey. This music pictures a person whose down to his last nickel, and all he can do is "moan".
"Along Came Betty" is a tune by Benny Golson, it reminds me of a Betty I once knew. She was gorgeous with a jazzy personality, and she moved smooth and easy, just like this tune. Somebody find me a time machine! Maybe you knew a Betty.
While the rest of the music is just fine, those are my favorite tunes. Why don't you share your, "must have" jazz albums with us.
Enjoy the music.
Showing 50 responses by keegiam
acman3, within the first 30 seconds, I thought I was listening to McCoy Tyner, who mesmerized me at so many live performances (usually from 6-8 feet away). That's a more than good thing - this is a very energetic, emotional piece. Great find, thanks. My compatriots and I were always the first patrons to arrive for McCoy's shows. It was uncool of us to grab the closest table with the best view of the keyboard over an hour before showtime, but we had our priorities. The unsung, amazing Avery Sharpe always set up to the right the piano. Absolute bliss. I'm recalling these memories to highlight my appreciation of Makhathini's music. Wonderful. |
frogman, amazing playing by Frahm. He's new to me, thanks! The last one (the scorcher) - I opened it and thought "wow, short track at 2:23." After a few seconds I switched to "is he going to keep this up that long?" (BTW, at 1:08 looks/sounds like a brief misfire for a second out of 2+ minutes - wow again.) Will check the other tracks out more fully tonite. |
Thanks for these fantastic
Dexter cuts. Their different flavors played back-to-back really show his mastery. While listening and reading, I became curious (yeah, I know, after all these years). How did it become the convention to list jazz sidemen in this order: Piano, Bass, Drums? Opinions? Of course that usually changes
when the leader is a pianist, bassist or drummer (there I go again). But if I had been a sideman drummer,
being listed last might have eventually bugged me. Even the YT credits for Art Blakey’s recordings
vary on this. “Moanin’” (the OP’s
original choice when launching the thread) has him last, while “A Night in
Tunisia” has him first. Is it because the tendency is for rhythm instruments to be added added last when groups (or compositions) expanded from duets to trios
to quartets, etc.? Does it stem from Western orchestral traditions? Is it because melody has priority? |
Since Rok got me in the mood for Louis and Ella (and wherever that leads): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcuG7fzy5H0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxrws7omOHQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGfeCe0DHtI Light-hearted performances from the Golden Era: Eartha Kitt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeRSqekHh1g Fats Waller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSNPpssruFY |
Thanks Alex. You nailed the "best in a club" aspect. I like his tone on 1 & 2. Fun tracks, and he knew how to chicken pick. Tended to overdo the lick repetitions on this one (which I didn't hear in his later stuff), and I had to fast forward through the organ solos. Live, 31 years later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F90Mht9wC60 |
Blues can be instrumental only, but singing dominates the form. I used to know a Berklee professor and we had this same discussion back in the 90s. He explained that blues is a vocal musical form with a lot of call and answer, and that instruments play a "vocal" role in the exchange. Just think of the guitar as a voice via which the musician expresses emotions. The same is true in jazz, n'est ce pas? Freddie and Albert King did mostly instrumentals and are blues legends. Don't shoot the messenger! Just passing along what I learned from the Berklee expert. |
If you think this is about sex, you might be a necrophiliac. Son House - Death Letter Blues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCr3j_TwQwI |
Rok, I suppose each of us has our own idea of what is and isn't Delta in a blues sense, but I have to agree with you that the city of N.O. was a relative void in the birth and development of blues music. In that sense, you're also likely correct that young Louis "never set foot in that Delta." My understanding is that the only way he ever left N.O. was by playing Jazz on the riverboats. In those formative years, I think of Jazz as city music and Delta Blues as rural. Blues became city music when it spread up the river and railroads to Chicago and other cities along the way as part of the "Great Migration." Good way for me to spend a little time learning today while playing everyone's links. A geographer would say N.O. is in the "St. Bernard Delta," which is one of six delta "lobes" that have formed over the millenia. I don't want to go full nerd here, but if anyone is curious about their layout, here's a graphic: https://mississippiriverdelta.org/files/2016/07/delta-lobes.jpg (Not a hot link - you'll have to copy and paste in your browser.) |
I often reach for T-Bone Walker when I want to hear blues with elements of jazz. Papa Ain’t Sally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn8lNeEaLHo&list=PLQ4zwFxCQxeWqmA_6LE6hLyQtz2sVZOOZ&index=9 Glamour girl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjrf_QWM55Y Mean Old World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7vp8-IyuGY&list=PLQ4zwFxCQxeWqmA_6LE6hLyQtz2sVZOOZ T-Bone Shuffle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GsRzqbRvus |
Rok, Pops was born and raised (and imprisoned) in the Delta. In his youth, he feared leaving N.O. at all. He eventually gave it a shot when he was invited to play jazz on riverboats. Once summoned to join King Oliver's band in Chicago in 1922, the cat was out of the bag. https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/biography/ |
O10, his "Blues in the Closet" sent me on a binge: 1. Like a little kid, I listened 4 times, spellbound by the playing and sound. 2. Remembering Chet Baker's version on my #1 CB ("The Italian Sessions"), I played that next. 3. Back to YT and tracked down 10+ versions by many of the greats, a few with Pettiford himself. Wonderful way to spend my late afternoon. From what I've heard so far, the one you shared is unsurpassed. Just wow. |
Good news: we get to watch Monk playing circa 1960. Bad news: a mini documentary interspersed with commentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gL9acMqlwE |
Rok's Mobley pieces had me wondering about Rudy van Gelder. Seems Rudy's last recording session was in 2016 with Jimmy Cobb's current trio, about 2 months before Rudy passed. We lost Jimmy last May, and it seems the 2016 van Gelder session became Jimmy's final release as well: "Remembering U," in 2019. JC's AC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZxzsNAomok&list=OLAK5uy_kzZoB-YmUJBLB2L94Pz-zUCgv1GlRdltQ&i... |
Amazing, but focus on that left hand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTJhHn-TuDY Over 10,000,000 views... encouraging. |
The trumpet my dad gave me was a Getzen Super Deluxe. Everyone could hear that the Getzen was brighter and more strident than our favorite, a band member's Conn, which had a sweeter, more mellow tone. We experimented by trading horns and even mouthpieces, but it quickly became obvious the horns themselves had very different sounds. Vive la difference. No need to explain it, right? |
Frogman, thanks again for sharing your vast knowledge and doing so in such well-written form. The tubing and bell on my Getzen were all copper. Do you think that might have been the reason for the bright, strident tone? In general, are different materials used to make brass instruments known to produce certain tone characteristics? Different lacquers? MJ, thanks - really enjoyed the idea of the instrument picking the player. |
Funny, the blues just keep comin' back. A few Chicago favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3cKJ42HAd0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy2tEP3I3DM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQM_2liOdUU Re: the Junior Wells, it's not easy to pick one number from his "HooDoo Man Blues" album. Very, very solid, start to finish. |
Tough read on a new book about Pops. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/17/not-a-wonderful-world-louis-armstrong-was-hated-by-so-... |
Trent, thanks for a wonderful evening of jazz performances. I had forgotten how much Horace Silver's "Sister Sadie" really cooks. And it reminded me of this Coryell/Scofield/Beck performance of "Song for my Father" and "Sister Sadie" I bought and treasured 40 years ago. From "Tributaries." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a31NsIqWhPU |
Happy 2021 to all!! It appears the regulars here have been inconvenienced and relegated to isolation and drudgery, but all are healthy, n'est ce pas? Special thanks again to O10 for turning me on to Oscar Pettiford. Just listened to the 1954 Sextet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqTOrTqNuOA&t=160s Which led me to Sonny Clark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAn0suIllvg Then the dream team, 1964: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJq3j4rA0o0 1960 in Paris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VE_dP90V84&t=15s Cannonball, Lugano 1963: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OtjOvLELT4 Many of you know I'm a Yusef devotee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETDSOugNrqU&list=RDETDSOugNrqU&start_radio=1 We all love tenor tone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwXXi7InrB4 |
Lester Young, Hawk & Big Band, '58. There's something basically truthful about this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DmtPvFa_W8 |
Frogman, thanks for the wonderful article about Prez and Billie. It filled me in on a lot of the story I didn't know. O10, your glowing comments about "Jammin' the Blues" said so much. They couldn't remake that today no matter how hard they tried. One more Prez and Billie. '59 I think - neither of them had much time left. But watch Billie when Lester played his short, mesmerizing solo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT7u2EUT-ac |
O10, maybe you ran into this one exploring your new heartthrob. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r28Gmaji7-g&list=PL69k6m47R2WbBRrYAxh5iXPekb-y9ExAT |
I've been moved by Miles' "Ascenseur pour l'echafaud" for many years. The ascension to the gallows for one's execution. The deepest blues conceivable, and Miles laid it down perfectly. Mournful, bent notes that plumb the depths of despair. So beautifully performed that I can only listen to it a couple times a year. |
pjw, thanks for the McLaughlin/deLucia/Coryell at Royal Albert Hall. It always makes me both sad and happy to watch, having later learned that Larry was nearing the bottom of his substance abuse and was barely functioning. John soon asked Di Meola to replace Larry. But the performance is sheer joy to watch. Just after Di Meola joined in 1980: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFlDf7Ck-N4 |