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 mahgister
I listen to the invitation of schubert Kjetil Mulelid trio album "not nearly enough to buy a house"... Astoundingly original and creative... Jazz at his best....Like we dream about.... Complex lines melodically intertwined with rythms and harmonies that remind us that the territory of jazz and classical indeed intersect on earth like in heaven... Thanks for this gem not very well known i think here... |
Wow! Thanks for this one shubert... I will look for it... |
I am lucky this evening, thanks to you also acman... I will also look for it.... |
Pat Martino - Tribute to Django Reinhardt - Nuages - YouTubeThanks for these..... I decided to go full Pat Martino..... |
Sinne Eeg - The Windmills Of Your MindWow! for the song.... Wow! for the singer... Wow! for the post.... And the poster..... |
A Pat Martino very moving documentary |
Paul Martino is a giant.... I dont know whom is the "better" guitarist ever in jazz or in other musical cultural field,but the most hypnotic strings player i ever listen to is Ostad Elahi, mystic and supreme master of tanbur... Incredibly in spite of their style being totally different, and their associated intentions to be completely different, Martino seems to be on par with some of the very few musicians i idolized ON HIS OWN TERMS... It is not his mastery of the instrument itself and his virtuosity that impress me so much, after all we dont lack great admirable virtuosos on any instrument and especially at guitar and Martino is undoubtedly one ... What struck me without being able to cut off any of the few albums i had picked is the fine line he drawed while playing between melodic and harmonic and rythmic meanings and the improvisional endless flow which fly but ALWAYS stay grounded in a very rich and various vocabulary that NEVER weighted heavily on his music style in restricting his musicality and and vision to some too " common place" aspects ...Martino played FREE out of his his own soul with "no speed limits" and here i dont spoke about his virtuosity much than i adress to his "personal grammar", which is "the less the rules the better it is", it seems that there exist no constraining laws to impede his vision....He use music and music dont impose nothing on him....His phrasing is obsessionnal like a mystic speaking of his god.... I think his music is related to the spiritual conendrum of his lifelong health problem and related to some spritual identity problem... How a tumor in the left hemisphere of the brain must be controlled in his destructive power and enslaved to force and nourrish new roads of creativity from this brain? Anyway.... It instantaneously became my favorite guitarist and string artist, just under or beside, the greatest master of the plucked string family i ever heard.... Ostad Elahi.... Which is near miraculous for me..... Listen to his "Formidable" album and call that a day not only in your jazz journey but probably in your musical and spiritual journey ..... I am stunned though that none of the albums i listened to were acoustically very good... Only acceptable like those of Ostad Elahi that are sometimes worst... But it was impossible to cut it and search for "beautiful acoustically recording " new music...Impossible because it grip you hypnotically without mercy if you dare to listen to his music....His music express a CONTINUOUSLY perfect control of the structuring blocks without any loss of fluidity....His fingers are able to weave a flawless tapestry for hours and a very detailed one on all counts.....He is one of my few god for sure now.... I dont understand why a so great musician is not more well deservedly known and with more money to register with the top recording engineer of the US... Some album change our musical life forever this is one.... Thanks to frogman and other whom draw my attention to him.... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLccpwGk_xup-cSFE63jfhGSF-e1eWbyhl |
Just a fine very classical but new piece of jazz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7oi6QPaVzc
I could not embed directly the image though....Sorry.... |
First: french-canadians people have already proved to all what they are made of, not only in the last three main wars, first and second world war and Korea, but for many centuries beginning at a time where america was even not, save few people on the east coast......Then they are not anti military they are against most useless wars americans did after 1945... We are against most wars because we are not an Empire ...I hope you are against them yourself if you understand all the lies behind them... Second: french canadians are way less anti american than some americans which are themselves strongly anti canadian to begin with, calling us in their ignorance "communists"...All french canadians love the best there is to love in America...Not the worst...
Third: educate yourself, socialism is not communism, and your american dream capitalism anyway dont exist now for half a century at least...Socialism in quebec has nothing to do with "wokism" for example...And socialism in quebec is not the only political thread...Socialism in quebec is more akin to Sweden and has nothing to do with Russia under Stalin or China... Four: Trudeau Father and son are not french canadian in their soul identified as Quebecers at all, their first language is English...They identified as canadian ONLY and want to crush the Quebec nation state singularity in an anonymus melting pot...Before Trudeau father, in 1960, Canada was a confederation of 3 founding nations struggling to be together...Indians first nation, French and English speaking people...Trudeau crush the confederation to create a melting pot federation...His son made that worst...
Anyway schubert say it better than me... But i dont like to be called an anti military "socialist"....You can deduce from that, i am a french canadian... I apologize for this rant answering to another rant... It is better to stay on jazz... |
Yes like in national-socialism.... Same name... But do you think Finland Sweden and other similar countries resembling Quebec are communists or Nazis because the name " socialism" is glued to the definition of USSR and NAZISM ? Do you think a country where corporations had " legal persona" on par with humans and a country where their Lobbies and bankers rules over presidents even if they are completely alike one another like in this crisis, do yo think that this fusion of corporations and of the state behind closed doors, called "fascism" in Mussollini Italia dont exist in any form wharsoever in America because the right "name label " is not used by sold and controlled " journalism"? If you think so you are deluded....Trumpian or Bidenian voters dont matter much, word dont matter much.... Reality is there to be seen and understood even without "words calling" I will mute myself.... Dont add propaganda here though which want to make equal word with others words and the REALITY to some other words... Reality has no name.......
Anyway my best to you and thanks from all of us for all your big work signaling to us the best in jazz...I feel i must apologize for my post.... 😁😊 «We can see reality, but we cannot name it yet, and it is the only way to know that we really see her, not our daily hallucination or habit »-Anonymus Smith « Then a "thing" seen may be a new universe, but if named it appears suddenly just your toilet bowl?»-Groucho Marx🤓
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By the way i am flabbergasted by PAT MARTINO music...
I listened few more albums they are ALL of interest and the music is creative surprizing... It is not only my favorite guitar player now but one of my best jazz artist forever... His playing is obsessionately hypnotical, motivated like in a trance....His mastering creativity for a composer dominate all the musicians around him... The music is his children even when he does not play... I cannot stop listening him... I dont remember a so strong experience before, save for Chet Baker and Bill Evans and very few others.... His music is more intense than just beautiful like Scriabin music , and the reason are the same and related to this fact : these 2 musicians are "possessed" by a music creativity "daemon" ....In the 2 cases Scriabin and Martino so different they are, melodical power are under the domination of some powerful colored reoccuring chords flows...And these chords in the 2 cases swallowed me up and down like Jonas swallowed by the whale and dancing in his belly....
Read this description of his inspired innovative playing in wiki :
« Martino stated, "There are elements within an instrument’s architecture that initiate a continuous source of valuable information. For the guitar, there are two. The first is the major third interval, and the second is the minor third interval. Once we view their repetitive information, they begin to appear as a series of automatic functions."[8] Martino’s lines contain chromatic links outside any particular IIm7 chord that might be conceptualized over a chord progression, even in the examples he provides in his books and instructional videos. On his bulletin board he has stated that he formulated the system more as a way to explain his playing rather than as something to use to create music. In his own words, "although the analysis of some of my recorded solos have been referred to as modal, personally I’ve never operated in that way. I’ve always depended upon my own melodic instinct, instead of scale like formulas."[9] »
All the albums i listened to are great , this one is also a great one: |
My feeling is exactly the same feeling which he spoke about... These two artists dont look for any music and dont play after a piece of music searching for another piece of music. They are the music and their "swing" and their chords gesture is always the "ever present origin" of all the music they will ever play... All their musics pieces or songs sound more like ONE piece of playing than different pieces...They dont need trying to be originals, they effortlessly, innately and naturally are... They cannot play a piece of music without making it their own....If they play with many musicians,so good they are, we listen only them through the other musicians... Their music sound at least like a very rapid dance or like a trance, they induce hypnosis of the listener... They are intense not only beautiful... Jimi Hendrix was like that,and Ostad Elahi or Liszt ghost playing through Ervin Nyiregyházi, or Sofronitsky playing Scriabin, to give some examples that comes to me.... Martino and Reinhardt are on par and among the top musicians there is and there was....Not only for me....
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You are totally right speaking about this sound tone of the archtop guitar versus the telecaster one.. i know nothing aout electrical guitar... The tone sound quality of this archtop is marvellous for me also and i am inclined to give you a point...
But one this is said,
Pat Martino is indeed way more than one of the greatest guitarist i ever listen to on par with the one you listed... His only real peer for me is an unknown "god" here of the tanbur in Iranian music.. Ostad Elahi being also the greatest musician Yehudi Menuhin say he ever listen to... The reason is Pat Martino plays like a composer and a musician, not just like the TOP average guitar virtuoso, his unmistakable style, united melody, rythm, and harmony in an never ending UNSECABLE unity, so much powerful that all the 20 albums i owned already are like one single album , one piece of music only... The reason for that is his use of a systematic system of basic core CHORDS nuclear tool which are unique to him... The reason is his music is so DENSE and DEEP, rythmically,melodically and harmonically that it is no more just guitar virtuoso playing a melody with a beautiful sound, but a NEW KIND of interpretation and creation with this instrument...And all musicians playing in his albums are heavily marked DEEPLY in their own playing by his direction... They dont play their part only alternatively like in the most majority of jazz albums..All musicians playing around Martino plays under Martino melting steel musical flow, they seems disciples more than side partner...This speak a lot about his genius... His music is trancelike, hypnotic and CANNOT be good taste for all people being too much idyosincasic .. His music is more intense than beautiful....Not all people are sympathetic to Scriabin music for example for the same reason... But i know nothing about guitar playing, types, and nothing about music, being not a musician... I only try to listen... Feel free to correct me... |
Myself too...I pick a frogman post about him...I discxovered him thanks to frogman one week ago...i did not even recognize his name save vaguely.... Martino is so original in his playing which is also a way to compose not only improvise with a chord system hypnotical and able to integrate in his net any melody in his own way... He is not only a top guitarist but a very great musician... His particular way to touch the strings comes from or MIMIC asian way North africa oud or near eastern instrument like tanbur... He clearly had an arabic and "sufi" influence which is very deep and the ground of his playing... He resemble no american jazz guitarist i know of .... His music is more intense than just beautiful...All this which is intense could be beautiful also, but all there which is beautiful is not always also intense... His music for this reason GRIP us under his spell... His guitar spoke with chords more than singing with a melody...Near eastern way to speak more than singing.. For sure he pick and choose some type of electrical guitar able to serve his way: speaking more than singing or speaking before and on top of singing... His guitar choices are tailored around that goal... All this explain why he is so much underestimated being a true creative and completely original genius but not only a top guitarist... There is many top guitarists...Fewer totally original one , and fewer great musician not only for guitar sake but for the music sake...Bach and Scriabin, and Monteverdi or any other great musicians are people who create their own way to speak....They are unmistakable...But could be forgotten like Bach was circled by new emerging ways to speak and write discourse...Martino was forgotten...For a time....His reputation will not decrease though .... His style has the same powerful potential originality and richness than Django Rheinhardt...I put him near him...
i cannot either... 😁😊
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4HKYj7gSXw In the mean time this help me : guitar+hammond ... i live hammond and guitar.... Sorry i cannot embed the image probably problem with my computer mouse click....
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The guitar choices of Martino are dictated and chosen for and by his particular way of picking "chords"... He is a genius in his way to use some chords like no one did in guitar jazz america... We need a musician to confirm this, i am not one... But it seems to me that his style is something i would described by the word "speaking" before "singing"...His guitar playing remind me of some master of the ud or tanbur in near-eastern music or north africa... His guitar spoke to sing and before singing , not sing first, save in some pieces he plays, times to times orthodoxically and out of his own chords syntax system....... His genius for me is not so much playing beautiful melodies which he is very able to do by the way sometimes, BUT inducing mantra-like "spoken chords" repetiting/varying formulas, making him able to integrate anything in his flowing moves....Often the musicians playing with him are NOT SIDE co-players but disciples...They play like him in his language.... Rythm ,melody,and harmony unite in something "vertical" that mimic or resemble no "beautiful linear melodic singing" but Hypnotic trance ... Like the mystic greatest master of Tanbur Ostad Elahi....Like dancing Sufi music... I truly think that Martino is a mystic....Not only the usual musician....his music is so frenetically powerful because of that... But i know many people for example that dont like the last Sciabin nor Ostad Elahi, because we must really open our mind to some new "consciousness" level to learn HOW to listen to that with the right part of our soul and brain...My Music tastes changed all my life absorbing something new completely times to times...music is not like meals a question of taste, music is too much linked to our soul to be only a "taste", music is a set of perspectives encompassing the human soul and nourrishing it....Some music must be LEARNED to be LOVED... One thing is sure the guitar of Martino is not always like an easy enchanting melodic line, but a zig-zag abyss between rythm and harmony...For me it is so intense that i prefer him to most more " beautiful" easy listenings players, like Grant Green for example whom i like so much...But Martino is in an another class of its own over all jazz guitarist i know... I am not shocked easily...I like almost all styles of music of all countries or era... In a word there exist probably a "Martino" cult... Like A Bruckner cult, a Wagner cult, a Scriabin cult, these 3 masters also in their own way wanted to grip you by the sheer force of their "chord" mastery... The last Coltrane or Miles Davis induce also something like that with his own means...Chet Baker so demolished in his soul and body, go on with a playing that lost all "innovations" potential to concentrate on the "spoken" nude words where there is nothing left save an intimate articulate murmur conveying emotions WITHOUT any spectacular sound ( the opposite of the creative Miles Davis)...
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it is your insistance on him that make me discover his music... I had already listened to many of his creations... I am glad to repay your education for me by this little interview address... Martino became one of my favorite jazz musician... This interview only confirm for me that he speak like he play and play like he speak....Deep.... What fascinate me is that in spite of his complete humility humanly his "musical ego" is so strong all musicians around him are put in a trance with him.... They play with him yes but also for him... A rare event that we listen only among the giants....
Thanks Frogman
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Who said Polish jazz cannot be interesting and creative ? Not me ... 😊 Adam Pieronczyk Quartet: El Buscador https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lxOtpqj3la5YCZOtn50hDwUSPQWp5We0A |
I dont even know their name but they seems promising ... Thanks stuartk , i will investigate... 😉
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Jazz at the peak! Astonishing trio.... One of the best i ever listen to... I own 17 albums... Try this concert live... By the way the recording are more than very good generally... In my acoustic room the sound is around me and i am on the stage with the musicians! Thanks to acoustic applied in my audio room... This pianist someone recommend me here is pure gold...I apologize because i dont remember who recommend it to me...If he manifest himself i will thank him... He is original,creative, improvised but it is balanced by melodic fly difficult to resist... Life is too short to miss a so much interesting Jazz pianist and very good drummer and bassist... The piano is so well recored in the album: E.S.T. Live He is in my room beside me...
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As you can guess i am half the time in the world scene jazz not only on the North American jazz scene ...The world scene jazz is bigger and very creative ...
Who could say that there is no great Portuguese jazz composer and player ? Here a pianist who is creative as the greatest one and who has no great debt to Art Tatum or Bill Evans because he did not try to imitate them anyway ... Read his wikipedia entry ...Bernardo Sassetti... he died at 42 years old alas! I own almost all his albums ... As an appetitizer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMj6Ad0JngM
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Wow! i like hammond organ very much... Very good selection i listen to it for some time now.. Thanks this make my day....
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Thanks for Sun Ra.... He is one of the more interesting and marginalized figure in Jazz... After all who is able to transform himself in a living "myth" and educated so much musicians around him ? Very few.... Miles Davis and Chet Baker.... Few others like Louis Armstrong are mythical figures...Sun Ra is one... And his output is huge...Probably very few people know him completely....Too much albums to listen to ....😁😊 This one is for me one of the great album of jazz...And Dickerson is a musical genius vastly underestimated...
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Oh! Bill Evans! Like a river of notes streaming from paradise into hell, but keeping the flavor of divine odour as fresh as it was in Eden... Chet Baker plays like him with no effort at all to particularly impress or to shine, like anonymus angels play, without being ever recognized but only suspected...
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