Incredible album!
It seems i must upgrade my Sonny Stitt files...
I did not know who to listen to this week, i am embarassed by geniuses numbers...
Thanks...
You guys know this one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4NlSEkQIU0
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
Butman is a friend of Wynton Marsalis... The two, Butman and Sipiagin are Russian jazzmen... They seems interesting to me the more i listen , they are different...
If you want a genius try Jan Johansson... A sweden pianist... Many albums are folk music inspired jazz... Very relaxing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFRD0c9D_os&list=PLKUyqLlH6brmvdECiPAtkSQwCBruqHTG1
Now i like Gene Ammons very much.... It is a singing sax master... 😊
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I think it is the only place to buy this tune ... It come from a russian album ...
http://ibmg.ru/en/store/product/nostalgie
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Thanks i will certainly listen to it...😊
My best to you...
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I am looking for this box of Shorter : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mJS8HXbYn4&list=PLvi2o7pgqcHAq4eNvVCzsRysWu09Oc0Wq 😊 |
Some documentary are EARS opener about a giant... Another proof if necessary that music is less about our tastes than about discovery... Thanks to frogman who spoke about him here long ago... Rahsaan Roland Kirk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URS-P9Zt8IU
Kirk awake the same amazement in me than Sun Ra ... Incredible power going way over music entertainment... More like real magician here to transform the world...... His coming back to playing after a stroke which let him half paralysed remind me of the miraculous coming back of Pat Martino... It is also frogman who let me behind Martino guitar magic works .. One of my best loved Jazz album ever is from Martino...I listen it hundred times... 😊
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i go on listening to my Sipiagin collection...Here he play with a german saxophonist leader... This one album is very good to my taste... On my new improved 4 inches self powered speakers in their acoustic corner in my basement and celestial in my K340 headphone...😊 My audiophile heaven is in a basement corner... 😁 I like hammond organ very much as in this album ... Jazz at his best for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9BkxUeMqZQ
I go on also with Wayne Shorter but for now i cannot recommend one in particular... I like when sax and trumpet are in duos in some Shorter albums ... |
Sometimes we can only be sure that the musician is at the top of his game and a genius, even before we learn to know if we like him or not or the fact that we like him or not matter no more because his playing sound and phrasing is unique ... It seems Harper is in this league of his own... The only comparison in mind is Love Supreme of Coltrane ... My first listen and any negative review of this masterpiece would be ridiculous😊and any positive review understatement : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez8uX1Qj5mQ
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This second album i listen to of Billy Harper is no less genius than the first above... Amazing... Because he never put useless notes... His musical sense is top... Then it keep our attention to the music line not to himself playing... A master for me walking the thin line between musical content and improvization ......We feel he never need to prove himself and stay creative without using music for himself... In this sense he is spiritual player...Less ego and more music... i am impressed and i tried to put my words on my impressions... 😁😊 But i could have stayed speechless... 😁
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7BOjLN2XTI Is a third album at this perfection level be possible? I will see after dinner and walk...
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I concur.... At least " the believer" album is top it seems as the two others above... He had a musical sense so tense that this tame his astonishing virtuosity...This is why i love him... He is not savage player as some others or a completely "civilized" one , but a refined musician who play with his heart no less than with his brain... 😊
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The most creative saxophonist virtuoso i listened to is Roland Kirk... Wayne Shorter more minimalist is on par for me... But now i will make a place for Billy Harper beside them and beside Rollins, Hawkins and Stitt... Is there something as visionary saxophone music ? Yes, Billy Harper.....After Coltrane.... I listened to an incredible third album ( the only defect is that he sing for sure well and speak😁 ) : https://www.allmusic.com/album/if-our-hearts-could-only-see-mw0000060083 |
I did not like "fusion" in general for the same reason... "fusion" borrow from different traditions but stay on a superficial sound level often... Especially if the styles they borrow from are not near or related to one another... For example Bollywood music borrowing from Pop and Indian classical music... For example, listening to Nikhil Banerjee is a sacred event , listening Bollywood "fusion" is a short leisure at best at least for me... The same is true for any other "fusion" examples... There is very good fusion music though , lost in the general not so interesting albums mass... For example the "fusion" of Bach with jazz by some Jazzman...Or the encounter between Ali Akbar Khan and a jazzman... They are more musical encounter event and interesting , more than the development of "a new fusion genre" as such ... the event will not be repeated on a long term creating a new language replacing the two which fusionned for an album... Some tradition may be influenced by some other genre and integrating it slowly in history..,.It is one thing.... But creating tomorrow a style integrating two genres will not always be so interesting because it takes really genius to do so, each idioms being with his own rules...... I prefer more traditional jazz even free jazz to Pop/jazz "fusion" most of the times...There is exception for sure... |
I take a relaxation break from Russian jazz and from Billy Harper magic...😁 I just listen today to Wes Montgomery Riverside collection... A must have astonishing 12 cd box ... I just add another modification to my self amplified small speakers by the way ... I am amazed... i ask myself why people throw so much money in gear and not so much in music albums... An audiophile system nowadays cost peanuts if we know what to buy and how to embed it... i am mystified by people who want to invest a fortune in a dac... 😊 Anyway.... I listen music not so much to sound , except these last month because i tweaked my new small speakers to their optimised acoustic treshold ...( with bundle of straws in the rear porthole to increase the bass driver chamber volume and i use a cardboard empty paper roll fixed around the tweeter to increase the focus and separation from the other driver : results is imaging better and better timbre and better bass extension ... Cost peanuts.;.. 😁 Nobody can believe this for sure... Most people believe in money not in acoustics... For casual listening many hours a day i use my small astonishingly good speakers now in my basement acoustic corner ... But for a sacred more dedicated listening hour nothing beat my AKG K340 headphone...It would need a costly set of speakers in an acoustic room... Pat Martino and Wes Montgomery are really guitar geniuses... Grant Green too... |
All musicians can emulate an impressive and gifted player and they will do it... But a moving playing is "impressive" in a way that is inimitable... It is the reason why i love so many musicians for their difference and less for the comparison... The road from complexity to simplicity is a purification road as in Wayne Shorter case for example is as difficult than the reverse road from simplicity to complexity which is the road to initiation ... I admire the two pilgrimage musical roads... Music for me is not on the paper not even under the improvising musicians hands but from their heart... And sometimes two hearts create a road of their own, the road toward a true dialogue which is at the same time an initiation and a purification , a loving road: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHW7HOrlVVY&list=PLCJOOM7kDf23o9XYls2zbBgIUbQ86qyP_&index=6 |
Thanks i will listen to it... I liked DeFrancesco recomendation a lot... It seems different , it is not my liking normally but we must listen before judging...It is called nu jazz ...
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At the end each musician is unique passed some artistic level... I had my own preferences but this has nothing to do with who is the best... More about a soul quality that correspond to me more than of the always gifted musicians virtuosity ... Sometimes less is more ... I just listen Gene Ammons right now...I like his rythm and phrasing blues ... |
Thanks very much ... I know this Ron Carter album with Sadao... Sadao never studied formally , it is a self taught player who do the best when he go minimally... It is most of the times... I like him as much as other player minimalistic too as Shorter or Desmond for example on many albums... I like the tone texture of the sax more in his melodic flowing than in its stimulating for sure harmonic explosions... Trumpet is no more my best instrument in jazz with piano, i added bass ( because of my high end headphone clearer rendition, my past speakers were limited in a way my headphone are not they sound like speakers+good subs it is the best purchase of my life ) and sax.... I appreciated more jazz musicians than ever ...Even Hammond organ and especially guitar and even trombone with the great Steve Turre who i admire a lot ... I already know these albums of Sadao though... But i did not know at all the belgian guitarist really... I dont remember him... I will explore then thanks...😊 Wow! i love him right now... I just let him play... Thanks ...i am in love with some guitar sound...This is one.... Django Reinhardt influence is behind him way more than Wes Montgomery but he play completely in his own way , amazing... ( i own a big box of Wes by the way which i listen often )... I just realized that i own at least one album of Chet Baker with Thomas... ( i forgot because i have 100 albums of Chet Baker, i discovered jazz thanks to him 30 years ago 😊 )
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Oups! I just realized that i already have this Eddy Louiss album with Rene thomas but i never listen to it before you mention it to me...😊😁 And really Thomas shine on it... I have many Eddy Louiss albums already loving Hammond organ... The one with Thomas i never listened to before your youtube post ...I listen my file instead now... 😁 Sound is better... It takes one hour to listening an album.... if you own thousands it is thousand hours... Impossible to listen to them all in one year... And there is albums i listened repeatedly as the "formidable" album with Pat Martino and hammond organ for example.... Then it is less time for discovering a new one... I am less in search for novelties anyway than for an album that will put me in a trance so to speak.... Novelties it is easy to find... Trance like album less easy... Then i know way less about jazz than many here... I listen too much the albums i like too much... 😁 When i love some album and i love many i ask myself if i will listen to it more than 10 times before dying... For this Martino album i am already near 50 ....And i know i will listen at least few times each year...
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I like this album a lot... I even used it as a test for my acoustic soundstaging test...I like all others Martino albums but this one is special on many counts... The Hammond of Pat Bianchi goes so well with Martino guitar... And the soundfield is very well done by the recording engineer, the way the players are distributed... It is not an audiophile recording for sure but only a good one... All the pieces on this album integrated into ONE larger musical whole that lift the soul by his rythmic pulse felt trough all players here...Martino know how to implicate all the players around him...I think that he hypnotized them... 😊 His playing is pulse driven...Always melodic... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU_1MROrl9g&list=OLAK5uy_nEmiZ7GXG-7yCU9_MZERlnWxg47HD5-FI
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Yes , 😁 own most important Martino albums... It begin with frogman recommendation almost 2 years ago... And i listened to the documentary about him relearning to play... There is something in his personality that moves me... His playings too for sure...
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Wow! thanks for your attention and kindness... I will listen to it .... I dont have this album.... 😁 😊😊😊😎😊😊😊😋😊😊😊
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My goal in jazz and in music explorations in general is to reach a CORE of 280 musicians, so great for me that i will listen to them once a month on average till my death...
I suppose i can at max listen 10 musicians or composers by day, for 7 days x 4 weeks=280...
Why?
It is because for me intense repeated listenings of a piece from a musician and composer that move me emotionnally, intellectually and spiritually is more powerful than novelty by itself.... it is necessary to discover new musicians but i must balance it by my devotional sacred temple altar choices.... Many new musicians interest me for leisure only one time but not enough to really move me for various reason....
For sure my numbers are not exact, i only used them to describe what i look for and who i want to put on a new altar in front of with i wanted to pray...
i do not differentiate anymore, musicians, composers or cultural styles... only matter music be it this or this :
Perhaps some people are like me too ?😁😊
My post do not negate specifics of any style as jazz , they are all interesting as unique language and discourses...I love jazz especially and it reflect in my hours ratio listenings a bit ...
But i look for the best for my hearing soul and it is IMPREVISIBLE...
I dont know why a jazz album will impact me so much at the end and why...I can know some objective reason but the impact weight is not reductible to reason or musical knowledge at the end ... Because Bach matter as much as Miles Davis or Ali Akbar khan...
Then listening music is also to embark in a journey to investigate our own ocean soul variable levels ...
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Trombone can be fascinating soloist... I learned it slowly... Steve Turre is my favorite for now...😁 Trombone had something coming from the sax and from the trumpet sound, it sound less sensual than sax can be and less intellectual than trumpet can be , an optimal mix of the two for my ears ...😉😊
This album is top recording and very pleasant to listen to.. Hiroshi Suzuki - Cat (1975, 2007)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqvMGE9xzT8&t=1562s Curtis Fuller : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z_gKeyo03M&list=PLZi-mftVo5aFzRaLq7aHESIHJJ-DG8TYU&index=5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BlHRPXPx-4&list=PLZi-mftVo5aFzRaLq7aHESIHJJ-DG8TYU&index=9 Bob Broockmeyer ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhFb2pHD1CM&list=PLZi-mftVo5aFzRaLq7aHESIHJJ-DG8TYU&index=3 J. J. Johnson - J Is for Jazz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0ZngiezWSg&list=PLZi-mftVo5aFzRaLq7aHESIHJJ-DG8TYU&index=2
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Here a more classical style post bebop album of Jamie Saft quartet ... A great musician ...Some of his albums are not free jazz...😊 Then i like this one as much as the Book of angels vol.1 Astaroth with his trio.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yR8HOh9qVY
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We are in the same boat... My small active speakers cost me 100 bucks 12 years ago... My Nos battery dac was bidded 20 bucks on Ebay... Nobody could believe that my sound is audiophile...😊 my headphone were vintage one paid 100 bucks ...my most costly component is a Sansui alpha paid 300 bucks 7 years ago and created 35 years ago...His 100 watts serve well my headphone .. 😁😉 😊 We love too much buying music ...
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John Zorn is a genius for sure... his series of 32 albums "the books of angels" is completely astounding Klezmer- fusion jazz in a creative way... Forget it if you dont enjoy non classical jazz... Anyway it is costly to buy 32 albums... myself i dont like them all for sure but they are many treasures... Description of the 32 albums here : https://johnzornresource.com/book-of-angels
I will put Zorn spiritual jazz with Sun Ra cosmic jazz and some other completely original creators as the spiritual jazz series albums especially with Japanese musicians..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNv2RxjsbWA&t=441s Jazz/ Klezmer/ fusion at his peak... an example : Bar Kokhba Sextet - Lucifer (Book of Angels Vol 10)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNFh2FsJp8o now this other album as you can see is completely different : John Zorn - Marc Ribot – Asmodeus (Book Of Angels Volume 7)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAZv11A-DpI
This first album though is one of my best one :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53YGLrK1JzA&list=PLec18SnEW_3wv53gH3Af3vo26CxFaIN2s
By the way i dont like klezmer nor fusion in general or in particular but as i already said we must make many exceptions in life and about our tastes criteria when we encounter musical geniuses... I dont listen music styles or genres now so much but more the musicians as interpreters or creators ... Then no style or genre is out of my collection anymore... What is music ? It is what musicians do first and last .... Nothing else...Nevermind the language they use , it is about what they do with it... Music is a gesture of all the body with or without instruments ...The basis is time, timing and rythm...
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Any recommendation is an invitation not an obligation... We are all different... I discovered great jazz here and it is why i also sometimes post my suggestion... If one suggestion hit the target and make only one people happy as i was with few discoveries others here recommended i will be happy... Each time i recommend an album i try also to explain why in few words... 😊 |
I had not slept well and i listen music soon this morning .. 😁 Incredibly i just begun my fifth album of the genius Jamie Saft... I did not even bother to finish my listening to say that he score a fifth home run on all factors , sound recording is top notch another time , including a sax genius i did not know with him ...
Hidden Corners album ... Sorry i dont have any youtube for it... https://www.amazon.ca/Hidden-Corners-Jamie-Saft-Quartet/dp/B07S8GFFNF Finishing the album right now with one track to come i can confirm my opinion... 😊
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Another score for Jamie Saft with i dont know whom sound engineer name but all his albums are well recorded... Saft creativity after my 4th albums is astonishing... How to sound like nobody else in trio with piano or hammond ?
Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow, Bobby Previte - 8. Blue Shuffle (The New Standard, 2014https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZwxVQI5F6Y The name of the mixer genius or sound engineer is here i think : Here the translation of an anonymus german customer opinion on Amazon with whom i concur : «
The rare event for me 😁 is that among these 4 different albums i have no idea which one is the best and which one i prefer at all... Amazing musician Jamie Saft... |
I will stop here for Jamie Saft i already said enough... He is no less creative than Zorn... My 5 th albums is stellar also, a tribute to Bob Dylan ( a folk singer i like ) ...And Saft must pick the best audio engineer there is for each album because the sound quality is over average way much...... ( i prefer jazz albums with no singers by the way and i made exceptions only for Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald voices or Chet Baker or Billie Holiday...In this album of Saft "Trouble" there few songs part where the singers are very good but even very good i prefer music and no voice in my jazz, i dont know why because i like classical singer or Indian and Persian and sufi singers etc then for this only reason this 5th album is not my best but the singers are top notch , it is not a critic of the singers at all only a reflection about my own lack or limitations or obsession i dont know ) By the way Saft is a pianist but often take the Hammond organ to new creative level... In my next life i dont come here if i am not born musician ( a gifted one ) 😁 When i was young i was envious of gifted mathematicians, now i am envious of musicians... 😊 I am less egotistical... And anyway i begin to understand that music encompass mathematic not the reverse which idea surprize me a lot because i tought the reverse all my life...
«Music is mathematic with a moving body and a free will »Anonymus poet |
I am like you... Zorn is not all for my taste but it is a creative mind... I did exactly what you plan to do and the few albums i love a lot pay me well for my search... When i will be done with Jamie Saft exploration i must go with the Breckers brothers... 😊
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I had said that meaning that even if we dont favor a genre or style a lot there exist anyway many exceptions... I dont favor fusion as such but i own dozen and dozen of more than just good fusion music...😉 I dont like klezmer but Zorn has created some interesting music inspired by it ... I listen musicians more than genres or styles....😊 There is no music, only musicians... 😁 |
I am amazed by the sheer potential numbers of really great jazz albums i never heard of... I come here for information and it is successful for me... Thanks to all ....😊 But it is very hard to cope with all amazing propositions in the same month ! we must choose... 😂 I choose Brecker brothers for this month after Jamie Saft last few weeks... ....I must say frogman recommendation help a lot to pick the right one... I am a classical and world music amateur but also of jazz... I dont understand why jazz was so low and so less loved in the music charts... Most people received no musical education then a bit too sophisticated line is put aside... We dont appreciate enough what a treasure music could be way more than leisure... Especially now... We are lucky....
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i just stumble on it on youtube... It is a begininng for me ... I will go for it.... The very best of Michael Brecker ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URlrJrNjeTs&list=OLAK5uy_l6QIZc7UFY0kTkD5jcgKUWddtE6HJjE7s |
You are right for sure and me too i prefer original albums... But i did not know Brecker and you know already him , and i stumbled on it on youtube... I like the idea to cover some instances from many albums in a first move... 😊 Anyway when i love a musician i grab even some compilations... I had some with my Chet Baker collection for example... 😁 Brecker brothers seems very original musicians ... I will grab more ....
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