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.
orpheus10
People have been saying Jazz was dead since that delinquent Benny Goodman came along. Then it was really dead when Bird and those crazy boppers started going nuts. Then Coltrane planted jazz six feet under?Jazz is dead in the water? It just mutates to the next phase, but it will not sound the same as it did, until the keepers of tradition try to drag it back to where they want it to stay. Real Jazz.

Look where Lee Morgan had progressed to at the time of his death. He wasn't playing straight ahead soul jazz, but was challenging and stretching in new directions. His music on "Live at the Lighthouse" would be to radical for some on this forum to even be called Jazz. Sound familiar? Jazz will always move forward and challenge the artist and the listener. Btw, some these innovations will flop and some will be wonderful. I hear composers today and I think, that sounds like where Mingus or Monk would be today.

Sorry for the rant, but it strikes a nerve.
Agree we should be listening to our current crop of Jazz artists, not just the greats that have passed on. I'll start by throwing out a few suggestions. I have been listening a lot to Eric Alexander lately. Nice sounding tenor sax player, who has recorded some nice stuff on the Venus label. Roy Hargrove is someone I like a lot. Just got Charles Lloyd's new CD, Hagar's Song. He has a lot of great albums. Enrico Rava has some very interesting stuff.
One of my favorite jazz recordings is the album "Let My Children Hear Music" by Charles Mingus. It is a musiczal oddysey with compositions that shift moods and take you places that never get tiring. Sheer genius.
Acman3, don't be sorry for the rant; put up or shut up. Now that we have "You tube", play like we're from Missouri and show us.

Enjoy the mmusic.
Ref: Lee Morgan, 'Live at the Lighthouse'. I don't have it, but I listened to a little online. I have no problem with it.

He evolved or was trying to evolved. It was sort of different, but still good. But, I guess Coltrane gets everyone in the end.

There is a difference from an established Jazz player evolving and someone right out of the gate making strange nosies.

It's now available from 'these sellers' for a few hundred.

Cheers