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.
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I’m a little late with commenting on Alex’s great post on the origin (?) of the great tune “Nature Boy”. Great story about one of my favorite songs. Thanks, Alex. The story of how Nat Cole came to have the song is fascinating. Ahbez was clearly a very interesting character and his lifestyle was in keeping with a pre-hippie movement in California (of course) in the 1940’s whose members were referred to as “The Nature Boys”. The reason for the question mark above is that there is a bit of controversy surrounding the origin of the song. Ahbez was actually sued by Yiddish songwriter Herman Yablokoff for allegedly plagiarizing the melody of one of his songs. They would eventually settle the matter out of court. I thought it might be interesting to listen to both songs and compare. Personally, I am of two minds about it. Does Yablokoff have a valid claim? As music lovers we tend to be romantics and sometimes believe in notions such as the idea that a melody should not be “owned”, or that if a similar melody is composed and it bears similarity to another copywrited melody if there was no deliberate attempt to copy that the original should not protected. I’m not sure. Whether intentional or not should not a composer’s “product” be protected just as any other patented product is? What do you think in this case? This is my favorite version by Nat Cole (Check out the guitar of Oscar Moore!): https://youtu.be/Iq0XJCJ1Srw?si=Md7MEdQLk7d0Fby This is Yablokoff’s song “Schvayg Mein Harts”. Skip past the long “introduction” and to the 2:00 mark. Interesting: https://youtu.be/uT7GcjBnWaw?si=jppRbdIvBhJ-VpYI On a more personal note: I often ride the NYC subways. It is not uncommon to hear performers, music and otherwise, perform on the subways to earn some money. On one of the subway lines that I used to ride I would often hear the same VERY colorful elderly gentleman play alto saxophone. He always played the same song….”Nature Boy”. He sounded pretty good, but he would always play the same “wrong” note in the melody. One of the things that gives that great melody such a distinctive and almost exotic sound is what happens when the lyric goes “They say he wandered very far,…..”. The melodic movement to “far” is a downward half step. Like going from a white key to a black key on a piano. That gentleman would instead go down a whole step which gives it an almost bluesy sound. After hearing him do this on at least five or six occasions I had to ask him. As I handed him a few dollars I said to him: “It sounds really good, man, but you know that spot in the tune where it goes down a……” He interrupted me and seeming a little annoyed said in a gravelly voice “I know, I know man, but I make more money that way!” Cracked me up.
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So, in the context of the Sonny Rollins video, this guy knew how to inject entertainment into art at just the right place in the tune...
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