Jazz for aficionados

I think of jazz in 20-year periods, starting around 1915. The 30s-40s were a big band era, where Hollywood had some influence. The 50s and 60s saw some emerging greats (think of Coltrane playing with Miles early on.) The 70s has the integration of jazz with both classical and rock music (not simultaneously!) and you have the emergence of both fusion and some lighter fare that borders on the commercial - but still good. This continues from the 90s, and my enthusiasm wanes as the commercial stuff starts to take center stage (but that's just my opinion.)

Leon Anderson

I definitely dig Jim Hall. But Wes Montgomery was the Man!

For those interested in exploring the work of Roy Du Naan, here is a listing of recordings he engineered:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/407308-Roy-DuNann?srsltid=AfmBOopYBTsfayo3EOEhkvUd-7gRtBHJjOv6CgtY6zIW3eT7RWATNXVl

This conversation feels a bit stuffy to me. Why? I was a good chess player in high school. When I went off to college I looked for chess games. A whole bunch of guys were playing in the student union. But the question hit me immediately. Where are the women? I was outa' there. 

There are some mentions of Ella, and Sarah, but those are singers. In the seventies I got deeply into Brazilian jazz and man do they have some tasty women. I'd suggest Tania Maria for one. She sings, scats, and plays the piano like no get out. Now we're talking juicy jazz. I think the two best Tania Maria albums are "Brazil with My Soul" and "Piquant." Have a blast finding them on vinyl but that's the way to listen. Tania Maria is one of the best jazz pianists I've heard. 

Then Flora Purim. My God! She sings on one of the best selling jazz albums of all time: "Light as a Feather" with Chick Corea. As for her own albums which she usually makes with her percussionist husband, Airto, I recommend "Encounter." But be ready to bend your ear a bit. The lady is abstract. For some "stuffy" credibility, Ron Carter, Joe Henderson, and McCoy Tyner are also on that album. I go back to it again and again and again. Again, listen to it on vinyl if you can.I have purchased all the Flora Purim albums I could get my hands on.

Sliding into the 21st century, I recently went to a concert of a saxaphonist named Melissa Aldana. I was extremely impressed that she had her own voice (on the saxaphone). I immediately purchased a couple of her albums.

IMHO, the best jazz standard I have is Coltrane playing "My Favorite Things" on Selflessness. I have more Coltrane albums (vinyl) than I can count, but that's my all time favorite. He flies in the album. Here's a poem I wrote to Coltrane back in the day:

              ON HEARING A RADIO INTERVIEW
               WITH JOHN COLTRANE NOV. 13, 1985

 stepping out of the past
 on careful paws of a cat
 hissing & scratching
 thru car speakers
 in the Sepulveda pass
 a gospel intelligence
 where family words
 are polished in deep drums                           

 he doesn't say it
 but somehow I hear
 that music wasn't doled
 out over cloistered walls
 it comes from the streets
 where women's bodies
 turn rags to style

 I stop the car &
 close my eyes
 listening to "Green Dolphin St."
 & picture large black hands
 like Icarus's wings

 & think that grace lands anyplace  
 like snowflakes
 promiscuously kissing faces