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.
Yes I am, pjw. Patience, patience ! đ I was literally about to start writing when your post came through. My plan was to incorporate acman3âs timely question âWhat no Henderson?â into my response to yours. First of all, good to see you back here.
The quick answer to your question is, no surprise Iâm sure, Coltrane. I canât think of any player that would âstretch outâ as much as Trane and would go into the stratosphere to such heights. However, per the other important part of your question, in extended solos such as Trane would play it is not simply a matter of how far the player, as you say, âoverstretches totally beyond the melodyâ. I would leave the âoverâ out of âoverstretchesâ which implies that this is going too far. Itâs a very important distinction which goes to the heart of what âmindless riffingâ is.
Classic and great improvisations like the ones that players of Coltraneâs stature (not many) would play usually start with one musical idea, sometimes a very simple musical idea (theme) which has some relation to the melody and/or harmony of the tune. A great player then develops and expands that idea (âthematic developmentâ) always going back in one way or another to that initial improvised idea. Â As the solo builds the player can literally turn that idea inside out and upside down with many âvariationsâ of that idea even to the point (in very extended solos) that there is seemingly very little relation to the melody of the tune. The key is whether the player can maintain some kind of relation to that melody even if in a very obtuse manner and often not obvious at all; and then, after all the explorations into âthe stratosphereâ bring it all back home in a musically logical way. THAT is the genius of a great improviser. That this can be done on the spot is truly an amazing musical feat. Coltrane was a master of this.
âMindless riffingâ is when a player who doesnât have the command of harmony and the inventiveness that a Coltrane did (most donât) just plays licks that, individually, may sound good and even exciting, but are not held together to form ONE complete improvised composition with musical logic. Often there isnât even a solid relationship to the melody of the tune.
So, I wouldnât say that Coltrane âoverstretchedâ at all. He stretched very far and beyond the tolerance of some listeners, but there was always a musical logic to it. The review you quoted does a good job of expounding on some of this. It is also important to note that while a listener may not be aware on a conscious level of the above âtechnicalitiesâ, usually when we are emotionally moved by a playerâs performance it is because that musical logic is happening. When we are left cold it is often because that logic is not there. It may seem to some that âmusical logicâ and âemotionally movedâ are contradictory terms, but they are not.
Re acman3âs tongue in cheek question (great clips, btw):
It was timely because I was going to post some Joe Henderson in response to your question and as an example of another tenor player who could also âstretch outâ a lot in live situations without any âmindless riffingâ. Ultimately, this is what separates the greats from the just good and even the excellent improvisers.
Speaking of Joe Henderson and O-10âs mention the meeting of Jazz and Classical. A tune composed by Ferde Grofe as part of his âGrand Canyon Suiteâ:
Are you familiar with this series? Â I think it's very good, esp because he tells what's going on, all over the war on any particular day. Seems to be well researched. Very balanced accounts. Â Check it out.
Yes rok I am. I get most of my info from reading books by respected authors/historians of the history I am studying. These authors use primarily primary sources. If you like the web though I suggest these 2 guys as well as the one you mentioned.
Nina Simone was earning money as a pianist in a cocktail lounge in order to pay for her continued education as a concert pianist when she was told to "sing for her supper", so to speak; the rest is history.
Her education as a concert pianist enables her to incorporate classical music like no other pianist; you can't tell where the classical begins and the jazz ends, or vice versa, she does it so smoothly. Now you can begin to appreciate this unique aspect of her art, just as I have for many years.
Are you familiar with this series?  I think it's very good, esp because he tells what's going on, all over the war on any particular day. Seems to be well researched. Very balanced accounts.  Check it out.
Again, a model of thematic development. He takes a simple idea and develops it and turns it inside out in a musically logical way; no mindless riffing.
frogman "mindless riffing" is something that I think a musician, such as yourself, can identify easily. Not so for the masses I would think.
You mentioned 4 of the saxophone giants with Dexter, Sonny, Henderson and Coltrane. Out of those 4 which one would you say "overstretches" in soloâs to the point of deviating totally from the melodic theme?
Here is one of my favorite songs from a favorite live Coltrane disc I have where Trane really "goes off". It was recorded in 1965 when Trane was already deeply immersed in his exploration phase. The title of the 2 disc set is "One Down One Up Live at the Half Note"
Here is the first (my favorite of the 2 discs) song featuring a very long Trane solo.
2005 was a watershed year for unreleased music by John Coltrane. First there was the unbelievable Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane Live at Carnegie Hall. Now Impulse offers this double CD of radio broadcasts in One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note. It was recorded in March and May of 1965 by DJ Alan Grant for radio broadcast; while recording for broadcast, many hosts would usually just drop in on a session and tape the band for under an hour and take no note of catching a performance from the beginning. That rule applies here. The first disc was recorded on March 26. Grantâs introduction begins during Jimmy Garrisonâs solo. The band had already been playing the title cut for 35 minutes. Coltrane steps in a couple of minutes in and blows hard for nearly 28 minutes. Trane had already released A Love Supreme and was seeking to expand the harmonic reaches of his sound, exploring every avenue available to him. The band astonishes too. Here McCoy Tyner, Garrison, and Elvin Jones push the limit, swinging hard and fast (Jonesâ playing is especially outrageous). Tynerâs big block chords play toward ascending Coltraneâs scales, not trying to keep up but expanding the chromatic palette with a fury. He drops out around the ten-minute mark and itâs Trane and Jones forcing each other into unknown corners before breaking out of them into new dimensions. Garrisonâs attack is not content to try to keep it grounded but provide enough of an anchor for the intervallic exploration to be limitless. Garrison drops out as well and itâs a duet near the end of the track, Jones matching Coltrane measure for measure with a breathless intensity before Tyner and Garrison reenter to take it out with the modal head coming back in a completely different form. Whatâs remarkable is that Trane avoided his sheets-of-sound approach entirely here. His solo is focused and the restraint is harmonic, but it results in a performance of expansive force and muscular taste. And it nearly is. Despite a few near washouts in the sound, Traneâs capability to continue to build a solo is simply astonishing. After a minute of announcements, the band kicks into "Afro Blue." This cut, a mere 12 minutes, is a tour de force for the band (Tynerâs solo in particular).
Disc two, from May 7, thankfully, begins at the beginning, so to speak. The band is introduced before they start paying "Songs of Praise," an abstract workout more dissonant than the earlier show. But here again, the band locks into Coltraneâs solo from the jump. Here itâs Tyner shining a light from the stand. His ascending and descending chords offer large foundations for Trane to lift off from. Jonesâ accents after nearly every phrase propel Garrison and Coltrane to step out and move their own scalar investigations to more complex territory. The final track, "My Favorite Things," is nearly 23 minutes here. Coltrane uniquely uses the tenor to introduce the tune before switching to the soprano. Tyner uses a skeletal frame on the theme and it goes off almost immediately with Coltrane soloing all around the melody. He returns often enough for the tune to keep its body, but his Eastern modal progressions go far afield. Tynerâs solo is a flurry of assonance and dissonance with his right hand. Unfortunately, just as another mode asserts itself, Grant fades the band out, just as they hit the stratosphere. Unfortunate, yes, but it takes nothing away from the absolute necessity of this set for Coltrane fans. The sound is wonderful -- except in the dropout patches that last no more than a second or two. This is a release of historic importance and one that, now that itâs off the bootleg market, will be talked about by jazz fans and Coltrane aficionados for the foreseeable future.
**from the notes: "if you are listening in stereo, maybe the best thing to do is to tell you that, from left to right, you are hearing a vibraphone, a xylophone, another vibraphone, another xylophone, a glockenspiel and a marimba, surrounded on one side by the full Ellington band and on the other by an assortment of kettle drums, bongos, a tamborine, and a triangle."
To hear the timbre of all this reproduced accurately, you need Polks.
The earthquakes in Croatia are at terrible ending to what has been a most terrible year. Good bye 2020 in 2 days and I hope moving forward with the vaccines now being distributed worldwide we can get things back to normal in 2021.
Needless to say I am happy for Alec and Marija that they are ok.
News reports 7 fatalities as of right now mostly near the epicenter just south of Zagreb. But there are many displaced people and things could get worse before it gets better.
My prayers go out to the people in that region of the world.
Fabulous player, Trentmemphis. One of my very favorites. Like Dexter Gordonâs solo on âScrapple From The Appleâ, Hubbardâs solo on Oliver Nelsonâs âStolen Momentsâ is, for me, one of the greatest Jazz solos on record. Again, a model of thematic development. He takes a simple idea and develops it and turns it inside out in a musically logical way; no mindless riffing. I think this was my first post on this thread (and at least a few times more): https://youtu.be/I777BcgQL9o
Coincidentally, Hubbard was on my mind in relation to recent comments about Tina Brooks. Brooks appears on Hubbardâs first two recordings as a leader and this brought Hubbard to mind. I think that Hubbard and Brooks make a very interesting study on the subject of what it takes to be successful as a musician. This topic is one often brought up here and Tina Brooks is probably the best example of a player who did not get the recognition that he deserved on strictly artistic merit grounds.
The quoted liner notes suggest that what Brooks needed was a guiding hand. Well, he did have one. The great Jackie McClean, then a star of the Blue Note roster, had taken Brooks under his wing and was aggressively promoting him to Alfred Lions. Obviously, this wasnât enough. So, what happened? Why was Hubbard so heavily promoted and Brooks not so?
I think we tend to forget that the music business, even serious music like Jazz is entertainment and a business. In the mind of promoters and producers, whether we like it or not, factors other than artistic merit come into play at least to some degree. Saleability is a big one. Brooks and Hubbard had diametrically opposed personalities; image, attitude, stage presence as well as musical attitude. Hubbard was a firebrand. He was aggressive, fiery and physically imposing; both in his playing and his stage presence. Brooks was of very small in stature (âTinaâ, for âtinyâ), shy and reclusive; and was known for having a âdroopyâ stage presence. Add to the mix the simple fact that only those at the very top level of skill and innovation (Bird, Trane, Miles, etc.) can âaffordâ and get away with a less than âuser friendlyâ personality. Brooks was an excellent player, but being a tenor player he couldnât quite compete with the reigning titans of hard bop tenor playing; Gordon, Henderson, Rollins and Coltrane. Â Brooks wasnât quite on that level. Â He was not a âgood sellâ in the mind of promoters. Â Unfortunate, but reality nonetheless.
Featuring a band of Hank Mobley, McCoy Tyner, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. Geez, Freddie, hire some musicians next time. (Maybe he couldn't get anybody good to work for him because he was only 22 at the time.)
Trent, I do not know how this might sound but when I first heard the Willow Weep For Me by Stanley Turrentine & The Three Sounds, I was deeply moved and I cried. Yep.
Sounds human, to me.
Glad to hear you're okay. You and your fellow Croatians stay stafe out there. As safe as you reasonably can under the circumstances, anyway.
The Quintet -- JAZZ AT MASSEY HALL with / Dizzy Gillespie(trumpet), Charlie Parker(alto saxophone), Bud Powell(piano), Charles Mingus(bass), Max Roach(drums).
Recorded May 1953
I was reading my Book on Bird, when I saw a picture of this group taken while this was being recorded. I took that to be a directive, so here it is.
The pictures in the book are great. Sometimes we might think these great players appeared in history one after the other, in single file, but the pictures prove they were all here together, at the same time.
The sound and overall production sort of sucks, but this group shines thru it all. Ridiculous album cover art, all things considered.
I was not close to epicenter (north of Croatia) but country is very small and everyone felt it. I can only imagine how people on the north feel now. The rain has just started and Covid is another constant threat. Life sucks.
Rok, I am well, thank you very much for asking. Unfortunately not everyone here could say the same, there are casulties, injured people and some lost almost all what they have in a minute. Awful.
That's good stuff. I'm not sure I've ever heard anything from Stanley Turrentine that I didn't like.
Trent, I do not know how this might sound but when I first heard the Willow Weep For Me by Stanley Turrentine & The Three Sounds, I was deeply moved and I cried. Yep.
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