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.
Which reminded me of the wonderful "Doo Wop" show presented by TJ Lubinsky and aired on PBS. Dating back to 2000, this may have been the first of what has become a long series of "oldies" music with his productions on PBS. I was fortunate to find a DVD of that program which included more music than was aired.
This link accesses much of that. And since it was cut into individual songs you can scan through on the right side to find your favorites.
It's funny to think back to those times and wonder what ever happened to some of those young girls? I moved away after finishing school so lost track of most of them. Guess I am a real sentimentalist since hearing some of those songs again does tug at the old emotions.
Candidate for 'Great Jazz Album You Might Not Stumble Across:' Benny Carter (and "All-Star Sax Ensemble"), "Over the Rainbow." Not just the title cut, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9ghNro_8eg but the whole thing.
Very, very nice, lohe. Big Benny Carter fan here and this one is new to me. What a great arranger Benny Carter was! Thanks, and welcome to the thread!
OK, you jazz “Aficionados”, put your “money” where your mouth is; let’s see what you got. Five well known saxophone players in a typical saxophone section setting. They each take a solo. What’s the order of the solos? Hint: the players are: Benny Carter, Herb Geller, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath and Joe Temperley (the picture accompanying the link is not of the players on the session).
lohe, sorry, you can’t play since you presumably have the record and hence the answer; but please confirm the answers. Contestants, don’t bother searching for clues on line, there ain’t any (that I could find) except for personnel lists. lohe, if my answer is wrong (it’s not), I’ll eat my copy of “Breezin”. Well, the jacket, anyway.
Rok, ok, Geller....maybe; although he has been discussed here and is pretty well known. I’ll give you that one. But, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath??? Who the hell are they?!?!?! I hope I’m misinterpreting your comment 😎
Btw, it’s tenor, alto, baritone, tenor, alto; per acman3’s answer.
Long time member of Basie’s band. One of the great tenor stylists; bridging the gap between the swing and the hard bop tenor players. Great tenor sound! Also one of the pioneers of jazz flute. Check out his solo on this, one of my favorite Sarah Vaughn recordings. Talk about telling a story! Luscious sound.
Not that I am keen on mentioning the subject, since it has nothing with music, but I just cant get over the cynicism when the segregation or slavery is mentioned in a way that Rok does it. To matter things worst, I believe that he has some twisted explanation about it that even may sound logical, but I truly believe that no human should be treated that way and just wanted to say that, as oppose to choose to look over it, as that may seem that I agree about it...
For fans of the sound of a great saxophone section and along the lines of lohe’s nice Benny Carter clip. I don’t remember if I posted any of this before. “Supersax”, a project involving some of the West Coast’s best bebopper’s, paid homage to Charlie Parker by constructing arrangements of Charlie Parker’s classic recordings and which featured a saxophone section playing harmonized renditions Bird’s original solos. Trumpet duties by the great and often overlooked Conte Candoli.
*****Nothing good came out of slavery, although I wish the civil war had never been fought, and that the Mason Dixon Line would be our southern border*****
As Mr. Spock might say, "Most Illogical".
A few good things that came out of slavery, staying with Jazz:
Jelly Roll Morton,Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bird, Trane, Miles, Monk, Cannonball, Dizzy, Lee Morgan, Billie Holiday, Ella, Sarah, Dee Dee, Wynton, need I go on???? Our OP?
Loved the Sax ensembles. I have a few by 'The World Saxophone Quartet', but they seem to be more into the avant-garde. The music just posted, was much better. I wonder why this is not done more often.
When it comes to identifying players on records, I am hopeless. I remember a similar thing Stereo Review used to do every month. Those guys seldom missed.
I heard Duke Ellington - Blues in Orbit, and Ray Brown/ Laurindo Almeida - Moonlight Serenade this weekend. A definite must listen to if you can. Also Ray Brown's - Soular Energy. Music is here to stay!
I’m old school; my kids laugh at me because whenever an electronic device acts up I bang on it or kick it to see if it fixes the problem. I’ve tried kicking my iPad, but it keeps slipping into a different channel. Let me try it again....there, I think it worked....back to regular programming:
I think I posted this once before. One of the greatest saxophone section features; this one demonstrating Thad Jones’ wonderful arranging skills. Roland Hanna sounds fabulous:
(Btw, pryso, that is Eddie Daniels on fourth tenor; he is also a fantastic tenor and flute player)
Studio version of the same chart. Very, very different approach, tempo and feel than the live version; this from the same musicians playing the same chart. For anyone who thinks that because the music is written down it’s always going to be the same:
Very Nice. Fireworks? We don't need no stinkin' fireworks. I always liked the Ellington Reed section. They had such a unique sound. Of course The Duke wrote it that way. Saxophone sections playing like this always remind me of vocal groups with great harmony.
I concur with rok2id the telling of World History is not entirely accurate anymore. My family are Italians. After the fall of the Roman Empire our people were held hostage, read slaves, for over 1000 years. One would be hard-pressed to find this figure in any textbook going back 50 years from now. I do not know that I ever received a proper teaching all of my years in school through College. This has been a Public Service Announcement. Now, back to the Jazz! Happy Listening!
Good point. I wanted to bring up the fact that blacks in this country are not the only people on this planet to have had a hard time. We are just the only ones who use it as a crutch. All the rest have moved on. Some former slaves are actually accused of running the world.
jafant, Its not in any history book because it is not true , the usual reason . And no Italians were sold at the slave block at Ellis Island and families thrown to the 4 winds . To overcome that in Socializing takes about 300 years on average .
Duke: Fabulous! 27 (!) choruses by Paul Gonzalves. Besides being a amazing musical feat, it should not go unnoticed what a feat of physical endurance it was. Special moment in jazz history. And you’re right about Duke’s reed section; very unique sound. What was special about the way that Duke and Strayhorn wrote for that reed section was that the writing was not generic. That is not intended as a criticism of other reed sections which were written for to emphasize blend and cohesion; like a vocal group harmonizing as you correctly pointed out. Duke wrote for his reed section in a way that capitalized on and highlighted each individual player’s unique tone and particular musical strength. One of the things that I liked most about that reed section’s sound was the prominence of the bottom as played by Harry Carney; whereas most other reed sections have an obvious emphasis on the high “lead” sound.
Thanks frog, I've been intending to post Super Sax for some time but always get sidetracked. And rok, that is my favorite Ellington album. I admit to not enjoying his music as much as many jazz fans do, I prefer Basie. But that Newport record is too much to resist.
Wrong as usual schubert. Take some time to do the research. As above, I dig Paul Gonzalves as well. Duke was a master at building a unique sound amongst the different players. Happy Listening!
One of Basie’s signature charts played by a band of Basie alumni (and others) and led by Frank Wess. One of the hardest things for a band to do is to be tight and swing at a very slow tempo. This chart has been done by many different bands and often they end up sounding ragged when trying to play it this slow. This rendition is amazing with beautiful blend. Check out Snooky Young’s trumpet solo; a model of simplicity and soulful tastiness!
Thanks rok, that's what I'm talking about. There is just that bounce and rhythmic drive in Basie's music that pulls me along. Doesn't matter if the tempo is fast, slow, or in between.
Rok, do you know what "genocide" is? That's the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.
This country watched Genocide on national television when they watched the "Katrina Aftermath" for 3 whole days on national TV. All George Bush had to do was call the disaster center at Scott AFB Ill., and go back to bed; they had the resources and were prepared to take care of everything, including coordinating "all" military resources. I know, I was stationed at Scott for four years.
That's one of the few bases where the base commander was a full bird Colonel, while there were Generals who commanded world wide movement of military resources stationed on the same base.
Many times I was awaken at 2:30 AM or some ungodly hour by someone screaming "Alert,Alert, Alert"; that meant get dressed, shagg A--, and get on the big blue bus. It was to carry us to the disaster site, where we were to give life saving first aid to the victims of this disaster, which might be real or just a drill; I was a medic.
The victims were made up to look like they had various injuries; they had a tag attached to them which we were to write down what we discovered and treatment administered. At the end of the day we were critiqued by doctors, who discussed whether our patient lived or died.
Scott AFB had everything to take care of that disaster and then some. Why wasn't this ever mentioned? The military can never question "The Commander In Chief", that's for sure.
The irony of what I've written is that Scott AFB was called to duty 8 months prior to "Hurricane Katrina" for a tsunami disaster.
Hey I know you're the author of this thread. I'm just trying to keep myself from getting mad at people I don't know who views maybe be different from mine. We are here because of our love for music and that is what brought us together. Religion, creed or ones political affiliation is not a requirement. And yes I am a black man who simply loves music and particularly jazz music. Music, Music, Music whether it's Stan Getz or Ahmad Jamal, I'm here for the music.
Welcome to the thread bluesy41. I look forward to your comments on the music.
**** I think he (OP) decides what is appropriate. ****
I don’t think so. And certainly not when the comments are unrelated to the thread’s topic. That topic is the reason that readers visit the thread; not to read rantings on unrelated topics and especially when the comments are so provocative and rooted in personal agenda. This is a thread about music. Once again, in spite of all the prior commentary about how the reason that there aren’t more posters here is that we “aficionados” are somehow special and have some special appreciation for this music, here we have a new contributor who is not being welcomed. The name calling is probably next. That has also been very effective at driving new posters away. It seems that the unrelated comments surface when there is nothing interesting to say about the music.
Well, I think so, and apparently, so does the OP. Some of us can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can talk about Basie and Katrina all in the same day. Believe it or not.
*****Once again, in spite of all the prior commentary about how the reason that there aren’t more posters here is that we “aficionados” are somehow special and have some special appreciation for this music, here we have a new contributor who is not being welcomed.*****
Once again, here we go with the straw man stuff. No one said the posters on this thread are special. No one said Bluesy41 was not welcome. You just make this stuff up, so you can tear it down.
Basie/Ellington. Very different bands with very different sounds and attitudes. Duke Ellington used the big band much more like the way a great composer uses a symphony orchestra. A much more varied musical palette than Basie’s sound where the emphasis was the infectious feeling of bounce and swing that pryso mentions; although Duke’s band were no slouches in that department. What do you get when you cross a Duke with a Count? :
**** Once again, here we go with the straw man stuff. No one said the posters on this thread are special. No one said Bluesy41 was not welcome. You just make this stuff up, so you can tear it down. ****
Nope; not at all. And I don’t agree with you re the purpose of the thread. Your memory is short and you don’t take well to anything resembling criticism. Now, here is the thing that makes all this so absurd in that the answer could not be more obvious. Can you think of one instance when the thread has deviated from its original stated purpose and gone to provocative and deeply personal commentary that has not resulted in contention and/or posts being deleted by moderators?
**** bluesy41 who you? Identify yo self.**** **** you are addressing the OP of this thread. I think he decides what is appropriate.****
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