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
pjw
Thanks just listen to The Impressions cut you posted. Wow. I'm buying it right away no hesitation.BTW  I just saw a listing on Amazon for a new Donald Byrd album title "Chant" early 60s with pepper Adams and Herbie Hancock supposedly in his first album feature.  the listing was for vinyl I didn't see CD available but I'll check it out and let you know
Great record from one of my favorite quintets. Pepper is great as always. This was not, in fact, Herbie’s recording debut. The record “Out Of This World” by the same group was recorded earlier the same year. It was released the same year while “Chant” wasn’t released until years later. An interesting footnote is that “Out Of This World” was billed as being by the Pepper Adams/Donald Byrd Quintet. The same quintet subsequently recorded as the Donald Byrd Quintet with Pepper Adams listed as sideman along with Herbie and others. Would love to have been a fly on the wall in the room that day 🤨. Recommended!
frogman thanks thanks for clarification. Yes I got the impression that" chant" wasn't issued till much later from some Amazon reviewers but did not know the other recording was the same date and issued first. The new vinyl version is coming out September 6th and it's $30.
nsp and frogman

I have 2 Donald Byrd albums with a young Herbie Hancock. The aforementioned "Out Of This World" and another which Pepper Adams does not appear on titled "Free Form"

The next Donald Byrd albums I plan on buying are the late 50’s "Jazz Laboratory" sessions featuring Donald Byrd and Gigi Gryce with a numerous cast of excellent supporting sidemen including Paul Chambers and Art Taylor among them. There are 4 or 5 discs of this incarnation currently circulating.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/jazz-lab-mw0000889906

The "Jazz Lab"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkDkD9G4130

More on the "Jazz Lab"

I found the complete sessions box set on CD but its rather pricey:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGQ2QCM/?coliid=I1WASKOPWRQVOI&colid=2MJEFFF7AFXNS&psc=0&re...

The above includes the live at Newport recordings which I have read are of very poor sound quality. I will be buying the individual studio albums volumes 1 through 4 which can be readily be found for 10 - 15 dollars each.
acman3 thanks for the selections of Steve Gadd. One of the best drummers ever and still going strong.



pjw
I ordered Donald Byrd's "Mustang" and I will order "Royal Flush " next as I'm trying to expand my collection of his Blue Note recordings. I have "Free Form" the title you mentioned recently on vinyl. Gets a lot of play here.
Just ordered James Carter's "At The Crossroads"  will probably order "Out of Nowhere" the music you posted next. Thanks.
mary jo listening to great music while running your errands is always a plus. Denise Jannah is a great choice as well!
If you have the time to watch this 55 minute video, as I just did, it is certainly worth it.

Branford Marsalis Quartet at the Newport Jazz Festival 1987

Kenny Kirkland piano, Delbert Felix bass, Lewis Nash drums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw_yQ3V5gEU
acman3Nice Mitchell/Mays vids. Thanks.Mays seems to have flown under my radar as he has several dozen recordings under his own name and I only have one.
nsp I have listened to a few songs off of Red Garland's "All Kinds of Weather" album including the two you shared today. It is an excellent album no doubt (did Garland ever make a bad recording???) but one I never got around to buying.

I have 4 Red Garland trio albums

The PC Blues, Groovy, Red Garlands Piano, and Swingin' on the Corner - Live at Keystone Korner.

 The last one I just purchased and it is a great live 2 disc set with Leroy Vinegar replacing Garlands usual bandmate, Paul Chambers, on bass.


The Red Garland's "All Morning Long" album is Garlands usual trio plus Coltrane and Byrd. I do not have that album, which is fantastic, on the Red Garland quintet album. I have it in its entirety on the John Coltrane "Side Steps" box set.


All Morning Long features just 3 songs. The first song (also the album title) clocks in at 20:21 and the following songs are 10:28 and 6:18 respectively.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/all-mornin-long-mw0000198802


Paul and Nsp,here is a Garlands album that you should listen to (if not), I posted it before, but never mind.
It was session that was not repeated, which is pity, when yo hear the result.
Frogman spoke about the reasons such things occure (or better, not)

Red’s Good Groove, quintet, with Blue Mitchell and Pepper Adams, from 1962.

https://youtu.be/41kWLRTmBjY

https://youtu.be/7OmTMVDkts4

https://youtu.be/wp_w8IUq4G4

https://youtu.be/5LoqIc7ZjBg

https://youtu.be/QbbIoJmvDwQ

When I catch little more time, will share few words about that A.Cohen concert...
alex I listened to the tunes from the "Reds Good Groove" album.

Another great session by Red and co. Of the 4 sidemen just Philly Joe Jones played with Red a bunch of times yet the group was locked in. That album is on my list to buy.

Here is another of Reds recordings with Coltrane and Byrd:
https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Junction-Red-Garland-Quintet/dp/B000000YR0/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?keywords=red...

Again, I don't have the album by Red but I have it in its entirety on the Coltrane "Side Steps" box set

a couple from Soul Junction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31dwHVGKx3w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFnCJ80axc

It has been said (by Miles Davis among others) that Red Garland was a boxer who fought at welterweight and once fought Sugar Ray Robinson. I have researched this and cannot find a professional boxer named Red Garland on Boxrec (the number one source for career profiles of every pro boxer since boxing began). I am thinking that Red was an amateur who never turned pro. Or he could have fought as a pro under a different name which was popular during that time (Sugar Ray Robinson's real name was Walker Smith Jr.). I am just as passionate about boxing and its history as I am with jazz. I am leaning towards Garland never turning pro.

I’ve been waiting for the A. Cohen review.....
pjwI have the companion LP Soul Junction listed on your allmusic link but don't have All Morning Long which would be a good addition for both Coltrane and early D Byrd.
 I was not aware of the box set side steps but this album is probably on it it's a classic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4cQkkObYDY
nsp The album "Soultrane" is on another Coltrane box set I have called "Fearless Leader - The Prestige Years" including the extra cuts that did not make it on the original LP.

Red Garland's "All Morning Long" is an excellent album. The 20 minute title cut is worth the cost by itself!
Alex
Looking forward to your impressions on the Cohan concert!! Will listen to your music vid post later
pjw
I am also a big boxing fan. My research shows that red Garland did indeed have a amateur boxing career with about thirty five fights as a welterweight. before he gave it up to pursue his music career. It seemed that both were going on simultaneously. He did fight
just an exhibition bout with Sugar Ray Robinson  for 8 rounds which he lost badly. He would later joke that he didn't hurt his hands in the Robinson bout because he only hit Ray about once or twice.
If you Google red Garland- boxing   sites will come up where I obtained this information. Sorry I couldn't provide the exact link I'm not that great at this computer stuff.
nsp thanks for the info and I'm glad to see another boxing aficionado as well as a jazz aficionado like myself. Miles Davis was a huge fan of boxing and a friend of Sugar Ray.

 According to the Davis biography I read Sugar Ray "scolded/lectured" Miles when he was using heroin in the early 50's.


Another legendary boxer and one of my all time favorites along with Sugar Ray was Archie Moore the middleweight - light heavyweight - heavyweight.


Archie, also known as the "Mongoose" was a great friend of the spectacular tenor player Lucky Thompson and invited Lucky to his training camp to play while Archie was training. Lucky always obliged Archie if he was around and had the time. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agX6noZYb2k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MACQ1mr0TA0

The first link, Slams Mishap, is a tune that James Carter loves. I know this because he has played it in full or in part during a medley at every show I went to. That unforgettable sax chorus 09 seconds into Slams Mishap you will hear at every James Carter concert.  A live version of Slams Mishap is on the James Carter album "Heaven on Earth"

Alex I'm still waiting on your A. Cohen concert review...…..


Oh my, guys like it rough...

So I guess you liked that part when Tyson bit the part of Holyfield’s ear off during that unforgettable fight.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/mike-tyson-evander-holyfield-ear-10466354

Never accept defeat...


pjwas I did more research on red Garland it becomes apparent that his boxing career is confusing. Another site quotes him as being a semi-professional  and yet another site said he was a professional and had 35 fights as an unranked lightweight fighter!!. so confusion Reigns on the internet. I am going with your theory that he was an amateur that never turned Pro.
"Alex I'm still waiting on your A. Cohen concert review...….."

20$ that he did not like it...

Who is in?

:-)))
Great stuff, all! Thank you!!

If forced to choose my favorite jazz pianist I am afraid that the spot would have to be shared by two players: Bill Evans and Red Garland (deliberately in alphabetical order). In many ways extremely different players. To me, Evans was very introspective, sophisticated and with a gentle, almost feminine (sorry, mary_jo) touch. Garland is a little more forceful and has a very fun and rollicking sense of swing; what nsp correctly referred to as “impeccable sense of swing”. Then there is that distinctive pianistic technique that he pioneered of playing a solo sometimes entirely using “block chords”. Interesting, but typical, that Miles would choose them both for his bands in spite of being so different; first Garland then Evans.

There has been a lot of debate about who the real composer of the fantastic tune “Blue In Green” (Miles, KOB, 1959) was. Miles claims he authored it. There is evidence that it was Evans who wrote it; including from Evans himself who in his usual understated way (like his playing) said so in an interview. Given the little bit that I know about each of them, I think that I would put my money on Evans.

Go go back in time a year or so to Miles’ record “Milestones” and the title tune composed by Miles. It was originally titled “Miles”; no absence of ego there. The band is identical to the KOB band, except that it was Garland on piano instead of Evans and Jo Jones on drums instead of Jimmy Cobb. Pay particular attention to the “head” (melody) of the tune:

https://youtu.be/k94zDsJ-JMU

Go back in time again (1956); a year or two to one of of my favorite Red Garland recordings. Notice the introduction that Garland plays to “A Foggy Day”:

https://youtu.be/JwpD3-ojtqM

Coincidence?

I doubt it. I can imagine Miles and Garland talking about music, tunes and each other’s records and the subject of that little intro coming up. Miles liked to “borrow” musical ideas; probably innocently sometimes, not so innocently other times. I would bet that little intro was the genesis of the tune “Milestones”. High compliment among musicians; but, Bill Evans would never get his royalty payments. Very complicated individual Miles was.

Garland with a favorite alto player:

https://youtu.be/uS4dFEzn5MU
frogman I definitely hear the connection between "Foggy Day" and "Milestones" I have the Milestones album and have listened to it hundreds of times but I do not own "A Garland Of Red" so I never could have picked up on that having heard Foggy Day to few times to remember. 


I do know that the  beginning of a song by Horace Silver sounds a lot like the beginning of a Steely Dan song (to me anyway)


Silver:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWeXOm49kE0


Steely Dan:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfZWp-hGCdA