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.
All our souls will fly away sometime , my time is not far away and all I will get for a send-off is the Army’s dog ,"Caissons Go Rolling Along" .Marines and Sailors do a lot better as "Marines Hymn" and "Anchors Away"are both quite stirring .
But, truth be told my friend, you get the best of the bunch , "The Wild Blue Yonder " played by the Magnificent USAF Band !
You and your smile Hold a strange invitation Somehow it seems
We've shared our dreams But where?
Time after time In a room full of strangers Out of the blue Suddenly you are there
Wherever I go You're the glow of temptation Glancing my way In the gray of the dawn
And always your eyes Smile that strange invitation When you are gone Where oh, where have you gone?
How long must I stay In a world of illusion? Be where you are So near yet so far apart
Hoping you'll say With a warm invitation Where have you been? Darling, come in into my heart
Wherever I go You're the glow of temptation Glancing my way In the gray of the dawn
And always your eyes Smile that strange invitation When you are gone Where oh, where have you gone?
How long must I stay In a world of illusion? Be where you are So near yet so far apart
Hoping you'll say With a warm invitation Where have you been? Darling, come in into my heart
Without a doubt, Dinah Washington sings the best version of this song. While others may have more beautiful voices, this song is about mystery and "drama", which Dinah's voice adds.
Picture yourself in a lounge, alone in a roomful of strangers, and there is a striking lady about four stools down, wearing a big black floppy hat that adds to her mystery.
You glance at her to confirm her aura. Then you catch her glancing at you. Shortly after that, she leaves; leaving you with her aura, and the desire to see her again.
A week later, you are in the same lounge, on the same bar stool, and again she's about four or five bar stools down; this time the big floppy hat is straw. Sneaky guy that you are, you decide to get a good look at her in the mirror behind the bar; low and behold, that's where your eyes meet, and she smiles, the hide and peak game is over.
There is no doubt in my mind that Dinah actually lived this scene by the way she sings the song, plus the fact that she lived life with all the zest a nice lady could manage.
Mary J., I don't know how to recreate this scene for you, other than to make you the striking lady wearing the big black floppy hat.
What would a thread be without its OP? As nsp suggests, the power of positive thinking is not to be underestimated.
Some tunes become a type of anthem for instrumentalists. Among tenor players and within the tenor saxophone world ”Invitation” is one of those tunes; up there with “Body and Soul” as ultimate vehicles for players to demonstrate their true musical mettle. The reasons that certain tunes achieve this status is not only that they are great tunes in their own right, but also because they often “lay” really well on the instrument and there has often been an important recording of it by one of the great players on the instrument. The importance of Coleman Hawkin’s famous recording of “Body and Soul” is well known. Coltrane’s “Invitation” has been the standard setter for contemporary (post-Coltrane) tenor players. Great tune!
acman3 xlent vid posts by early Weather Report , especially the second one. It had a "Bitches Brew " feel to it with great interplay .They had two excellent free jazz musicians on this date , John Surman and Alan Skidmore.This represents jazz fusion experimentation at it's best. This was Weather Report's best period IMHO, before J Z AND Jaco took over and somehow Wayne's contribution disappeared and they commercialized the music as time went on. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=76KbasbPm9Q
mary_ jo Your Pepper "You Go To My Head" would not play on my PC or Ipad so I have posted this version (not sure if it was your pick) that I have always liked. I remember reading Pepper's bio where he stated somewhere in the book that a great jazz musician had to have musical knowledge, technique ( ability to play the instrument of choice) and ability to convey emotion. He certainly had all 3, especially the emotional part.
pjw My favorite TYA music was also "Cricklewood Green" but unfortunately I sold it . Today the live cd "Undead" with a 17 minute version of " I Can't Keep From Crying Sometime " caught my interest. I bought a copy. As you stated Alvin Lee is best heard live.
Thanks , :) O-10 , to be honest I never heard that song , haunting .Dakota was good , but Dinah Washington is in the "force of nature "category IMO . Hang in there ..
You could have picked your list from out of my collection, and I mean the original records from about the time of their release; except for Bird and Lady Day, and Duke of course; I was too young.
But I bought "Something Else" in 59; it was the hottest piece of wax available at that time.
"Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster" came out at about the same time.
"Charley Parker on Dial", exists in some form on compilations in my collection, but not that specific record. Many people don't realize that "Bird" is several different musicians rolled into one; he can sound so different from one record to another that it's like hearing another extremely talented musician.
Cannonball Adderly’s "Something Else" with Miles Davis sitting in. "Gerry Mulligan meets Ben Webster" John Coltranes "A Love Supreme" (might be the greatest record of all time, all categories) Gato Barbieri’s "Third World" on Jazz Pacific is a personal favorite "Charlie Parker on Dial" Jon McLaughlin’s "Birds of Fire" Any good Duke Ellington compilation from his heyday. Any compilation with Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit
nsp, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything by Mobley that I didn’t like. Great player and great record!
You’re right, Dolphy was the first in jazz to play bass clarinet with that level of proficiency. Harry Carney played it in Duke’s band quite a bit before Dolphy came on the scene, but it was mostly in the context of Duke’s great orchestrations and he didn’t improvise on it that much. The great clarinetist Buddy DeFranco and a couple of other contemporaries of Dolphy flirted with the bass clarinet, but not seriously like Dolphy did:
pjw Tough decision on live Soft Machine as I have 7 live discs just from the period 1970-1978. Different lineups, different drummers. I think your input might be a factor. Could depend on which drummer you like they are very different. Give me a couple of days to go back and listen .I will come up with recommendation(s). I was listening to King Crimson's Lizard and noticed R Fripp used some top notch British Jazz musicians on the record. Several of them also played on Soft Machine's album Fourth, one of my favorites.
frogman +1 on your Dolphy pick. Should have thought of it. Was he the guy who popularized the bass clarinet back then? I think we spoke about this before but I don't think many musicians were playing it as much as him.
Same rhythm section that would be part of Miles’ Second Great Quintet, but this time with the under-recognized George Coleman on tenor instead of Wayne Shorter:
pjw, Ellington At Newport 1956 is a no-brainer, but it was already on the top ten list that nsp linked. I think the idea was to add to that list. Certainly would have been on my list.
mary_jo, funny joke. Here’s one for you, all in good fun of course and courtesy of my dear wife, a blonde:
**** A young brunette goes into the doctor's office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it.
"Impossible," says the doctor. "Show me."
She takes her finger and pushes her elbow and screams in agony. She pushes her knee and screams, pushes her ankle and screams and so it goes on, everywhere she touches makes her scream.
The doctor says, "You're not really a brunette, are you?"
Which SM live disc would you recommend if I had to choose just one?
Nice link to Alvin Lee and co. playing Hey Joe. Alvin's and TYA's live recording releases were always more intense then any of the studio releases. My favorite studio session is Cricklewood Green.
I'm jealous to say the least!!… Miles, Coltrane, Pops, Cannonball, Blakey!!.. that's quite a resume you have of concerts you've attended.
IMHO, the first Miles electric years 1968-75 were awesome. Do you remember if he played one long jam before and after the intermission or were they broke down into songs?
Just to mention, saw Pat Martino alive, couple years back...Paco de Lucia too, with sextet... Than, of greats, McCoy Tyner with Latin all stars,Frogmans very favourite Michael Brecker, Abbey Lincoln, Randy Weston,Charlie Haden,Joe Zawinul sindicate... More interesting, all of them and some more in my hometown...
Reuben Wilson,Fred Wesley, Marc Ribot, Manu Katche, Trilok Gurtu are also comming to mind...
But than again, I enjoyed the Gorillaz, Massive Atack, Stereo McS and Nick Cave, as well...
Also, I missed some that I have already bought tickets.. If I may share a story, for one such 'sad' ocassion...once I bought a ticket for a Ernest Ranglin and Monty Alexander,performing together... https://youtu.be/H0tpI4Y4W7I The concert was a part of their world tour, at time held in Berlin. To cut long story short I was dating a girl for a few years, that lived in Berlin and I was quite often there...and vice versa....at the time of that particular concert I was already there week before, visting (my turn) and was very excited looking forward to see them... One evening we went in a quarrell and after sleeples night, in the morning I was leaving Germany, heading home...eventually we get back together again, but I never managed to forget about that concert,ha,ha...
pjw Sorry I did not fully explain myself. I don 't want to sell any o f my SM collection I just mentioned them in case you were interested about information on other SM titles/groups in future. For now you h ave plenty SM to listen to. L et me kno w what you think. Been a SM fan 40+ Years.Alvin Lee was surely a guitar virtuoso who belongs with Jeff, Jimi, Eric, Jimmy Page. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGbi-_vQ2sk
p.s. It's six hours of time difference, about 16 h at your place now, +6 here. This now reminds me of...(if there are any blondes here, I will kindly ask you to skip the post)
Time difference
A blonde called a telephone operator.
Blonde: “Could you tell me the time difference between Singapore and London?”
I believe I saw Miles more often than anyone else. In addition to a couple of times at the Minor Key (quartet/sextet), also both the Detroit and Saugatuck Jazz Festivals, in Hawaii at Punch Bowl in the mid-'60s, and lastly in San Diego in the mid-'70s.
For that last one when we walked in the stage was arrayed with big speakers and amps. The crowd at the Civic Theater was a near sell out but almost half the audience left at intermission. That was after the conversion to electronic-Miles but many in attendance apparently weren't prepared for that.
Wow! You saw Satchmo, Miles, Trane, Cannonball, Evans, Silver, Blakey (and others) play live. Envious is an understatement. I’ve seen my share of great jazz players, but that’s a list of some of the greatest of the great. Evans and Blakey are the only ones on that list that I had the pleasure of seeing live. The few times that I heard Evans were all memorable. Other memorable ones include, Dexter, Griffin, McClean, Phil Woods, Thad&Mel, Herbie, Hubbard, Shorter, and others....but, man, Louis, Miles and Trane!! I would have given my favorite cast iron skillet to have seen Trane live 😊. I know our OP has (seen Trane, that is). Then there’s the annual Vienna Philharmonic concert at Carnegie.....
Funny, all this discussion about favorite live recordings made me think of the most memorable concerts I’ve attended.
While jazz is my preferred music, and I’ve attended many concerts and festivals (I’m pretty old!), not many near the top of my personal list have been jazz.
Among those that were, the first concert I attended was Louie Armstrong and the All Stars with my parents at a local theater around 1952. That was wonderful and left lasting memories. While in college we drove to Detroit for several concerts at a small local club, The Minor Key. There I saw Miles, Coltrane, Evans, Cannonball, Silver, Jazz Messengers, and more. I can’t honestly say one stood out but as a group they collectively rate very high.
Other top favorite live experiences were non-jazz, including The Mahavishnu Orchestra early on at a small local club, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at our county fair, Mendelssohn’s "Octet" with a collection of top flight musicians at our Mainly Mozart Festival, and Lang Lang performing with our local symphony orchestra. In each case it was an emotional connection with the music that made them outstanding. See, I said I enjoy many types of music. ;^)
It is a 2 disc set featuring extended soloing by Trane and his quartet. The sonics are not great but very listenable. They recorded it live while it was also broadcast live to a local jazz radio station in NYC.
Glad to hear you still dig other music genres. Although when I really dove into jazz later in life and realized what I had been missing, I occasionally find myself in the mood (actually more then occasionally) for my rock, blues, r&b, and other music in my library.
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