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.
Thanks, The Hybrid aspect really got me curious. After a bunch of reading and a few videos, I decided to look around for used, that had a bit of warranty left. I bought the amps and was pleased. About six weeks later I found a preamp. It came with six new PSVANE ART tubes, so I said why not. Sadly, PSVANE had a bad run of tubes and five out of six started making popping noises within six weeks. Note to self, never but PSVANE tubes, their customer service is not good. On the glass half full side of things, I was able to do a little tube rolling. So far, I am very happy the preamp and amps.
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I spent an additional 72 hours with the Hegel and just switched back to the PS Audio gear and played the last tune I listened to. The PS Audio BHK preamp and amps sounded noticeably better! While the $6000 H390 is no slouch it really can’t compare to $23,000 worth of separates. So it will be for sale shortly.
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So, in the context of the Sonny Rollins video, this guy knew how to inject entertainment into art at just the right place in the tune...
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I’m a little late with commenting on Alex’s great post on the origin (?) of the great tune “Nature Boy”. Great story about one of my favorite songs. Thanks, Alex. The story of how Nat Cole came to have the song is fascinating. Ahbez was clearly a very interesting character and his lifestyle was in keeping with a pre-hippie movement in California (of course) in the 1940’s whose members were referred to as “The Nature Boys”. The reason for the question mark above is that there is a bit of controversy surrounding the origin of the song. Ahbez was actually sued by Yiddish songwriter Herman Yablokoff for allegedly plagiarizing the melody of one of his songs. They would eventually settle the matter out of court. I thought it might be interesting to listen to both songs and compare. Personally, I am of two minds about it. Does Yablokoff have a valid claim? As music lovers we tend to be romantics and sometimes believe in notions such as the idea that a melody should not be “owned”, or that if a similar melody is composed and it bears similarity to another copywrited melody if there was no deliberate attempt to copy that the original should not protected. I’m not sure. Whether intentional or not should not a composer’s “product” be protected just as any other patented product is? What do you think in this case? This is my favorite version by Nat Cole (Check out the guitar of Oscar Moore!): https://youtu.be/Iq0XJCJ1Srw?si=Md7MEdQLk7d0Fby This is Yablokoff’s song “Schvayg Mein Harts”. Skip past the long “introduction” and to the 2:00 mark. Interesting: https://youtu.be/uT7GcjBnWaw?si=jppRbdIvBhJ-VpYI On a more personal note: I often ride the NYC subways. It is not uncommon to hear performers, music and otherwise, perform on the subways to earn some money. On one of the subway lines that I used to ride I would often hear the same VERY colorful elderly gentleman play alto saxophone. He always played the same song….”Nature Boy”. He sounded pretty good, but he would always play the same “wrong” note in the melody. One of the things that gives that great melody such a distinctive and almost exotic sound is what happens when the lyric goes “They say he wandered very far,…..”. The melodic movement to “far” is a downward half step. Like going from a white key to a black key on a piano. That gentleman would instead go down a whole step which gives it an almost bluesy sound. After hearing him do this on at least five or six occasions I had to ask him. As I handed him a few dollars I said to him: “It sounds really good, man, but you know that spot in the tune where it goes down a……” He interrupted me and seeming a little annoyed said in a gravelly voice “I know, I know man, but I make more money that way!” Cracked me up.
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Hey @zlone I had a pair of KEF Reference 5’s that I never fully liked. The sounded very good, but very anaalog. The SF’s straight out of the box sounded warmer. I have about 25 hours on the new speakers and they are definitely changing for the better. I had a fully broken in loaner pair for a couple of weeks, so I know what to expect.😁 All the best. |
Congrats! That is quite the upgrade. Memory says you had KEF Reference 3’s, am I correct? I have the One’s, and will be interested in your thoughts on the new speakers.
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Yes; I know! That’s why I’m interested. ;o) Are you aware the trio released a subsequent 2 CD set ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCl9DCT01mY&list=OLAK5uy_lxxgYeLrgCLxAlNJEf2qu03l-CNar81Zk&index=2 |
the Hegel is a SS integrated and the PS Audio’s are tube input and SS output on all three pieces. I just plugged in the Hegel for the first time in months and it sounds terrible. I’m sure, that by tomorrow when all the caps are charged again, it will be back to its full glory.😁 Now for something Jazz related. Because I am breaking in the new speakers, I put on a three CD set of The Chick Corea Trio and let all 3.5 hours play. It has Christian McBride on bass and Brian Blade on drums. I liked about 98% of it. |
Your memory is good. I went and bought a used PS Audio BHK preamp and a few weeks later, I bought a pair of PS Audio, BHK 300 amplifiers. All three pieces have a tube input section, so I have the ability to roll some tubes. Unfortunately, 5 of the six “new” PSVANE Art tubes that came with the preamp within just a few weeks, so tube replacement came much earlier than expected. |
Lenghty post, but interesting story. Could not share a link, so I copy pasted it.
In the late 40s, there was a rumor that there was a "hermit," disenchanted and disillusioned with the world, supposedly "out-of-sync" with society, living in California in a cave under one of the L’s in the Hollywood sign. No one really cared about this strange man, until one night in 1947, when someone tried to enter backstage at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles. Nat King Cole was playing there, and the man said he had something for Cole. Of course, the employees didn't let the strange man see Cole, so he gave whatever he had with Cole's manager. What he had was a song sheet, which Cole would later take a look at. Cole liked the song and wanted to record it, but he had to find the strange man. When asked, the people who saw the man said he was strange, indeed, with shoulder-length hair and beard, wearing sandals and a white robe. Cole finally tracked him down in New York City. When Cole asked him where he was staying, the strange man declared he was staying at the best hotel in New York - outside, literally, in Central Park. He said his name was eden ahbez (spelled all in lower-case letters). The song he gave Cole was titled, "Nature Boy." It became Cole's first big hit, and was soon covered by other artists through the years, from Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, most recently. Of course, the media went crazy about the strange, mysterious man who handed Nat King Cole, one of the biggest hits during that time. Everyone went out to try to find out more about him. What little they found was that he was once an orphan, who never stayed at one place very long, living in various foster homes. He explained he just never fit in and was always searching, for something. ["They say he wandered very far... Very far, over land and sea..." They found out he would hop freight trains and walked across country several times, subsisting solely on raw fruits and vegetables, then one day he completely vanished. ["A little shy and sad of eye... But very wise was he..."] He finally showed up again in the Hollywood hills. When a policeman stopped the strange, long-haired man with beard, sandals, and robe, ahbez simply replied, "I look crazy but I'm not. And the funny thing is that other people don't look crazy but they are." ["And then one day... One magic day he passed my way..."] He then showed up backstage at Nat King Cole's concert in Los Angeles, to present him with the song, "Nature Boy." No one seems to really know why he selected Cole, there were some rumors that he came out of hiding when he began to hear about the racism going on and trouble throughout the world, and he thought "King" was the best person at that time to pass his message along. ["While we spoke of many things... Fools and Kings..."] When he was asked about racism, he replied, "Some white people hate black people, and some white people love black people, some black people hate white people, and some black people love white people. So you see it's not an issue of black and white, it's an issue of Lovers and Haters." It was that theme of love that he continued to talk about, what was missing in the world, and what would be needed in the future if we are to survive. ahbez would eventually get his message out, especially after the counter-culture finally caught up with him and the hippie movement began, when other artists such as Donovan, Grace Slick, and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson sought him out. He also wrote songs for Eartha Kitt and had another song recorded by Sam Cooke. In 2009, Congressman Bill Aswad recited the last lyrics of the song before the Vermont House of Representatives at the passing of his state's same-sex marriage bill in '09. Author Raymond Knapp described the track as a "mystically charged vagabond song" whose lyrics evoked an intense sense of loss and haplessness, with the final line delivering a universal truth, described by Knapp as "indestructible" and "salvaged somehow from the perilous journey of life." ["This he said to me... The greatest thing you'll ever learn... Is just to love and be loved in return."]
"George Alexander Aberle (April 15, 1908 – March 4, 1995), known as eden ahbez, was an American songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s to 1960s, whose lifestyle in California was influential in the hippie movement. He was known to friends simply as ahbe. Ahbez composed the song "Nature Boy", which became a No. 1 hit for eight weeks in 1948 for Nat "King" Cole. Living a bucolic life from at least the 1940s, he traveled in sandals and wore shoulder-length hair and beard, and white robes. He camped out below the first L in the Hollywood Sign above Los Angeles and studied Oriental mysticism. He slept outdoors with his family and ate vegetables, fruits, and nuts. He claimed to live on three dollars per week. In the mid 1950s, he wrote songs for Eartha Kitt, Frankie Laine, and others, as well as writing some rock-and-roll novelty songs. In 1957, his song "Lonely Island" was recorded by Sam Cooke, becoming the second and final Ahbez composition to hit the Top 40. In 1959, he began recording instrumental music, which combined his signature somber tones with exotic arrangements and (according to the record sleeve) "primitive rhythms". He often performed bongo, flute, and poetry gigs at beat coffeehouses in the Los Angeles area. In 1960, he recorded his only solo LP, Eden's Island, for Del-Fi Records. This mixed beatnik poetry with exotica arrangements. Ahbez promoted the album through a coast-to-coast walking tour making personal appearances, but it sold poorly. During the 1960s, ahbez released five singles. Grace Slick's band, the Great Society, recorded a version of "Nature Boy" in 1966 and ahbez was photographed in the studio with Brian Wilson during a session for the Smile album in early 1967. Later that year, British singer Donovan sought out ahbez in Palm Springs, and the two wanderers shared a reportedly "near-telepathic" conversation. In the 1970s, Big Star's Alex Chilton recorded a version of "Nature Boy" with the photographer William Eggleston on piano. The song was finally released as a bonus track on the 1992 Rykodisc re-release of the album Third/Sister Lovers. In 1974, ahbez was reported to be living in the Los Angeles suburb of Sunland, and he owned a record label named Sunland Records, for which he was recording under the name "Eden Abba." From the late 1980s until his death, ahbez worked closely with Joe Romersa, an engineer/drummer in Los Angeles. The master tapes, photos, and final works of eden ahbez are in Romersa's possession. Ahbez died on March 4, 1995, of injuries sustained in a car accident, at the age of 86. Another album, Echoes from Nature Boy, was released posthumously." |
Kjell Jansson Quartet, At Nefertiti Again. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mUfS78BSwNd1WyBH_rNzY_NFgML_PJgGc&si=KXvEbgzbId19SlJy |
@stuart Yep, a good sense of humor. My partner and I tease each other and are happy that our two brains working together seem to get the job done. 😊
The fortunate thing about this memory problem is that it occurs because I am processing other thoughts… like the thesis of some philosophical lecture I just listened to, so it’s not simply an empty head… more like too cluttered. |
Dexter was one of Coltrane’s main influences. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ncm49E9MiOaVGX-GRR5UI6j6DWDugrywU&si=hXQAwHiwHVMQDjYh |
I bet my memory is worse, it has never been good. For the last day my partner has been reminding me to take the lobsters out of the freezer so they will be thawed for tomorrow. It is a ten second walk from the bedroom to the kitchen. After a number of reminders I finally set a reminder on my iPhone to get them out. When it went off, I walked directly to the freezer… mission accomplished! Don’t get me started on names. |
I’m listened to the Coltrane version that frogman posted,(actually I listened to the whole album 😃) and while I am not a wordsmith like you and frogman, I definitely enjoyed the Ballads album immensely. His version of “You Don’t Know What Love Is “ to me was much more enjoyable than Pharaohs. But you know me, I can listen to a Trio or a Quartet playing like this all day long. |
Listened to this today. Not audiophile, but put a big smile on my face. Dr. John - The Brightest Smile In Town (1983) [Full Album] (youtube.com) |
To me, it sounds as though Pharaoh has experienced heartbreak but sufficient time has passed so the initial sting has subsided. Instead of playing from inside the pain, he's able to look at it with a bit of detachment -- sort of wistfully musing. On the other hand, Coltrane sounds rawer to me, like the wound's still fresh... but what do I know? ;o) |
