Jazz for aficionados

So Art Blakey went to Brazil to learn African drumming? ;)

ROOTS IN AFRICA

Describing the African-American influence on American music in all of its glory and variety is an intimidating—if not impossible—task. African-American influences are so fundamental to American music that there would be no American music without them. People of African descent were among the earliest non-indigenous settlers of what would become the United States, and the rich African musical heritage that they carried with them was part of the foundation of a new American musical culture that mixed African traditions with those of Europe and the Americas. Their work songs, dance tunes, and religious music—and the syncopated, swung, remixed, rocked, and rapped music of their descendants—would become the lingua franca of American music, eventually influencing Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. The music of African Americans is one of the most poetic and inescapable examples of the importance of the African American experience to the cultural heritage of all Americans, regardless of race or origin.

Full article here:

https://music.si.edu/story/musical-crossroads#:~:text=In%20the%20late%2019th%20century,heavily%20syn....

So Art Blakey went to Brazil to learn African drumming?

Following the big band’s breakup, Blakey journeyed to Africa, initially as a spiritual pursuit. Raised in a strict Seventh Day Adventist family, the traveler sought new inspirations. Embracing Islam, he returned to New York with an adapted name, Abdullah Ibn Buhaina. Fellow musicians affectionately called him “Bu.” West African influences emerged in his drumming, as implied in his surging, reactionary polyrhythms. More specific applications were heard in multi-drummer experiments, most notably on Drum Suite (1957) and also on Orgy in Rhythm Volumes 1 and 2 (1957) and the lesser-known The African Beat (1962).

Full article here:

http://52.20.94.27/article/march-2012-art-blakey-the-mentor/

I love many of the post-Coltrane tenor players; and, of course, none as much as Trane himself.  However, I have a soft spot for many of the players that came out of the Swing and Big Band eras with a tone approach which was both softer edged, but very still very husky.  One of my favorites is Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis.  One of the most expressive and exciting players from that era with a wonderfully traditional and “slippery” tone approach, but with note choices that lean more to the Bebop era.  Really interesting way to walk the line between the two eras.

https://youtu.be/5Nb1GWx_tPo

Those familiar with Quincy Jones’ “Killer Joe” might recognize the great flute playing on the following cuts.  Jerome  Richardson; someone deserving more attention here:

https://youtu.be/0N_tzcg5MqY

https://youtu.be/t0I0OIAY5rc

Interesting commentary:

https://youtu.be/-6Oz10Rho4A


(( https://youtu.be/aASXNyc6xmY ))

The greatest ïnside man save Sonny Stilt with as good a piano comp as you will ever hear .

https://youtu.be/FnsycHk8VBw?list=RDFnsycHk8VBw&t=4

Body and Soul and so it was !
https://youtu.be/neVIycqDdL4?list=RDFnsycHk8VBw&t=4

IMO Phil was beyond genre , a superb musician who also composed music masterpieces with a saxophone !
https://youtu.be/ai3oU-O4h7k?list=RDFnsycHk8VBw&t=4
Selmer 6 Myer5

Great!

Boy, you sure do know how to get my attention. Great mp. One of the reasons that a vintage NY Meyer 5 (must be “NY”) fetches the price it does; at one time (and still) “everyone“ wanted to sound like Phil. Awesome player and composer. Besides being as great a soloist as he was, he was also one of the greatest lead alto players ever.

Speaking of Quincy Jones:

https://youtu.be/XRBwOrxDrCs

https://youtu.be/fZCeGkpPVdU

https://youtu.be/qcCO174zQl8

https://youtu.be/kcm5iDT5l-c

I have posted this at least twice before. If you want to know the history of that NY Meyer 5 (and much more):

https://youtu.be/6SJxmCzYpoo

Hey frogman great "Lockjaw" selections. I have all 3 volumes of the "Cook Book" sessions plus "Smokin' (which is really volume 4) in my CD collection. All were recorded in 1958 with Shirley Scott on Organ, Jerome Richardson on flute, baritone, and tenor. I think there may have been different drummers and bassists on the session dates but "Lockjaw", Scott and Richardson are definitely on all 4 recording dates.

I like the "edginess" of Eddie's tenor playing and you can tell, like he says to Oscar Peterson, that Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins were his biggest influences (same slightly edgy sound if that's the way to describe it)

It was interesting how Eddie said the solo's in Ellington's Big Band were unique to whoever sat in the soloist chair that night while in the Count Basie Big Band all the solo's were pre - arranged/charted.

Schubert great Phil Woods selections.

You should check out the "Live at Yoshi's" album titled "Bouncing with Bud and Phil.

I have a large selection of Phil Woods in my collection but over the last 6 months I have been beefing up my Bud Shank collection. The live at Yoshi's album Bud was 78 and Phil 73 but they sound like they are in their 20's!

They both have 2 different distinctive alto sounds that complement each other well. I would say Woods is a little "smoother"

Btw did you know Bud Shank plays that famous flute solo on the "The Mamas and the Papas" 1965 hit song "California Dreamin'. Its an alto flute.

I have posted this at least twice before.

Glad you posted it again frogman because this was the first time I saw it. Phil Woods is the "master" so "master class" is appropriately titled. 

Don't know if you know this but James Carter is a "saxophone collector/enthusiast" His collection of rarities is quite extensive or so I'm told.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3EgapgFCI0

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

Here Carter speaks about Don Byas who was one of his biggest influences. If you have the time its really interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SF43lbPPFY

In the interview he talks about the following concert in Holland dedicated to the music of Don Byas which was Don's adopted homeland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1IwiELq3lQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-22a-ULBzXU

frogman I missed the word "husky" that you described "Lock Jaws" playing as. That is the word that best describes it I think. Hawk, Ben Webster and Don Byas had that same distinctive tone.

pjw
. . thanks. I’ll look for " Bouncing "    P.S. 5 min later on its way  from Amazon .

Paul, posted these before, perhaps you will find something interesting...

Don Bagley quartet 'Jazz on the rocks' 

with  Phil Woods (alto sax), Eddie Costa (piano), Sal Salvador (guitar), Don Bagley (bass, arrange), Charlie Persip (drums)

https://youtu.be/cMZ6w0DBOLs

https://youtu.be/FdNDjl8B37M

Bud Shank 'Blowin Country'

https://youtu.be/nrRPcmqz3dc

https://youtu.be/qhdZt2KwIwQ

Bud Shank Quartet (Pacific jazz years,edition with first three albums with Claude Willimson)

https://youtu.be/vvNevtz_2gs

https://youtu.be/ElvZD9B5fVc

@frogman

"Husky."  Sheer genius.  I've never heard "husky" used to describe a player's sound, but anyone who is truly dialed in gets it.

David Benoit "waiting for spring" w/ Emily Remler on guitar!!! (best thread here)!!!!

pjw. thanks for the Carter/Bias clip.  Love stories like that.  That is something so many players fantasize about.....”whatever happened to xxxxx’s horn”.  

Too kind of you, keegiam. 😊

https://youtu.be/GPSbsTq1wzA

pjw, guess whose birthday it is today?

https://youtu.be/f-vgA3V8O30

https://youtu.be/i4CuJuzKlPI

https://youtu.be/XL-f0-4xjuk

@frogman

Great clip.  It has to be tough not having lips.

Keith Jarrett

frogman great Don Byas selections.

Don recorded a lot of live material after he moved to Holland. A few of his live releases have a young Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass.

I have 2 of these live recordings titled "A Night in Tunisia" and "Walkin’"

Both were recorded at the Montmartre Jazzhus Copenhagen. January 13 / 14, 1963

Btw in the James Carter interview I posted above Carter describes Byas' sound as "thick". I think "husky", as you described it, and "thick" as JC said, are the best ways to describe the tone of Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Don Byas, and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Willis "gator" Jackson and many others could also be put in that category.

In the following interview, Sonny Rollins, at the 1 minute mark of the video, describes Ben Webster's and Eddie Davis' tone as "gruff" so, "thick", "husky" and "gruff" are all good descriptions of this classic "tone".

A question to you frogman, being that you play the sax: Is this tone achieved by the way a player blows, the model of tenor sax used, or a combination of both??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDF8xC6Ats8&t=304s

In the above Sonny Rollins interview he mentions a Herschel Evans. Evans played in the Count Basie Band and he also had that "gruff" tone.

Evans died very young of heart failure in 1939 but I was able to find the following video in which you can hear him solo. A very good player, IMHO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTrvw850N84

And this one with both Herschel Evans and Lester Young:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQf8p2hRecc

Herschel Evans quick bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_Evans

Thanks alec for the Bud Shank clips. Listening to them now.

This is priceless. Don Byas live in Stockholm 1962.

"I Remember Clifford"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1LHw551HDA

pjw, fabulous Byas clip. Thanks. Look closely at the horn he’s playing. That is the very horn that James Carter played and talks about on the interview clip. Tell tale signs (video is not great): “DONBYAS” engraved on the inside lip of the bell. Look at the unusual raised “rocker”. That is the piece on the top of the neck (where the mouthpiece goes). Yup, that’s the one.  Cool!  Re your question:

Each horn has a certain sound/personality that affects the final tone produced by a player to varying degrees. However, a player’s tone is mostly about the way the player plays the horn; how he voices the sound of each note for the desired sound. The mouthpiece and reed also play a role. A special horn will make it easier for a player to produce the sound he hears in his head.

Thanks frogman for your response. As old and sub par as the Don Byas video is I can still clearly see his name engraved on the top inside of the bell at exactly the 5:10 mark of the video. I also see the raised "rocker"

On the newer James Carter video I see the raised "rocker" but I could barely make out the engraved Don Byas. It comes through as a "darkened area" on the top inside of the bell.

Unbelievable how I can see every letter of the engraving on the 58 year old video and just a hint of it on the 4 year old video. The interviewer made the cameraman move back when Carter started playing. They should have shot a close up of the bell. The focal point of the video was the story of how Carter came across that saxophone so the interviewer/cameraman dropped the ball on that one.

@isochronism

Your mention of Emily Remler has me a little choked up.  I was a big fan of Larry Coryell, especially live.  I hadn't heard of Remler until I saw them playing a lengthy set together about 12 feet in front of me in the late 80's (Coryell often had unannounced players join him, as it should be).

Emily had an obvious feel (and reverence) for the music, especially for someone so young - with the talent to express it.  And then she was gone at only 32.

keegiam, I too was a big Coryell fan; one of greatest guitar heroes and one with a very wide stylistic range. My first exposure to Coryell was with his band “Eleventh House“ during my college Fusion days.  I didn’t follow his career much in more recent years for no particular reason. A few years ago when we got a place in upstate NY I would occasionally come across notices for local performances featuring a Murali Coryell. I always wondered if there was any relation and went to check out this local guitar player/singer at a local club and found out that he was one of two guitar playing sons of the great Larry Coryell. This caused me to revisit some of those old Coryell records and to check out his newer stuff. Incredibly talented and versatile musical family; especially, of course, father Coryell.

One or my first Fusion records:

https://youtu.be/KmCsvQdKxNM


https://youtu.be/VxP-pw7H8qU

https://youtu.be/4Oeo94NZOf4

With another favorite guitar player:

https://youtu.be/73ERRvWW7hY

The Coryells:

https://youtu.be/ZaXAEBVEFOk

frogman, Coryell was a virtuoso, and he didn't seek acclaim.  He just kept pursuing his love of the music, the beauty of its structure and his reverence for its roots (be they European or African).

I wasn't a big fusion fan.  The performance that initially got me hooked was solo acoustic at Montreux:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMPkkZX2F8Y

Watching his fingers work the fret board is akin to watching music theory graphically illuminated right before our eyes, all with passion and abandon.

When we lost Coryell, we lost one of the masters.

Thanks keegiam for that Coryell acoustic clip. 

Under The Sign Of Capricorn is not on the 1974 Coryell album titled "At Montreux" with The Eleventh House. There is only one unaccompanied acoustic song Coryell plays to start out the show titled "Improvisation on Villa Lobos"  (Prelude #4 in E Minor).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_0ZmchNieM

Do you know if the Under the Sign of Capricorn was released on an album and if so what is the title?

Pjw, absolutely.  "European Impressions," recorded in 1978.  Side 1 was live at Montreux, Side 2 was studio work.

Do I love this album?  Over the years, I picked up several mint back-up copies "just in case."  The Arista vinyl puts you in the front row at Montreux.  Wonderful sound.  See track list below.  "Rodrigo Reflections" from the same live performance used to be on YouTube but now can't be found.  Spell-binding.

This album was never available in digital form until a few months after Coryell passed away, when it was released in Japan.  I ordered it immediately "just in case."

Side 1 (Montreux, 7/23/78):
Toronto Under the Sign of CapricornFor Philip and DjangoRodrigo Reflections

Side 2 (studio, 8/17/78)
April SeventhSilver Medley: Song for my Father & Sister SadieCopenhagen ImpressionsVariations on a Theme

Live version of "April Seventh:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psft8ZRfCRU

@frogman 

Forgot to thank you for the great Coryell links.  "Yesterdays" is just gorgeous.

No problem, keegiam.  No need; but thanks for your politeness

Thanks keegiam. Up to this point I was not aware that Coryell had recorded and released a live acoustic album. Found it and ordered it.

Coryell with Mclaughlin and Paco de Lucia on Paco's 'Castro Marin' album from 1981.

https://youtu.be/v5j67JdYpuQ

this one I do not have, its on dvd, not sure is it on record as well

https://youtu.be/RW_lUazJm0c

alexatpos, thanks for these important (to me) links.  I didn't know about the video-only Royal Hall concert.  Now I know Coryell preceded (and was replaced by) Al Di Meola in the trio that would soon record the legendary "Friday Night in San Francisco."  And why.

(BTW, it's interesting that the opening number from the Royal Hall show with Coryell is listed as "Intro - Entre Dos Aguas."  Most of us know that as "Mediterranean Sundance," the spectacular opening piece on the subsequent FNinSF recording.)

New to me: Coryell had a serious drug/alcohol addiction that became debilitating in '78 and culminated in successful rehab in late '81.  This is why he was replaced by DiMeola.

New to me: Paco de Lucia didn't read music.  I always assumed he did.  I should have known better, as usual.  Sounds like John and Larry learned a lot from Paco about flamenco, and Paco learned a lot about jazz from them.

Not new to me:  McLaughlin is the ultimate virtuoso.

Man, business is slow! Takeout only?


Birthday time!

One of my very favorite composer/orchestrators. Two very popular charts penned during his long association with Count Basie:

https://youtu.be/s0igE09HI1U

https://youtu.be/5_Mtgo9WOL0

A younger generation’s take on the same tunes:

https://youtu.be/UtNTFUxz0rQ

https://youtu.be/HOoby3jOEG0

Very successful in the film/tv world also:

https://youtu.be/XwIt58mdz6Y

And, of course:

https://youtu.be/vWUn6tzOAwU

@frogman

We all appreciate the spirit behind tribute recordings, but sometimes the better part of valor is leaving things alone.  Mintzer's "Cute" gets too frenetic given the bouncy flavor of the composition, and his "Lil' Darlin" feels unbearably slow and unengaging.

How is it that Basie's version of "Lil' Darlin" is so smooth and satisfying, whereas Mintzer's is a yawner?  I guess I'm officially old school.

Thanks for assembling and sharing these performances!

Keegiam, I completely agree with your reaction to the Mintzer recordings and I appreciate the reasonableness of your comments, especially those about “Lil’ Darlin“. You are relatively new to the thread, so allow me to explain in case it is not obvious.

Personally, I sometimes like to post certain clips to try and inspire reactions and commentary and not necessarily because I think the clips are particularly great. When I do think they are great it will be obvious. So, thanks for “biting”. BTW, given the subject of the thread (Hefti) it should be noted that while the Mintzer’s recordings are the same tunes they are not Hefti’s arrangements, they are Mintzer’s. That was the whole point of posting Mintzer; the different generational approaches to the same tunes. I do like Mintzer’s own compositions/arrangements in a modern bag, but that’s a different story.

Now, re your comment “unbearably slow and I engaging”. Basie recorded Hefti’s “Li’l Darlin” several times at many different tempos including some very slow versions. That chart became a staple of many working big bands’ repertoire and, for better or for worse, it became “a thing” to see just how slowly the band could play it without things falling apart. I posted this a while back. Same Hefti arrangement, almost as slow as Mintzer’s. Engaging? You bet. (Snooky Young kills me on this):

https://youtu.be/RlX0b-AJWz4

Slowest recorded “Li’l Darlin” I’ve heard. Engaging? Different vibe altogether.  Engaging in a typical Ray Charles funky way:

https://youtu.be/zHZnt8S6Xzc

It's Friday and that Snooky Young gave me goose bumps for the first time all week.  Among other things, his gentle touch when he adds vibrato is lovely.

Thanks frogman for the history on "Li'l Darlin'."  I had no idea bands looked at it that way.  Your clips show what a challenge it is, at that tempo, for the arrangers, leaders and players to keep it engaging and draw the audience deep into the mood.  Great stuff.

This is a very rewarding thread.  I'll stay ready and eager to "bite"!

Some Artists from the London ,UK Jazz scene .
Released in Feb 2018
This is new from the recent Jazz scene. it is not the old stuff like 99% of what people post in this thread .
Something Different , but GOOD !!!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbcerJq8u6IcL2oPGzkWdC_JcZVb09ZuH
Enjoy !
You can actually download or Buy it here 
https://weouthere.bandcamp.com/album/we-out-here

Thank you Grey9hound! Keep bringing what you like.

One I have been listening to lately. Different mood for different day.

Espen Eriksen Trio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN6AW-GM3Uk&list=RDCN6AW-GM3Uk&start_radio=1

Tingvall Trio- Dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DygH2HFPNJM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19hqCAVuL8A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ezdM6JsT0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUM6_hZ8bc8

Acman, nice.
The Espen E. trio sounds similar to Tord Gustavsen (in broad sense), another norwegian player. At first went to check do they share the same label, thought that perhaps its the way of production that makes them souund alike, but its different.
Maybe it has something to do with their musical upbringing?
Frogman, do you care to give some insider comment?

Tingvall's playing reminds me of McCoy Tyner (RIP).  That's a good thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKib8EXXbD4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73VczRfu9Kg