Stuartk, I like her in both settings. As I said, it took me 15 years of trying to listen to her on Encounter and in other abstract settings for me to really click with it. See if you like this cut by Tania Maria. Same sort of Brazilian soulful tunefullness.
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.
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.
31,438 responses Add your response
Just discovered a group previously unknown to me... Paul Desmond/Gerry Mulligan Quartet "Blues In Time": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuFG5O8zW3Q
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I like Klemmer versatility... From relax album to more sophisticated jazz... But no one replace a giant, as Coltrane or Miles Davis or Chet Baker or few others who are in a league of their own... Some genius as Sun Ra and Walt Dickerson are too peculiar to be recognized as very great as some others because they are too idiosyncratic by their instrument choice and style of playing ...
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I’ve only heard Klemmer’s more commercial radio fare from the 70’s. I seem to recall him using electronic effects on his sax. I wasn’t aware he’d done anything else. Silverline SR 17.5. (Equipped with Dynaudio drivers). Bought them in new cond. on A’gon back in 2005. The current version is the SR 17 Supreme. At 7.5 K per pair, they are beyond my mean’s at present. If I get to a point where a speaker upgrade is possible, they will be a prime candidate. Silverline Audio is located in Walnut Creek, CA. |
stuartk, I only have heard Klemmer from the 70s. He was commercial. I wondered if he ever changed and went anywhere in the jazz world. It sounds like he didn't. Dynaudio drivers are tight and precise, am I right? I have Sonus Fabers, a splurge at $18K a pair, which my wife went along with because we'd just inherited money. Otherwise, they would never be in this house. They are tuned by ear, not by electronic analyzers. You have to like the ear that tuned them. I do. When I learn how to PM, I'll PM a longer message on hardware. |
I’m sorry but I’m not astute when it comes to driver brand characteristics. I can say the Silverlines are on the warm side of neutral with some cabinet coloration that emphasizes upper bass/lower mids, which is fine with me. Speakers that do not have this emphasis tend to sound lean/cold to my ears. My previous speakers were B&W standmounts (when we had a different furniture arrangement in the room). I was just starting out in audio and quickly realized I’d made a mistake. A forum member (now I wish I could remember who) suggested the Silverlines and for some reason, I opted to follow his suggestion. It proved to be an excellent one, in my case. From what I’ve read, the Supremes are a bit less colored and more resolving but still very musical. I was responding to the comments by @mahgister regarding Klemmer. Perhaps he will check back in and elucidate. |
I like the albums i have of Klemmer... Not the greatest sax i ever heard but not the worst...An honest musician... I dont always listen geniuses, it is easy listening .......
From "involvement" album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K-bC4FR8Zw From "finesse" album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5IsQDELVxA From "touch" album : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmhwKsft0mQ I like "barefoot ballet" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMftPV1Cr8c&list=PLl9cMNFDVYaJNgYXnysIj7_Faus2YzM1U |
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I like my 25 albums of Brookmeyer... Trombone ask for a good audio system room .... I am seduced by trombone... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PchsiRG-qdk
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I think all music style ask for a top audio system... For example my favorite music since the cradle is chorus music (sacred music), it is annoying to hear a melting pot of voices in a non balanced system room... Or through headphone unable to translate the acoustic flows of the voices...
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mahgister, Bach's Mass in C Minor, Mozart's Requiem, Carmina Burana, the last movement of Beethoven's 9th are among my favorites. And Yes, a good audio system helps a lot to hear more deeply into the music. Although, when I was in college with my Sears Silvertone stereo that folded into a suitcase ($100), I loved music dearly. I think the most important component in the audio chain is a curious and receptive brain. |
For sure you are right! Music dont need a good sound to be understood... It only help... I remember my ecstasy at 13 year old in 1964 with a battery small radio undercover the night with small earbuds... But we grow old and we ask for more... I did not have the budget to buy me a high end system... Then i learned acoustics applied and created one... I sold the house ans my acoustic room 2 years ago... Now my TOP system is happily the only headphone i ever liked... I had a good speakers system working optimally now but a very low cost one in nearfield with an acoustic set of resonators... Good sound help but do not replace a "receptive brain" as you said though...
My favorite music is choral music before Bach... The Franco-Flemish school, in particular Josquin Des Prez ...Russian choral music too after Bach...But i listen Armenian Choral or even Persian vocals and Indian vocals... I am not fond of much opera... Save Weil, Philip Glass, Busoni Faust... etc My greatest last discovery few years ago is the Christus masterpiece of Liszt by Antal Dorati ( i own three versions) ... Sublime music directly heard from heaven rivalling not only Bach but Bruckner geniuses ...
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I do not know him... But i must say that save for very few exceptions, Fitzgerald,Holiday,Baker, Armstrong, Charles ,Mari Nakamoto, Irene Kral, and few others which are really genius voices i do not tolerate jazz singer generally much more than one listening... I only say my truth here and i can understand that some like jazz singing more than i do... |
mahgister, Mose Allison is in his own world. He has played jazz piano behind Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims and others. He writes many of the songs he sings, although the Seventh Son was written by Willie Dixon. I first heard him in the mid-sixties, when I was in my early twenties and I was blown away, not just by his voice, but also because he was white. I never would have guessed it listening to him. He seems to ride the line between jazz and rhythm & blues and has influenced many rock stars. Here he is singing one of his most famous songs "Parchman Farm." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRAYLabbHPk I think I was lucky to hear him in my early twenties because I had no expectations considering genre, jazz, rock, rhythm and blues. I just flat-out was blown away by the guy. If you don’t think of him as "jazz," you might like him better. I’ve heard him live several times and seen him in the movie "The Score" (De Niro, Brando, Angela Bassett, Edward Norton) as the jazz guy in the background. When I heard him live once he didn’t sing at all, just played jazz piano. |
Thanks i will try to slowly tame him with my heart in spite of my hesitation... Anybody meaningful discovery can be ours if we stay attentive indeed ...
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maghister, I like music that rides between genres. I’m listening to Herbie Hancock’s "River," a tribute to Joni Mitchell who was much interested in jazz. I saw him at the Hollywood Bowl do the album "River." One thing I remember, the bass player was in the back where bass players usually are. But it was Esperanza Spalding and her fingers were like a fast, fast spider splaying all over that finger board. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She really dominated that concert. |
@audio-b-dog -Thanks for adding both Gato Barbieri and Mose Allison to the conversation. I have "Fenix" and play it a half dozen times a year, or so. Gato's recording-mates are impressive-Ron Carter, Lonnie Liston Smith, Joe Beck, and Nana Vasconcelos. I saw Mose often at The Bottom Line, in NYC. Correct me if I am wrong-The Who play his composition, "Young Man Blues" on "Live at Leeds." Bonnie Raitt covers, "Everybody's Cryin' Mercy". He also wrote great lyrics-"Your Molecular Structure," and "Your Mind is on Vacation." |
Thanks frogman for J.J. Johnson...A phenomenal musician master of trombone fluidity... The Columbia 1960 4 albums are a gem music and sound... As usual you feed me the right stuff... https://www.amazon.com/Columbia-Albums-Collection-1961-JJ-JOHNSON/dp/B07L22H91L |
wharfy, I know a lot of rock bands have covered Mose Allison’s songs. I’m not sure which have covered what, though. Several times a year, I get out of bed and say to myself, "I have to listen to Mose today." I’m not a straight-up jazz listener. I like all kinds of music, but I also like all kinds of jazz adjacent music. If Mose is just playing jazz, then he’s a jazzman. If he’s playing and singing, he’s not exactly a jazz singer but his piano is playing jazz. I’m a big Gato Barbieri fan. I don’t have "Fenix," though. I’ll stream it. Thanks for mentioning it. |
I don’t feel competent to make any definitive declarations in this regard. For one thing, I haven’t heard much Sinatra. What I have heard has not displayed what I consider to be fundamental to the genre: improvisation on his part. There are of course, plenty of examples of vocalists fronting bands playing "jazzy" arrangements of standards that do not feature improvisation by the singer. To my mind, this does necessarily make it Jazz. Perhaps it’s a matter of degree... Let’s wait and see what @frogman has to say on this topic.
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It is evident for me that Sinatra is a great singer... But i had no real interest for him... If i hear him i know he is more than average to say the least... But i cannot say i appreciate many singers.... The singer i like the most is a persian singer with many Indian singers...
To stay in Jazz each time i hear Louis Armstrong playing or singing i felt him in my gut....it is not that i love him, he is like a sun irradiating...
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curiousjim, glad I could get your toes tapping! stuartk, the reason I mentioned Sinatra was because many musicians and singers have called him a genius. He lost his voice early on in his career, I think when he was in his twenties. Early Sinatra sounds much like Bing Crosby. Sinatra made up for the problems with his voice by inventing new phrasing, and it is this phrasing that other musicians refer to as his genius. I wondered if that phrasing would give him a place in the jazz world along with Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Every New Years I am absolutely blown away that New York is still playing Sinatra's "New York, New York." He was born 110 years ago and died 27 years ago and I still hear him everywhere, as I do with Ella Fitzgerald. I grew up listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and I don't know who else remembers Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Jazz was all around but I didn't think of it as jazz. It was just the music my parents were playing. And, of course, Sinatra was all around. |
If I remember correctly, Sinatra called himself a "Saloon Singer". Swung like crazy, probably a pop singer though. I found this interesting. Frank Sinatra: Through the Lens of Jazz - JazzTimes
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acman3, thanks for finding that article. That's what I was talking about when I said other musicians regard him highly. On the level of Billie Holiday! High praise. mahgister, on the topic of Persian singers I have a story. I was a pretty wild young guy at 21. My girlfriend and I had $300 and two charter tickets to London. From London we hitched through Europe, mostly took trains through Turkey, but in Iran, people wanted to pick us up to speak English. Plus my girlfriend was beautfiul. We were theoretically going to India, but were running out of money. We hit the last town in Iran before Aghanistan. Very religious. One guy pulled a knife on us simply for being infidels. We had a local who was showing us around and he took us into a club, I guess you'd call it. And I was floored because the Iranians at the border were so religious, but on stage was a woman singer, and she had one of the most soulful voices I've ever heard. |
To my mind, unless he was attempting to invent new phrasing every time he sang, he wasn’t improvising. I’m reluctant to include any musician in the category of Jazz who doesn’t improvise, no matter how talented they might be. And just to clarify, I’m not suggesting improv is the sole criterion! Clearly, there are other styles of music in which improvisation is central. That doesn’t make them Jazz, either. To my ears, Sinatra’s approach still sounds like Pop, no matter how jazzy the arrangement. Pop with jazzy backing sounds like Vegas to me, not Jazz, but no doubt others will disagree. I’d guess Sinatra fans did not go to his concerts wanting to be surprised by new, risk-taking interpretations -- they wanted and expected him to deliver what they knew from his records. |
Good story! thanks...
My favorite female singer near this region is Abida Parveen Try her... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU9uBMPqQdE or Kishori Amonkar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJnjyN-n_zE my favorite Persian singer with his most stunning album : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p7KccSKDfY&list=PL4F5BC82BE6B287E7 my favorite Persian female singer album : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS065XPSCFc&t=1s My second best : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdkaDVL5rhc&list=RDEMTZ2IZ9GPjU2tQBCraGtHrg&start_radio=1
I feel as Greek as Persian Parisa is a goddess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgUCOnC36zM
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i learned to love Tina Turner a lot : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isXLBHCDo4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isXLBHCDo4Y
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mahgister, thanks for the music! stuartk, I have a lot of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Billie Holiday albums. They often don't improvise except in the way they interpret songs, like Frank Sinatra. No doubt, Fitzergerald can scat with the best of them, but she doesn't always feel the need. So, I don't think improvisation is a necessary attribute of jazz. BTW, I think you didn't like Tania Maria, but she can scat like nobody's business. |
