There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind ... the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it's successful; if it doesn't it has failed. -- Duke Ellington
This purpose of this thread is to provide a place to post outstanding examples of the Good Music. Genre Immaterial.
Notes: "Arriving in New York in 1892, Dvořák cast himself with enthusiasm into the music of a country he had long admired. He was delighted by the songs of Stephen Foster, by Afro-American spirituals and folk music. "It is this spirit which I have tried to reproduce in my new symphony," he later wrote. He wrote his Ninth Symphony as music sent home "from the New World," adding this phrase as the work's title shortly before its first performance in New York in 1893."
SYMPHONY No.9 in E Minor, Op.95 "From the New World"
Notes: "Mary Lou Williams, pianist-composer-arranger, is the only major Jazz artist who has lived through all the eras in the history of Jazz and played the new music of each era."
Wiki: European Concert is a live album by American jazz group the Modern Jazz Quartet featuring performances recorded in Sweden in April 1960 and originally released on two consecutive volumes on the Atlantic label.
Notes : It was decided that this date would present Horace as a combo leader for the first time. He responded by getting Kenny Dorham and Art Blakey to join himself and two of the members of his Minton's quartet, Hank Mobley and Doug Watkins. Thus The Messengers were born, or reborn. Actually the name had been used before by Art Blakey when he led a 17 piece band on occasional gigs, and a septet on Blue Note, both in the late Forties.
Members of Eckstine's band have included: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Fats Navarro, Lucky Thompson, Kenny Dorham and Art Blakey.
Notes : "Recorded in 1959, Mingus Dynasty is a fine cross section of the sort of music that endeared Mingus to Jazz followers. Showcased here is his ability to bring seemingly disparate elements together and make even the rough edges sound natural."
Notes : "In an album that laughed at the East coast vs. West coast critical arguments of the day, Art pepper in 1959 executed a masterpiece that maintains its freshness and fiber nearly half a century later."
Billie Holiday(vocals), Ben Webster(tenor sax), Barney Kessel(guitar), Harry "Sweets" Edison(trumpet), Jimmy Rowles(piano), Red Mitchell(bass), J Alvin Stoller(drums), Larry Bunker(drums)
Bill Evans(piano), Scott LaFaro(bass), Paul Motian(drums)
Riverside / OJC 1961 / 2011
Notes : "This Original Jazz Classics Remasters reissue of Explorations is the definitive edition of the album that captured one of Jazz's seminal bands on its final visit to a recording studio."
Notes : "Ray's doin' just fine. He works where he wants, when he wants and for good bread. And the honors have even started to come in. He's one of a handful of musicians who are part of The Smithsonian's Living Legends Oral History Archive. And recently he was elected to the Hall Of Fame at The Institute For Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. So few of the guys from the golden age made it to their golden years in good shape. Ray has his cake, and he's eatin' it. Sometimes the good guys actually do win."
The first Jazz album I ever purchased was Bryant's Slow Freight.
Wiki : Booker Little Jr. (April 2, 1938 – October 5, 1961)[1] was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He appeared on many recordings in his short career, both as a sideman and as a leader. Little performed with Max Roach, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy and was strongly influenced by Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown. He died aged 23.[2]
Brooklyn, fourth largest city in America had a symphony orchestra from the mid 1800’s (Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn, later the Brooklyn Philharmonic) until 2010. The Brooklyn Phil was a very fine orchestra known for its innovative programming. Some would argue that it was its emphasis on new works resulting in smaller and smaller audiences that led to its demise. Some interesting factoids about Brooklyn:
Brooklyn is home to over 700 cultural arts institutions and a hotbed of modern Jazz.
Speaking of the Brooklyn Dodgers: the name came about because of its once maze of street cars, pedestrians had to constantly “dodge” the vehicles.
Brooklyn has two “Leaving Brooklyn” highway signs. One reads “Leaving Brooklyn, Oy Vey!”, and my favorite, “Leaving Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit!”
And, of course, its the birthplace of the hotdog 😊
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