We Get Requests - Oscar Peterson? analogue productions has done some recent re-releases.
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Do you like Count Basie? He did a couple of albums on Pablo with Ray Brown and Louie Bellson, titled "For the First Time" and "For the Second Time." He also collaborated on (I think) three albums with Oscar Peterson, making for a quartet where the two pianists trade choruses throughout. The first one was "Satch and Josh", which also included Freddie Green on rhythm guitar. The second one was "Satch and Josh ... again" minus Freddie Green and with John Heard on bass instead of Brown. The third one is "The Timekeepers. All on Pablo, all well recorded and played, mostly bluesy jazz with a swing, a la Basie, but also a nice departure from the more cerebral nature of much of trio jazz. I also have a Marian McPartland LP on Concord (great sonics!); can't remember the title or personnel, but it's a good album. Reading your initial post makes me want some Billy Taylor and McCoy Tyner too. I just remembered, I have a Ray Brown Trio album with Gene Harris and Mickey Roker. Harris is a very high energy player. Also on Concord, which = great sonics. |
Scads- Tete Montoilu trio w/NHOP, Tootie Heath on Steeplechase - there's like 4 of them that are amazing. ***** Chick Corea - Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, and Acoustic Band LPs. ***** Oscar Peterson made bunches of trio albums - can't go wrong. Same for Bill Evans. Waltz for Debby is from the same gig as Sunday at Village Vanguard. Pretty sure it's available as a box set. I have it on 2 old double albums + reg LPs. Tommy Flanagan - Eclypso, Ballads and Blues, Super Session, Thelonica. There's more Kenny Drew - Dark Beauty, By Request, At the Brewhouse, + more. Ray Brown - Soular Energy (much loved) Red Garland - Groovy, It's a Blue World, All Kinds of Weather, + more Hampton Hawes - Here and Now Roy Haynes - We Three Fred Hersch Trio - Horizons, Whirl, + more John Hicks - Hells Bells, I'll Give You Something to Remember Me By, + more Mulgrew Miller - Keys to the City, From Day to Day Ronnie Mathews - So Sorry Please Joanne Brackeen, Ray Bryant, George Cables, Michael Camilo, Sonny Clark, Barry Harris all made nice trio LPs. Thelonious Monk Trio is from 1954. It's mono (OJC) Regards, |
I'll second Hank Jones and the Great Jazz Trio. There are a series of recordings from the 1970's and 1980's that are musically excellent and sonically spectacular. Look for "Direct From LA", "At The Village Vanguard Vols. 1 & 2" and "Love For Sale". You want the Japanese pressings on EastWind records, not the US pressings on Inner City. |
Cecil Taylor's "Love For Sale" consists of trio and quintet. Four out of the six tracks are trio recordings. This is Cecil in 1959 when he was still playing standard tunes before he went to the stratosphere, so even if you're adverse to avant-garde jazz this is still quite accessible and adventurous at the same time. Early Cecil was never fortunate enough to record with a good piano nor a good engineer so his early works cannot be qualified as "audiophile" recordings. But with such amazing music by one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, it hardly matters to me. The great Herbie Nichols had a 1957 trio recording on the Bethlehem label called "The Bethlehem Years." Nichols was an unheralded figure with a unique sound. In this record, he teams up with George Duvivier on bass and Danny Richmond on drums. Majority of the tunes are composed by Nichols. Worth checking out. _______ |
You can get sick of any music, no matter how great, if you overplay it. It's not like they play the record on the radio all the time. The OP asked for suggestions and it appears he's not overly familiar with Bill Evans Trio, in which case "Waltz for Debby" is a no-brainer. It blew me away the first time I heard it. And it sounds absolutely glorious, even the cheap Riverside reissue. I personally can never get tired of hearing the clinking and clanking of the glasses and utensils at the tables, and the faint sound of people's conversations between the tunes; it's like being transported back in time. An absolutely timeless record. |
Just yesterday night, I was listening for another time to "Waltz for Debby" from Bill Evans. This album is really excellent and like Actusreus said, even with the cheap Riverside reissue which I have. It is so airy, live, well recorded, etc... A must have! Last years, at the Montreal Jazz Festival, we had the chance to hear a jazz group with pianist François Bourassa, that played a tribute to Bill Evans. A superb show. Sébastien |
I didn't mean to belittle you for your enthusiasm. It is a great recording, indeed. I was just making a very personal and therefore irrelevant statement about that specific piece. However, it definitely should be in anyone's collection who is interested in small group piano jazz. Sorry to sound snotty. I am a big Bill Evans fan. Bill Evans with Marian McPartland, on her old radio show, is a gem, even on CD. |
I see some great suggestions here. A few of my favorite are "For Duke" on M+K. It is a direct to disc in honor of Duke Ellington. This is a very special record. I seldom play it for anyone but myself, unless someone is a real music lover or audiophile. Another is Muddy Waters on Fidelity 180g. When I am in a rock-n-roll mood, the Heart Little Queen is very well done on a London label. |
Mal Waldron, "Impressions," with Addison Farmer and Tootie Heath, 1959. Rhythmic drive with brooding undertow. OJC reissues are around in used record stores with decent jazz selections. Anything by Herbie Nichols. Hints of Monk's angularity, humor, and space with a touch of Tatum. Brilliant stuff. The Mosaic 3-LP box is one of my favs. |
Lewm, No need to apologize. I'll come clean myself and confess that a few months ago I finally OD'ed on jazz and just...lost interest. I didn't know what the hell happened; I just didn't feel like listening to any of my jazz records. If it can happen to a big jazz fan like myself with respect to ALL jazz, I can certainly understand how it can happen with respect to one particular record. As a side note, I was very glad I could fall back on classic rock, which my other favorite genre, to still enjoy my vinyl. I then thought of my my audiophile neighbor who listens exclusively to classical music. Being able to listen to only one genre of music exclusively always seemed somewhat of a disadvantage to me since the person misses amazing music in other genres, and then poses a risk exemplified by my experience. But I digress. Anyone have the Analogue Productions' 45 re-issue of Waltz for Debby? I have never heard it. Just wonder how it compares to the 33's out there. I neither have, nor ever heard the AP 45 RPM pressing of "Waltz for Debby," but last week, by an incredible stroke of sheer luck, I got the Analogue Productions 45 RPM reissue of "Sunday at the Village Vanguard" for...$10. I have not had a chance to listen to it yet, but I'd imagine it should give us a pretty good idea what "Waltz for Debby" on 45 would sound like. If you're interested, I'd be happy to report on my impressions. |
We have a local jazz DJ who says every Sunday on his show that "jazz is the sound of surprise". For me that perfectly captures why I love jazz. I still have a childish love of surprise. So, when I hear "Waltz for Debby" for the umpteenth time (that one tune, not the whole album), there is no longer any surprise in it for me. I would love to hear Bill Evans play it live, one more time. I am sure he would do it differently from what he does on the recording, and I would dig it. I have been listening to KOB since I was 15 years old. I lay off of listening to it for years at a time, in my later life, so as to preserve that sense of surprise and discovery when I do listen to it (the whole album, in this case). |
Wrm57: "Anything by Herbie Nichols. Hints of Monk's angularity, humor, and space with a touch of Tatum. Brilliant stuff. The Mosaic 3-LP box is one of my favs."I don't have the Mosaic but the Blue Note twofer compilation from the 70's or 80's is one of my favorite piano records and it sits quite well along with anything by Powell or Monk. Brilliant, indeed. John Lewis is another favorite but I can't remember if he made any pure trio recording. His "Improvised Meditations and Excursions" has a couple trio tracks and the solo album "John Lewis Piano," also on Atlantic, is quite swell. What an elegant player. His autumnal recording "Evolution," CD only, is achingly beautiful. You mentioned Tatum and his group "masterpiece" recordings on Pablo are crown jewels by the giant. His grouping with Ben Webster is among the must listen recordings. Going back a little earlier, the greatest pianist before Tatum would have to be Earl Hines. He even made an audiophile recording for M&K "For Fatha" playing some modern tunes. His "Blue Monk" is a joy. Lennie Tristano's Atlantic twofer is another must have. The first four tracks never seize to amaze me whenever I hear them. I think he might have made a couple trio recordings but none, musically, can touch the Atlantic. Utterly brilliant. I need to go spin some tunes now. Chiao. _______ |
Almost forgot to add the under-appreciated Wynton Kelly, best known as the "other" piano sideman on Miles Davis's famous "Kind of Blue" LP and one of my personal favorites as a trio player. On KOB, Kelly plays on on the bluesy "Freddy Freeloader" while the legendary Bill Evans does the rest of the piano work. What you might like to check out are some of Kelly's LPs, which are excellent. He varies his line-up and personnel, but a lot of it is trio work, notably with Jimmy Cobb (drums) and Paul Chambers (bass) from the KOB sessions. |
I also like the Red Garland Trio and I had a favorite record which included Philly Joe Jones on drum kit. His brush work on 'The Man I Love' was as good as it gets. Even though the band line ups are often jumbled around, I myself would go looking for earlier Paul Bley records and they're all recorded in stereo as far as I know. OK, I don' want to miss this Brahms cadenza. |
Yes, the Billy Taylor: I Wish I Knew has a similar sound but the Billy Taylor CDs I have do not. I guest the remaster changed that. I love technical and rhythmic trio jazz like that. On a completely different note, I am listening to David Byrne: My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. Never heard it before and is brilliant. Plan on putting some Art of Noise on later. All on vinyl of course |
Recordings on jazz labels from back in the day are often hit or miss. For example, I bought a mono first pressing of Ella Fitzgeralds 'Like Someone in Love' on Verve.. This record comes with an orchestral accompaniment on both sides A and B. Anyway, one side sounds fine but the other side is, well let's just say that it's not in sync. The reason for this is that recording and editing of the accompaniment were done first and separately from when Ella went into the studio and sang. When the engineers paired them up, the speed of the accompaniment was right on side A but a half step down or so in pitch on side B. It seems as though jazz labels were in a hurry to bring out new releases and slighted on quality but many had the financial resources classical labels did not so it doesn't add up. On the contrary, 'Ella Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook', another Verve release is fine, or close enough to believe that they all could have been in the recording studio together. |
I have the Bill Evans box set of 45rpm pressings from Analogue Productions. It is a treasure trove of jazz, and it even includes the Cannonball Adderley "Know What I Mean" album with Bill Evans (probably my favorite of all the wonderful albums in this box). I've only compared a couple of the albums to their 33rpm equivalents, and I think the 45rpm versions give it that extra layer of realism. |
I'd look through the store record binds for Cecil Taylor recordings and as I had said earlier, Paul Bley (Keith Jarrett's biggest mentor) recordings. For myself, learning and discovering material is half the fun of buying records and both of the above mentioned pianist/composers have a mile long discography of recording projects both on vinyl and CD. |
Dear Philjolet, In response to Sbrownnw's question regarding the quality of the piano reproduction on his jazz LPs, you wrote the following: "my guess is that you are hearing the vintage equipment they recorded them with (vintage vacuum tube sound)" I know this is OT, and please forgive me for it, but I strongly disagree with your opinion. What is the basis for it? Makes no sense to me at all. Vacuum tubes are not even capable of that sort of distortion, except maybe in a guitar amp where the distortion is deliberately introduced. I rather suspect that Sbrownnw's cartridge is mistracking on the particular LPs he mentions or that the LPs themselves are just not good copies or were abused during their lifetimes. Just had to vent. Back to jazz piano trios. |