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.
orpheus10
Rosita 
pretty pretty tune from Coleman Hawkins meets Ben webster

happy new year!
frogman Thanks for the response on the question of "mindless riffing". I was busy celebrating the new year and had not the time to answer.

i assume "mindless riffing" can also be associated with "improvisation" if one does not, for want of choice, or cannot, for want of talent, stick to the guidelines you mentioned in your lengthy and helpful summary.

Since the passing of Coltrane most Jazz critics (yuk), and I have read this in too many articles to count, name Sonny Rollins as the "greatest living improvisor". Here is just one example:

In one sense the history of the last thirty years in jazz might be written in terms of the length of the solos that its horn players have been able to sustain. Certainly one contribution of bebop was that its best players (but only its best) could undertake longer improvisations which offered a flow of musical ideas without falling into honking or growling banalities. I do not mean that the younger players of the forties were either the first or the only jazz musicians to be able to do this, only that for some of them a sustained solo was a primary concern. However, a great deal of extended soloing in jazz has had the air of an endurance feat—a player tries to keep going with as little repetition as possible. But when the ideas are original and are imaginatively handled, such playing can have virtues of its own. However, a hornman’s best solos are apt to be continuously developing linear inventions. Sonny Rollins has recorded long solos which, in quality and approach, go beyond good soloist’s form and amount almost to sustained orchestrations.

Excerpt of an article written From Martin Williams, The Jazz Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1983) pp. 183-93.

Full article here:

Sonny Rollins: Jazz Improvisation | Saxophone | Analysis - Mara Marietta


Today's Listen:

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers  --  MOSAIC

Very detailed synopsis of each tune by the notes writer, Leonard Feather.   Obviously written for other musicians.

mosaic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzfURZdmkx8  

arabia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqI7KG1ERyQ  

crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS9wQqFgR68   

Cheers