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.
Thank you Frogman for your reply. Louis sings on this one also, as you would say, with the gravel in his voice but notice the quote from Duke Ellington on the beginning of the clip: "He was born poor, died rich, and never hurt anyone along the way."
I haven’t read much of his biography, if you don’t count what I’ve read along the way, but if he has such a reputation, so I admire him more.
I am probably not the right one to make any judgement on this one but looking from my personal perspective (there I can babble as much as I want still staying ’alive’ while doing it), mostly what I hear in ’new jazz’ I find a bit sterile (as if music is too clean). One could say that I haven’t heard much so cannot be competent but still what I hear is that a song sounds as if it could have been completely computer generated without human involvement - this I do not feel when listenin’ ’old jazz’. I guess too much technical work on piece of music kills the fun.
Pryso, there were some questions about LP's from Rarewaves.com Ltd. The LP I have is perfect; I just scrutinized it a second time when I down loaded it to the hard drive.
Not only is the LP without noise scratches and pops, but the jazz is outstanding; it's from a time when Blakey and The Messengers were on fire.
Bass – Jimmy Merritt* Bongos – John Rodriguez* (tracks: 2 to 10) Congas – Tommy Lopez (tracks: 2 to 10), William Rodriguez* (tracks: 2 to 10) Drums – Art Blakey Engineer – Tom Nola* Piano – Bobby Timmons, Duke Jordan (tracks: 3) Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Barney Wilen (tracks: 1, 3 to 9) Trumpet – Lee Morgan (tracks: 1, 4 to 9)
That guy Barney Wilen blows a mean sax, he fits right in with Blakey and the messengers.
The downside is that he left the stage thinking he had played Jazz. I don't understand the motive of real Jazz players being complicit in it's destruction.
I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Musicians don’t worry about labels nearly as much as listeners do; especially listeners who feel the need to attach strict labels to everything in order to justify their own narrow tastes. I guarantee you the kid was thinking “I just played music with my idol (and pretty much held my own)”, not “I played jazz with my idol”.
**** Must be the money. ****
Of course, it couldn’t possibly be that your perspective is a bit off and that those real jazz players understand something you don’t?
Rok, that thing with Chick Corea is from "My Spanish Heart". Before this they gave us "Mingus" soup warmed over, and claimed it was something fantastic; maybe we're asking for too much.
The past is never dead, it's not even past.
Beka Gochiashvili is a fantastic pianist, but can he create something original, that's what jazz is all about. Originality was what made Mingus, as well as Monk; the ability to improvise was what made the "Messengers" and modern jazz.
I thank you Acman, and Frogman for bringing good music to this thread, and even if it does not resonate with my harmonic strings, it's still good music by fantastic musicians.
"In physics, resonance is a phenomenon in which a vibrating system or external force drives another system to oscillate with greater amplitude at specific frequencies. Frequencies at which the response amplitude is a relative maximum are known as the system's resonant frequencies or resonance frequencies."
O-10, as I get older I seem to get less and less tolerant of bs. I suppose I should appreciate, on some level, the attempt at even handed magnanimity even if it rings hollow. There would never be any argument over preferences and different tastes in music were it not accompanied with a sense of superiority and shades of condescension for those with a different view; especially when it s not accompanied by much that is substantive. I have a different take (surprise!): It is not that you are “asking too much”, it is that you are asking too little....of yourselves and of your musical acumen. As usual the proof is obvious:
The Chick Corea tune is not from “My Spanish Heart”; it is the tune “Spain” from “Light As A Feather”. Additionally, do I need to remind you that the “warmed over Mingus” was presented by you when you could not recognize the obvious, that it was not the original Mingus?
Frogman, since "My Spanish Heart" was 2 LP's of Chick Coreas music projecting his Spanish Heart, don't you think "Spain" might have been incorporated somewhere in that music.
Whenever you get through, I heard music from "My Spanish Heart"; that's two LP's, and four sides of music. if you give it a listen, you might agree, but since it was his music in both cases, he could play it whenever and however he wanted, and call it what he liked.
And here I thought it was the genuine article, I thought it was "Mingus", that just goes to show how good they were at warming it over.
Wow, I’m new to the forum and just discovered this thread. There’s no way I’ll ever have time to read all 228 pages of it, but what I have seen is entirely in line with my tastes...the OP’s suggestion of Blakey’s Moanin’ is one of the first jazz albums that really spun my head around. Every solo on the opening track is on fire.
These are a few of my favorite jazz albums: 1. Abdullah Ibrahim: Capetown Revisited 2. Les McCann and Eddie Harris: Swiss Movement 3. Bill Evans: Waltz for Debbie 4. Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time In 5. Thelonious Monk: Misterioso 6. Weather Report: Heavy Weather 7. Wes Montgomery: Echoes of Indiana Ave.
Alex, you are always coming up with something special for me, even when it's outside the genre; "Rumble" for example, was not in my collection, I didn't even know the name of the tune, but it seemed to come on the car radio about 4:00 in the morning when I was trying to get back to the base in 59. I thought that was a bad guitar, but I never knew the name of the tune.
It's amazing how music can swirl around in your head without knowing the tune or the artist.
With all those fantastic "unknown" artists, I know you're just being modest.
Coldducktime, I know Rok is going to like you, that's one of his favorite tunes, mine too as a matter of fact; it reminds me of wine drinking lawn parties in the Summer time.
Out of the artists you have listed, I haven't heard too much of Abdullah Ibrahim, I'll have to correct that.
I guess its better to talk about the music that we like than to argue about it. So, will use the opprtunity to post something that is not jazz, an artists that I would very much like to have seen playing alive...perhaps some of you gents did?
alex, I've been away a couple of days visiting old friends so I'm late in responding to you. I'll just say this.
I admit to being guilty of having one foot in the music appreciation door and the other in the audiophile door. That can create conflicts sometimes. But I would suggest that most folks I know who identify as being audiophiles will have a strong preference for newer recordings, whether they are jazz or any other category. That is a major element in driving the reissue market on audiophile labels. It is more the true music lovers who "get into" or appreciate the sonics of the original recordings from the '50s and '60s. I don't believe it was audiophiles who drove up the prices on the original BN LPs. So if my comments on older recording procedures suggested audiophile listening that was not my intent. Just the opposite in fact. But none of this is important so long as we each find recordings we enjoy of music we love.
BTW, "Rumble" was released when I was in high school and I still have than and many other classics from that time on original 45s. That brought a smile to my face.
**** I don't believe it was audiophiles who drove up the prices on the original BN LPs. ****
That is such an important observation to drive home on a site like this! It should be the * after ”Audiogon”, “Stereophile”, “The Absolute Sound”, etc.
Re Benny Carter: I couldn’t agree more that he hasn’t gotten his due here; only a couple of prior mentions by you and I. Fantastic musician. Saxophonist AND trumpet player, not to mention fantastic arranger. Recently had the pleasure of being part of a project of the recreation of the music for the classic Fred Astaire film “An American In Paris” and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the orchestrations of that great George Gershwin score were by Benny Carter. One of the most admired musicians, by musicians. Great clip!
One can never hear "My Favorite Things" by John Coltrane too many times.
As I listen, I'm swept back in time to when I saw him and his group perform it live. We (my girl plus another couple) had a table adjacent to the bandstand; I could see the beads of sweat on McCoy Tyner's forehead as he jammed, and "Trane" was in his groove. When I say in his groove, his eyes were closed, and he just wasn't here; he was wherever musicians go when they're in their groove.
I got lost in the music; the live version was precisely 27 minutes long, Trane was out there; he took us on a journey through the "Cosmos". It's easy to understand how him and Alice was a match made in heaven.
Actually, the personnel on each version of NIT is different enough that they will each have a very different feel; and they do. On O-10’s clip it is Al Haig on piano and Curley Russell on bass as opposed to Bud and Mingus on Acman3’s. I too like them both , each for different reasons; but overall I like the version with Bud and Mingus better.
First, I much prefer the way that the Massey Hall version was recorded. It has a more distant perspective, but much better balanced whereas the other was recorded much more upclose and the drums overpower the horns; not as realistic. Musically, the Massey Hall is slightly faster and the band sounds a little lighter and tighter overall. The other sounds more “swingy” which I don’t think serves the Latin flavor of the tune as much. On the other hand, the solos by both Bird and Dizzy on the version with Al Haig are incredible. Bird’s solo break is a wonder. Tough choice, aren’t we lucky?
Frogman, you based your decision on the "superflous" reason of a small difference in personel, when "Bird" and "Diz" was what mattered. Never the less, I plugged my best set of headphones in for this audition.
"On the other hand, the solos by both Bird and Dizzy on the version with Al Haig are incredible. Bird’s solo break is a wonder. Tough choice, aren’t we lucky?"
No, it wasn't a tough choice, for the very reason you stated, plus Curley Russell comes in smoking on the intro. That's followed by Diz's "riffs". Max Roach is white hot on drums, Al Haig gives us a nice piano solo, but the best is yet to come. At 1:16, "Bird's" lightening fast riffs, that are as smooth as silk lets us know who is the "riff king".
At 4:44, after Diz heard Bird, he knew he had better not come back "shucking and jiving", and he lets loose a flurry of crystal clear, crisp clean riffs.
Without a shadow of a doubt; "The Town Hall Concert" is the best.
First, for "Night In Tunisia" my vote is cast here. It was the first version I heard then owned. Therefore it is the one I've heard most often so it is burned into my mind and thus becomes the comparison for all others. I love the energy/drive, typical for Blakey recordings, and the closing solos.
Rok, you did the same thing as Frogman, you voted for the contestants as opposed to the music.
"Diz" sounded tired compared to his Town Hall blowing. You could call Bud Powell "Laid Back", but I say he lacked the energy of Al Haig. Bird was blowing a white plastic sax; yall git out of here.
Guilty as charged. I should have said Massey Hall SHOULD have been the definitive Tunisia.
I wondered was that the infamous plastic saxophone. I have a hard time taking Dizzy and Bird serious for just that reason. They act like kids. The bent trumpet, the plastic sax, I know their place in Jazz, but that's almost like todays so-called Jazz players wearing tank tops and jeans.
Proves my point that players that cover early classics can, and often do, play them better than the masters.
I did not realize HRH had posted 'Favorite Things'. Sorry your grace.
Let me get this straight, O-10, you think that a difference of 2/3...two out of the three (!) members of the rhythm section, the rhythm section!, is “small and superfluous”. I see. Explains a whole lot.
You can't wriggle your way out of this one Frogman, the music was better at "The Town Hall Concert", and since you are a musician you know it, and if you don't, put some headphones on and listen.
Like I said, Bird had a white plastic sax at Massey Hall, not even the great "Bird" was good enough to blow himself away on that one; and that's who he was competing with.
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