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

Frogman...

I am under the shock now of listening the album with Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, thanks to your insisting recommendation...Trumpet mastery twice in one album is incredible...

The last time you put me in schock so great as this, was with our beloved Pat Martino irresistible  creativity ...But trumpet is my instrument in second with piano first and guitar in third position... There exist for sure other great trumpeters than Miles Davis and Chet Baker....But i cannot buy all albums that exist, i need recommendation ...

I read all your recommendations like gospel...

Thanks....

There is two Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw albums i know...

I listen to one...

I will listen the second one soon...

This is marvellous collaboration...

 

 

mahgister, here is a trumpet/flugelhorn player not often mentioned, Art Farmer.  Nothing flashy, just great, melodic playing.  This is a favored album from my man Mulligan.

 

Thanks pryso i know him but i must go back to listen to him again...

My deeperst respect....

acman, when I was in college back in the early '60s I saw the great documentary, "Jazz on a Summer's Day".  Giuffre, Brookmeyer, and Hall opened that with "The Train and the River".  That was my introduction to Guiffre and I thought it was really cool.

Of course, lots of other great music in that film, particularly Anita O'Day.  I never heard anything else by her that was so much fun.

 

Post removed 

Thanks frogman...

I am ashamed to say that i did not know him...

 

😁😊

Elling was impressed  with this new Estonian band . This country did very well when it left Russia .

 

 

This has to be the most soulful version of My Funny Valentine ever, a perfectly crafted solo by John Park, former lead alto w/Stan Kenton.

Speaking of Clark Terry, friends recommended his film, "Keep On Keepin' On".  They were somewhat familiar with Terry's work but had no idea how many musicians he influenced.  Unfortunately I've not been able to see it yet myself.  But this interview with the director will give you a good idea.

 

"Blame It On My Youth" is my favorite Art Farmer recording.  

 

 

 

 

Please do not forget Charles Tolliver, with the likes of Jackie Mclean and also as a leader! 

 

 

@mahgister 

RE: "Extraordinary Sarangi", when I listen to such players, it feels like they are playing my nerves for strings !  

@mahgister RE: "Extraordinary Sarangi", when I listen to such players, it feels like they are playing my nerves for strings !

I understand you completely...

I feel the same thing when listening most pop and rock, heavy metal music or rap... 😁😊 

I tolerate only classical , jazz and some traditional music from many countries...

All is learned and relative i guess....

Thanks, pryso for the reminder of “Keep On Keepin’ On”.  Fantastic documentary

What a wonderful musician and human being Clark Terry was!

 

As a foursome they were well known back in the day.  Individually only Getz and Sims were popular and recorded often.  Steward and Chaloff not so much.

 

Nice! Great chart and some swinging solos. Thanks, pryso.

As you know, they were well known as a foursome as the saxophone section in the Woody Herman big band of the late ‘40’s; Woody’s Second Herd. A very unusual saxophone section in that it featured three tenors and a baritone; as opposed to the far more common lineup of two altos, two tenors and a baritone. The tune “Four Brothers” featured and celebrated the four members of the section:

pryso’s great clip brought a couple of things to mind: the influence of the great Lester Young on all four “brothers” and how much the concept of “swing” has changed over the years. Young, the “brother’s” and just about every saxophone player of that time played with a light tone, lots of vibrato and a feel good, easy sense of swing; none of the angular, more aggressive style of more modern players.

 

 

Speaking of Lester, here's a Mingus minus Mingus tribute.  Then for fun, read some of the posted comments.

 

Good stuff from all!!!!

Actually more for Rok, The great Marvis Staples recording with Levon Helms a year or so before Levon died. 

 

 

acman, here's something similar from a great album, "Country, Rhythm and Blues".

 

Post removed 

I'm sure Oscar Peterson would love to hear his National Anthem, He was Canadian to the end , and IMO the greatest  Jazz man that land ever had ,

On a different thread, mahgister wrote very eloquently about “time” in music; specifically, an orchestral conductor’s time conception. It could be said that the musical “particulars” that come into play (😉) in the expression of time in music are, fundamentally and to one degree or another, the same no matter the genre. When there is agreement on a deep level, the magic happens; and there has to be a certain level of agreement between a conductor and the ensemble for the expression of a conductor’s time concept to be expressed well.

For me, this is one of those recordings with that magic. Amazing lineup of Larry Young, Grant Green, Elvin Jones and Sam Rivers all sharing that deep level of agreement. I have posted Larry Young’s “Unity” recording a couple of times previously. Classic, little known record. This one, “Into Somethin’ “ is his first Blue Note recording.

As an aside, it took me a while to appreciate Sam Rivers; tenor player who was active in the “out” or avant garde Jazz scene and who had a tone which was not pretty in the usual sense. It took me years to appreciate just how great he was. Sometimes we are too focused on tone at the expense of our appreciation for what the player is saying.

 

For this Grant Green album i love very much, like some others Grant Green, you are very right...

When i spoke about time in classical written music where the maestro determined the quality of the "musical time" and his value, i spoke about two extreme polarities about musical time like in the case of Furtwangler and Celibidache...

But i must admit that i begun to love jazz at a mature age only, when i was able to distinguish and perceive the most important element in music, which is musical time out of metronomical or measured time, a phenomenon especially at the heart of what improvising jazz musicians together experienced when playing at their optimal they created a piece where all is working well in his own time dimension...

This is the reason why now i love more musicians interpretation than the written score... Why i love jazz at the same level than classical.... And why i can appreciate Indian and Persian music as much as these other two European music for example...

When i was young, and not being a musician nor an educated music student,  i goes only with my taste, now with maturity  i learned slowly  how to learn, listening "musical time" expression...What you called "magic"...My tastes were no more the main ruler in my listening, and it is for this reason i was able to open my mind to others musical dimensions...

 

Musicians are the salt and the meal of music not only and mainly the written score....Time is on their hands not in the written score....

My best to you and all....

On a different thread, mahgister wrote very eloquently about “time” in music; specifically, an orchestral conductor’s time conception. It could be said that the musical “particulars” that come into play (😉) in the expression of time in music are, fundamentally and to one degree or another, the same no matter the genre. When there is agreement on a deep level, the magic happens.

**** the most important element in music, which is musical time out of metronomical or measured time, ****

That’s right. I would qualify that comment by streamlining the idea even further to simply “time”. Time is the most important element of music; and not only time outside a metronomic reference. It has to be all inclusive as far as possibilities. There are times in a musical performance of a particular work when metronomic time is precisely what the music demands; whether it be specified in the score, or whether it is an aspect of a conductor’s vision for the work. It is the musical cohesion and logic between the two polarities (to use your word) and all points in between that make a great performance. It is true that in Jazz this idea is “at the heart of what improvising musicians (do)”, In a much more subtle and much more controlled way it is the same and essential for the written score. In orchestral music, the magic happens when there is agreement with, or at least respect, for the conductor’s concept. That Bernstein/Corialan is a great example. Not only is it clearly heard, one can see the agreement and enthusiasm in the players’ body language, No matter the level of professionalism on the part of the players, there is always a bit extra given when they “get” what the conductor is trying to say; or, agree that the conductor is allowing what the composer is trying to say to be expressed. This is not always the case. In a way, the same thing happens in Jazz.

We are on the same page i think ...

Thanks for your adding remarks...

For sure when i distinguished musical time and physically measured time, i was also speaking of polarites like un the usual Extreme opposite concept of time polarities between Furt, and Celi...Bernstein being more in the middle and for me more Beethovenian in his Egmont than Celi for sure... But speaking about this polarity between Furt and Celi , I was speaking about classical interpreted written musical score...

This polarity between musical time and physical measured time is so important in jazz , i discovered it when i read about a black musician in Us , i forgot who, who was instructed by an African musician about the necessity for the music to "roll" ... He tested this african musician with pieces of european music, and often the African did say "it does not roll" even with some jazz sometimes..

Intrigued he decided to go to Africa...And the end of his story is that he finally understood what "rolling means"...

I interpreted this anecdote by listening to the way some interpretation of playing jazz musicians goes the fine line between this polarity: between measured repeated intervals of physical usual time and musical time sentences and beating "rhymes" in and out of usual flowing time... The pattern is a rolling resonant waves for me something akin to poetical time and resonance in speech compared to prosaic means...The African Youruba speaking drums are spectacular example of this in the hand of a master able to make the drum roll and speak and certainly one of the inspiration in the black soul origin of jazz......Time is no more flowing so much but metamorphosing itself into being ...Time unchained rolls...

I dont know if my post make sense for a seasonned musician... I am not one at all... I only listen.... 😁😊

 

 

 

 

After the master playing of my above post, here we have a clear explanation.... Fascinating...

I think the origin of humanity is humor victorious over fear in creation, the recreation of time in ceremony where music and speech reunited again recreating man itself and men together...

A remark about drums in general : So astounding and refined is Indian tabla drumming, and it is refined and deep in musical meaning and with metaphysical  meaning, i was always flabbergasted how African traditional drummer evoke something way more deep in a sense  in their "rolling speaking" way about our human origin more than about cosmology like in the Indian case...

There is at the end no personal  taste so much who moves us toward music  but more a thirst for  learning  experience at the end...