Jazz for aficionados

@acman3 

Absolutely! I think it’s great that we have a differences of opinions on these great players.  I was thinking, probably what made Alex and Stuartk not love Sonnys playing is exactly what I enjoy. 

I would never have anything negative to say about Getz, Hawk, Sims or Webster. Love them all! That’s why Jimmy Heath said "In a garden there are many beautiful flowers".

Neither would I. Hawk and Webster sounded a little "gruff" as well. Did not sound like Sonny but had that gruff tone as well. I think a players tone is a result of their embouchure.

A proper saxophone embouchure is the foundation of a great tone and intonation. It directs your air and controls the reeds vibration.

A couple other greats not mentioned were Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray and Illinois Jacquet. Jacquet preforming his popular tune "Flying Home" on the Ed Sullivan Show:

https://youtu.be/3yxWONmkc14?si=jFawI8J7heiFqIFB

Dexter and Wardell Gray - "The Hunt"

https://youtu.be/XwyiwgQhBV0?si=EdgvgtPRU2vIJWXg

@stuartk I saw the Heath Brothers a few times in NYC but never with Percy as he had passed away in 2005, the same year I started listening to jazz. I read Jimmy Heath's book "I Walked With Giants" and highly recommend it. I have read all of the below books and can happily state:

"I Walked With Giants" (2010, Heath, McLaren) is on the same level of excellence as "Straight Life" by Art Pepper ( 1979, Art & Laurie Pepper), "Stan Getz A Life In Jazz" (1996, Donald L. Maggin's biography of Stan Getz) "Ode to a Tenor Giant" (2021, Bill Milkowski's biography of Michael Brecker), and "Saxophone Colossus" (2022, Adrain Levy's biography of Sonny Rollins)

All 5 books are excellent accounts of the subject as well as all of the major figures in the history of jazz from 1940 through the present.

Just spent the last hour watching these 3 videos on bass playing in jazz. The Percy Heath video was great and led me to the other 2 on Jimmy Blanton and Scott LaFaro. All 3 videos are worth your time to watch.

Percy Heath:

https://youtu.be/ew-spMuMqK4?si=1REaTL-wYmLlfFLl

Jimmy Blanton:

https://youtu.be/2Cr5A5u9ikE?si=oh32nsfYZWLo7-tH

Scott LaFaro:

https://youtu.be/LzvL3gb1lGM?si=FfWcVcKudasH-fsj

The Richie Kamuca Quintet, featuring bassist Scott LaFaro in the last video, led me on a search for Kamuca's recordings as a leader/co-leader. I own the Shelly Manne And His Men "Complete Live at the Blackhawk" 4 CD box , featuring Kamuca on tenor sax, and its on my list of desert island jazz recordings that every jazz aficionado needs to have in his or her collections which is much easier now with streaming as I believe that box set is OOP and rare.

Anyway, the Shelly Manne box introduced me to Kamuca over a decade ago and I  really love his west coast cool jazz tone on tenor but I never dived deeper until tonight and found lots of great songs on Spotify featuring Kamuca.

One from the Shelly Manne box:

https://youtu.be/L_kYxHIh320?si=ByqpXBvFEYscn25e

I believe Kamuca has that tone that @alexatpos enjoys.

@pjw81563 

I think it was ’76 or ’77 when I saw the Brothers. 

I’ve only read "Straight Life" of those you list. What a book!  

I’ll have to check out the rest. 

Have you read "Celebrating Bird" by Gary Giddins?

Speaking of Kamuca, have you heard "West Coast Jazz in Hi Fi" ? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8REEthV5Vc&list=PLtYI26eLr3z__IZNrdRL75Qzp9aiefwPI

@stuartk 

Have you read "Celebrating Bird" by Gary Giddins?

Yes I have a large format hardcover OOP edition in great shape!

Speaking of Kamuca, have you heard "West Coast Jazz in Hi Fi" ? 

Yes! I just discovered it while compiling a Richie Kamuca playlist on Spotify. For JFAs consideration:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2rwjLSdZdr32pJxtNiMMNQ?si=bbbd096e47f24ff4