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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
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
4,494 posts
 
*****Wynton Marsalis*****

Love the guy for what he does for the music. I shudder to think where we would be if the 'wrong' guy had the gig at Lincoln Center. He is a great ambassodor for Jazz.

His playing? I don't think Be-bop/hard bop is his natural element. He is the obvious and rightful heir to Louis. He is at home with the founders in New Orleans. It shows in his playing and the way he lights up when talking about them. When he plays that style Jazz, his horn sings like no other!!

He ain't the angry inner city player.

Cheers
frogman
4,637 posts
 
Completely agree on all counts.
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
4,494 posts
 
*****Rok has sometimes alluded to the issue of "too much knowledge". While I don't agree that there can ever be too much knowledge*****

Of course as a professional musician, you cannot have too much knowledge of music. But in the sense I was speaking I offer three examples:

(1) Watching people prepare your food in a restaurant, or the old thingy about making sausage. I think we all know what I am speaking of here. Also, think chicken farms and slaughter houses.

(2) Flying on commercial airliners. Watch a few episodes of AIR DISASTERS or WHY PLANES CRASH, and I guarantee you will never sleep or rest easy on one again. The things your life can depend on.!!

(3) Music: This morning I was listening to The Barber of Seville. Thomas Allen, Agnes Baltsa, St Martin in Fields -- Marriner. (Highlights) My favorite operatic recording. All Opera should be this well recorded. I always listen to it from start to finish.

Today I just went to amazon to see if my enthusiasm was shared. It was, but, one reviewer gave the Highlights disc one star. Went into chapter and verse on how the opera was butchered by the cuts made. I am sure he is correct, but it is also true that, I was/am blissfully unaware of anything he was talking about.

Cheers
orpheus10 OP
5,988 posts
 

Let's take our present conversation into relatively unknown musicians, you saw live, that you thought were fantastic. Fantastic female vocalists don't make it when they're not pretty. "Koko Taylor" must have gotten her start before television.

Rok, when you lived in Endicott, N.Y. you liked the house organist; that's what I'm talking about when comparing live versus recorded. The range of an organ is too great for any recording equipment; that guy you heard probably sounded better live, than Jimmy Smith sounded on record.

I saw a blues guitarist in Lovejoy, Ill. that was too fantastic for words. Albert King lived in Eagle Park Acres; that was a suburb of Lovejoy, Illinois; talking about the boonies, when it got dark in Eagle Park Acres, bright headlights was like lighting a candle. That must have reminded him of Mississippi; but it was an easy drive to St. Louis.

Share your experiences of hearing fantastic unknown musicians live.

Enjoy the music.
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
4,494 posts
 
****Share your experiences of hearing fantastic unknown musicians live.****

Never had the opportunity to hear much Jazz live. I used to frequent a nice Jazz club in Tuscon, Arizona. Very nice bands, but I have no idea who they were. A few Jazz bands played the Military Club system in Germany, but again, no names I can remember. Also great Blues groups in El Paso, Texas.

The best live music I have ever heard was from 'soul' bands out of Yugoslavia, playing the U.S. Military club circuit in Germany. They sounded, live, better than any Motown I have ever heard on LP/CD. Great stuff.

Not being a member of the Warsaw Pact, they traveled freely in the West.

The only Big Time acts I have heard/seen live, Lou Rawls and Nancy Wilson.

I am sure I have heard folks like B.B. King, Lightin' Hopkins, Bobby Bland, Howlin' wolf et al. The only thing is, I was too young to get in. Had to listen from the ouside.

Cheers
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