Jazz for aficionados

Alex, thanks for bringing Johnny Smith back to the discussion.  What a nice player!  Beautiful and unaffected guitar sound and feel.  Jazzcourier points out his affinity for medium tempo tunes and ballads.  Ballads are probably the biggest test of any player's true mettle not having the "crutch" of the opportunity to simply show off sheer and sometimes meaningless chops.  Perhaps there is some significance to his choice of title for this tune:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gobhuQ9BKWg

However, this is not to say he couldn't tear it up when he wanted to:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L4wbcMR3chk

This guy can become habit forming.  I read the title of the tune and thought "surely you jest'.  Ended up grinning throughout the whole thing.
great stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjpjGSr38d4

Cheers

Rok, "Finger Poppin"; another classic Silver recording! "Cookin At The Continental" has always been one of my favorite Silver tunes and my favorite on the record. I believe this is the first recording by the classic Silver Quintet and those guys were in top form. Mitchell sounds amazing and "Cookin" has one of my favorite Silver solos of all time. Great stuff!

Delta City Blues:

What can be said about Michael Brecker that hasn’t been said a thousand times over? First of all, probably the greatest saxophone virtuoso (any genre, including classical) that ever lived. He was able to do things on the instrument that no one else could and with an ease that was hard to believe. Stylistically, obviously coming out of the Coltrane school, harmonic approach-wise and tone-wise. It is not too much of a stretch to say that he was the most influential saxophone player of his generation with scores of young saxophone players copying Breckerisms over the last four decades. Even the prominent younger tenor players who strive to stay "closer to the farm" (at least in their own minds) can be heard to show his influence; especially in how they inflect certain notes on the instrument. Amazing instrumentalist and, within his stylistic world, an amazing jazz player. He was also one of the most humble individuals you could ever meet. His recent death after a long illness was a great loss to the saxophone world.

Thanks for that great clip.

I had an opportunity to hear him live, almost 18 years ago, in my hometown. Funny thing was that the concert started hour after midnight, because there was another performer, before, on the same stage, in towns theatre. So, untill one concert started, finished, and the time that was needed to set up another performance, the time ran away, which was fine for everybody.
Remember that he joked that after the concert he has a flight to catch and that he will go directly to airport, because the audience kept him on stage with constant demands for more encore.
Found some old link with program
http://mariomendes.tripod.com/

Could not find the link with actual performance, aldo the national tv recorded it, but here is the link with concert of Joe Zawinul Syndicate from next year.
The quality is not the best, the music is fusion, but it can show glims of
atmosphere and interview with Zawinull himself (around 5:50) if someone is interested.
https://youtu.be/HPB1v5w9A5g

Must add that I had the privilege to see Abbey Lincoln, Charlie Haden, Randy Weston, among others, that same year. It was quite an expirience.If somehow find  those tapes, will post them

Review by Steve Huey [-]
Grant Green recorded so much high-quality music for Blue Note during the first half of the '60s that a number of excellent sessions went unissued at the time. Even so, it's still hard to figure out why 1964's Matador was only released in Japan in 1979, prior to its U.S. CD reissue in 1990 -- it's a classic and easily one of Green's finest albums. In contrast to the soul-jazz and jazz-funk for which Green is chiefly remembered, Matador is a cool-toned, straight-ahead modal workout that features some of Green's most advanced improvisation, even more so than his sessions with Larry Young. Part of the reason for that is that Green is really pushed by his stellar backing unit: pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Elvin Jones. Not only is Green leading a group that features one-half of the classic Coltrane Quartet, but he even takes on Coltrane's groundbreaking arrangement of "My Favorite Things" -- and more than holds his own over ten-plus minutes. In fact, every track on the album is around that length; there are extended explorations of two Green originals ("Green Jeans" and the title track) and Duke Pearson's Middle Eastern-tinged "Bedouin," plus the bonus cut "Wives and Lovers," a swinging Bacharach pop tune not on the Japanese issue. The group interplay is consistently strong, but really the spotlight falls chiefly on Green, whose crystal-clear articulation flourishes in this setting. And, for all of Matador's advanced musicality, it ends up being surprisingly accessible. This sound may not be Green's claim to fame, but Matador remains one of his greatest achievements.


Anybody who has been following this thread knows why I'm posting this, in case they don't know I'll tell you why; Grant Green died in poverty, although he made many boss albums that were not released. This album was released in Japan, probably after his death; the question is WHY? If you're interested, you can read over back posts in this thread.



enjoy the music.