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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
frogman
4,637 posts
 
****Kenny Wheeler, forlorn and lost; like being in the middle of a dream that seems real, and you are in the middle of nowhere and don't know how you got there, or which way is home; then you wake up just before you lose your mind trying to figure things out.****

O-10, I find it fascinating that your description of the feeling that Kenny Wheeler's music invoked is a perfect parallel to what I described:

****modern jazz with rather vague tonal centers which give tunes an unresolved character; like one could hit "pause" at any point in the melody and it wouldn’t matter where.****

What you described is exactly what happens harmonically and melodically in the type of compositions that Wheeler writes.  The usual and normal tendency for harmony and melody to want to move in certain directions (resolve) is mostly absent; the music seems "lost" and "in the middle of nowhere".  
orpheus10 OP
5,988 posts
 

I don't know what's going on, but we have had a very long string of music that I would give a thumbs up to; all of it very interesting, even if it was on the borderline for a buy, and none of it was "stereotypical"; that's music I've heard for 101 times.

I'm submitting some music by a female vocalist that "stereophile" has raved about forever; that's automatically a thumbs down, I don't care for her vocals, but this time she got one thumbs up from me, her name is Patricia Barber.


                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi3i-HqDNFI


Enjoy the music.


orpheus10 OP
5,988 posts
 

If this has been posted before, please tell me. If it has been posted before, and I don't remember; that's simply a sign that I'm getting younger.
orpheus10 OP
5,988 posts
 

Although Milt Jackson is the undisputed king of the jazz vibraphone, Bobby Hutcherson holds his own. The fact that he was born in 1941, while Milt Jackson was born in 1923 helps a lot. Bobby's style is more modern than Milt's, which means he sounds "different"; that means the two of them are not so closely compared; I'll show you what I mean.

The differences in the coast's they were born closest to, Milt; East Coast, and Bobby, West Coast; also attributed to a difference in styles and selection of music. When you hear the links I'm going to post, you'll hear how superb both musicians sound, and you may even want to challenge the fact as I have stated, that Milt Jackson is the undisputed king of the jazz vibraphone.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUPBJPR4XJA


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhgUUe5czxc


This time, you get to be the judge.


Enjoy the music.


 
frogman
4,637 posts
 
"Undisputed"? Says who? By what criteria? As you point out, they have totally different styles. It’s like comparing Charlie Parker to John Coltrane. Two undiputed giants from entirely different evolutionary periods in the music. Who is better, Bird or Trane? Has no answer and is kind of a pointless question. Just as Bird would have sounded a little absurd trying to play "Giant Steps", Milt Jackson, as wonderful as he was, would sound out of place in a musical setting like that which was home for Hutcherson. Much more extended harmonic vocabulary and a move away from the very "swingy" feeling in the music. However, playing a slow blues, Milt Jackson couldn’t be touched, imo. So.....

There’s a problem with the comparison clips. The Jackson clip is beautiful musically and sonically. The Hutcherson clip, to me, sounds a bit like a mess. Harold Land should have stuck to the saxophone; imo, his flute sounds terrible. I like his tenor playing, but he sounds like he picked up the flute a couple of weeks previously. Considering how often the flute plays, it practically ruins the entire performance. And it’s not as simple or isolated as the flute player being horribly out of tune. In a recording situation all the players are reacting to the "performance problem". It becomes a major problem in being able to relax and focus on the music, instead of having to deal with the tension and distraction of compensating for the problem. The end result is usually an inferior performance. This, imo, is a better showcase of Hutcherson’s strengths (and he was an infinitely better compiser than Jackson):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLE4B0BF2407AEE1F5&params=OAFIAVgD&v=vbWiIf-kk98&mode=N...

The alto player is someone who deserves more attention here, James Spaulding.


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