I was living at home with the folks when I bought this; that wasn't cool at all; I could really identify with this LP, "Please let me be cool".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOKjTzW4IWM
This is the cool blues.
Jazz for aficionados
I was living at home with the folks when I bought this; that wasn't cool at all; I could really identify with this LP, "Please let me be cool". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOKjTzW4IWM This is the cool blues. |
Thanks to Frogman's comments I started listening to different versions of "Giant Steps". Two that caught my attention, I don't remember hearing. One awesome player I never heard of, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHTuB6V4NGQ And a Woody Herman I can't go without! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQdf1YhmAbU |
Great clips! Jimmy Bruno sounds amazing. Talk about deserving more recognition! Killer player tearing up the changes of the tune. Thanks for the Woody Herman clip. Blast from the past for me as it was one of the very first jazz records I bought back in the late 70’s (ouch!). Woody’s band always sounded great no matter the vintage. Coltrane’s iconic tune "Giant Steps" became a kind of proving ground for players particularly, and no surprise, tenor players; although it has been a test of all jazz instrumentalists’ true improvising mettle. Unusually demanding of a player’s control of harmony with its very fast (two per measure) changes and with unusual relationships to boot. This is one the most unusual versions of the tune that I have heard by one of the geniuses of jazz. It strikes me that there is a resemblance to something that Kamasi Washington might do, "Star Trek voices" and all (thank you Ghosthouse); but with one more very important ingredient...true genius. Very weird...and I love it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8afVQbPcQ-s Another unique and favorite tenor player does it with a Samba beat: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fEyBOiQCvsA It takes ba//s to play Giant Steps even faster than Coltrane did it. Probably the hottest tenor player right now Chris Potter is an amazing virtuoso. Love the way he and Kenny Werner uses counterpoint on this. As if the tune wasn’t hard enough!: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lx2I113XROw |
At the end of the day (I actually kinda hate that expression) it's hard to argue with the opinion that he was the greatest of all tenor players. Just one year before "Giant Steps". Amazing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QHj-E6AHo0A |