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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
 
If you mean "Genesis" Part 1 it is Wayne Shorter on tenor. If Part 2 it is the end of Freddie’s solo. On "Chaos" at :30 its James Spaulding on alto; and killing!

No question re the connection to modern classical. Shorter was a student of the modern composers and I recently read an interview in which he cites Stravinsky as a major influence. Varese! One of my faves. Then again I’m biased, he liked to write for the contrabass clarinet. Zappa idolized him, so how bad can he be? 😉
alexatpos
500 posts
 
Hope Orpheus will not be absent for long, as somebody has to 'hold the line' with ' groovy drum CHIN-ka-CHIN’s and beautiful, bluesy melodies inside cozy and familiar structures.'...

So, this time, I will take that part....

First, album that Jafant just posted and that I have ordered yesterday.

Wes Montgomery and Wynton Kelly, 'Smokin' at Seatlle', recorded some six months after the famous gig at the Half Note...here is the link.....

https://youtu.be/aOuIZf5RXc4


Frogman mentioned Spaulding so I decided to add this album as well, where he plays with another of his favourite players, S.Turrentine, together with P.Adams, G.Green,and McCoy Tyner, but still inside the mode of above cited quote...

https://youtu.be/OXgEPBYGk-I





ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
3,718 posts
 
@frogman - Put your cursor over the album image to watch the You Tube progress line using the link below for the track, "Genesis".
Around the 3 min 30 sec mark (after the bass solo starting at 2:10/2:12), a sax solo starts. My ear might not be that great distinguishing tenor from alto, esp if tenor is being played in the upper register, but regardless, after a slow build, this solo unfolds its wings and really flies.

The subsequent transition into Freddie’s solo is striking as it is so seamless. Sax morphing into trumpet...or is that flugelhorn? :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MYhg4aVOSY

I’m aware of the Varese/Zappa connection. Don’t wanna set on fire the hair of any of the orthodox faithful here but got to think Frank and Wayne were listening to similar things around this time.

Thanks to Alexatpos for those links.


frogman
4,637 posts
 
I take it you didn't care for Shorter's "TASE"?  Personally, I don't like to eat dessert all the time and only dessert 😎

Great clips, Alex; thanks!  Fantastic lineup on that Turrentine record.
"Hold the line"?  I'm still working on my main course.

Whereas one knows from the very first notes of "TASE" that it's going to be something very different (and it stays that way), I find Andrew Hill's music to be unique in that it often feels like a constant tease.  It always seems to straddle that line where it feels fairly conventional and familiar, but manages to always stay on the other side of it.  He had a unique and odd time feel that creates a lot of tension but always has musical logic.  Similar to the way Monk played rhythm, but on steroids:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-LBOOWnpNXc

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


frogman
4,637 posts
 
Ghosthouse, after the bass solo, if one listens closely, Wayne Shorter softly creeps in and starts his solo at precisely 3:22. Definitely tenor and, as you say, it flies. The transition to Freddie’s solo is interesting. If I’m not mistaken, the first thing one hears after the tenor solo sounds to me like a single note by Moncur on muted trombone (the exact same note that Shorter ends his solo with). After that single inflected note by Moncur, as if to say "you take it, Freddie", Hubbard starts his solo. Unusual sequence, but interesting. Freddie on trumpet not flugelhorn, btw. Great stuff! And great listening on your part.

Re Zappa/Varese: no doubt those guys were listening to a lot of the same music. Most prominent jazz players took classical music very seriously and listened to all the great composers; especially the modern composers. Bird loved Stravinsky, and one of his signature "Birdsms" (some might call it a Bird "cliche") is a quote, or melodic nugget, from Stravinsky’s "The Firebird".

http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2013/05/26/186486269/why-jazz-musicians-love-the-rite-o...
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