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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
alexatpos
500 posts
 
Pjw,

...'No reason to get excited
The thief he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke '...

'When Jazz ruled the world' article

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/in-depth-features/when-jazz-ruled-the-world/?utm_source=ka&utm_me...
frogman
4,637 posts
 
pjw, thanks for the recommendation and clips; I enjoyed them. I heard JC live at the Village Vanguard early on and enjoyed his playing. He is even more impressive now.

No question that JC could hold his own with some of the old timers. In fact, I believe he is a traditionalist at heart more than anything. When he plays he evokes the style of “old timers” like Arnett Cobb, Don Byas and Hawkins with that highly stylized and very robust tenor sound. What is unique about him is that he combines that style and sound with “techniques” on the saxophone that hadn’t been explored nor mastered to that degree by the old timers. He has great control of the extreme high register and it’s almost odd to hear playing in that range combined with the “old timer” tone approach. He double and triple tongues; practically unheard of back then. He growls and slap tongues. He plays with a tremendous amount of exuberance which, as you point out, is considered by some to be merely “showing off”. I’m not quite sure what showing off means, but that level of exuberance practically at all times is why I am mixed about his playing; eventhough he is a very exciting player and certainly knows how to appeal to an audience. A lot to be said for that. I like JC; a lot. I just wish he would do a lot less of that stuff. Moreover, I don’t believe he has the fluidity and command of complex harmony that some of the “newbies” have. A lot of what he plays is relatively simple harmonically and he is not the kind of player that can rip through “Giant Steps” the way that a player like Eric Alexander can. Different players bring different things to the table. I enjoy most a less exuberant and more harmonically disciplined way of playing. Still, I like that a player like JC is keeping alive a style that is not always screaming “Coltrane!”.

Another “newbie” with a sound that evokes some of the old timers, but with a modern harmonic concept:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4gTzj1EicAU

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8wnETzFQ2ok

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







pjw81563
258 posts
 
Joe Lovano is another example of an extremely talented modern sax player. I had a chance to see him several times but something always came up. I have a few of his recordings. I saw Eric Alexander at Smoke Jazz Club NYC with Jimmy Cobb on drums about 6 years ago. Cobb signed my Kind of Blue cd plus 2 of his. Alexander was great that night running through some old standards. I have a handful of his recordings too. That night was the old school Cobb who played on KOB with the new school players.

Jazz still lives!!
pjw81563
258 posts
 
By the way, Art Pepper who I mentioned above is one of my favorite "old timers" I have about 20 cd's of his including the legendary comeback box set at the Village Vangaurd. He was tormented by heroin addiction (as were a lot of jazz musicians at one time or another). I highly recommend his autobiography "Straight Life" its one of the best book I have ever read. He came in 2nd to Charlie Parker as downbeat magazines best alto player like 4 years in a row. I believe he even won it one year when Parker was in a rut from the heroin.

https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Life-Story-Art-Pepper/dp/0306805588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&a...

He was strung-out as he put it, as he ran out of dope and forgot the photographer was coming that morning but he pulled himself together for the session and the photo on the cover is from that session!!


rok2id's avatar
rok2id
4,494 posts
 

*****The majority of jazz aficionados like I said up thread are "stuck" in the old days listening to the greats of the 1940 -1970 era.*****


I plead guilty. I am also STUCK in the past when I listen to The Blues and Classical Music. Still stuck in the Mississippi delta with Muddy Waters and B.B. King et al. And for some reason I just can’t get past Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and folks like that. Hell, I still listen, by choice, to Motown and doo-wop. I wonder why that is?


****Name ONE trumpet player? ONE piano player? ONE bass player? ONE drummer?*****

I think you are confusing, mastering the ability to play an instrument, with making a contribution to the art form called Jazz. Current day players are better ’schooled’ in playing music and mastering their instrument.


*****Likewise Stanley Clarke could hold his own with Charles Mingus on bass to name a modern bass representative.*****

No one thinks ’Bass player’ when Mingus’ name is mentioned.. He was so much more than that. Ellington: Piano player?


*****Jeremy Pelt and Roy Hargrove come very close to Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Dorham and Donald Byrd on trumpet*****

Surely you jest!! No one, and I mean No one, can touch Wynton Marsalis playing the Trumpet. Greatest Jazz trumpet players? The list would have to be very long for him to be on it. But, he is so much more to Jazz than a trumpet player.


It’s not about how well you can play the instrument, it’s about what contribution did you make to the art form.

Miles once said, there is nothing a person can do on trumpet that Louis Armstrong has not done already. This means, making a significant contribution gets harder as time goes on.


No one is stuck.  We are there by choice.

Cheers





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