Jazz for aficionados

Rok, I decided to post links to what's on page 112, to help us decide. Here's "House of The Rising Sun" from album "up With Donald Byrd"


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oRJpv-SAb4


This Donald Byrd "Weasel" from the LP "Fancy Free".


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_FeSOb-z8Q


Here's "Black Jack" from album of the same name.


          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSxY4OwV8vg


Donald Byrd: "The Little Rasti" from Etheopian Knights"


            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av4j96aEDAA


Donald Byrd: "Where Are We Going" from the LP "Black Byrd"


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTFFt8bimp4


Next we have "Wind Parade" from "spaces and places"


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LKxEs0HewI


This is The Blackbyrds with "Mysterious vibes"


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


Cornbread Earl and me: "Wliford's gone"


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqbVrm2Pejo


This is "The 3 pieces"   "Shortnin Bread"


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pITBIoGm1hQ


Now we can wheel and deal.




Enjoy the music.

Second,

Roy Hargrove- Cristol.

Roy Hargrove:

I think I lost 10 pounds just watching it.  I loved it in spite of myself.   Some familiar faces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5HSKRzNKzk&list=RDp5HSKRzNKzk#t=5 

Sherman Irby on alto.   He's with Wynton at JALC now.   Featured on their Christmas CD.

Chucho (the pulverizer) Valdes on piano.   I wonder how many pianos does he go through in a year.  You won't go to sleep on him.

All in all, very entertaining high energy Jazz.   I loved Hargrove's playing on the opening number.  I noticed that mic was inside the bell of his trumpet.  Wondered how that sounded to the audience.

I was about to say, it's good to see young folks today playing Jazz, then I realized this was 20 years ago.  Where does the time go?  Where have I been?

I never thought Hargrove was as big as he should / could have been.
I always thought of him as the next Morgan.   But, it could have been just the decline in the popularity of Jazz in general.  He should have been at BN in the 50/60s.

Thanks for the tip.

Cheers

Donald Byrd:

'Rising Sun' and 'Black jack' were good.  This guy does seem to stray off the Jazz reservation quite often.  'Black jack' may have been one of his  last Jazz efforts

Since I don't buy CDs based on one or two tracks anymore, I think I'll stick with the complete BN CD.   All his good stuff is there.    I think he quit Jazz and went into Funk.  Pulled a Miles on us.

Thanks for the clips.

Cheers

A good attempt at a Donald Byrd retrospective recently. His most creative period was conspicuously given short shrift, imo. As Rok points out, he strayed off the jazz reservation quite often.  Most of his work during his more "commercial" period doesn’t do it for me, and the stuff bordering on "disco" I find to be kinda lame and was considered at the time and by many hardcore jazz fans to be "selling out". I will leave the validity of that criticism to others as this was a crticism directed at many of the players that went in that direction (think CTI) and the period did produce some interesting projects. I do think that this thread’s "jazz police" is showing a kinder, gentler side 😌; a good thing, I think. What is interesting about that period of Byrd’s, as O-10 points out, is the apparent influence he had on Herbie Hancock; something that wasn’t clear to me previously. I do think that Herbie went on to do far more interesting and sophisticated things in the jazz/funk vein (Headhunters). For me, the very best work by Byrd was connected to his affiliation to the great Pepper Adams; and this work was squarely in a more traditional or straight-ahead bag; both as sideman and as leader:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HCPv54Js3ak

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

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xNk3qtzNM_s

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y23YPy-8o7c

This last clip relates to Roy Hargrove. The best test of a jazz player’s mettle is the ballad or the slow blues; iow, music in which "high energy" can’t be used to hide behind and the player’s ability and creativity is laid bare. I like Hargrove and think he is a very good player. He has been discussed before and my contention has always been that his place in the pantheon is pretty much where it belongs; he is very good, but not of the caliber of a Donald Byrd. The second tune in the Hargrove video is a ballad and the contrast between what he and Byrd can do is, for me, pretty obvious. Even more obvious is how the young tenor player Sanchez sounds good when he plays fast and furious, but falls flat when he tries and play simple figures. Perhaps time and maturity will help.

Byrd and "Stardust":

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cdrypHFVq8A