Despite 20 years as a jazz lover, it still blows my mind that Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly and Bill Evans once played together.
I’m still a jazz neophyte, so I’m going to withhold my contributions for now.
But what ensembles (or recordings) of past today still make your jaw drop, based on the sheer brilliance of each member?
Dave Brubeck - piano
Paul Desmond - alto sax
Eugene Wright - bass
Joe Morello - drums
Simply the best there was.
Ellington at Newport 56. Paul Gonsalves 27 chorus firestorm on alto sax on “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” put the crowd into a frenzy that you can still feel and hear to this day.
More of a “Jazz/Rock Moment” - I have a DVD of Joni Mitchell’s Shadows and Light. After the odd James Dean opening, we’re taken to the show opening up and the camera starts on Joni, then pans over to Pat Metheny, Don Alias on drums, and Jaco Pastorius. I always get choked up when Jaco comes into view.
Lyle Mays and Michael Brecker are in the band as well. Nice time capsule capturing Jaco in his prime.
On Mingus at Antibes, in the song “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting” Booker Ervin performs a fiery and soulful tenor sax solo that flies around everywhere and has the crowd cheering loud. It’s a great solo…
…and then Eric Dolphy stands up with his alto and is translated into another plane of existence.
I couldn’t believe it the first time I heard it. Judging from the background noise on the album, neither could the crowd.
Plenty of groups had brilliant members on every part, but the ones who stand out for me are the two great Miles Davis quintets, the Bill Evans Trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, and Duke Ellington’s bands in the 1940s and 50s.
It’s really hard to choose when there are so many highlights worth mentioning. But if I had to choose one, I’d say the recording of You Go To My Head by Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson. Here you have two musicians, at least a generation apart, but on that record they sound like they were born playing together.
Charlie Parker - alto sax
Dizzy Gillespie - trumpet
Bud Powell - piano
Charlie Mingus - bass
Max Roach - drums
I mean, got damn.
Benny Goodman’s 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, Harry James, Teddy Wilson, cameos by many of the rest of the best in jazz at the time. Even with the noisy mono recording, it 's jawdropping.
I’d argue for the Birth of the Cool nonet, which, at various times, had the following among their membership:
Miles Davis- Trumpet
Kai Winding & J. J. Johnson- Trombone
Gunther Schuller- French Horn
Lee Konitz- Alto Saxophone
Gerry Mulligan- Tenor Saxophone
John Lewis- Piano
Max Roach & Kenny Clarke- Drums
I’ll second the Birth of the Cool band, but I got to give props to Al Haig and Junior Collins, who respectively played piano and horn on half the sessions, to Bill Barber for playing the tuba parts, and finally to point out that Mulligan was playing the baritone saxophone.
I knew I should have proof-read a little better.
One of the joys of jazz for me is that I’ll never be able to definitively answer questions like this—not even to my own satisfaction!
I agree with many of the other posters’ choices, but I’ll add these to the mix:
The Miles Davis Nonets (Birth of the Cool sessions):
Miles Davis, trumpet
Kai Winding or J.J. Johnson, trombone
Junior Collins, Sandy Siegelstein or Gunther Schuller, French horn
John Barber, tuba
Lee Konitz, alto sax
Gerry Mulligan, baritone sax
Al Haig or John Lewis, piano
Joe Shulman, Nelson Boyd or Al McKibbon, bass
Max Roach, drums
I’m also fond of Dexter Gordon’s Quartet on the Go album (1962):
Dexter Gordon, tenor sax
Sonny Clark, piano
Butch Warren, bass
Billy Higgins, drums
“Fond” is too weak a word. From the kicky, up-tempo “Cheese Cake” to the wrenching “I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry,” all six cuts are purest gold. A great leader can make an ensemble out of a disparate group of talented people, and this is not the only time Gordon worked that magic.
I’m sorry, Gov. Quinn for seemingly restating your list of the Miles Davis band. I got interrupted before I could hit “submit.”
Yeah, that’s one of the all time great moments – and was my vote.
“Friday Night in San Francisco” a live performance in 1980 by Jaco Pastorius, Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin, playing together. It is amazing. The first song on that album is one of my favorite songs of all time. Go look it up on Amazon right now and read the reviews.
The March 1963 New York City studio bossa nova recordings that brought together Stan Getz (tenor sax), Joao Gilberto (vocals and guitar), and Tom Jobim (piano). (Sebastião Neto - bass and Milton Banana - drums, so I’ve read)
I kept a radio near me the summer that it was released just so that I could hear pieces of it. Pieces of sanity piped into rural Tennessee.
Oh yeah. Astrud Gilberto sang too.
Ahh, yes, Shadows And Light: one of the most amazing and infuriating documents around. Extensive invaluable footage of some of the finest jazz musicians of their generation: Metheny and Mays before the PMG took off, Michael Brecker in his prime, Don Alias in a relatively rare drumkit-oriented outing, and Jaco just as he was hitting his stride, before his well-publicized mental illness and substance abuse manifested. (Not to mention the great Joni Mitchell herself!)
And yet, the portrayal of the band is repeatedly interrupted at length with footage of James Dean, Mitchell figure skating, landscapes, and stock footage of coyotes (cuz, like, the song’s called Coyote, get it?)
Makes me want to shake the director (or whoever’s responsible) repeatedly by the shoulders: “JUST . . . SHOW . . . THE . . .GOD . . . DAMNED . . . BAND!”
Ahhh. I feel better now.
Though it may well have been Mitchell’s own idea for this stuff. She always was an ornery cuss.
My personal fav is the time I played with Clark Terry.
At the Wichita Jazz Festival, (1981?) any Clark Terry did a little class for sax players and at the end, he asked if anyone wanted to come up and play. Even though the room was full of players and everybody had their axe, I was the only volunteer. I forget who was playing piano with us, but I played with Clark Terry.
Was going to contribute, but only this morning (!) finally discovered the music of Cedar Walton, in The Maestro.
Damn. I AM a neophyte!