Thanks, Ukulele Ike, but since the musical topics have been fairly generic, and most replies to them have been evidence of a preponderance of non-jazz tastes, I was just testing the waters with this one.
I do hope some more specific jazz topics can be produced.
Yeah, well, what IS the percentage of CD sales for jazz? Two percent of the whole, or something like that? I think they’re well behind even “classical” music, and only up there because of pseudo-music like Kenny G, and continuing sales of Kind of Blue to hep-cat wannabes.
So. I say Berigan rules, as far as swing trumpet goes, although the stuff Eldridge did with Anita O’Day and the Krupa band was pretty damn hot.
I absolutely must mention Paul Gonsalves’ remarkable sax solo on Dimuendo and Crescendo in Blue on the album Ellington Live at Newport. THe heart of Jazz is improvisation and swing (not swing as in the style swing, but the feeling that the music is moving you forward) and I think this solo is the greatest singular recorded expression of this concept.
Smooth “jazz” ain’t jazz, and I’m glad to see the intelligence level of most posters is at its usual and expected high level.
A lot of Miles Davis references, but I didn’t see “Birth of The Cool”, a must-have.
Anything by Thelonius Monk.
Ben Webster and Bird on sax.
Joe Morello (Brubeck) on drums (listen to “Castillian Drums” for the best jazz drumming ever done).
Chet Baker was prolific and good and there is an excellent film about his miserable life called “Let’s Get Lost”, if you’re looking for conversational topics.
Jazz singer: try Jimmy Scott. His cover of “At Last” is phenomenal.
Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Art Pepper, the list just goes on and on.
Sorry, just spotted this question. Michel Petrucciani was a French citizen born of Italian parents. He suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta (glass bones), a disease that stunted his growth to about 3 feet. His playing was phenomenal, considering his limitations, and he was well-loved in France and the rest of Europe. I have an album of his; I think it’s Blue Note Recordings, or some such. He died in 1999 at the age of 36 and a decent obit and bio is available at www.elvispelvis.com/michelpetrucciani.htm.
I’ve only heard Michel on the radio. We have a 24-hour jazz station nearby and they’ve played his stuff off and on for a while.
I’m amazed at his playing. And then to learn how limited he was made me appreciate his skills (and taste) even more.
Such a shame to lose him so young, but that can be said for so many jazz people.
It would be great to have all those who died before they were 40 get together for a jam session. Maybe Herbie Mann is tuning up as we speak, and maybe those younger guys will let him play anyway.
Just to clarify, Octopus is referring to Ellington at Newport (1956) as there are two other Newport albums that I’m familiar with, 1958 and 1959, I believe. Gonsalves’ kick-ass, history making solo is definitely on the 1956 concert. This CD has been much on my mind recently, as I can’t seem to FUCKING FIND IT! Excuse the profanity, but I’ve been tearing my place apart on and off for the last few weeks with no success. Furthermore, I have this deep, dark suspicion that as soon as I buy a replacement, the original will turn up behind the damned couch that I’ve already searched at least twice.
Anyways, I really enjoy the early New Orleans stuff like King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Sydney Bechet & Louis Armstrong that kind of grew out of listening to my Grandfather play a lot of this music on the piano. He also loved ragtime and I had a great deal of Scott Joplin’s repetoire practically memorized as a small child. I also inherited a love for pianists like Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller and, especially, Oscar Peterson. I think Peterson’s gospel tinged composition Hymn to Freedom ranks as one of the best jazz pieces ever written.
The mid-50’s to mid-60’s era, hard bop, and modal jazz a la Miles Davis are also great. Some favourite albums from this era are Charles Mingus’ Mingus Ah Um, Oh Yeah! and Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Canonball Adderly & Miles Davis on Somethin’ Else, Horace Silver’s Blowin’ The Blues Away and Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder.
I’ve also recently been on a modern female jazz vocalist binge listening to people like Patricia Barber, Susie Arioli, Cassandra Wilson, Tierney Sutton, Holly Cole and even Diana Krall (but definitely not her recent syrupy, Claus Ogerman arranged elevator music).
Hope you find that disc, Hodge. I know just what you mean about replacements.
Our tastes overlap about 80%, I’d say.
Have you ever heard the Mingus “Wonderland” album? There’s some traded sax work (John Handy is one and I forget the other) on one of the cuts that’s among the best I’ve heard. I used to use that record to demo stereo gear, mostly for the fine separation.
I’d go check it out before posting this, but all my LP’s are stashed in the basement and I have yet to buy the CD of that one.
Horace Silver has been a main man for a long time. I just learned recently that he started out on piano with Stan Getz. (Well, obviously he was playing before that, but Getz got him started into bigger gigs.)
Crap. I say something mean about the guy, and two weeks later he croaks. Is my face red. (He was okay on that early Sarah Vaughan disc though, when he teamed up with Brownie and Paul Quinichette.)
You like Horace Silver? Do you know his 1958 Blue Note disc Further Explorations? The second cut, “Melancholy Mood,” is one of the most beautiful pieces he ever wrote/played.
Thanks Hodge, that is exactly the one I am thinking of. I hope you find it, but you could just buy another and then if the new one turns up you can give the new one to a friend and really open their eyes.
Yes, Ike, I have that album, but it’s been years since I’ve played any of the old LP’s and I have only gotten CD versions of a handful of things. Not that Silver, though.
One of the first albums I ever bought was a Columbia LP called “Drum Suite” (back in my bongo days) thinking it was totally African drumming. Side A was. Side B had the Jazz Messengers, when Silver was with them. I played it a lot back then.
“Song For My Father” is my favorite Horace tune, but his style is almost as identifiable as Ellington’s IMO.
If we stick to jazz instrumentals, what’s your favorite?
Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting by Mingus.
Who’s your favorite jazz trumpet player?
Miles or Chet, depending on mood.
Sax?
Pharoah Sanders
Guitar?
Terje Rypdal
Piano?
Ellington, Brubeck or Ketil Bjornstad. I have no time whatsoever for Keith Jarret.
Bass?
Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
What period in jazz history is your favorite?
Either the Fifties, Mile’s Jazz-Funk or the last ten years of Scandanavian jazz.
How do you perceive jazz programming on TV?
There’s Jazz on TV? Where?
Is there a good jazz station on web radio? Is there a good jazz radio station near enough where you live to make it one you listen to?
There’s one show I listen to, but it mixes wiith experimental electronica.
Any votes for who has the most stupefyingly complex liner notes? Mine goes to Mingus’ Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.
Well, Leechboy, if you count the PBS series Ken Burns did, or the Biography (A&E) shows from time to time on some jazz player’s like (can’t recall more than a few of the biggies like Ella, Louis, Duke, Frank,etc.) or the BET Jazz channel, there is some occasional jazz. Austin City Limits (PBS) now and then will have a jazz-like group.
Not a whole lot, that’s for sure.
As for those notes you mentioned, I have that album, but just remember the fine cover. The notes to so many albums in that period were obviously marketing inspired.
The best notes I’ve read are Bill Evans’s on “Kind Of Blue.”
Ahh yes. Unfortunately I live in Australia, where the only jazz you’ll see on TV is awful soulless shite like James Morrison or Paul Grabowski. (The latter earning my eternal ire by being the band leader on the well documented Letterman rip-off “Tonight Live with Steve Vizard.” Somehow he managed to be even more irritating than Paul Schaefer.)
Why not just keep “jazz” in the title? “What is jazz” in Great Debates, “Best drummer” in IMHO, “My cat likes jazz” in MPSIMS, etc. (Apologies if these threads already exist.)
“Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting” from Charles Mingus, Mingus at Antibes. An wonderful tenor sax solo by Booker Ervin, immediately following which Eric Dolphy stands up with his alto and is translated to another sphere of existence. Amazing.
Trumpet: Miles Davis 1955-67
Sax: tenor, Dexter Gordon; alto, Eric Dolphy; soprano, Steve Lacy or Branford Marsalis
Guitar: Emily Remler
Piano: Bill Evans, Kenny Barron, Joanne Brackeen, Brad Mehldau, Lennie Tristano, Duke Ellington
Bass: Jean-Jacques Avenel
Drums: Roy Haynes
Vibes: Bobby Hutcherson, Milt Jackson
Clarinet: Benny Goodman, Don Byron
Many, many others…
About 1955-67
I liked it just fine. I tried to focus on what it included, not on what it excluded, and so had a wonderful time with Armstrong, Ellington, etc…much footage I’d never seen.