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Post by jk on Dec 25, 2020 16:58:08 GMT -5
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Post by highllama on Dec 25, 2020 19:09:05 GMT -5
I'm glad to see a jazz thread going here. Though I've owned jazz albums since I was a teenager, I've only become immersed in the past few years. And not just periods, but all of it. As enjoyable as rock is, jazz is so much more nuanced, expressive, and playful, and intelligent. A few favorites:
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Post by highllama on Dec 26, 2020 8:11:57 GMT -5
Miles Davis - Circle in the Round
For a collection of outtakes recorded over years, with different lineups, this is really satisfying. The liner notes dismiss the cover of David Crosby's "Guinevere," but I love it.
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Post by Ham Burgerstand on Dec 26, 2020 11:20:17 GMT -5
Those Miles Davis Quintet albums on the Prestige label are as good as it gets, in my humble opinion. Not his most groundbreaking work, for sure, but they're the tracks I play most often. Just flawless.
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Post by highllama on Dec 26, 2020 16:14:04 GMT -5
Those Miles Davis Quintet albums on the Prestige label are as good as it gets, in my humble opinion. Not his most groundbreaking work, for sure, but they're the tracks I play most often. Just flawless. I love those albums. The stuff he did on Blue Note, collected as Vol. 1 and 2, is really good, too. People don't talk about those sessions much.
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Post by highllama on Dec 27, 2020 8:12:18 GMT -5
I don't have much Mingus, but this is the one I return to the most. Such a range of sounds on this album.
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Post by jk on Feb 14, 2024 16:41:28 GMT -5
I'm now reading (or, more correctly, browsing) a jewel of a book by the multi-talented Gunther Schuller. Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (1968) discusses its "beginnings as a distinct musical style at the turn of the century to the end of its first great flowering in the 1930s". The name that first caught my attention is that of the great cornetist, pianist and composer Bix Beiderbecke, who died when only 28. His brief stint with The Wolverines includes a session held on 6 May 1924 to record a Hoagy Carmichael track initially called "Free Wheeling". It was Beiderbecke's idea to rename it "Riverboat Shuffle": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bix_Beiderbecke
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Post by jk on Feb 15, 2024 8:28:01 GMT -5
Couple more things now from 1927 when Bix was with Frankie "Tram" Trumbauer. According to uploader Atticus Jazz, the lineup on "Singin' The Blues" (NYC, 4 February ’27) consists of Bix Beiderbecke (cornet), Frank Trumbauer ( C melody sax), Jimmy Dorsey (clarinet, alto sax), Miff Mole (trombone), Paul Mertz (piano), Eddie Lang (guitar) and Chauncey Morehouse (drums). Solos (given here in numbers of bars) are taken by Tram + Lang (32), Bix + Lang (32), Dorsey (8) and Lang (1). Bix's solo begins one minute in: That same year's "For No Reason At All In C" by the trio of Bix Beiderbecke (cornet, piano), Frank Trumbauer (C melody sax) and Eddie Lang (guitar) features a rare recorded piano outing by Bix: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Trumbauer
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Post by Awesoman on Feb 16, 2024 10:38:09 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Feb 17, 2024 8:40:24 GMT -5
That's gorgeous! Thanks for sharing.
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Post by Awesoman on Feb 17, 2024 14:08:36 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Feb 28, 2024 16:37:08 GMT -5
I'm now reading (or, more correctly, browsing) a jewel of a book by the multi-talented Gunther Schuller. Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (1968) discusses its "beginnings as a distinct musical style at the turn of the century to the end of its first great flowering in the 1930s". One name in the book that intrigued me and prompted me to investigate further was that of James Reese Europe. Jim Europe (1881–1919) was, in the words of his wiki, "an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger and composer. He was the leading figure on the African American music scene of New York City in the 1910s." His complete wiki makes for an engaging read. When a lieutenant with the 369th U.S. Infantry Regiment (the "Harlem Hellfighters") under French command during WWI, he directed the regimental band to great acclaim. The pioneering recordings he made with them before returning to the USA in 1919 can be heard here in their entirety: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lqE81LaHiESj9uRfenqlkhlhEd-HU92G0en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Reese_Europe
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Post by Awesoman on Mar 8, 2024 12:40:20 GMT -5
Any casual jazz aficionado has heard of the late great Vince Guaraldi who was responsible for most of the Peanuts specials up until his death. Back in 1989 they put out a pretty darn good record, 𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝐴𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑎𝑟𝑦, 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛!, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the comic strip. This tribute album contains new versions of many of Guaraldi's most recognizable themes including the iconic "Linus & Lucy". Although the overall production is a tad dated, this is still a pretty good entry-level gateway into jazz music that either kids or adults can appreciate. And the showstopper here has to be Chick Corea's excellent take on "The Great Pumpkin Waltz". music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_npz5aqJsgyt-9_3oxtLM-S8BSvWU3IKXk&si=7wESUYAn_Vcw_Mog
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Post by jk on Mar 8, 2024 13:17:04 GMT -5
Any casual jazz aficionado has heard of the late great Vince Guaraldi who was responsible for most of the Peanuts specials up until his death. Back in 1989 they put out a pretty darn good record, 𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝐴𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑎𝑟𝑦, 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛!, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the comic strip. This tribute album contains new versions of many of Guaraldi's most recognizable themes including the iconic "Linus & Lucy". Although the overall production is a tad dated, this is still a pretty good entry-level gateway into jazz music that either kids or adults can appreciate. And the showstopper here has to be Chick Corea's excellent take on "The Great Pumpkin Waltz". I recall hearing the Vince Guaraldi Trio as a teenager in 1963. "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" was one of my earliest brushes with jazz: There was later a more poppy version by Sounds Orchestral which was a big hit in the UK and elsewhere, but I much preferred the original. Ooh, I see Monty Budwig played upright bass with the trio. I know him from a later discovery, Shelly Manne's "A Bluish Bag", where Budwig plays arco walking bass. Sensational! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Gunn
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Post by sneakypete77 on Mar 9, 2024 10:59:32 GMT -5
And now for something completely different. Not a mainstream jazz composition by any means, but rather a delve into his own Native American heritage. Jim ‘Flying Eagle’ Pepper was a much loved jazz saxophonist, descended from the Kaw and Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma, and a pioneer of fusion jazz. I first heard this in early 1970 as a pupil at St Mary’s Grammar School in Darlington during one of our weekly three hour music lessons, where students were required to bring a record of their choice to play for the rest of the class, who would take notes and spend the final two hours critiquing the music. The next time was in 1997 when watching the Barry Levinson movie Sleepers at the cinema. It was featured during one of the film’s pivotal scenes in a Hell’s Kitchen bar which saw Kevin Bacon’s dodgy character come to a sticky end. By that time the original LP had been years out of print but I finally found the song on a compilation Hard To Find 45s on CD Volume 6.
More of a haunting mystical chant than a song, I just find it compelling and hypnotic. It paid a very brief visit to the Billboard Hot 100 on release in 1969 before falling into obscurity but has since been covered by a startling number of others.
..including someone who will be familiar to Wondermints fans:
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Post by jk on Mar 9, 2024 15:35:12 GMT -5
And now for something completely different. Not a mainstream jazz composition by any means, but rather a delve into his own Native American heritage. Jim ‘Flying Eagle’ Pepper was a much loved jazz saxophonist, descended from the Kaw and Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma, and a pioneer of fusion jazz. I first heard this in early 1970 as a pupil at St Mary’s Grammar School in Darlington during one of our weekly three hour music lessons, where students were required to bring a record of their choice to play for the rest of the class, who would take notes and spend the final two hours critiquing the music. The next time was in 1997 when watching the Barry Levinson movie Sleepers at the cinema. It was featured during one of the film’s pivotal scenes in a Hell’s Kitchen bar which saw Kevin Bacon’s dodgy character come to a sticky end. By that time the original LP had been years out of print but I finally found the song on a compilation Hard To Find 45s on CD Volume 6.
More of a haunting mystical chant than a song, I just find it compelling and hypnotic. It paid a very brief visit to the Billboard Hot 100 on release in 1969 before falling into obscurity but has since been covered by a startling number of others. Hello Peter. I remember that song too from about the same time but in a version by Topo D. Bill, "a Legs Larry Smith Production", as DJ Emperor Rosko would have it. "Topo D. Bill", according to Smith's wiki, was "a one-off musical collective that included Keith Moon of The Who, Chris Squire and Tony Kaye from Yes and fellow Bonzo [Dog Band member] Roger Ruskin Spear". I only heard it once on the radio but I thought it was lovely: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Smith_(musician)
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Post by Awesoman on Apr 24, 2024 7:49:13 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Apr 24, 2024 15:56:09 GMT -5
Very nice indeed, A. I like the extended tag! You know, you should repeat this post in the interesting covers of BB songs thread in the main section. Don't get me wrong, it's great that you've posted it here, but I doubt whether anyone will hear it on this stretch of the beach. Pity, because it's a very cool cover.
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Post by Awesoman on Apr 24, 2024 16:49:42 GMT -5
Very nice indeed, A. I like the extended tag! You know, you should repeat this post in the interesting covers of BB songs thread in the main section. Don't get me wrong, it's great that you've posted it here, but I doubt whether anyone will hear it on this stretch of the beach. Pity, because it's a very cool cover. Forgot about that thread. Will post it there too.
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Post by jk on Apr 27, 2024 7:47:42 GMT -5
This is the first of the five "desert island discs" Anna Lapwood was asked to choose in the interview shown here. I recall Anna requesting a track by US singer and composer Melody Gardot during the photoshoot for the cover of her album Luna (there's a video of the shoot elsewhere in that thread). Her favourite album by Ms Gardot is My One and Only Thrill. This is track #7, "Les étoiles", her own composition and I believe the only track sung in French: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_One_and_Only_Thrill
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