What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Jazzrook]

'Donna Lee' from the album 'Vintage Dolphy' recorded live at Carnegie Hall on April 18, 1963 with Phil Woods(alto sax); Nick Travis(trumpet); Benny Golson(tenor sax); Jimmy Knepper(trombone); Don Ellis(trumpet); Jim Hall(guitar); Eric Dolphy(alto sax); Lalo Schifrin(piano); Barre Phillips(bass) & Charlie Persip(drums):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFU1qp7Ynd4

JR

[Jazzrook]

Louis Hayes/Junior Cook playing 'The Moontrane' from the album 'Ichi-Ban'(TIMELESS) recorded in NYC, 1976 with Woody Shaw(trumpet); Ronnie Mathews(piano); Stafford James(bass) & Guilherme Franco(percussion):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22CtSIOEYnA

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

One group that passed me by totally in the 1980s was "Steps ahead." By the time I was aware of this group, Mike Brecker had left and followed his own career path and they seemed to have been a band more cited in interviews or magazine articles than heard in air plays. I have spent this week listening to the "Steppin' out" disc made with a newer incarnation of this band with the WDR Radio Big Band. The experience with hearing this music shed of the synthesizer sounds and 1980's production value and replaced with more acoustic , big band setting is a revelation. There are some terrific tunes on this disc including "Ooops" , "Pools" (better known to me through another arrangement written for Woody Herman) and "Trains" but the pick of the bunch is "Beruit." The soloists include Mike Manieri, Bill Evans, Chuck Loeb and Steve Smith plus members of the WDR big band,

I am not generally a fusion fan but in this setting the music recalls the better writing by Weather Report. There are no tracks on the whole disc which could be considered "filler" and whilst the soloists are allowed to stretch out on charts which often run towards ten minutes, the first thing that hits you is the quality of the writing. I saw this band in Vienne many years ago but they were good but not a band that took my breath away., If I had heard this disc payed live, my opinion would have been massively different and I feel this disc effectively sheds any fusion pretentions and lands the group firmly in a contemporary jazz setting. However, with the catchiness of the compositions, you can understand this band's popularity even if they seem seldom mentioned with any affection these days.

[Stanfordian]

‘Blackjack’
Donald Byrd with Sonny Red, Hank Mobley, Cedar Walton, Walter Booker & Billy Higgins
Blue Note (1967)

[Stanfordian]

‘Go Lightly’
Blue Mitchell with Leo Wright, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Gene Taylor & Roy Brooks
Blue Note (1963)

[Joseph K]

26-2 - Kurt Rosenwinkel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h875uWgf2Jk

[Stanfordian]

'Movin' Along'
Wes Montgomery with Sam Jones, Louis Hayes, James Clay & Victor Feldman
Riverside (1960)

[Stanfordian]

‘Junior's Cookin'’
Junior Cook with Blue Mitchell, Dolo Coker, Gene Taylor & Roy Brooks
Jazzland (1961)

[eighthobstruction]

....herbie hancock : Crossings......................my favourite HH album by far....love Fender-Rhodes sound or is it just a electric piano avec tamperings....[must rebuy it]

....love Bernie Maupin too....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EwZ7xlpaoQ

[Serial_Apologist]

....herbie hancock : Crossings......................my favourite HH album by far....love Fender-Rhodes sound or is it just a electric piano avec tamperings....[must rebuy it]

....love Bernie Maupin too....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EwZ7xlpaoQ

Crossings has its moments but is a bit too overproduced for my liking, too episodic, with passages entering and fading out inconsequentially. I think Herbie was influenced by the more electronics-featured Sun Ra stuff of that time than by Bitches Brew. Mwandishi - the first of the Herbie Hancock Sextet albums with that particular line-up, minus the bombastic Moog dystopian sci-fi effects courtesy Patrick Gleason - is my preferred one. I'm with you on Bernie Maupin, though!

[Stanfordian]

‘Down with It!’
Blue Mitchell with Junior Cook, Chick Corea, Gene Taylor & Al Foster
Blue Note (1965)

[Stanfordian]

‘The Turnaround!’
Hank Mobley with Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Butch Warren & Philly Joe Jones / Freddie Hubbard, Barry Harris, Paul Chambers & Billy Higgins
Blue Note (1963/65)

[Stanfordian]

‘Breezin’
Sonny Redd with Sonny Red, Yusef Lateef, Blue Mitchell, Barry Harris, Bob Cranshaw & Albert 'Tootie' Heath
Jazzland (1960)

[Jazzrook]

Mal Waldron playing 'Nervous' from the 1957 album 'The Sound of Jazz'(Columbia):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUSmH3R7dGg

JR

[Stanfordian]

‘Coltrane's Sound’
John Coltrane with McCoy Tyner, Steve Davis & Elvin Jones
Atlantic (1964)