What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Stanfordian]

Kenny Drew with Freddie Hubbard, Hank Mobley, Sam Jones & Louis Hayes
'Undercurrent'
Blue Note (1960)

[CGR]

Art Pepper - Live at the Village Vanguard, cd 1 (of 9).

[Stanfordian]

Joe Henderson with McCoy Tyner, Bob Cranshaw & Elvin Jones
‘Inner Urge’
Blue Note (1964)

[Serial_Apologist]

Joe Henderson with McCoy Tyner, Bob Cranshaw & Elvin Jones
‘Inner Urge’
Blue Note (1964)

That LP was my intro to Mr Henderson - I've managed to keep the vinyl in good nick.

[Ian Thumwood]

Lionel Hampton's "French Sound."

A very curious session made in 1955 during a stop over in Paris with Hampton and several band members (Nat Adderley and Benny Bailey) fronting a band of local talent including the fleet, bebop piano Rene Urtreger and electric guitarist Sacha Distel playing a laid back set of contra-facts in the then fashionable "cool" school of jazz. The band with the horns is obviously taking it's cues from Miles' BofC band with the baritone doing a passable impression of Mulligan. However, Hampton is very much the star of the session and, plunged in an unfamiliar setting, proves to be totally at home in the bebop vocabulary and with a very savvy understanding of harmonic innovation. The record is very much what you would expect French jazz to sound like in the early 1950s.

Lionel Hampton was a strange musician to fully understand. His work with Goodman and small group recordings in the 30's / 40's marked him out as one of the foremost improvisers of that era yet his 1940's and early 50's big band seemed to be pitched at the very lowest common denominator. At worse, he could be quite a crass kind of musician. This session is something of a master-stoke and recasts Hampton as a totally committed modernist and the laid back, metronome-like rhythm team seemed to provide the kind of cushion for really thoughtful improvisation that belies his subsequent reputation. Anyone doubting Hampton's ability could well do listening to these recordings which abound with ideas rather like the contemporaneous recordings by Art Tatum. On the balance of evidence presented on this recording, I don't feel that Milt Jackson was any match for him and the shear musicianship and musicality of his playing was probably not matched on the vibraphone until Bobby Hutcherson.

[Stanfordian]

Horace Parlan with Tommy Turrentine, Stanley Turrentine, George Tucker & Al Harewood
'On the Spur of the Moment'
Blue Note (1961)

[Tenor Freak]

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - "The Music of Michael Jackson and Original Compositions Live" - SF Jazz Collective (2016)

[Jazzrook]

Sonny Rollins' tremendous trio version of 'Manhattan' with Henry Grimes(bass) & Specs Wright(drums) from the overlooked 1958 album 'Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daSGZpKz7TM

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

Right now listening to Carla Bley's 1977 European tour recording, which has Elton Dean, Gary Windo and Hugh Hopper on it alongside Mike Mantler, Roswell Rudd and Andrew Cyrille, and it includes a timely version of the Stars & Stripes - in the minor!

I've been listening to a lot of Elton Dean recordings from around that time, and much missing not just the quirky intensity of his playing, but his compositions too. I wonder how many people realise just how good they are.

[Stanfordian]

Ben Webster with Richard 'Groove' Holmes, Les McCann,
Lawrence 'Tricky' Lofton, George Freeman, Herbie Lewis
& Ron Jefferson
‘Groove’ - The Complete Legendary 1961 Sessions
Pacific Jazz (1961) re-issue 2014 with 7 extra tracks

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Listened to (and will often) a fascinating interview with Don Cherry (by Ben Sidran) where Don talks about his early years in LA, the LA scene, meeting Ornette, EXPLAINING Harmolodics, well the best I've yet heard, the difference between Lafaro and Haden, Higgins and Blackwell, the Five Spot season , and so much more. Mr Cherry is extremely wise, articulate and very personable...Itza also on Utube. Highly recommended.

BN.

[Old Grumpy]

As JLU has been stamped over by Parsifal I am listening to Tim Garland - One. Incorporates the excellent Jason Rebello (keys), Ant Law (guitars) and Asaf Sirkis (drums and percussion).


Or as the i listings page had it when the band were touring recently "touring Garland's latest album Entitled One". I did ask TG after the Sage Gateshead gig when he was expecting his knighthood.

OG

[Serial_Apologist]

As JLU has been stamped over by Parsifal I am listening to Tim Garland - One. Incorporates the excellent Jason Rebello (keys), Ant Law (guitars) and Asaf Sirkis (drums and percussion).


Or as the i listings page had it when the band were touring recently "touring Garland's latest album Entitled One". I did ask TG after the Sage Gateshead gig when he was expecting his knighthood.

OG

Ant Law's good isn't he? - thoroughly nice fella as well as a local lad for 'round about 'ere.

Must check out that Bluesnik-recommended Don Cherry interview later, as there's nothing much on the box after "China Between Clouds and Dreams" on 4 - off-topic but a wonderful series of docs.

[Beef Oven!]

Earlier .... CD




Now .... CD

[Stanfordian]

Hank Mobley with Lee Morgan, Andrew Hill, John Ore & Philly Joe Jones,
Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Butch Warren & Philly Joe Jones
‘No Room for Squares’
Blue Note (1963)