What Jazz are you listening to now?

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Most of the Bluenote obsessives are OK and mostly harmless. I remember one group who, from a picture of Lee Morgan sitting in the Bluenote stockroom, surrounded by boxes of LPs, managed to work out (from his suit) what the year and month it was, and what records would have been in the boxes. Don't ask!

I did encounter one who was desperate to get a good vinyl copy of Dexter Gordon's "Clubhouse", way before the RVG reissue progam. I had such a copy and refused to offer it up. He told me he'd been in Vietnam and knew how to kill with certainty "with just two bullets, one to the head and one in chest". I hoped he was joking but he kept texting me for months...

BN

[Stanfordian]

‘Our Man in Paris’ - Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon with Bud Powell, Pierre Michelot & Kenny Clarke
Blue Note (1963)

[Jazzrook]

Andrew Hill with Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis & Elvin Jones playing 'Alfred' from Hill's 1964 BLUE NOTE album 'Judgment!':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=wYrmM1WsAYE

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Miles Davis, Jackie McLean, Milt Jackson, Ray Bryant, Percy Heath, Art Taylor, "Minor March", 1955 ("Sextet & Quintet"). Forgot how wonderful this track is, and a genuinely neglected album, pre the Quintet a la Coltrane. And Ray Bryant's "Blues Changes" is timeless...

http://youtu.be/4v_2bT4_og0

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

My Ellington Webster/Blanton band box set. I continue to find "Ko Ko" just an extraordinary record, the writing, the sax section, Blanton's bass. It's era defining, like Parker's own "Ko Ko" was for Les Moderns.....http://youtu.be/qemBuum2jSU

BN.

[Jazzrook]

Horace Silver with Bennie Maupin, Bill Hardman, John Williams & Billy Cobham playing 'Nutville' on Danish TV, 1968:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=KKGBLjjy-hQ

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

My Ellington Webster/Blanton band box set. I continue to find "Ko Ko" just an extraordinary record, the writing, the sax section, Blanton's bass. It's era defining, like Parker's own "Ko Ko" was for Les Moderns.....http://youtu.be/qemBuum2jSU

BN.

The first time I heard this record I was shocked that anyone was able to think like this in 1940. There were always moments in the 20s and 30's where Ellington was pushing the definition of big band jazz into unchartered territory but "Ko ko" always seemed like a statement of intent. It must have been quite divisive when it came out because big band became a lot more commercial as the thirties moved in to the forties. I think that these Ellington recordings were totally focussed on an artistic vision and not sales. To come up with this this dissonant like "Ko-ko" at a time when someone like Glenn Miller was getting more traction with fans is staggering. However, I think there are other arrangements where he was no less strident. For me, these recordings are simply one of the greatest musical achievements of the 20th century.

The first time I heard the 1940s Ellington band it was actually another track that made an impression on me. This was when someone requested "Harlem Airshaft" on JRR. Prior to hearing this, I had never appreciated that people could write music to paint a picture or describe something, This piece is extremely evocative but, if I am honest, there are so many gems made by Ellington in 1940-2 that to single out "ko-ko", as great as it is, does not do justice to what was going on with his music. I can recall Gunther Schuller describing "Cottontail" as the first modern big band record too. In the end, the fact is that the band only made a few clinkers in this era and they tend to be the vocal efforts by Ivie Anderson. I have never understood her appeal. You can pick so many of these arrangements and make a case for it being "important" or a significant moment in jazz.

It always struck me as weird how Ellington's band should arrive at this period of creativity in 1940. The music he made in the late 1930s is really obscure by comparison and the "celebrated" recordings from about 1934 onwards always seem to be few and far between whereas there is something almost cultish about 99% of what Ellington recorded between 40-42. There are some exceptional recordings from the late 30's such as "Clarinet lament" yet I always had the impression that his band was starting to sound a bit dated in comparison with what else was happening in big band jazz by this stage. It sometimes sound a bit anachronistic to Basie's band of the late 30s, for example. What happened to the band in 1940 was pretty incredible - it made a jump of seismic proportions.

If you like this era of Ellington, I would have to say that you need to acquire the CBS record "Masterpieces by Ellington." You can pick this up on Amazon really cheaply but the recordings stem from the late 1940s and, in my opinion, represent the culmination of where Ellington was heading. This was the first LP Ellington cut and it exploited the long playing format albeit with reworkings of Ellington standards like "Sophisticated Lady", "Mood Indigo, etc." I have said this previously but these standards are totally re-worked in to extended pieces which I feel are a development from "Ko-ko." Do not be put off by their familiarity because what Strayhorn and Ellington do is rework these songs in to more formal compositions. It is Ellington off the lease from 78 rpm. In addition, it also includes "the Tattooed Bride" which is one of his best extended works and hugely effected. "Masterpieces" You can pick this up for under £7. For me, this record nicely illustrates how Ellington's vision radically expanded after "Ko-ko." Whilst Be-bop might have been the "cutting edge " style of jazz at that time, Ellington is experimenting with form on these records which reveal him to be equally modern. If you do not have this record, it is an essential purchase. It has a reputation as being his forgotten masterpiece and was probably one of his least compromising visits to a recording studio up until that point. In a nutshell, it represents the logical conclusion of the Blanton / Webster band.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Masterpieces-Ellington-Duke-His-Orchestra/dp/B0001FLW5Q/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2UUK238IDXXEW&dchild=1&keywords=masterpieces+by+ellington&qid=1585997624&sprefix=masterpieces+by+Ellington%2Caps%2C401&sr=8-3

[Ian Thumwood]

I have dug some of my Blue Note collection out from the drawer and given them a spin. When I was working in Croydon back in 2015, I was continually playing these discs in my car. So far, I have played:-

Stanley Turrentine - "Hustlin'." I haven't played this for ages but it is a really enjoyable disc. I love the interplay between Shirley Horn' s organ and Kenny Burrell's guitar, especially on the opening "Trouble No. 2." I think that a few of the tunes on here were pop numbers of the day. Turrentine wasn't a trend setter but I think you would have to be curmudgeonly to dislike his playing.

Hank Mobley - "Workout." For my money, one of Mobley's best records.

Kenny Dorham - "Whistle stop." I think it was Jazzrook who put me on to this record. I have to be honest and say that I am inclined to think this record is the apogee of Hard Bop. The more I listen to Dorham, the more I find to admire. There is a lot of memorable music on this disc and interesting to hear Mobley in a more challenging context. Dorham not only plays trumpet different but also had an original style as a composer. I am really taken by the more introspective stuff on this disc but even when moving in to more typical Blue Note territory, he could write funkier stuff like "Buffalo" which perhaps hints at the writing of later trumpet composers such as Tom Harrell. For my money, this would be in a Blue Note "Top Ten."

Andrew Hill - "Judgement." I love Andrew Hill's music and this is his most agreeable Blue Note outing in my opinion.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Whistle Stop" is a wonderful record, Kenny, the entire group and compositions, "Sunrise in Mexico" etc. As I've bored on before, I bought it when it came out in 61 or 62 as an import LP. I was SO taken with it that I bought a pair of "Coin" cufflinks, as per Kenny's on the cover shot. Only mine were from Woolies in Cardiff. And fell to bits. Agree about the Turrentine Bluenotes. I think it's "Rough & Tumble" where the band cut the Ray Charles Atlantic song "What would I do with you", with McCoy Tyner doing the "Ray" piano. I read an old interview where he said he really enjoyed those dates.

I've been listening to an eight album Lou Donaldson Bluenote box, albums up to 1959. It's mostly Donaldson bop, but he's fluent enough and at that stage could sometimes surprise. The real interest is in the support. Donald Byrd, Bill Hardman, Kenny Dorham, Curtis Fuller, Gene Harris, Horace Parlan etc. Donald Byrd is actually wonderful, at that point a mix of himself, Brown and Dorham.

[Ian Thumwood]

The only Lou Donaldson disc I have is "The Natural soul" although he is on the Clifford Brown "Memorial Album" with a host of other musicians early in their careers. "The Natural Soul" is a funny album as it mixes the typical 1960s funky organ format with cut and past Charlie Parker. To be frank, I never got what Alfred Lion saw in Donaldson although Wynton Marsalis told an anecdote about him at a gig I went to which is interested. He said that Donaldson was a judge on a panel Marsalis was on for a competition aimed at jazz students. He was supposed to have been a very tough critic and had extremely high standards which were rooted in learning your craft on the bandstand. Marsalis inferred that Donaldson was no slouch as a player and a better musician than most critics and fans took him for. Marsalis obviously respects him.

[Jazzrook]

John Coltrane with McCoy Tyner, Steve Davis & Billy Higgins playing 'Simple Like'(aka 'Like Sonny') recorded for ROULETTE in September, 1960:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=s3hOg8vVQiw

JR

[Tenor Freak]

NP Stanley Turrentine, "Watch What Happens", 1969. One of my favourite tenor ballads, with Billy Cobham on the traps.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Elmo Hope Trio, Jimmy Bond, Frank Butler, Contemporary Records 1959, "Something for Kenny". One of the great trio jazz albums, a desert island deeeesc for me...

http://youtu.be/e_tza541Ejk

[Joseph K]

John Coltrane with McCoy Tyner, Steve Davis & Billy Higgins playing 'Simple Like'(aka 'Like Sonny') recorded for ROULETTE in September, 1960:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=s3hOg8vVQiw

JR

I love 'Coltrane Jazz'.

[teamsaint]

At the Jazz Corner of the World.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.