1959.....what if

[elmo]

Following Jazzrook's 1956 thread... what if Kind of Blue, The Shape of Jazz to come, Mingus ah um, Giant Steps and Time out had not been recorded would 1959 still be the iconic Modern Jazz year.

I think so - here's a few

Ornette "Change of the Century"
Miles "Sketches of Spain"
Cecil Taylor "Love for sale
Mingus " Blues and Roots and Mingus Dynasty"
Elmo Hope Trio - Hi Fi/Contemporary
Coltrane - Coltrane Jazz
Harold Land The Fox
Max Roach - The many sides of Max
J.R.Monterose The Message Jaro
George Russell New York N.Y.
Sonny Rollins Trio's that played Europe in the spring of 1959 - complete sessions on Solar
Jackie McLean - New Soil and Jackie's Bag
Randy Weston - Live at the Five Spot
Duke Ellington Blues in Orbit
Bill Evans Portrait in Jazz
Gil Evans Great Jazz Standards
Horace Silver Blowin the blues away
Kenny Dorham Blue Spring and Quiet Kenny
Shelly Manne at the Blackhawk
Sonny Clark my Conception
Monk at the Town Hall and Five by Five.
Warne Marsh Art of improvising on Revelation
Art Pepper Modern Jazz Classics

And that's just a start.....What a year

elmo

[Serial_Apologist]

The problem as I see it is that one can take any number or selection of recordings as one's defining benchmarks, but where does one draw the line?

IMV it's probably best to select a small number and then debate over those what is distinguishing about them.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Following Jazzrook's 1956 thread... what if Kind of Blue, The Shape of Jazz to come, Mingus ah um, Giant Steps and Time out had not been recorded would 1959 still be the iconic Modern Jazz year.

I think so - here's a few

Ornette "Change of the Century"
Miles "Sketches of Spain"
Cecil Taylor "Love for sale
Mingus " Blues and Roots and Mingus Dynasty"
Elmo Hope Trio - Hi Fi/Contemporary
Coltrane - Coltrane Jazz
Harold Land The Fox
Max Roach - The many sides of Max
J.R.Monterose The Message Jaro
George Russell New York N.Y.
Sonny Rollins Trio's that played Europe in the spring of 1959 - complete sessions on Solar
Jackie McLean - New Soil and Jackie's Bag
Randy Weston - Live at the Five Spot
Duke Ellington Blues in Orbit
Bill Evans Portrait in Jazz
Gil Evans Great Jazz Standards
Horace Silver Blowin the blues away
Kenny Dorham Blue Spring and Quiet Kenny
Shelly Manne at the Blackhawk
Sonny Clark my Conception
Monk at the Town Hall and Five by Five.
Warne Marsh Art of improvising on Revelation
Art Pepper Modern Jazz Classics

And that's just a start.....What a year

elmo

Well, "Ray Charles in Person" (Atlantic 1959) recorded in a rainy Atlanta stadium on a single suspended mike has to be one of the greatest live recordings ever. Massively influential, the band (Newman, Crawford et al) and Ray magnificent, it changed all who first heard it then (even Graham Bond which may not have been such a good thing), and to those who say its not "truly jazz " (sniff) , you wouldn't know "jazz" if your helper served you chicken and rice from the bell of Dolphy's alto.

BN.

[cloughie]

Well, "Ray Charles in Person" (Atlantic 1959) recorded in a rainy Atlanta stadium on a single suspended mike has to be one of the greatest live recordings ever. Massively influential, the band (Newman, Crawford et al) and Ray magnificent, it changed all who first heard it then (even Graham Bond which may not have been such a good thing), and to those who say its not "truly jazz " (sniff) , you wouldn't know "jazz" if your helper served you chicken and rice from the bell of Dolphy's alto.

BN.

So you just settle for sniffing at Graham Bond. Then that's jazzers for you.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

When Bond reimagined himself as "soulful" (and imagined he could sing) ...it became a minstral show. I blame the drugs.

As Don Rendell said, "he just phoned me up one night and said he was going to play the organ in the band and sing...I told him I needn't have a need"

BN.

[clive heath]

Yup.. anyone who could persuade Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to play a concert with him more than once... obviously a complete charlatan..wouldn't you say?

[Jazzrook]

Following Jazzrook's 1956 thread... what if Kind of Blue, The Shape of Jazz to come, Mingus ah um, Giant Steps and Time out had not been recorded would 1959 still be the iconic Modern Jazz year.

I think so - here's a few

Ornette "Change of the Century"
Miles "Sketches of Spain"
Cecil Taylor "Love for sale
Mingus " Blues and Roots and Mingus Dynasty"
Elmo Hope Trio - Hi Fi/Contemporary
Coltrane - Coltrane Jazz
Harold Land The Fox
Max Roach - The many sides of Max
J.R.Monterose The Message Jaro
George Russell New York N.Y.
Sonny Rollins Trio's that played Europe in the spring of 1959 - complete sessions on Solar
Jackie McLean - New Soil and Jackie's Bag
Randy Weston - Live at the Five Spot
Duke Ellington Blues in Orbit
Bill Evans Portrait in Jazz
Gil Evans Great Jazz Standards
Horace Silver Blowin the blues away
Kenny Dorham Blue Spring and Quiet Kenny
Shelly Manne at the Blackhawk
Sonny Clark my Conception
Monk at the Town Hall and Five by Five.
Warne Marsh Art of improvising on Revelation
Art Pepper Modern Jazz Classics

And that's just a start.....What a year

elmo

Quite a list, Elmo!
Here are a few more:

Yusef Lateef - Cry! - Tender(mostly 1959)
Wynton Kelly - Kelly Blue
Jimmy Heath - The Thumper
Donald Byrd - Byrd in Hand
Benny Golson - Groovin' With Golson
Walter Davis Jr. - Davis Cup

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

For me this is the period when "Modern jazz" really started to hit it's stride. It is easy to agree with Elmo's comment that this was a "classic" year but you can quite easily pick an equally compelling list for any year between 1958 - 1965. I think that this was an amazingly intense period of creation whilst I think the music had very much decided the route to move the music forward whereas this was probably less clear in the middle of the 1950's when there seemed indecision as to what would be the definite style after the demise of Charlie Parker.

[cloughie]

Yup.. anyone who could persuade Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to play a concert with him more than once... obviously a complete charlatan..wouldn't you say?

I seem to remember they went on to form a trio with a guitarist who could play a bit bluesy!

[Serial_Apologist]

Yup.. anyone who could persuade Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to play a concert with him more than once... obviously a complete charlatan..wouldn't you say?

Jon Hiseman would be the person to talk to on that subject. After all it was he who came in to the ORGANisation as it neared its end, and tried to clear up its finances while at the same time clearing up Graham's blood off the toilet walls in motorway service areas. Before that I'd always assumed that of the other two it was Ginger who was the chief antagonist, but as Jon will point it out, in their case it took two to tango. Many years later Ginger is on video admitting his drumming to be much better than it had been under stimulants, though I don't think he's ever really dealt with the anger issues, and probably wouldn't sue me for saying so.

Dick Heckstall-Smith's book "The Safest Place in the World", and Jon's, "Playing the Band", are very revealing about how much narcotics and booze contributed to that era - not always negatively so but mostly.

As to what it was that was attributable for the drugs in ways different from black urban America in the '40s and '50s, a generation as much emotionally damaged by WW2 and British buttoned up ways of dealing with that as benefitting from the NHS etc...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Yes, the Graham Bond Organisation, a band world renowned for the joy, mutual musical respect, and harmony of its members....

You had to be there maybe, like hey, the Flamingo?...the blood was fake...

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

I seem to remember they went on to form a trio with a guitarist who could play a bit bluesy!

"The trouble is, someone forgot to tell Eric he was supposed to be Ornette Coleman in that group" - Jack Bruce.

[Quarky]

Well, "Ray Charles in Person" (Atlantic 1959) recorded in a rainy Atlanta stadium on a single suspended mike has to be one of the greatest live recordings ever. Massively influential, the band (Newman, Crawford et al) and Ray magnificent, it changed all who first heard it then (even Graham Bond which may not have been such a good thing), and to those who say its not "truly jazz " (sniff) , you wouldn't know "jazz" if your helper served you chicken and rice from the bell of Dolphy's alto.

BN.

1959 was my intro to Jazz with Ray Charles. What'd I Say is 1959 vintage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPLZL4s_jtI

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

The '57 Carnegie Hall concert that produced the superb Monk/Coltrane set also featured the Ray Charles small band with Ed Blackwell on drums. Ray said that Blackwell came up with a lot of the licks that finalised with Milt Turner's classic on What D'I say.

I'd love to hear the Carnegie set which is sitting there in the vaults (taped for a one off broadcast) but for some reason there it stays. When Ray was alive he was totally obsessive about controlling his catalogue and its price... But now?

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

There was a third group on the bill as well, I believe.