My Dad has been snapping up the recent re-issues on Avid where the label offer "four classic" LPs on two CD's. The recordings must represent the first appearance of a lot of this material on CD and the results offer a mixture of genuine classic recordings with others where their obscurity seems well deserved. At the moment I've been listening to one of these records in my car and this is a selection of records made by Shelly Manne.
Manne seems almost forgotten these days but he was still regarded as one of the great drummers in jazz when I was getting in to the music. The 4 CD's offer a combination of music written by Henry Mancini for the Peter Gunn TV series. Once you get past the over-played theme tune, the music is quite good and I love the fact that Victor Feldman plays marimba as well as vibes. These days the West Coast players are looked down upon and it is fair to say that the music has dated somewhat and lacks the hard edge of the kind of jazz that a label like Blue Note was putting out at the same time. I sometimes feel that the West Coast movement wasn't quite as modern as it thought it was and some kind of extension of swing. That said, I quite like this record.
I haven't got to playing the second disc which features the German pianist Andre Previn. I can't ever recollect ever hearing his playing or at least it leaving any favourable impression on me. Just as Manne's involvement with TV music somewhat distracts from his jazz credentials, I always sensed that Previn was a classical musician who dabbled in jazz and never really plunged that deep in to the music. It will be interesting to see how the later tracks on this CD change my opinion.
By and large, if I had to plump for a "classic" West Coast jazz it would be Shorty Roger's "Cool and crazy" which sums up exactly what the music was about. It seems a mixture of Miles' BoftC band and Basie and the charts are staggeringly effective. They have a quality about them where the arrangements must have seemed instantly classic - helped , to some degree, by the imaginative and effective titles. However, a lot of the smaller West Coast groups seem a bit polite and the soloists interchangeable. They always seem quite bright and breezy and it seemed wholly appropriate that one of the pianists should have been called Pete Jolly for that is exactly how the music sounds. It has a sunny quality about it.
It would be interesting to see which albums would be considered "essential" from the West Coast movement and to see which of the musicians have left a more lasting impression. I've always liked Bud Shank myself.
Manne seems almost forgotten these days but he was still regarded as one of the great drummers in jazz when I was getting in to the music. The 4 CD's offer a combination of music written by Henry Mancini for the Peter Gunn TV series. Once you get past the over-played theme tune, the music is quite good and I love the fact that Victor Feldman plays marimba as well as vibes. These days the West Coast players are looked down upon and it is fair to say that the music has dated somewhat and lacks the hard edge of the kind of jazz that a label like Blue Note was putting out at the same time. I sometimes feel that the West Coast movement wasn't quite as modern as it thought it was and some kind of extension of swing. That said, I quite like this record.
I haven't got to playing the second disc which features the German pianist Andre Previn. I can't ever recollect ever hearing his playing or at least it leaving any favourable impression on me. Just as Manne's involvement with TV music somewhat distracts from his jazz credentials, I always sensed that Previn was a classical musician who dabbled in jazz and never really plunged that deep in to the music. It will be interesting to see how the later tracks on this CD change my opinion.
By and large, if I had to plump for a "classic" West Coast jazz it would be Shorty Roger's "Cool and crazy" which sums up exactly what the music was about. It seems a mixture of Miles' BoftC band and Basie and the charts are staggeringly effective. They have a quality about them where the arrangements must have seemed instantly classic - helped , to some degree, by the imaginative and effective titles. However, a lot of the smaller West Coast groups seem a bit polite and the soloists interchangeable. They always seem quite bright and breezy and it seemed wholly appropriate that one of the pianists should have been called Pete Jolly for that is exactly how the music sounds. It has a sunny quality about it.
It would be interesting to see which albums would be considered "essential" from the West Coast movement and to see which of the musicians have left a more lasting impression. I've always liked Bud Shank myself.
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