All posts in Jazz

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

With a strong, smooth tone and an amazing flow of fresh ideas every time he soloed, tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks should have been a major jazz artist, but his legacy is confined to a series of dates that he did for Blue Note as a sideman and leader. “True Blue” is the only album under his own name to come out in his lifetime. He and Freddie Hubbard had recorded Hubbard’s “Open Sesame” a week earlier. Based on these two albums alone, Brooks should have been recognized as an important new voice in jazz.

Personnel: Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone); Tina Brooks; Sam Jones (double bass); Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); Duke Jordan (piano); Art Taylor (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

Lyric and thoughtful, pianist Bill Evans proved an urbane bridge between the early bop style of Bud Powell and playful funk of Horace Silver, and the later, modern approach of pianists like Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett (indeed, Jarrett went as far as to record with Evans’s backup band of drummer Paul Motian and bassist Gary Peacock). Evans’s second album as a leader, Portrait in Jazz combines a pair of originals–”Blue in Green” and “Peri’s Scope”–with a handful of show tunes and standards, including a version of “Someday My Prince Will Come” that pre-dates Miles Davis’s adaptation. With a preference for irregular phrasing and a taste for unusual chord spellings, Evans was frequently able to recast old chestnuts and tired warhorses into new gems and spirited charges, as he does here with “Witchcraft,” “Spring Is Here,” and “When I Fall in Love.” And although he recorded in many different formats throughout his career, including duets with himself, the power and beauty of Evans’s trios helped him lay a special claim to that grouping. –Fred Goodman

Personnel: Bill Evans (piano); Scott LaFaro (bass); Paul Motian (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

This 1954 studio date, a self-titled album recorded for Emarcy, was later reissued as Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown to denote the involvement of one of the top trumpeters of the day. Vaughan sings nine intimate standards with a band including Brown on trumpet, Herbie Mann on flute, and Paul Quinichette on tenor, each of which have plenty of space for solos (most of the songs are close to the five-minute mark). Vaughan is arguably in the best voice of her career here, pausing and lingering over notes on the standards “April in Paris,” “Jim,” and “Lullaby of Birdland.” As touching as Vaughan is, however, Brown almost equals her with his solos on “Lullaby of Birdland,” “Jim,” and “September Song,” displaying his incredible bop virtuosity in a restrained setting without sacrificing either the simple feeling of his notes or the extraordinary flair of his choices. Quinichette’s solos are magnificent as well, his feathery tone nearly a perfect match for Vaughan’s voice. Ironically though, neither Brown nor Quinichette or Mann appear on the album’s highlight, “Embraceable You,” which Vaughan performs with close accompaniment from the rhythm section: Jimmy Jones on piano, Joe Benjamin on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums. Vaughan rounds the notes with a smile and even when she’s steeping to reach a few low notes, she never loses the tremendous feeling conveyed by her voice. In whichever incarnation it’s reissued, Sarah Vaughan With Clifford Brown is one of the most important jazz-meets-vocal sessions ever recorded. (allmusic)

Personnel: Sarah Vaughan (vocals); Ernie Wilkins (arranger); Paul Quinichette (tenor saxophone); Clifford Brown (trumpet); Herbie Mann (flute); Jimmy Jomes (piano); Joe Benjamin (bass); Roy Haynes (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

The brainchild of Art Blakey and Blue Note producer Alfred Lion, Orgy in Rhythm Vol.1&2 is a milestone in recorded jazz. Blakey gathered together some of the best jazz drummers and Latin percussionists around for an improvised session in 1957. To this he added renowned flautist Herbie Mann, pianist Ray Bryant and bassist Wendall Marshall for melodic and harmonic support. Make no mistake, however–the focus here is exactly what the title suggests. This is a percussion extravaganza that pushes the drums to the forefront as in the traditional African music that formed the roots of jazz.

Long, hypnotic grooves, wailing chants and grounding bass tones support extended solos by Blakey, Arthur Taylor, Jo Jones and percussionist Sabu. While billed as Blakey’s record, it was certainly a collective effort that brought his rhythmic collages to life. The difficulty in recording such a large ensemble of percussion instruments fell to legendary engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who did a commendable job here; the enormity of the sound must be heard to be believed. Highlight tracks include the wailing “Buhaina Chant,” the expressive “Elephant Walk” and the stunning drum set feature “Split Skins.”

Personnel: Art Blakey (drums); Ray Bryant (piano), Jo Jones (drums); Herbie Mann (flute); Wendell Marshall (bass); Ubaldo Nieto (timbales); Evilio Quintero (cencerro, marcas); Art Taylor (drums); Carlos Valdes (congas); Specs Wright (drums, timpani); Sabu (bongos, timbani).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

This release is something of a departure for the bold trumpet stylist. After the Latin-tinged dance-floor jams of THE SIDEWINDER (released about six months prior to this disc), Morgan turns somewhat reflective. The music is quieter, with a good deal of structural space and restrained, almost expressionistic playing. The title track opens the album and evokes a mood of poignancy and careful balance, like a Japanese painting. Even the more up-tempo numbers like “The Joker” and “Mr. Kenyatta” are relaxed and thoughtful, the richly textured passages unfolding in a way that seems both organic and tightly disciplined.

Morgan’s playing maintains its articulate brightness, but his notes and phrases are carefully shaded. This is matched by Wayne Shorter’s sax work (also simultaneously edgy and lyrical), Grant Green’s glowing guitar and Herbie Hancock’s atmospheric contributions. Lee should also be recognized as a significant composer, since all the tracks here, with their floating themes and protean solo sections, are from his pen. Search For The New Land live up to its title, finding a high ground of intelligent, evocative work and outstanding playing.

Personnel: Lee Morgan (trumpet); Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Herbie Hancock (piano); Grant Green (guitar); Reginald Workman (bass); Billy Higgins (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorie track:

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

Eric Dolphy was among the most daring, impassioned, and technically assured improvisers to come of age in the 1960s. From his groundbreaking work with Chico Hamilton and Charles Mingus, through his catalytic stint with John Coltrane, and all through his brilliant solo recordings for Prestige, this reed innovator defined the best elements of the swing and the bebop traditions, from Benny Carter through Bird, while extending on the rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic freedom of Monk. Dolphy is an emotional shaman with a keen comic edge, as is evident in the rhythmic sauntering, drunken gait of his theme to “Straight Up and Down,” and Monk’s influence is clearly discernible in Dolphy’s witty dissonances and vocalized blues phrasing throughout Out to Lunch! (his only Blue Note recording, completed shortly before his untimely death). Rhythm masters Richard Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, and Tony Williams suspend time at will, sculpting in open space, while deconstructing the harmony and superimposing cubist rhythmic displacements–periodically regrouping around Freddie Hubbard’s bumblebee trumpet and the leader’s vocalized bass clarinet (his Monkish “Hat and Beard”), wailing alto (the martial parodies of the title tune), and exhilarating flute (the lyric, swinging “Gazzelloni”). Out to Lunch! represents Dolphy’s most fully realized vision.

Personnel: Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet); Richard Davis (bass); Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); Bobby Hutcherson (vibraphone); Anthony Williams (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

Bassist Scott LaFaro’s death in the early summer of 1961, just 10 days after the Bill Evans Trio’s triumphant Village Vanguard engagement was a devastating personal and musical, loss to the pianist, after which he took nearly a year off from recording or playing in public. (The Vanguard performances can be heard on “Sunday At The Village”, “Waltz For Debby” and “At The Vanguard”.) It fell to another bassist, Chuck Israel, to bring Evans out and re-establish the Bill Evans Trio as a going concern. Possessed of a warm tone, Israels’ essentially supportive playing with the Trio made for a studied contrast with the brashly virtuosic LaFaro, which was not necessarily a bad thing.

As if to make up for lost time, the newly reconstituted trio recorded two albums’ worth of material in June and May of 1962. Moon Beams is the “softer” of the two and introduced two graceful Evan’s originals, “Re: Person I Knew” (an anagram of producer Orrin Keepnews’s name) and the lyrical fugue “Very Early.” While any of the early Riverside albums make an excellent introduction to Bill Evans, Moon Beams is perhaps the most exquisitely romantic of the bunch, much like Coltrane’s Ballads in this respect. (cduniverse)

Bill Evans Trio: Bill Evans (piano); Chuck Israels (bass); Paul Motian (drums).

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