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!

Dizzy Gillespie brings together tenor saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins for four extended cuts, and in the process comes up with one of the most exciting “jam session” records in the jazz catalog. While the rhythm section of pianist Ray Bryant, bassist Tommy Bryant, and drummer Charlie Persip provides solid rhythmic support, Stitt and Rollins get down to business trading fours and reeling off solo fireworks. Apparently, Gillespie had stoked the competitive fires before the session with phone calls and some gossip, the fallout of which becomes palpable as the album progresses. On “The Eternal Triangle,” in particular, Stitt and Rollins impress in their roles as tenor titans, with Stitt going in for sheer muscle as that most stout of bebop cutters and Rollins opting for some pacing as a more thematic player. In the midst of the rivalry (certainly some torch was being passed, since Rollins was soon to become the top tenor saxophonist in jazz), an embarrassment of solo riches comes tumbling out of both these men’s horns. Gillespie adds his own split commentary on the proceedings with a casual solo on “After Hours” and a competitively blistering statement on “I Know That You Know.” With an at ease rendition of “On the Sunny Side of the Street” rounding things out, Sonny Side Up comes off as both a highly enjoyable jazz set and something of an approximation of the music’s once-revered live cutting session. (allmusic)

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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!

There have been many recordings of the music from the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess, but this is one of the more rewarding ones. Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald sing all of the parts, performing 16 of the play’s best melodies. Unfortunately, there is not much Armstrong trumpet to be heard, but the vocals are excellent and occasionally wonderful, making up for the unimaginative Russ Garcia arrangements assigned to the backup orchestra.

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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!

So dubbed because these three sessions — two from early 1949, one from March 1950 — are where the sound known as cool jazz essentially formed, Birth of the Cool remains one of the defining, pivotal moments in jazz. This is where the elasticity of bop was married with skillful, big-band arrangements and a relaxed, subdued mood that made it all seem easy, even at its most intricate. After all, there’s a reason why this music was called cool; it has a hip, detached elegance, never getting too hot, even as the rhythms skip and jump. Indeed, the most remarkable thing about these sessions — arranged by Gil Evans and featuring such heavy-hitters as Kai Winding, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, and Max Roach — is that they sound intimate, as the nonet never pushes too hard, never sounds like the work of nine musicians. Furthermore, the group keeps things short and concise (probably the result of the running time of singles, but the results are the same), which keeps the focus on the tones and tunes. The virtuosity led to relaxing, stylish mood music as the end result — the very thing that came to define West Coast or “cool” jazz — but this music is so inventive, it remains alluring even after its influence has been thoroughly absorbed into the mainstream. (allmusic)

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!

These 1957 recordings were the first of Miles Davis’s collaborations with arranger Gil Evans for Columbia, renewing a relationship that had begun with the Birth of the Cool sessions in 1949. It was perhaps the most important relationship ever forged between a jazz soloist and an arranger, for Evans excelled at finding fresh material (like Delibes’s “The Maids of Cadiz”) and then adding subtle voicings and blending unusual instruments to highlight Davis’s central voice. Everything Evans does enhances the trumpeter’s keen sense of space and his evocative sound. He could construct complex arrangements and make them fly (as on the opening “Springsville,” by John Carisi), contrast Davis’s voice with tuba or bass clarinet, or create the longing, Spanish-inflected “Blues for Pablo,” a precursor to their later Sketches of Spain. –Stuart Broomer

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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!

In 1957, the greatest year for recorded music including modern jazz, Detroit was a hot spot, a centerpiece to many hometown heroes as well as short-term residents like John Coltrane and Miles Davis. It was here that Trane connected with pianist Tommy Flanagan, subsequently headed for the East Coast, and recorded this seminal hard bop album. In tow were fellow Detroiters — drummer Louis Hayes, bassist Doug Watkins, and guitarist Kenny Burrell, with the fine trumpeter from modern big bands Idrees Sulieman as the sixth wheel. From the opening number, the classic “Minor Mishap,” you realize something special is happening. Flanagan is energized, playing bright and joyous melody lines, comping and soloing like the blossoming artist he was. Coltrane is effervescent and inspired, hot off the presses from the Miles Davis Quintet and searching for more expressionism. The other hard bop originals, “Eclypso” and “Solacium,” easily burn with a cool flame not readily associated with East Coast jazz. Flanagan himself is the catalyst more than the horns — dig his soaring, animated solo on “Eclypso” as he quotes “Jeepers Creepers.” The near 12-minute blues “Tommy’s Tune” is the perfect vehicle for Burrell, a prelude for his classics of the same period “All Day Long” and “All Night Long.” The lone trio session, on the standard “How Long Has This Been Going On?,” is regarded as quintessential Flanagan, and quite indicative of the Midwestern Motor City flavor Flanagan and his many peers brought into the mainstream jazz of the day and beyond. One yearns for alternate takes of this session. The Cats is a prelude to much more music from all of these masters that would come within a very short time period thereafter, and cannot come more highly recommended. It’s a must-buy for the ages. (allmusic)

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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!

Little Girl Blue, originally released in 1957, was Nina Simone’s first recording. Backed by bassist Jimmy Bond and Albert Tootie Heath, it showcases her ballad voice as one of mystery and sensuality and showcases her up-tempo jazz style with authority and an enigmatic down-home feel that is nonetheless elegant. The album also introduced a fine jazz pianist. Simone was a solid improviser who never strayed far from the blues.

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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 tenor sax giant had signed with another label when he embarked on this one-off date for Blue Note, an excursion that paid off with an enduring modern jazz masterpiece. Boasting volley after volley of smart soloing and intuitively swinging rhythm work, Blue Train is a joy, from the coolly precise ensemble entry on the opening title piece through the set’s balance of elegant hard bop conversations and smooth downshifts into ballads. John Coltrane wrote four originals for the date, all of them now regarded as standards, and assembled a rhythm section including pianist Kenny Drew, Miles Davis’s rhythm section of bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones, and trumpeter Lee Morgan and trombonist Curtis Fuller, both recent Blue Note recruits. Coltrane’s signature sound, now fully developed but still hewing more to familiar blues and chromatic harmonies than his later modalities, is confident and expansive, and his partners respond vividly throughout. –Sam Sutherland

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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 historic 1957 session, beginning with Monk’s favorite hymn (“Abide With Me”) and ending with the composer’s most affecting ballad (“Crepescule With Nellie”), functions as an overview of his career. As such, Monk’s Music, Thelonious’ fifth album for the Riverside label, is a shot across the bow of the hard bop movement.

A cubist intro by Monk and Wilbur Ware sets the tone for an extended seven-piece rendition of the pianist’s classic “Well, You Needn’t,” with a fiery underpinning by Art Blakey. Monk is at his angular, bluesy best, opening with Charlie Christian-like percussive accents. He grows more taciturn in the second chorus, unleashing some of his most dynamic rhythmic devices before crying out for “Coltrane, Coltrane.” Monk, Ware and Blakey drive Trane relentlessly, and the tenor giant responds with taut, screaming lyricism. Monk responds to Copeland’s Gillespie-ish shouts with child-like glee, then recedes as Blakey ghosts Ware’s dark, driving punctuations before his own polyrhythmic explosion. Coleman Hawkins enters on the crest of a drum roll with operatic fervor, followed by a feline Gigi Gryce, a coy Monk and a final reprise of the theme. A classic moment in jazz.

But Monk’s Music contains numerous highlights. Contrast Hawkins’ elegant, barrel-chested machismo on the ballad “Ruby, My Dear” with Trane’s rendition a year later on Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane. There are two takes of “Off Minor,” one of Monk’s most swinging lines. Hawkins comes off the starting blocks of the master take like a pit bull, Copeland responds in kind, and Monk follows with dissonant shards of counterpoint and harmonic subversion. Coltrane draws first blood on the spooky “Epistrophy,” obviously inspired by Hawkins’ steely melodic focus and Monk’s probing cross-rhythms; Gryce’s solo illustrates his fresh approach to the alto, and Blakey’s solo, with its crushing rolls and extraordinary bent tones, is a masterpiece. (allmusic)

Thelonious Monk Septet: Thelonious Monk (piano); Gigi Gryce (alto saxophone); Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Ray Copeland (trumpet); Wilbur Ware (acoustic bass); Art Blakey (drums).

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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).

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