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TGIF Jazz #142
Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean’s neighbors and friends while he was a teen were Sonny Rollins, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. That’s a little like saying you grew up with the X-Men living on your block. No stranger to the musical world (his father was a noted guitarist), his first decade of playing was with people like the Jazz Messengers, George Wallington, and even Charles Mingus. Throughout the ’60s, Jackie was a huge player in the hard bop world, also trying out free jazz, but by the 70’s turned to the world of jazz educator. He kept his intensity and passionate playing all the way to the end, and with his 21 Blue Note albums from 1959-1967, we have quite a witness from the era that we can turn to for inspiration.
A great number from his 1960 album ‘Jackie’s Bag,’ here’s “Appointment in Ghana.” Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Jazz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtKGXRRxG74
TGIF Jazz #141
A slight addendum to something I said in TGIF 140: Along with hard bop and traditional New Orleans jazz, stride piano sends me to an extremely happy place. The greats have been covered in this series: Luckey Roberts (my fave), Fats Waller and such. Those guys were bred during the heyday of stride in the 20’s and 30’s. However, here’s a gentleman who came up during the 40’s, the bebop era, yet succeeded as one of the great stride pianists throughout a career that lasted into the ‘80’s. His playing is tinged with a little bebop, but the foundation comes from learning one-on-one with the grandaddies of this formidable niche style.
Dick Wellstood was a surgeon on the piano, a player of great skill and command of the genre. Despite having been a below-the-radar performer, we have some great recordings. I think you’ll smile as much as I did when you first hear his take on the Sesame Street/Muppet song, “Rubber Duckie,” which is then followed by one of the great all-time standards, “After You’ve Gone.” Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Jazz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGtFDQkB5Xw
TGIF Jazz #140
During my freshman year of college, a friend had told me how much he loved Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, a group I knew nothing about at the time. He lent me the album MOANIN’ and that pretty much changed everything for me as far as jazz went. I bought every Blakey album afterwards, as well as those of his sidemen in the Messengers, like the great Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, and our TGIF Jazz artist of the day, Horace Silver. I think this type of jazz is, apart from Traditional New Orleans, the one that resonates with me the most.
If you stop and think about it, this group was a magical thing, from its inception to the quality of its output and players throughout its illustrious history. Groups of this caliber don’t come together very often in which everyone was a superstar and their contributions were critical. Chief among these individuals was Mr. Silver, whose music writing abilities were something else. It’s been a while since we have shared some of Silver’s music, so here we have ‘Doodlin”. This is off the very first Jazz Messengers album from 1955. Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Jazz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4o65SwUIw
TGIF Jazz #139
I’m feeling Bop-centric today, and Mr. Barry Harris is just the kind of pianist we need on this Friday to bring our week to a pleasant close. Harris is out of the Motor City, and he made his name as a serious bop pianist in the 50’s and 60’s. He has two sick abilities: he can resemble Bud Powell in style and can do a good Thelonious Monk impression on the keys. However, this just speaks to his chops. He has his own intricate style, always swingin’. Max Roach, Cannonball Adderly and Sonny Stitt are just a few of the luminaries he’s collaborated with over a 60-plus year career. As a jazz educator, he fulfills that most important of roles by being a teacher for future generations. Keep on boppin’, Mr. Harris. Here’s Moose the Mooche, a Charlie Parker original. Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Jazz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh-wpcvo-Oo
TGIF Jazz #138 - Latin Curveball
Rhythm unites us all. Dave Brubeck commented in an interview that it’s a common aspect of music that unites all the cultures, as he discovered when traveling the world. Being Latin, I am utterly intoxicated by the things that came out of the Caribbean, Central and South America. By the way: they were all heavily influenced by the African contributions to rhythm. Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo are kind enough to break it down for us in today’s Latin Curveball. From the 1957 album TOP PERCUSSION, we have these gentlemen at the height of Afro-Cuban music in America. Bass, timbales, congas and bongos. That’s all we have here in a pure distillation of rhythm. Dig this flavor called “Ti Mon Bo” (get it?). Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Latin Curveball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXBgJ2ajjQs&feature=related
TGIF Jazz #137
This will be a very straightforward post. Duke Ellington and Orchestra. Newport Jazz Festival 1956. The song is Black and Tan Fantasy, one of his old school pieces from 1927. It’d down and dirty. Please, don’t think; just listen to it. Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Jazz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ifnuC1q2I4&feature=related
TGIF Jazz #136
Today, I’m in one of those moods where I don’t want to think too much about the jazz I wanna hear. Don’t need to see the menu, don’t want to know what the specials are. Just bring me the good food, put it in front of me, and let me eat it in peace. That’s what today’s selection is. It’s the best of ingredients, straightforward yet deep, no bullshit. Art Taylor is on drums, my boy Paul Chambers is laying the bass down, class act Tommy Flanagan is defining ‘cool’ on the piano, and the supreme John Coltrane is focused and precise. This piece speaks for itself, and to wax poetic about it would be to miss the point. Just listen for yourselves to “Syeeda’s Song Flute” from 1960’s ‘Giant Steps.’ Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Jazz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN9MMnQyAp8
TGIF Jazz #135
Let’s talk controversial jazz, and no, this isn’t an Ornette Coleman post. Our jazz community has seen fit to commemorate a maverick of the big band era, Mr. Stan Kenton, whose 100th birthday would have been last December 15. Now, I love Leonard Feather, but he once said that Stan was prejudiced against successful black bandleaders of the time (he later retracted this statement). That’s because his group separated itself from the traditional big band swing sound common to, say, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw. He sought a thick, emotional sound with tones of brass and advanced harmonies. He called his music “progressive jazz.” He was NOT trying to sound like Basie. These qualities made him a polarizing yet celebrated figure in a career spanning from the 30’s to the 70’s. He led several different groups, sometimes of up to 39 musicians, and featured instrumentalists like Art Pepper, Maynard Ferguson, and, for a bit, Stan Getz. Today we will listen to early Kenton to understand what challenges he was presenting to big band audiences. Today’s double post will feature his theme, “Artistry in Rhythm” as well as a slightly more traditional yet still unique (and oft-recorded) popular piece, “Intermission Riff.” Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Jazz:
“Artistry in Rhythm”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sTIZFy1_jc
“Intermission Riff”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA5m7gzyc7M
TGIF Jazz #134
Photo by Herman Leonard
I’m gonna be straight up: I’ve never really loved Dexter Gordon. Something about his sound and style just doesn’t resonate with me, and I think that’s reason enough. We who love jazz have our favorites; some may dig Cecil Taylor, some may think he’s nuts. Someone reminded me the other day that I hadn’t covered Dexter and I felt it was a disservice to Dex and the music in general, despite my feelings on the subject. He was very important and was certainly distinctive, with a life that was rich in success as well as trouble. After working early on with the likes of Lionel Hampton and Billy Eckstine, he was a key figure in the Los Angeles jazz scene on Central Avenue. But then drug problems and some jail time restricted his work during the 50’s. He cleaned up and recorded for Blue Note until 1962 when he moved to Europe, where he stayed until 1976 and returned only occasionally to record. Though forgotten in the US, he made excellent recordings while abroad, and when he returned, his popularity picked up again with club goers. Even Hollywood got to see his work in 1980, as his health was in decline, when he starred in the jazz-centric movie ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT, for which he received an Oscar nomination. Whatever you may think of him, he did his thing, and that’s what counts. Here he is playing “Cheese Cake” of the 1962 Blue Note album ‘Go.’ Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Jazz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkyJQcmVtZQ
TGIF Jazz #133
The very essence of jazz is that, when it was born, it was a melting pot of styles from very different places: African rhythms brought to America with slaves, work songs and call-and-response, European dance music, for example. It’s a very democratic music; throw in what you’d like to contribute, express yourself, work together to create something special, don’t trample on someone’s groove.
With the Jazz Jamaica All Stars, we have traditional reggae rhythms, warm big band arrangements that seem like a mix of Latin and American styles, and soulful improvisation. This is jazz in action. The group was started in London in 1991 by bassist Gary Crosby, as a way to mix a fusion of various Jamaican styles with jazz, playing both jazz standards as well as Jamaican folk songs. More and more young jazz musicians were recruited, growing the orchestra as well as its chops. You can hear the results for yourself on their track ‘Confucius.’ This is some really elegant, funky stuff, and I think you’ll dig it too. Enjoy, and Happy Friday.
Today’s Jazz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjRX6JhRLIc
