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Jazz History For Dummies - 70's Sun Ra Funk/Fusion (1 Viewer)

Buddy Bolden…The Music

The song that is most identified with Bolden is a song called “Funky Butt.” There was a hall in New Orleans called Union Sons Hall where Buddy played a lot of shows. In those days before the advent of air conditioning in New Orleans very humid climate, you can imagine that inside could be very uncomfortable. Add a bunch of people dancing and grinding and you can imagine that the air could get kind of “funky.” Therefore, you can imagine it would be easy to improvise the following lines

I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say

Funky butt funky butt take it away

I thought I heard him say

I thought I heard Buddy Bolden shout

Open up the window, let that bad air out

I thought I heard him shout

The song became so identified with that hall that the hall was given the unofficial name Funky Butt Hall.
If I recall correctly, this is considered one of the very first uses of the word funk(y) in music. Also, I'm fairly certain a long surviving member of Bolden's band always insisted the song was about flatulence. The funkiest bass lines sound... a little gassy. :)
In a non air conditioned building packed with people I'm sure there were all kinds of smells. Not hard to imagine flatulence, B.O., undergarments that didn't get washed often, etc...

Open the window and let the bad air out...
Of course, but it isn't funky breath or funky body or funky armpits or even funky room... it's funky butt.
LOL!!!!!

 
#####es Brew is an oft-cited demarcation line for the beginning of fusion (and I was a lot like you, BTW, as far as working backwards from my entre). His then-wife Betty Mabry hipped him to the soul of James Brown, funk of Sly Stone and rock of Jimi Hendrix. I'll probably have more to say about this later, but you can hear some proto-fusion emerging from the primodial sludge like the first amphibians crawling from the sea onto land in songs like 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be), Rainy Day, Dream Away and Still Raining, Still Dreaming from Electric Ladyland. Coincidentally I just talked to his brother Leon a few days ago.

If you are interested in fusion-era Miles, a highly recommended DVD is Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue, with about a 40 minute concert from the Isle of Wight (one of Hendrix's last documented concerts, right before he died), as well as a lot of interviews from former band members (including McLaughlin, Herbie, Chick, Zawinul and Shorter, as well as Carlos Santana).
I do have "A Different Kind Of Blue" but haven't watched it in a couple years. I remember Carlos being prominent on the DVD, and performance is great. Just watching people like Airto with his gadgets. Was that the performance Miles says "we'll play it first and tell you what it is later"?

I also have the Jethro Tull DVD from the same Isle of Wight festival.
The aptly mysterious and genre-exploding title for that era - Call it anything.

Growing up, never saw a "Call it anything" section in the local Tower Records. :)

 
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No doubt. It goes way back.
Anybody interested in the early days of Jazz, in Search Of Buddy Bolden by Donald Marquis is quite good. Read that book a million times. It really puts you in turn of the century New Orleans as well as gives most of the known info about Buddy Bolden.

I'd be happy to contribute a write up on Bolden as the story probably starts with him if you want
On the point of New Orleans, Armstrong, Bolden, Morton, etc., there was a layer of German and Jewish influence going back years. It's a little discussed there, but it's a strain in the creation of the musical art form known as jazz.
A key presence in the young Armstrong's life was a Jewish family that was not only his employer but welcomed him into their home and by his account were very kind to him. They advanced him part of the money for his first real horn. He remembered fondly how the mother used to sing Russian lullabies.

The Creole influence in New Orleans was itself a very diverse one. Talk about a melting pot of social and cultural influences. Classical tradition from the French, African and Carribean rhythms, a spice of Latin (Jelly Roll Morton named and poularized what he called the Latin Tinge).

 
Those Sly tunes(and most funk) are just built on a second line beat the 20's(and earlier - pre Armstrong at least)- to the late 60s funk. Guys like Smokey Johnson and Earl King and Earl Palmer and Eddie Bo grab that and get a bit more funky and the Meters add those George Porter bass lines - it's the versatile drummers with that beat that those cats in New Orleans come out of the womb with - they've been doing it for centuries.
I'll have to check out the drummer, thanks for the link.

New Orleans born Idris Muhammad was a popular New York-based drummer booked for a lot of Prestige acid jazz/soul sessions in the late '60s-mid '70s, with some recordings as a leader (same with Bernard Purdie, though not from New Orleans, who can be seen on the VH1 Classic Albums series entry for Steely Dan's Aja).

 
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Falling during FREE AGENT FRENZY, may be a day or so, plus doing some research, but will begin Armstrong's journey soon.

Benny Goodman's instrument is out of favor, but he was an important figure in jazz history (already alluded to above breaking the color barrier with Teddy Wilson), and might as well cover Artie Shaw, he was an interesting figure that married Ava Gardner and walked away at the height of his fame. Once I got past the unaccustomed tone, the clarinet, in the hands of a master like those two, is incredibly nimble. A clarinet jam is still a jam. Goodman also headed an important first jazz concert at Carnegie Hall that was historic and may have elevated it's cultural status as an important art form in its own right worthy of critical attention and respect.

Organ was an oversight. Have to include Jimmy Smith and maybe an idiosyncratic choice on my part, but I think Larry Young is under-appreciated and would like a chance to remedy that, if only on the small scale of this thread. :)

May break with chronology at times, will move forward with Pops, but should discuss Jelly Roll Morton at least in passing. He made some preposterous claims, but didn't need to, his historical stature was assured by being one of the first to transcribe jazz. Also his Lomax oral history recordings are a priceless documentation of the early days, occasional embellishments notwithstanding.

I'll also try and write up at least something as a chapter or sub-section on the importance of the Blue Note label to the history of jazz. Probably no label with such small resources at first did so much. They have a storied history well worth telling.

 
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With the mention of Benny Goodman, now seems like a good time to bring this one up. I've always found it interesting how the saxophone almost totally eclipsed the clarinet as the woodwind of choice in jazz. This certainly wasn't the case in the early days of Dixieland. Up into the 30s, the clarinet was still a very popular instrument. He doesn't get a lot of credit today but in his time Goodman was probably the biggest musician in the world. No other jazz artist ever achieved the level of mass popularity as the King of Swing. Arte Shaw and Barney Bigard were contemporaries of Goodman who also specialized on the licorice stick.

But even at that point, most small groups and big bands were featuring the saxophone. After bop happened, clarinet players became even scarcer. There are the occasional guys like Don Byron and Alvin Batiste who favor the clarinet but they're doing it in pursuit of a retro vibe. Some of Eric Dolphy's best work is on bass clarinet, which I guess is the equivalent of tenor sax except with a somewhat higher register.

I suspect the change was driven by the simple fact that the sax is just louder. The reeds were competing with brass players to be heard from the bandstand. Saxes may be also be easier to mic up in the studio. I'm not a woodwind player so I have no idea whether one instrument is easier to learn or play. I understand fingering is similar but keys on the sax vs. open holes on a clarinet may have something to do with it.

 
Falling during FREE AGENT FRENZY, may be a day or so, plus doing some research, but will begin Armstrong's journey soon.

Benny Goodman's instrument is out of favor, but he was an important figure in jazz history (already alluded to above breaking the color barrier with Teddy Wilson), and might as well cover Artie Shaw, he was an interesting figure that married Ava Gardner and walked away at the height of his fame. Once I got past the unaccustomed tone, the clarinet, in the hands of a master like those two, is incredibly nimble. A clarinet jam is still a jam. Goodman also headed an important first jazz concert at Carnegie Hall that was historic and may have elevated it's cultural status as an important art form in its own right worthy of critical attention and respect.

Organ was an oversight. Have to include Jimmy Smith and maybe an idiosyncratic choice on my part, but I think Larry Young is under-appreciated and would like a chance to remedy that, if only on the small scale of this thread. :)

May break with chronology at times, will move forward with Pops, but should discuss Jelly Roll Morton at least in passing. He made some preposterous claims, but didn't need to, his historical stature was assured by being one of the first to transcribe jazz. Also his Lomax oral history recordings are a priceless documentation of the early days, occasional embellishments notwithstanding.

I'll also try and write up at least something as a chapter or sub-section on the importance of the Blue Note label to the history of jazz. Probably no label with such small resources at first did so much. They have a storied history well worth telling.
Actually the clarinet is making some sort of comeback - the featuring of it and Sidney Bechet music playing in the Woody Allen movies has given it a bit more prominence and examination lately(Some lovely sounding stuff). I've seen some good players in New Orleans in trad jazz bands that are pushing it out of some boundaries(Aurora Neeland - Dr. Michael White) - and perhaps you will see it appear more prominently in some modern jazz combos here down the road.

 
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With the mention of Benny Goodman, now seems like a good time to bring this one up. I've always found it interesting how the saxophone almost totally eclipsed the clarinet as the woodwind of choice in jazz. This certainly wasn't the case in the early days of Dixieland. Up into the 30s, the clarinet was still a very popular instrument. He doesn't get a lot of credit today but in his time Goodman was probably the biggest musician in the world. No other jazz artist ever achieved the level of mass popularity as the King of Swing. Arte Shaw and Barney Bigard were contemporaries of Goodman who also specialized on the licorice stick.But even at that point, most small groups and big bands were featuring the saxophone. After bop happened, clarinet players became even scarcer. There are the occasional guys like Don Byron and Alvin Batiste who favor the clarinet but they're doing it in pursuit of a retro vibe. Some of Eric Dolphy's best work is on bass clarinet, which I guess is the equivalent of tenor sax except with a somewhat higher register.I suspect the change was driven by the simple fact that the sax is just louder. The reeds were competing with brass players to be heard from the bandstand. Saxes may be also be easier to mic up in the studio. I'm not a woodwind player so I have no idea whether one instrument is easier to learn or play. I understand fingering is similar but keys on the sax vs. open holes on a clarinet may have something to do with it.
Good post, interesting historical perspective on possible causes for shifting instrumental tastes.Lester Young played some clarinet with Basie in the late '30s I think, and was reportedly very good, but after it was stolen, he abandoned it until jazz impressario and label owner Norman Granz gave him one in 1957. Maybe most famously, concurrent with the Basie gig, he also played it with Basie regulars on the Kansas City sessions, as well as some Billie Holiday recordings. I'll see if I can find some audio and will post it, there is some nice work there.

Jimmy Hamilton was a great player and typical Ellington lifer who replaced Bigard in the early '40s and stayed for a quarter century. He was somewhat overshadowed by star soloist and alto sax player Johnny Hodges and baritone sax master Harry Carney.

Edmund Hall was with the Louis Armstrong All Stars after Bigard.

Of course there was popular big band leader in his own right, Woody Herman (multi-horn player, but most associated with clarinet?).

Buddy DeFranco and Pee Wee Russell also great on the instrument

* I Want A Little Girl by Lester from the Kansas City Sessions. Same iconic languid and cool tempo/tone on clarinet as tenor sax.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q28FmoNKEZ8

 
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I used to have some Christian and have some Django and Wes, CC, but don't know as much about them as well as some other musicians. But good catch, they are no doubt foundational (I love Grant Green's laid back groove, but couldn't call him foundational) on an important instrument. Any volunteers for chapters/sub-sections gratefully accepted, I think maybe you mentioned something about them in another thread. Or just add in whatever you feel like, if anything, songs, videos (not sure if any exist for the first two, but there is definitely stuff from Wes), articles, etc.
:yes: I threatened to write at length about Django. I still might.
Possibly my favorite Wes song, heavily orchestrated by Don Sebesky, but also with Jimmy Smith - Night Train (Wes comes in about 1:15, Jimmy about 3:45).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGhsUJ-k2Vc

 
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With the mention of Benny Goodman, now seems like a good time to bring this one up. I've always found it interesting how the saxophone almost totally eclipsed the clarinet as the woodwind of choice in jazz. This certainly wasn't the case in the early days of Dixieland. Up into the 30s, the clarinet was still a very popular instrument. He doesn't get a lot of credit today but in his time Goodman was probably the biggest musician in the world. No other jazz artist ever achieved the level of mass popularity as the King of Swing. Arte Shaw and Barney Bigard were contemporaries of Goodman who also specialized on the licorice stick.But even at that point, most small groups and big bands were featuring the saxophone. After bop happened, clarinet players became even scarcer. There are the occasional guys like Don Byron and Alvin Batiste who favor the clarinet but they're doing it in pursuit of a retro vibe. Some of Eric Dolphy's best work is on bass clarinet, which I guess is the equivalent of tenor sax except with a somewhat higher register.I suspect the change was driven by the simple fact that the sax is just louder. The reeds were competing with brass players to be heard from the bandstand. Saxes may be also be easier to mic up in the studio. I'm not a woodwind player so I have no idea whether one instrument is easier to learn or play. I understand fingering is similar but keys on the sax vs. open holes on a clarinet may have something to do with it.
Good post, interesting historical perspective on possible causes for shifting instrumental tastes.Lester Young played some clarinet with Basie in the late '30s I think, and was reportedly very good, but after it was stolen, he abandoned it until jazz impressario and label owner Norman Granz gave him one in 1957. Maybe most famously, concurrent with the Basie gig, he also played it with Basie regulars on the Kansas City sessions, as well as some Billie Holiday recordings. I'll see if I can find some audio and will post it, there is some nice work there*.

Jimmy Hamilton was a great player and typical Ellington lifer who replaced Bigard in the early '40s and stayed for a quarter century. He was somewhat overshadowed by star soloist and alto sax player Johnny Hodges and baritone sax master Harry Carney.

Of course there was popular big band leader in his own right, Woody Herman (multi-horn player, but most associated with clarinet?).

* I Want A Little Girl by Lester from the Kansas City Sessions. Same iconic languid and cool tempo/tone on clarinet as tenor sax.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q28FmoNKEZ8
On the brass side, the trombone has suffered a similar fate as the clarinet. There are some great modern players like JJ Johnson, Jimmy Knepper, Bill Watrous, Robin Eubanks and Steve Turre but they're a lot lower profile than trumpet players. My theory is that bebop and post-bop generally upped the tempo that jazz is played it. It's harder to play a slide instrument with speed and precision than it is to play a valved instrument.

The sax and trumpet have become the dominant voices of modern jazz. To some extent, this is a self-fulfilling trend. The mythology of Bird and Miles draws younger players to follow in their footsteps. It's debatable whether chicks dig jazz cats but if they do, they like trumpet and sax players more. I think it's pretty cool to hear and see a great player solo on slide trombone but unfortunately it's not that common nowadays.

 
On the brass side, the trombone has suffered a similar fate as the clarinet. There are some great modern players like JJ Johnson, Jimmy Knepper, Bill Watrous, Robin Eubanks and Steve Turre but they're a lot lower profile than trumpet players. My theory is that bebop and post-bop generally upped the tempo that jazz is played it. It's harder to play a slide instrument with speed and precision than it is to play a valved instrument.
Troy Andrews?

 
With the mention of Benny Goodman, now seems like a good time to bring this one up. I've always found it interesting how the saxophone almost totally eclipsed the clarinet as the woodwind of choice in jazz. This certainly wasn't the case in the early days of Dixieland. Up into the 30s, the clarinet was still a very popular instrument. He doesn't get a lot of credit today but in his time Goodman was probably the biggest musician in the world. No other jazz artist ever achieved the level of mass popularity as the King of Swing. Arte Shaw and Barney Bigard were contemporaries of Goodman who also specialized on the licorice stick.But even at that point, most small groups and big bands were featuring the saxophone. After bop happened, clarinet players became even scarcer. There are the occasional guys like Don Byron and Alvin Batiste who favor the clarinet but they're doing it in pursuit of a retro vibe. Some of Eric Dolphy's best work is on bass clarinet, which I guess is the equivalent of tenor sax except with a somewhat higher register.I suspect the change was driven by the simple fact that the sax is just louder. The reeds were competing with brass players to be heard from the bandstand. Saxes may be also be easier to mic up in the studio. I'm not a woodwind player so I have no idea whether one instrument is easier to learn or play. I understand fingering is similar but keys on the sax vs. open holes on a clarinet may have something to do with it.
Good post, interesting historical perspective on possible causes for shifting instrumental tastes.Lester Young played some clarinet with Basie in the late '30s I think, and was reportedly very good, but after it was stolen, he abandoned it until jazz impressario and label owner Norman Granz gave him one in 1957. Maybe most famously, concurrent with the Basie gig, he also played it with Basie regulars on the Kansas City sessions, as well as some Billie Holiday recordings. I'll see if I can find some audio and will post it, there is some nice work there*.Jimmy Hamilton was a great player and typical Ellington lifer who replaced Bigard in the early '40s and stayed for a quarter century. He was somewhat overshadowed by star soloist and alto sax player Johnny Hodges and baritone sax master Harry Carney.Of course there was popular big band leader in his own right, Woody Herman (multi-horn player, but most associated with clarinet?). * I Want A Little Girl by Lester from the Kansas City Sessions. Same iconic languid and cool tempo/tone on clarinet as tenor sax. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q28FmoNKEZ8
On the brass side, the trombone has suffered a similar fate as the clarinet. There are some great modern players like JJ Johnson, Jimmy Knepper, Bill Watrous, Robin Eubanks and Steve Turre but they're a lot lower profile than trumpet players. My theory is that bebop and post-bop generally upped the tempo that jazz is played it. It's harder to play a slide instrument with speed and precision than it is to play a valved instrument.The sax and trumpet have become the dominant voices of modern jazz. To some extent, this is a self-fulfilling trend. The mythology of Bird and Miles draws younger players to follow in their footsteps. It's debatable whether chicks dig jazz cats but if they do, they like trumpet and sax players more. I think it's pretty cool to hear and see a great player solo on slide trombone but unfortunately it's not that common nowadays.
Good points again for why the bone may have fallen out of favor, sounds plausible, especially for the fast tempo bebop stuff, though maybe not on slower material/styles. It would be interesting to hear what J.J. Johnson might have added to an album like Kind of Blue. :) Some good old school trombone players:

"Tricky" Sam Nanton for Ellington

Dickie Wells for Basie

Jack Teagarden and Trummy Young for the Louis Armstrong All Stars

and Big Band leaders Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey (when Sinatra came up in his stable, taught him breath control to be able to hold notes longer).

* There could be vast expanses of unexplored musical terrain fertile and ripe for discovery, like acid jazz/soul/funk electric bassoon/oboe ensembles with every instrument processed through wah wah effects like Riot by Sly Stone.

 
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Almost done with the research for Armstrong, at least for the early part of his life.

If you type Louis Armstrong into Youtube, the third song listed is When You're Smiling.

Great musicians and speakers have the ability to appear to communicate directly to an individual... even if they are performing to, or speaking to hundreds or thousands of people (like MLKs I have a dream speech). Armstrong was like a sonic chakra yoga master that could bypass your brain and speak directly to your heart and soul and spirit. Famous conducter/composer Leonard Bernstein said there was a hint of pain in Armstrong's music, and he had the genius and gift to take almost any song, even a gimmick one, and imbue it with melancholy, injecting into even the most mundane and pedestrian musical surroundings the heightened level of feeling of a tragic operatic aria (he listened to opera and seemed to emulate the genre with the beauty of his playing).

Jimi Hendrix had some interesting and unusual ideas, one was a belief that there were possible forms of music that could physically heal people. Maybe this isn't so weird when taking into account contemporary knowledge of psychosomatic medicine, the known physiological benefits of meditation and the property of some musical tempos (Baroque music such as Bach and Handel) to induce or ENTRAIN relaxed brain wave states. There are ancient North African indigenous musics that are said to be trance inducing.

* Some times in history are marked by accelerated progress, almost as if there are surrounding and swirling components just waiting for a catalyst to bring them together. Sort of like when the steam engine came along, there was an explosion of creativity, invention and activity in the fields of industry and transportation (which themselves had a kind of symbiotic role in their mutual expansion). Or during a particular time, era or spirit of the age, an idea is in the air ripe for development, such as when Mendel's Laws of Genetic Inheritance formulated in the mid-1800s fell into obscurity and were largely forgotten during his lifetime, but after his death were "simultaneously" rediscovered by three European biologists at the turn of the century.

The '20s and '30s were ripe for Armstrong's musical discoveries and innovations. I hear the precursor to Miles ability at times to pack more emotional punch into a single note than an entire symphony orchestra if uninspired.

Generally there is a tendency to think of progress in a continuous and unbroken sense, and not zig zagging and haphazard. Consider the possibility that some of the giants of 20th century jazz, like Armstrong, Ellington, Basie, Lester Young, Miles, etc. may be near the apex and summit of popular musical achievement to this day, and Justin Bieber is retrograde relative to it. :) There must have been eras in the history of classical music, when for its time, the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven was a kind of unsurpassed pinnacle, and some subsequent music fell short of its brilliance.

This might be my favorite Armstrong song, at the height of his power, with complete and effortless control of his instrument, perfection of intonation, boundless creative imagination, Bach-like compositional intuition/instinct and overflowing expression of feeling with the breadth and depth of his native Mississippi River. If you don't like this song, it is hard to imagine I could add anything that would help somebody understand jazz better. At some level, either you feel it or you don't.

 
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Louis "Pops/Satchmo" Armstrong

Chapter 1: Birth and Childhood

Many musicians have emerged from similarly challenging or worse circumstances. But to become the greatest jazz artist of the 20th century, beloved by millions, worldwide icon admired by everybody from heads of state to the Pope and a crossover popular singing star and film actor is one of the most remarkable, unlikely and inspiring stories in the history of music, not just jazz. Some of the themes found in his character and personality that manifested themselves later in life, like an indomitable will, prodigious work ethic (300 one nighters a year for long stretches of his All Star years in the 50s and 60s), a relentlessly positive and cheerful nature, humble and respectful demeanor, an earthy sense of humor and million watt charisma, charm and likability, were latent from a young age. He had a complex personality, and while some cringed at the on stage mugging, he took arguably the most hardline stance against the institutionalized, de facto racism through "separate but equal" segregation of his day by any African-American entertainer of comparable stature, cancelling a state department tour of the USSR and harshly criticizing President Eisenhower for his passivity and complicity, a courageous and dangerous act (not just for his career, but his life).

It is hard to say if he is the greatest cornet/trumpet instrumentalist ever (Buddy Bolden?), but he is indisputably the most innovative and influential in jazz history, a one man musical Cambrian explosion, revered and imitated by many, but never equaled. He "popularized" the elevation of the solo artist from traditional ensemble playing. His modern conception of time (swing-based) impacted not just trumpet or horn players, but ALL instruments (and as a singer he influenced virtually all popular singers of his day, and directly or indirectly through them, those to follow). A competent trumpet player could play the right notes at the right time on some of his ballads (those songs like West End Blues are still challenging), but in the Burns doc Wynton Marsalis talked about how he imbued his tone with so much life experience, pain, joy, wonder, hope, sadness, etc., that ran the gamut of human emotional experience, his tone isn't something that can be practiced, it makes his style inimitable. Jazz critic Gary Giddins likened Pops to the jazz equivalent of Milton, Shakespeare or Bach in the Western classical literature and music canon. He didn't create it, but he codified it and pointed to the direction the future would take. Miles Davis once said you can't play anything on the horn that he hadn't already done.

Armstrong said throughout his life he was born on July 4th, 1900, which would have been doubly portentious as an anniversary of our nation's independence as well as a centennial. He was actually born exactly one year and month later, August 4th, 1901 (he died in 1971, but it wasn't until the mid-'80s that the correct date was definitively established by baptismal records uncovered through the research of music historian Tad Jones), of very humble origins, a grandson of slaves. He grew up poor in an extremely rough part of New Orleans, as his father, William Armstrong (1881-1922) abandoned his family while Louis was still an infant. While some sources I have seen dance around the subject, it seems likely his mother, Mary "May Ann" Albert (1886-1927), at times supported herself as a prostitute (Armstrong himself said if she did, she kept it from them, falling short of a categorical denial), was a heavy drinker and didn't always attend to the needs of her two children. Little Louis, and his sister, Beatrice Armstrong Collins (1903-1987) were left in the care of his paternal grandmother, and at times Uncle Isaac, moving back with their mother and her relatives when he was five years old. I have seen some history books state he later lived briefly with the father, but for the most part only saw him in parades during his life. He nonetheless felt a measure of pride in connection with his father.

As sources of income to help eek out a meager existence for the family at an early age, who often went hungry, he was a paperboy and later hauled coal to the brothels in the red light district called Storyville. It was around this time that he received his first exposure to the cornet playing of a future mentor who was the most key musical influence in his formative years and later helped catapult him to stardom, Joe "King" Oliver, in regular gigs and various jam sessions. He had already dropped out of the Fisk School for Boys by the age of 11, scuffling for money singing on the streets with four other boys. He also started to hang around Oliver more, who took him under his wings.

Another key influence in his early life was an immigrant Lithuanian-Jewish family, the Karnofskys, who employed him to help the sons with a junk hauling business and odd jobs. A grand daughter talked about how he was often invited in for meals and treated almost as one of their own children, as they were sympathetic to and understanding of the challenges of his home life and upbringing. As early as seven (though who can say if adult wisdom was unwittingly, surreptitiously introduced into the child's narrative) in his later memoirs, he felt they had a common bond in both being subjected to racial discrimination. They helped him buy his first cornet. For the rest of his life, Armstrong wore a star of David pendant, not because he was a convert to the faith (like Sammy Davis, Jr.), but as a testament of respect and out of a fond, cherished remembrance of dear friends.

It was around this time that a fateful event happened which would have a profound impact on his musical destiny and shape how the rest of his life would ultimately unfold. First, though, while little Louis came up in a rough neighborhood with many colorful but dangerous characters, plagued by frequent assaults, stabbings and shootings, he never got down or was ashamed by his background and the circumstances of the surroundings in which he grew up. He instead chose to turn a negative into a positive, using it as a source of inspiration.

One New Years Eve celebration when he was running with his friends on the street, after hearing fire crackers or cap guns, he fired into the air with his stepfather's pistol that he had taken. This was witnessed by a policeman who promptly arrested him. The sentence involved a lengthy stint in a reform school called the New Orleans Home for Colored [sic] Waifs. The administrator, Captain Joseph Jones, believed in instilling a strong military-type of discipline in his charges, and he also frequently employed a Professor Peter Davis to help channel this discipline through musical education, training and performance (up until this time, the young Armstrong had been largely self-taught). Initially hesitant to put a boy from the wrong side of the tracks in position to be a bad influence, he quickly graduated from the low-on-the-band-importance-hierarchy instrument, the tambourine ( :) ), to first trumpet and band leader. He was especially proud when he was able to parade in his old neighborhood, in front of family, friends and acquaintances, astounding them with the level to which his rapidly evolving technique and conception had developed (one person allegedly walked close to him in disbelief to confirm he was actually playing the instrument, so mature beyond his years was his advanced part).



So in a perverse but real sense, shooting that pistol into the air was like a starter before a race, effectively signalling the real beginning of one of the most important biographies in not only 20th century jazz, but the history of music... and was one of the best things that ever happened to him in his childhood, youth and musical formative years, pre-stardom.

* Armstrong's bio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong

 
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On the brass side, the trombone has suffered a similar fate as the clarinet. There are some great modern players like JJ Johnson, Jimmy Knepper, Bill Watrous, Robin Eubanks and Steve Turre but they're a lot lower profile than trumpet players. My theory is that bebop and post-bop generally upped the tempo that jazz is played it. It's harder to play a slide instrument with speed and precision than it is to play a valved instrument.
Troy Andrews?
Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yRhacGLGEs

 
Another non-linear interlude

Singing the Blues by the Frankie Trumbauer Orchestra featuring Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke (1927), noteworthy for three reasons.

1 - Some jazz historians cite this as the first instances of solos on a jazz ballad (blues solos were extant at the time).

2 - Trumbauer or "Tram" heard here on the now nearly extinct C melody sax (he also played alto) was a big early influence on Lester Young (himself a giant influence, possibly the greatest). You can hear some of Lester's later signature lyrical, understated tone.

3 - Bix was an inspiration on the cornet to many white jazz musicians of his time and to follow, with some jazz historians calling him the first white genius in jazz, with the Armstrong-like ability to effortlessly, preternaturally swing.

* Beiderbecke was not only a seminal, but also an iconic tragic early jazz figure, drinking himself to death by 28.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bix_Beiderbecke

 
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I'll be covering Pops pre-fame professional career next, meanwhile, here are two concerts from '59 in Belgium and '65 in Germany. The first concert is from the exceptional Jazz Icons DVD series, which may have been the only complete concert from the fifties on film, and one of the only ones, period (the audio is set kind of loud, you may want to turn down your speakers initially). Some context below, from Grammy winning liner note writer Rob Bowman (also an authority on the history of the Stax Records label, as well as Funkadelic, among other things).

"Foreword: Louis Armstrong’s sound transcends time and style. He’s the most modern trumpet player we’ve ever heard and the most ancient…at the same time. He has light in his sound. It’s big and open with a deep spiritual essence—a sound closest to the Angel Gabriel. You can’t practice to get Louis Armstrong’s sound. It’s something within him that just came out. Rhythmically, he’s the most sophisticated player we’ve ever produced. He places notes unpredictably with such great timing—always swinging, always coordinated—with overwhelming, transcendent power. This DVD captures that intangible power and allows us to gaze upon it in wonder. —Wynton Marsalis (July 2006)

Sample Liner Notes by Rob Bowman: In the spring of 1959, when Louis Armstrong took the stage in Belgium to play the concert captured on this DVD, he had much to smile about. The irrepressible trumpeter and singer had cut his first records with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band some thirty-six years earlier. In the interim, he had completely redefined the possibilities of both instrumental jazz and popular singing. His concept of what it meant to swing had become the very essence of jazz rhythm, and his ceaseless ability to create coherent melodic improvisations over a given set of chord changes had reconstructed the very nature of the jazz ensemble. Along the way, he significantly raised the bar with regard to instrumental virtuosity. As a vocalist, Armstrong was equally accomplished. His penchant for phrasing just behind the beat influenced countless other singers including Bing Crosby. Finally, for all intents and purposes, he popularized scat singing, as early as the 1926 recording of “Heebie Jeebies” when he improvised vocal lines using nonsense syllables in place of English words. As the esteemed jazz critic Leonard Feather put it in the New York Times, “Armstrong’s career set the pattern for the development of American jazz.”

In fact, in the spring of 1959, it was not an exaggeration to suggest that, in one way or another, every jazz musician alive owed a huge debt to Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong.

The version of the All-Stars featured on this DVD included trombonist Trummy Young, clarinetist Peanuts Hucko, pianist Billy Kyle, bassist Mort Herbert and drummer Danny Barcelona. James “Trummy” Young was the longest-serving member of the band at the time, having replaced Jack Teagarden in 1952. Born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1912, Young started out playing trumpet and had grown up idolizing Armstrong. As a trombonist, he originally came to prominence playing with Earl Hines from 1933 to 1937. Young spent the next six years with the dynamic Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra, afterwards serving shorter stints with Charlie Barnet, Benny Goodman and Billy Eckstine. From 1947 to 1952 he lead his own band in Hawaii, at which point he joined forces with Armstrong. In addition to his superb trombone playing, Young was a gifted vocalist. One of the highlights of this DVD is his vocal duet with Armstrong on the All-Stars’ 1956 hit “Now You Has Jazz.” Also dig the background riffs on this tune, reminiscent of the sort of background strutting one would hear with Louis Jordan’s Tympani 5. Young left Armstrong in 1964, settling back in Hawaii until his death twenty years later.

Completing the front line alongside Young and Armstrong is clarinetist Michael “Peanuts” Hucko. Born in 1918, Hucko had also played with Earl Hines, in addition to doing time in the bands of Charlie Spivak, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Ray McKinley, Eddie Condon and Jack Teagarden. When he joined the All-Stars in 1958 he replaced Edmond Hall who, in turn, had taken over from original member Barney Bigard. Hucko would remain with Armstrong through 1960.

Pianist Billy Kyle was the second longest-serving member of this version of the All-Stars, replacing Earl “Fatha” Hines in 1953. Born in Philadelphia in 1914, Kyle came of age playing in the rhythm and blues ensembles of Lucky Millinder and Tiny Bradshaw, cutting his teeth in the jazz world with John Kirby and Sy Oliver, while serving as a sideman on recordings by Lionel Hampton, Rex Stewart, Cozy Cole, Billie Holiday, and Jack Teagarden among others. He would remain with the All-Stars until his death in 1966.

The rhythm section was rounded out by the propulsive playing of bassist Mort Herbert (b. 1925) and drummer Danny Barcelona. A self-taught bassist with a law degree, Herbert joined the All-Stars in late 1958, fresh from playing for three years with Sol Yaged. He had also worked with Gene Krupa, Cozy Cole, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Les Elgart, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge and Terry Gibbs. Leaving the All-Stars in 1961, Herbert practiced law until his death in 1983.

Barcelona was born in Hawaii in 1929, playing his first steady professional gig with Trummy Young while the latter lived in Hawaii from 1947-1952. When Barrett Deems elected to vacate the drum chair in the All-Stars in 1957, Young pulled Armstrong’s coat to Barcelona’s talents. Barcelona would remain an All-Star until Armstrong’s death in 1971.

Singer and dancer Velma Middleton, born in 1917, had been performing with Armstrong since 1942. Harkening back to the vaudeville stage, Middleton would perform straight ahead blues such as Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” as well as serving as a comic foil for Armstrong on such numbers as “Ko-Ko-Mo (I Love You So).” Note her shimmy and shake on this song as she spurs the All-Stars on, and her scat duet with Armstrong at the end of the song. She tragically passed away while on tour with Armstrong in Sierra Leone in 1961.

By the time of the All-Stars performance in Belgium that is captured on this DVD, they were a well-oiled machine, performing similar sets night after night. Both “Tiger Rag” and “St. Louis Blues” were from the first decade of recorded jazz, the former initially cut by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the latter by Bessie Smith. Originally recorded by Armstrong in 1931, “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South” had long served as his theme song, commonly being used to open his shows. “Basin Street Blues” also harkened back to the 1930s, being recorded by Armstrong in 1933 before becoming a hit for him in a re-recording in 1938. The gospel standard “When the Saints Go Marching In” had likewise been a hit for Armstrong in 1939. Performances of more recent recordings included “La Vie En Rose” (a minor hit in 1950), “(Back Home Again In) Indiana” which Armstrong had recorded in the fall of 1957 with the Oscar Peterson Trio, “C’Est Si Bon,” “Now You Has Jazz” (a hit in 1958) and “Mack The Knife,” a huge hit for Armstrong in 1956.

Taken together, the All-Stars program captured on this DVD cuts a wide swath across four decades of American music, featuring material that embodies the spirit of early jazz, blues and pop. While musical highlights abound, the performance is held together by Armstrong’s ebullient personality. Coming of age as a professional musician at the dawn of jazz recording, musicians of Armstrong’s generation thought of themselves, first and foremost, as entertainers. Great art might occur in the process, but at the end of the day it was their ability to entertain that guaranteed them an audience and a living year after year. The roots of such entertainment for African American musicians of Armstrong’s generation were minstrelsy and vaudeville. To that end, Armstrong comes across as a larger-than-life character, clowning, grinning from ear to ear, rolling his eyes and mugging for the audience throughout the show. That meant shtick like Armstrong and Young’s parading at the end of “Tiger Rag,” the cornball humor of “Now You Has Jazz” and the constant guffawing and drawn out cries of “Ahh” heard at the end of tunes were an integral part of his show. While some contemporary critics accused Armstrong of being an Uncle Tom, they simply didn’t get it. This was a performance aesthetic from an earlier point in time, and Armstrong was a master.

His philosophy is perhaps best summed up in this quote from an interview he gave a few years after this performance: “I never tried to prove nothing, just always wanted to give a good show. My life has been my music, it’s always come first. But the music ain’t worth nothing if you can’t lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience ’cause what you’re there for is to please the people.”

This may be the only complete performance by Louis Armstrong that exists on film. This rare treasure represents an important document of one of the most important jazz musicians ever. Sing it, or should I say swing it, Pops."

Belgium, '59 (52:59)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h-gobVAnr8

Germany, '65 (56:15 concert)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5O-oIUXIjo

 
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On the bonus plan, a preview of legendary sax player and seminal be bop architect, Charlie Parker.

Celebrating Bird - The Triumph of Charlie Parker (58:18) is a companion to the book, also written and co-directed by the authoritative, eminent jazz historian and critic Gary Giddins (he also wrote the book and co-directed the companion DVD Satchmo - post #56).

* Bird, a biopic directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Forest Whitaker is also recommended and worth looking up. Contemporary (then, about 25 years ago) musicians were hired to record backing tracks in stereo to isolated solos from recordings provided to Eastwood by Parker's widow, Chan. The act of sonic archaeological excavation won an Oscar for best sound.

 
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Hope to get back to Armstrong soon, but in the interim, a motherlode of 10 jazz docs, for your weekend viewing pleasure.

Jammin the Blues, a 1944 Academy Award nominated 10 minute short film. Lot of Basie-ites, including Lester "Pres" Young and Harry "Sweets" Edison.

 
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The Mingus doc was a revelation, highly recommended. I previously associated him with being more avant garde leaning, an aspect of jazz I haven't explored a lot and therefore am not as well versed on.

After watching it, I learned a lot about him I didn't know before, and it dramatically altered my impression of him. Among other things, I learned his instrumental and compositional pallette was much more protean than could be captured by the narrowly delimited genre pigeon hole - avant garde.

I can now say, IMO he was clearly a genius (albeit a troubled one at times during his life and career).

He died of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).

 
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Four guys in white tux's. The MJQ (Modern Jazz Quartet), the thinking man's chamber jazz combo. They weren't maybe the longest stable combo lineup in jazz history for nothing. Bassist Percy Heath has a FAT sound with perfect intonation and drummer Connie Kay tastefully locks down the rhythm with more precision than the atomic clock. The band leaders and primary soloists are like fire and ice. Vibraphonist Milt Jackson is a bad man, a bebop schooled blues machine and volcanic soloist that is arguably the most expressive stylist and greatest artist on his chosen instrument in jazz history. Pianist John Lewis was classically trained and sometimes employs Bach-like contrapuntal forms while also remaining firmly grounded and drenched in the blues, an influential composer dating back at least to the Miles Davis/Gil Evans Birth of the Cool sessions and his solos and comping reveal an underlying crystalline structural logic.

Here performing Jackson's signature masterpiece and soloing vehicle for waves of cascading pure vibes jamming, Bag's Groove.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1r_YB9mx_Q

A 53 minute European concert from 1972 (this time in black tux's).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmAFFt0jZQ4

 
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Really enjoying this documentary :thumbup: . Its available streaming for Amazon Prime members. I'm on disk 6, they've just started talking about Charlie Parker.

 
Cool, maybe my favorite documentary series, but I do like jazz a lot.

I've been getting into Parker a lot lately. I had a few things, like his later Verve dates with strings and a Latin backing band/orchestra, but have gone back and explored the in his prime, most critically praised Dial and Savoy recordings, studio and live. Armstrong was the most influential jazz musician, Ellington the greatest composer, Parker maybe the greatest improvisational genius. I think there is a link upthread for the standalone doc/biopic, Celebrating Bird, a companion to the book by the generally incisive Gary Giddins (also did a book/movie on Armstrong called Satchmo). Giddins is very articulate (did an excellent commentary on the Criterion Paths of Glory by Kubrick).

 
2014 is the 75th anniversary of the founding of Blue Note records, arguably the most key label for jazz in the fifties and sixties (Columbia and Verve were also very important). Below is an outstanding feature length (90 minutes) documentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrHldDh74dI

The label also has a podcast (Blue Note 75) to commemorate the anniversary, with four installments so far: Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter and Horace Silver (Herbie and Wayne were part of Miles second great quintet in the sixties, and played on each other's Blue Note projects concurrently, with Hutcherson). They are all over an hour and well produced. I listened to half of the Hancock one and it is excellent, including full length tracks from his various albums in the sixties, including this one, Alone and I, from his debut, Takin' Off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBLMPM8CeA4

One thing I find interesting about jazz, especially on a label like Blue Note (or Verve) , is the musicians are so interconnected, as they comprise a kind of stable, and take turns on various dates as leaders and sidemen on the respective sessions. I have recently been exploring the work of an obscure tenor sax player on Blue Note, Tina Brooks. He has a very limited discography, starting in '58, his recording career was effectively over by '61. Like many fellow musicians of the time, he had addiction-related issues, and was also said to have a very shy and reserved personality, antithetical to self-promotion and being a band leader. Only one of his four dates as a leader was released during his lifetime, True Blue (Minor Move, Back to the Tracks and the aptly titled Waiting Game came out posthumously, several decades after they were recorded), but he can be heard guesting on some tracks from organist Jimmy Smith's The Sermon, notably the hit title track below (also House Party, which came from the same sessions, the out takes release Confirmation, and a live album, Cool Blues), two studio dates and one live album by guitarist Kenny Burrell, two albums with pianist Freddie Redd, a version of Redd's music from the play/movie The Connection (where he was an understudy to alto sax artist Jackie McLean), Jackie's Bag by McLean, and Freddie Hubbard's debut on the label, Open Sesame, for which he contributed a few songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3X5J_wGHrw

This excursion led to investigating Jackie McLean more closely. At a time in the sixties when a debate was raging over the merits of the new music and avant garde (with Ornette Coleman being a flashpoint) vs. the "traditionalist" hard bop school, he did some interesting work in the early/mid-sixties that was grounded in his bebop/hard bop roots, mentored by the likes of Bird and Miles, but very exploratory (though not as "out" as Coleman), in collaboration with trombone player and composer, Grachan Moncur III, such as the former's One Step Beyond and Destination... Out!, and the latter's Evolution. Some of it is kind of spooky and very atmospheric (typically written by Moncur, such as Ghost Town on OSB), and includes some excellent work by vibist Bobby Hutcherson.

Riff Raff, a rare straight ahead example from Destination... Out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfGlTIRyAvY

Another less "out" vehicle, the title track from McLean's later Hipnosis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJbVftAAhuU

 
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Here are two of my favorite Jazz compilations - both highlight select Blue Note recordings.

Check out the track lists:

1. Blue Train - John Coltrane 2. Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock 3. Cristo Redentor - Donald Byrd 4. Moanin' - Are Blakey & The Jazz Messengers 5. Blues Walk - Lou Donaldson 6. Song For My Father - Horace Silver 7. Back At The Chicken Shack - Jimmy Smith 8. Chitlins Con Carne - Kenny Burrell 9. The Sidewinder - Lee Morgan http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Blue-Note-Vols/dp/B000005HGV/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1412616963&sr=8-13&keywords=best+of+the+blue+note

1. Senor Blues - Horace Silver 2. Decision - Sonny Rollins 3. Three O'Clock In The Morning - Dexter Gordon 4. Blues March - Art Blakey 5. Wadin' - Horace Parlan 6. The Rumproller - Lee Morgan 7. Somethin' Else - Cannonball Adderley 8. Blue Bossa - Joe Henderson 9. Watermelon - Herbie Hancock

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Blue-Note-2/dp/B000002UZV/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_2

Awesome for background music/entertaining or serious listening.

Enjoy!

 
Now's as good a time as any to plug a list of good albums for jazz newcomers I wrote for another site. As a caveat, the emphasis is for newcomers who might be scared away by advanced Coltrane. So this is not a Best Of list by any stretch.

http://popdose.com/10-essential-albums-for-starting-a-jazz-collection/
thanks for posting, been working on my Jazz collection for 10+ years now, and didnt have Robert Glasper on my list of artists to consider. I've added him to my list.

Got everything on there on your top 10, but Kind of Blue or Time Out has to be #1 no? They are just both so accessible to the general public.

Found this really good jazz station for those who are interested

Jazz24 from Seattle, works on an App, or iTune Radio, I like them a lot. http://www.jazz24.org/

 
Here are two of my favorite Jazz compilations - both highlight select Blue Note recordings.

Check out the track lists:

1. Blue Train - John Coltrane 2. Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock 3. Cristo Redentor - Donald Byrd 4. Moanin' - Are Blakey & The Jazz Messengers 5. Blues Walk - Lou Donaldson 6. Song For My Father - Horace Silver 7. Back At The Chicken Shack - Jimmy Smith 8. Chitlins Con Carne - Kenny Burrell 9. The Sidewinder - Lee Morganhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Blue-Note-Vols/dp/B000005HGV/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1412616963&sr=8-13&keywords=best+of+the+blue+note

1. Senor Blues - Horace Silver 2. Decision - Sonny Rollins 3. Three O'Clock In The Morning - Dexter Gordon 4. Blues March - Art Blakey 5. Wadin' - Horace Parlan 6. The Rumproller - Lee Morgan 7. Somethin' Else - Cannonball Adderley 8. Blue Bossa - Joe Henderson9. Watermelon - Herbie Hancock

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Blue-Note-2/dp/B000002UZV/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_2

Awesome for background music/entertaining or serious listening.

Enjoy!
Thanks for the input and contributions from everybody, definitely think of this thread as participatory and collaborative in intent.

Noting this, Klimtology, besides the fact that they both look like good Blue Note compilations in general based on the track lists, but specifically due to the Burrell song, Chitlins Con Carne (just listening to Burrell's Blue Lights Vols 1 & 2 and At The Five Spot, part of Tina Brooks limited but excellent discography, noted in post #78, also great work by the leader and other sidemen). I was rewatching the Blue Note doc (also #78), and the credit roll had a great song with latin percussion that I thought must be Grant Green. After looking it up, it was Burrell (from Midnight Blue), so I was coincidentally coming here to highlight it below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP0flneNfaQ

Speaking of guitarist Grant Green, I knew he recorded for Blue Note prolifically, but was reading some liner notes (can't remember which album, other than they were by Ashley Kahn, who has written whole books on the Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme sessions) that stated he was the most recorded Blue Note artist as leader/sideman combined between '61-'65. If true, I can kind of see why. He was a GROOVE MASTER, his solos had a buoyant, propulsive quality that Blue Note heads Alfred Lion and Francis Wolf seemed to favor and he was able to consistently capture for them. Idle Moments is one of Green's more critically acclaimed albums, below is the ultra-laid back title track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMiLAxMnoqE

Street Of Dreams is probably my favorite Green album, and Lazy Afternoon my favorite song in his extensive Blue Note body of work. A common thread in IM and SOD was the tasteful vibes of Bobby Hutcherson (soon to have leader sessions). Green does some of his most lyrical soloing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVaHw4jjn7c

In the spirit of James Burke's outstanding history of science TV series, Connections, as a kind of exercise in musical archaeology/excavation, the two other musicians on SOD (other than Green and Hutcherson) were organist Larry Young and drummer Elvin Jones. Elvin needs no introduction, as drummer for some of John Coltrane's greatest and most popular recordings. Young is one of my favorite musicians, period, not just jazz. He was another GROOVE MASTER. Jimmy Smith was the first modern organist (arguably the Father of Soul or Acid Jazz, though Green is also sometimes credited as a forefather). The organ wasn't used much early, though Fats Waller and his protege Count Basie played it (Basie was mentored by Waller scoring films live in theatres, old school style). One issue with older organs were they were huge for band stand purposes in small clubs, so the far smaller and more portable Hammond B-3 organ revolutionized it's use in small jazz combos, and greatly facilitated it's popularity. In the wrong hands, primitive early use had a roller rink quality, and it could also be a very forceful instrument, difficult to use for accompanying purposes.

Young was called by fellow organist "Brother" Jack McDuff the "Coltrane of the organ". He had an understated style and tone, was a masterful accompanist as well as imo the most evocative and reflective soloist, and exploratory as to the full emotional range and sonic possibilities of the instrument. He had an interesting body of work, including some brilliant leader sessions for Blue Note (see below), played on BB by Miles, with probably the first great fusion group, Tony Williams Lifetime (also with John McLaughlin, who also played with Miles, before forming Mahavishnu Orchestra), the psychedlic classic Devotion by McLaughlin, the later Love, Devotion and Surrender by McLaughlin and Carlos Santana, a Jimi Hendrix bootleg, and was also a friend of John Coltrane, where they would play duets at the latter's home, though this was unfortunately never documented. He did a trio of impressive dates as a very young (no pun intended) leader for Prestige prior to the below material, but the Blue Note stuff was definitely his mature work.

Green, Young and Jones all played together on four albums for Blue Note (Green and Jones went way back, and played in a group together before both hit the big time; Green and Young did a later album for Verve, aptly titled His Majesty King Funk). First was Green's Talkin' About!, than Young's first leader date for the prestigious BN label, Into Something, third was SOD and last was I Want To Hold Your Hand.

Luny Tune from Green's Talkin' About!, the only trio instrumentation of the four albums (the other four were all quartets). Adding Elvin Jones polyrhythms to the musical stew if you listen carefully to the drums in all of these albums, there are a lot of rhythmic, melodic and harmonic layers going on both in the solos and the interplay between the musicians. This is an "in the pocket" power trio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3-qKUZuT7k

Tyrone from Young's Into Something, a quartet date with later avant garde/"out" musician Sam Rivers added on tenor sax. I want to Hold Your Hand had the underrated Hank Mobley on tenor. SOD had Hutcherson on vibes as the fourth member of the quartet with no horns, lending it a very distinctive sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRTzom2E5tQ

Young's acknowledged masterpiece was Unity (a quartet with Jones but no Green, that had two horns, Woody Shaw on trumpet and Joe Henderson on tenor sax). It showed some avant garde, "out" influence, but is rooted in the classic Blue Note tradition and sound from that era. Below is Monk's Dream, an unusual organ/drums duet with Young and Jones (the only one on the album), this time showing how there can be a lot going on even with just two musicians of their caliber. A power duo?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFOnt99Avp4

Also from Unity, Moontrane with the quartet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOahyrmhnZo

* Green worked with various organists in the Blue Note stable. He also did some great work with "Big" John Patton.

Green and Patton on Funky Mama, from Blue Note alto sax great Lou Donaldson's Natural Soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5blM1YmFnNI

Both on The Silver Meter and Pig Foots, from Patton's Along Came John.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOvY93zKhiI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFWJ__rGluQ

Again on Let 'Em Roll, title track from the Patton album (also with Hutcherson).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_odMI0T2zA&list=PL286EC94068DBF189

** Two excellent Blue Note individual artist retrospectives for some of the musicians highlighted above (the only two I know in the 4 disc Retrospective series) are for Jimmy Smith, and especially Grant Green.

*** Green and Young's (later aka Khalid Yasin) respective wiki-bios/discographies...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Green

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Young_(musician)

 
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Hey Bob,

I'm a huge Kenny Burrell fan - he's currently my fav Jazz guitarist. The Midnight Blue recording is one of the best Blue Note recordings imo - which is saying alot. Blue note records, as you know, is one of the greatest esp in the 50's, 60's period. I also love his 'Have yourself a soulful little Christmas' album. Really dig his style.

That being said I'd like to get into more Jazz guitar. I've been considering picking up some of Barney Kessel recordings as he most reminds me of Burrell (so far)

I'm pretty sure I have some jazz recordings that feature GG as a sideman, but any jazz guitar recommendations would be appreciated.

I tend to like the older school stuff hard bop, cool jazz etc. Not so much the modern stuff. But especially recordings that are easy to listen to and accessible...the above compilations being classic examples of very listenable jazz. Think also Chet Baker...

 
If we're talking hard bop guitarists, my list of favorites starts with Wes Montgomery.
I've got a few of his recordings, The Incredible Jazz Guitar, Further adven of Jimmy and wes, The dynamic Duo, Work Song, but I can't say I listen to them very much. For whatever reason the recordings really don't 'grab me' though I should prolly revisit them.

I have hundreds of Jazz cd's, but to be honest most of them I would never listen to. The Jazz recordings that one could just put on and enjoy the entire album are pretty rare imo. Midnight Blue is one example. Another good one would be Chet Baker: Jazz in Paris Vol. 53 as would Sarah Vaughan and Clifford Brown.

Beautifully consistent recordings that are great all the way through.

JMO

 
Glad to see the organ getting some love (and not in that way)

It's kind of a forgotten instrument nowadays. It always ran second to the piano in popularity and has now been buried under racks of synthesizers. But for a while, the organ was the link between the church and the club.

Larry Young died young and Lifetime was similarly short-lived. Tony Williams kept the name for a band called The New Lifetime in the mid-70s and put out the horrible "Million Dollar Legs", which is as bad as any fusion album I've ever heard. Even the album cover is an embarrassment. It's on Spotify if you must.

The only organ player I can think of now is John Medeski. MMW's albums with guitarist John Scofield are worth a listen. Scofield provides a second lead voice that breaks up Medeski's noodling a bit and his rhythm guitar comping is first rate.

 
Hey Bob,

I'm a huge Kenny Burrell fan - he's currently my fav Jazz guitarist. The Midnight Blue recording is one of the best Blue Note recordings imo - which is saying alot. Blue note records, as you know, is one of the greatest esp in the 50's, 60's period. I also love his 'Have yourself a soulful little Christmas' album. Really dig his style.

That being said I'd like to get into more Jazz guitar. I've been considering picking up some of Barney Kessel recordings as he most reminds me of Burrell (so far)

I'm pretty sure I have some jazz recordings that feature GG as a sideman, but any jazz guitar recommendations would be appreciated.

I tend to like the older school stuff hard bop, cool jazz etc. Not so much the modern stuff. But especially recordings that are easy to listen to and accessible...the above compilations being classic examples of very listenable jazz. Think also Chet Baker...
Hey Klimtology,

You mentioned the song Night Train from the Dynamic Duo by Wes and Jimmy Smith after this post. I don't have a lot Wes, but do have a Verve compilation that has both dates by them, and Night Train is my favorite track on it (about 10:00 mark below, for the thread). I think Oliver Nelson does the big band arrangement?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5rW6HDcJFQ

Kessell can be seen in the Academy award nominated jazz short, Jammin' The Blues from 1944 (featuring several musicians from the Count Basie band, including a great lead in by Lester Young), albeit from behind and in the shadows, because bands weren't supposed to be integrated on film at the time. It is less than 10 minutes, he was at least on the last song, starting about the 5:50 mark. He did some great work with the pianist Oscar Peterson, on the Norgran/Clef/Verve label.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v_Y3Pbiims

Burrell, Wes and Green make a nice trio of guitarists from that era. My favorite Green is the aforementioned Street of Dreams (with Larry Young, Bobby Hutcherson and Elvin Jones). Idle moments is also well regarded and with Hutcherson. Solid and Matador weren't released until long after being recorded, but are very good and have Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner while they were in John Coltrane's famous quartet. One of my favorite Green sessions are the ones he did with pianist Sonny Clark, which can be found on the Blue Note 2 disc Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark. The 10 minute tasteful jam It Ain't Necessarily So is one of my favorite tracks from the collection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP1iyEUyHeI

Some other jazz guitarists of note, roughly contemporaries and from that approximate era: Tal Farlow, Joe Pass, Jim Hall (worked with Paul Desmond of Dave Brubeck, Take Five fame) and Johnny Smith. Charlie Christian was a seminal electric guitarist in jazz, a primary influence who impacted virtually everybody who followed on his instrument, not unlike Armstrong on trumpet, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young on tenor sax, Art Tatum on the piano and Duke Ellington's Jimmy Blanton on bass, who died tragically young (perhaps I should say younger than usual, when you think of how young Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Billie Holiday died from drugs and/or alcohol, or Clifford Brown from the occupational hazard of travel), from TB, I think? Christian did some interesting small group break out sessions from Benny Goodman's big band, with Lionel Hampton (Goodman already had historically led the way having an integrated band on stage, with a trio that added brilliant pianist Teddy Wilson to Gene Krupa).

Rose Room

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4H7M2YFK0s

There are very few classic-era jazz giants to be found outside the US (not talking about American ex-pats, like Bud Powell - Gordon's character in the outstanding Round Midnight, which won an Oscar for Herbie Hancock's score, was reportedly a mash up of Powell and Lester Young), but Django Reinhardt is indisputably one of them, and well worth exploring, imo.

 
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Burrell, Wes and Green make a nice trio of guitarists from that era. My favorite Green is the aforementioned Street of Dreams (with Larry Young, Bobby Hutcherson and Elvin Jones). Idle moments is also well regarded and with Hutcherson. Solid and Matador weren't released until long after being recorded, but are very good and have Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner while they were in John Coltrane's famous quartet. One of my favorite Green sessions are the ones he did with pianist Sonny Clark, which can be found on the Blue Note 2 disc Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark. The 10 minute tasteful jam It Ain't Necessarily So is one of my favorite tracks from the collection.
Green is my favorite of the trio as well, and I love his sessions w/ Sonny Clark. "Green Street" is my favorite Green album, and it is on the Blue Note label. He is joined on that album by bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Dave Bailey.

 
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Looking forward to hearing more Barney Kessel. Lester young is another artist I like alot but haven't explored thoroughly. I have some of his work with Billy Holiday - compilations mostly. He is a jazz giant and has a beautiful and cool sound.

Listening to samples of GG's Solid and enjoying it.

Not very familiar with Tal Farlow, Joe Pass, Jim Hall or Johnny Smith...though I'm pretty sure I have some recordings with Farlow as at least a sideman.

Will have to give them more of a listen.

I might have a Charlie Christian album or two...I should try to dig them up. Pretty sure I have his Genius of Electric Guitar somewhere.

I've been wanting to explore Django's work for a while now. Whenever I hear his music (usually on sountracks) I am intrigued. For whatever reason, my interest in jazz never really led me toward jazz guitar. Trying to make up for that now.

 
Jim Hall died late last year. He did some great stuff as a leader and as a sideman for Bill Evans, Jimmy Giuffre, Sonny Rollins and many others. Rollins' "The Bridge" was his comeback album after his three year sabbatical playing on the Williamsburg Bridge. The pianoless quartet with Hall's guitar as both a lead and rhythm voice gives Sonny a lot of space and is one of my favorite of the many albums Rollins recorded.

As for Hall's albums as a leader, Concierto is as good a place to start as any. Producer Creed Taylor assembled an all-star band including Ron Carter, Chet Baker and Paul Desmond. There's a great 19 min version of Concierto de Aranjuez that's very different than the version Miles recorded on Sketches of Spain. Don Sebesky did the charts but didn't go over the top like he did with some other early 70s artists on CTI.

 
Jim Hall died late last year. He did some great stuff as a leader and as a sideman for Bill Evans, Jimmy Giuffre, Sonny Rollins and many others. Rollins' "The Bridge" was his comeback album after his three year sabbatical playing on the Williamsburg Bridge. The pianoless quartet with Hall's guitar as both a lead and rhythm voice gives Sonny a lot of space and is one of my favorite of the many albums Rollins recorded.

As for Hall's albums as a leader, Concierto is as good a place to start as any. Producer Creed Taylor assembled an all-star band including Ron Carter, Chet Baker and Paul Desmond. There's a great 19 min version of Concierto de Aranjuez that's very different than the version Miles recorded on Sketches of Spain. Don Sebesky did the charts but didn't go over the top like he did with some other early 70s artists on CTI.
Some of my favorite Paul Desmond albums are with Jim Hall playing with him.

 
Burrell, Wes and Green make a nice trio of guitarists from that era. My favorite Green is the aforementioned Street of Dreams (with Larry Young, Bobby Hutcherson and Elvin Jones). Idle moments is also well regarded and with Hutcherson. Solid and Matador weren't released until long after being recorded, but are very good and have Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner while they were in John Coltrane's famous quartet. One of my favorite Green sessions are the ones he did with pianist Sonny Clark, which can be found on the Blue Note 2 disc Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark. The 10 minute tasteful jam It Ain't Necessarily So is one of my favorite tracks from the collection.
Green is my favorite of the trio as well, and I love his sessions w/ Sonny Clark. "Green Street" is my favorite Green album, and it is on the Blue Note label. He is joined on that album by bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Dave Bailey.
I've been exploring Green's extensive catalog lately (mostly Blue Note - in the classic period from '61-'66, but also the acid jazz/soul/funk period in the late '60s to early '70s). I'm not sure if I've heard him play a bad note or unimaginative solo yet. The first time I recall hearing him was in a used record store, where they were playing His Majesty King Funk (Verve?), and that branched off into a greater interest at the time in organist Larry Young. So making up for lost time.

The retrospective set has been a revelation, and a complete Blue Note session discography (even including discarded dates) has been very helpful in catching up. It is organized into - first two discs with various organ combos (including Baby Face Willette, Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, John Patton and Young), third disc with pianists (such as Sonny Clark, Kenny Drew, Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner - Horace Parlan on later disc) and the fourth disc with horns (Stanley Turrentine, Hank Mobley, Ike Quebec, Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter - Lou Donaldson on earlier disc/s). He did multiple albums as a leader and/or sideman with, among others, Donaldson (Green was "discovered" by him, who introduced Green to Alfred Lion of Blue Note), Turrentine and Patton, and succeeded in a variety of instrumental configurations and formats, with and without organ, piano and horns. He also excelled in a variety of styles, and showed his musical flexibility and versatility playing jazz, standards, themed albums covering spirituals (Feelin The Spirit), latin (The Latin Bit) and Western (Goin West). But it is all rooted in a deep feeling for and expression of the blues. At one time I thought he was repetitive as a soloist and limited stylistically, but now realize Green had a brilliant sense of how to embellish a melody and play variations on it, he added something to literally every session I've heard as a sideman as well as his many leader dates, and he had a unique conception. Miles Davis was reportedly an early champion when he first ventured to New York (too bad they never played together). A critic pointed out in some liner notes that like Miles, he was from St. Louis (Count Basie and Lester Young got a strong blues foundation in Kansas City), had an imacculate tone, an uncluttered line, less is more approach, an innate sense of the value of space, and the unusual ability to evoke and project a sense of strength and vulnerability.

I'll do a more complete breakdown of his classic and later period Blue Note discography for the thread later. Just wanted to add Green Street was outstanding. He may be associated with the organ jazz combo (Patton and Young), but claimed his favorite format was just the basic, simple, stripped down guitar, bass and drums rhythm section. While Patton and Young were both imaginitive soloists and sensitive accompanists, the pared down format (no piano or horn, either) left nothing in the way of the guitar and the listener. As the sole soloing instrument, it allowed him to stretch out, and he proved more than up to the task. This type of lineup was only recorded twice at Blue Note (possibly for any label by him). The other was initially released as Remembering (since reissued as Standards), and it is also excellent. I have to admit, one of my favorite rhythm sections was with Green, Patton and Ben Dixon. Below is an informative discography on all the Blue Note sessions they were collectively involved (by an Amazon reviewer, D.R.L.). The three also did an obscure album together titled Iron City, which may have been the only thing Green recorded during a scuffling period between His Majesty King Funk, and his return to Blue Note in the late '60s, with Carryin' On (like many jazz musicians, he battled heroin addiction, partially explaining the donut in his Blue Note body of work).

"Organist John Patton, guitarist Grant Green, and drummer Ben Dixon constituted a formidable rhythm machine for the Blue Note label in the early to mid-1960's. Through a series of recording sessions listed below they developed an intuitive, empathetic interplay that elevated many of their sessions to near-greatness in the realm of soul-jazz. The trio knew each other so well that their grooves are totally natural, which makes them so appealing. They provided the soulful groove in the following soul-jazz sessions for Blue Note (recording dates are indicated): Lou Donaldson's "Natural Soul" (9 May 1962); John Patton's "Along Came John" (5 April 1963); Grant Green's "Am I Blue" (16 May 1963); Harold Vick's "Steppin' Out!" (27 May 1963); Grant Green's "Blues for Lou" (20 Feb & 7 June 1963); Lou Donaldson's "Good Gracious" (7 June 1963); Lou Donaldson's "A Man with a Horn" (7 June 1963); Don Wilkerson's "Shoutin' " (29 July 1963); John Patton's "Blue John" (11 July & 2 August 1963); John Patton's "The Way I Feel" (19 June 1964); and John Patton's "Oh Baby!" (8 March 1965). It is interesting to note that the 7 June 1963 session produced music that contributed to three albums released under the leadership of Green and alto sax man Lou Donaldson."

Possibly the only surviving (released) footage of Green, in a guitar trio with Barney Kessel and Kenny Burrell, from a European show in '69.

 
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Grant Green

1) Mozart Symphony, #40 In G Minor, K550, 1st Movement (from Visions - 1971), he could still play even after returning for his second Blue Note stint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha5Se0mSoTA

2) The Latin Bit (1962 - great latin, Afro-Cuban beat and groove with Willie Bobo on drums and two other percussionists on congas and shekere), while the title and cover may seem gimmicky, it actually reprises in some ways Charlie Parker's South Of The Border sessions on Verve. Green could transpose his style into virtually any idiom (maybe not death metal, but that wasn't around then :) ) and transmute it by putting his own inimitable personal melodic stamp on the original source material.

Mambo Inn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpCdhmYDxT0

Besame Mucho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoiMwZfdXVM

Mama Inez

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik4sV2GiCCg

Brazil (some may be familiar with this through a version that was the theme song for Terry Gilliam's twisted, dystopian future movie of the same title)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BDDe7mgr_0

Tico Tico

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwtiT3-FApU

My Little Suede Shoes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOULcJHhCpY

Blues For Juanita

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrLPtVgsJ14

Grenada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBwNV1aeylM

Hey There

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW9BlSmILJU

3) I Want To Hold Your Hand - full album (1965), with Green joined by Hank Mobley, Larry Young (one of the four they did together for Blue Note) and Elvin Jones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njdE1ATMDng

* Pre-Blue Note Rarities

4) Live bootleg from the short lived St. Louis integrated night club, The Holy Barbarian, in a band with local organist Sam Lazar (1959 - more or less right before Green started to record professionally).

Holy Barbarian Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3x4bPCYdO4

There Will Never Be Another You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hKr94ahdkE

Out Of Nowhere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfX3gElIK58

5) Jimmy Forest (1959 - the title songs from Green's first two professional recorded albums, as a sideman for the Delmark label)

Black Forrest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSzjeZCvXu4

All The Gin Is Gone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jh7S7FL78I

6) Sam Lazar

Space Flight - full album (1960 - Green's next album in his discography, again as a sideman, this time for the Argo label, his style was pretty much already fully formed, he had reportedly been playing professionally since he was 13)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-tAMbi54-0

** The most complete Green disc/session-ography I've found so far.

http://www.jazzdisco.org/grant-green/discography/

*** The historic town hall concert, One Night With Blue Note (video - 2 hours), included a reunion with founder Alfred Lion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgBs5IFP1v8

 
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Some Blue Note classics (in full):

Blue Train by John Coltrane, he had extensive discographies with Prestige as a sideman and leader before this, and as a leader with Atlantic and Impulse later, but only one date as a leader for Blue Note (three sidemen dates, Whims of Chambers with bassist and fellow Miles band member Paul Chambers, a Blowing Session with Johnny "Vesuvius" Griffin and Hank Mobley, and Sonny's Crib with Sonny Clark, see below). This was that album, arguably one of his best after A Love Supreme. Blue Note was known for having paid rehearsals, leading to a more polished finished product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1r9_9VxQA

Somethin' Else by Cannonball Adderly, similarly to the above, the only Blue Note entry as a leader in fellow Miles band member Adderly's discography. Both Coltrane and Adderly played on the masterpiece Kind of Blue (with pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly [one song], drummer Jimmy Cobb and bassist Chambers), this was made shortly before that classic, with Davis playing a large role on this one, both in playing and influence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Lc7OgIngE

Out To Lunch! by Eric Dolphy, I think this is also the only album Dolphy did as a leader for Blue Note (detecting a trend?). Very out, he coaxes impossible sounds from his horn like a prehistoric bird at times. Great playing by Miles drummer Tony Williams and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. I think both Dolphy and Hubbard played on Coltrane's last Atlantic album, Ole, and first on Impulse, Africa Brass (Dolphy also on the Complete Village Vanguard). Tragically, he died just months later in Europe (where he was trying to escape some elements of American society, culture and the music business he found difficult) from a case of mis or neglected/undiagnosed diabetic shock. Bobby Hutcherson's slinky vibes are a key to the overall sound. Easily one of my favorite Blue Note covers (the clock with many hour and minute hands).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cklbhkm1HrE

Unity by Larry Young (a link to the complete album), his magnum opus, from "the Coltrane of the organ".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_4qxnyOf4s&list=PL6hJ6lVNv6gd0F_WtruiJ4O0n0nitJyCT

Soul Station by Hank Mobley, the greatest album of the vastly underrated tenor sax artist (as noted above, overshadowed by the likes of rough contemporaries Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rolllins and John Coltrane). Actually he was on a roll around this time in his career, as the Blue Note albums Roll Call and Workout are also classics. One of the more lyrical, melodic players of his generation, and a prolific writer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6BeFs4Q31Q

Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock, arguably his best as a leader for Blue Note, and one of the greatest jazz albums of the '60s. Almost like a Miles date (when George Coleman held the tenor sax chair, after Coltrane and before Shorter), also with Tony Williams and Ron Carter, subbing Freddie Hubbard for Miles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hw4BNIEUik

Speak No Evil by Wayne Shorter, see the Hancock description above (I think right around the time he was set to leave Art Blakey's band and join Miles, Hancock, Williams and Carter to complete the second great quintet). Check out the track Infant Eyes, inspired by his child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ABO74MEXQ

Moanin' by Art Blakey. Powerhouse drummer Blakey, both with pianist Horace Silver and later separately, and both as leaders and sideman, were a key to the music known as hard bop and associated with the classic Blue Note sound from the mid-'50s to mid-'60s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_3XVxPauiA

Cool Struttin' by Sonny Clark

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

Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrell, late night vibe with bluesy guitar and congas

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

Afro-Cuban by Kenny Dorham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoF7J8_N4GE

The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan, probably the biggest hit of his career, and one of Blue Note's biggest of the '60s. Once it became a hit, led to some projects getting shelved (including his own) so the label could try and recapture the funky sound and create more hits. As usual, hit manufacturing via formula proved elusive, though The Rumproller (surprisingly written by Blue Note house avant garde pianist Andrew Hill) recaptured the sound to a degree and enjoyed some success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRIXN9f-Ap4

 
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Cool thread. 5 favorite jazz albums:

Sonny Rollins- The Bridge

Dave Brubeck- Time Out

Cannonball Adderlay- Somethin Else

Chet Baker- Chet

Art Pepper- +11

My jazz knowledge is pretty limited. Based on those, what else would you recommend?

 
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