Many thanks, you too.
Theolonious Monk - Palo Alto now on
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Locked Down Jazz Appreciation - Album of the Week
43: Count Basie: The Complete Atomic Basie (Roulette)
This jazz aristocrat’s band was famed for its panache, dynamism and unerring sense of swing, and all those qualities can be heard on this explosive 1957 recording. In an age when big bands were mostly extinct, the release of The Complete Atomic Basie marked a resurgence in the fortunes of the debonair pianist from Red Bank, New Jersey. All the material was written by rising composer/arranger Neal Hefti, and features some dynamite brass charts. At the centre of all the action is Basie’s laconic piano, its piquant fills a model of dissonant minimalism. As well as swinging uptempo numbers with blaring horns, the album contains some beautifully subdued slower numbers defined by deft and subtle orchestral nuances. The complete version, with bonus material, was released in 1994.
Key song: ‘Kid From The Red Bank’
Enjoy
Dave
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Another little gem from Pure Pleasure
Back in the 1930s Kansas City was a major jazz scene as it was home to Bennie Moten’s Band followed by the Count Basie Jazz Orchestra. Bob Brookmeyer, the virtuouso valve trombonist, who just passed away in the last several months, gathered in 1958 a largely Basie-oriented septet to do honor to the KC scene by recording several standards of the day including “Jumping at the Woodside,” “Blue and Sentimental,” “Moten Swing,” and Travlin’ Light.” In addition Big Miller, who was a featured vocalist with the Fletcher Henderson band, was brought in on vocals to sing on “Travlin Light” and “A Blues.”
The British audiophile LP label, PurePleasure, has re-released Kansas City Revisited. Long out of print, the label used Ron McMaster to handle the remastering, and chose Capitol Studios’ facilities to rework this swinging 1958 issue. For a 50+ year old recording, McMaster has done a fine job polishing up the acoustics. Jim Hall’s guitar solo sounds mighty nice on the opening Basie standard, “Jumping at the Woodside,” with sympathetic backing by the rhythm section of Addison Farmer on bass, and Nat Pierce on piano, though Pierce’s piano is a bit distant in the sound mix.
Cool jazz meets swing on this memorable but long out-of-print LP.
Personnel: Valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, tenors Al Cohn and Paul Quinichette, pianist Nat Pierce, guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Addison Farmer and drummer Osie Johnson perform four songs associated with the late-‘30s Count Basie Orchestra plus a couple of numbers (“A Blues” and "Travlin’ Light") that are sung by Big Miller
Tracklisting
Side A: Jumping At The Woodside 2. A Blues 3. Blue And Sentimental
Side B: 1. Doggin’ Around 2. Moten Swing 3.Travlin’ Light
Label: United Artists
Cat No: PPAN UAL4008
Format: 180 gram LP x 1
Released: September 2011
Re-mastering by : Ron McMaster at Capitol Studios
Recorded at Olmsted Studios,New York City on October 23, 1958
Recording engineer: D Olmsted
Produced by Jack Lewis
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Followed by
His debut for Bethlehem I think and the first time I’ve heard it. Despite the “Micro Cosmic Sound” it’s quite a straight ahead bluesy affair. Contains his playing of Stormy Weather very apt for a wind n rain battered Dread Mansions today
Arguably one of the most exciting saxophone soloists in Jazz History,Kirk was a post-modernist bsfore that term even excisted. Kirk played the continum of Jazz tradition as instrument unto itself, he felt little compuction about mising ans matching elements from the music’s history, and his concoctions usually seemed natural, if not inevitable.
‘Third Dimension’ was the debut album by Jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk, orginally released as a Triple Threat on the King Label in 1956. The orginal album recieved limitded distribution and only became widley known after it was re-released a few years prior to Kirk’s death.
The album features the first recorded example of Kirk’s trademark playing of multiple wind instruments at the same time as well as two tracks "Stormy Weather and “The Nearnes of You” where he overdubbbed Manzello and Tenor saxaphone. Kirk would later state that the album was about the third overdub record in black classical music.
Personnel: Roland Kirk - Tenor Saxaphone, Manzello & Stritch / James Madison - Piano / Carl Purit - Bass / Henry Duncan - Drums.
Tracklisting:
Side A. 1. Roland’s Theme 2.Slow Groove 3. Stormy Weather
Side B. 1. The Nearness of You 2.A La Carte 3.Easy Living 4.Triple Threat
Label: Bethlehem
Cat No: BCP6064
Format: 1xLp Standard Sleeve, MONO
Released: December 2013
Re-Mastered by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London U.K
Recorded: November 9th 1956
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On the one hand I am bloody old but on t’other one I saw him a couple of times at the first Ronnie’s.
Great entertainer.
N
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Madeleine Peyroux, Half the Perfect World. MoFi double LP.
I guess this could fit in the “Is that Jazz?” category but in any event Peyroux is a great performer. SQ and pressing are excellent.
Claude
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„New Zealand-born pianist Mike Nock made significant creative contributions to new jazz with the electric group the Fourth Way at the end of the 1960s. Ondas, his sole ECM date, recorded in 1981, finds him leading an acoustic piano trio with an adroit bassist and a free-thinking drummer. Nock’s very open compositions leave plenty of space for each of them to shine. Eddie Gomez’s elastic bass is often a second lead voice in these pieces, and Jon Christensen’s pulses are felt as a succession of waves.“
FEATURED ARTISTS
Mike Nock Piano
Eddie Gomez Bass
Jon Christensen Drums
3 Likes
Groovy compilation from Bandcamp
1 Roy Haynes – Quiet Fire
2 John Thomas & Lifeforce – Maryke
3 Banda Metalurgia – Lá Em Guayaquil
4 Belair – Samba For A Cold Warrior
5 Francisco Mora Catlett – Samba De Amor
6 Louis Hayes Group ft Leon Thomas – Little Sunflower
7 Lee Willhite – The World Is A Ghetto
8 Clarice Labbe & Charlie Hampton – No Other Love But You
9 Ronald Snijders – Latinetta
10 Finn Savery Trio – Misturada
11 Ira Sullivan – The Kingdom Within You
12 Webster Lewis – Do You Believe (Alternative version)
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Posted on the jazz thread but could be elsewhere. Bobby Broom’s superb covers album Soul Fingers features tunes by the Fabs, Smokey Robinson, the Isleys, Bobbie Gentry and more.
BB emerged relatively unscathed from the barren wasteland that is smooth jazz to re-invent himself as a guitar player in the school of Kenny Burrell, Wes and George Benson.
This is a organ/guitar combo album - and is beautifully recorded. Too many highlights but love the slow latin treatment of While My Guitar Gently Weeps (wonderful solo too) and mid-tempo take on Summer Breeze.
But on this occasion I’m going a bit bonkers and recommending the CD over the vinyl (I have both). The vinyl omits two key tracks, one of which is a stonking version of Steely Dan’s Do It Again. The vinyl should have been a 3 sider to include all the songs methinks. Still - its a terrific album in either format and is played constantly chez Numpty.
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My favourite OP
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I don’t think this iconic solo piano album has been featured on the thread before…
AllMusic Review by Michael G. Nastos [-]
Facing You is one of the most important recordings in contemporary jazz for several reasons, aside from being beautifully conceived and executed by pianist Keith Jarrett. It is a hallmark recording of solo piano in any discipline, a signature piece in the early ECM label discography, a distinct departure from mainstream jazz, a breakthrough for Jarrett, and a studio prelude for his most famous solo project to follow, The Köln Concert. Often meditative, richly melodic, inventive, and introspective beyond compare, Jarrett expresses his soul in tailored tones that set standards for not only this kind of jazz, but music that would serve him and his fans in good stead onward. In this program of all originals, which sound spontaneously improvised with certain pretexts and motifs as springboards, the rhapsodic “Ritooria,” 4/4 love/spirit song “Lalene,” and song for family and life “My Lady; My Child” firmly establish Jarrett’s heartfelt and thoughtful approach. “Vapallia” cements the thematic, seemingly effortless, lighter – but never tame – aesthetic. “Starbright” is an easy-paced two-step tune signifying fully Jarrett’s personalized stance. Straddling a more jagged, angular, and free edge, the pianist evokes the influence of Paul Bley during “Semblence” (sic). But it is the opening selection, an extended ten-minute opus titled “In Front,” that truly showcases Jarrett at his playful best – a timeless, modal, direct, and bright delight. A remarkable effort that reveals more and more with each listen, this recording has stood the test of time, and is unquestionably a Top Three recording in Keith Jarrett’s long and storied career.
Enjoy
Dave
6 Likes
His first solo piano album, recorded almost fifty years ago. Especially poignant in the light of recent news
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-piano.html
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Interesting article. Thanks for posting the link.
The Budapest Concert solo piano album is out today!
Dave
3 Likes
I’d take issue with ‘unquestionably’ and substitute ‘possibly’. For me it’s hard to ignore Koln, something by the quartet, probably Survivors Suite and a Standards session - Deer Head Inn is a favourite.
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Agree re: Koln and a Standards Trio album. I would also include one of the studio albums by the European Quartet.
Dave
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I am less enthused by Jarrett’s solo pianos than the vast majority of people, including the revered Koln concert. I find them wandering, unfocused and often self-indulgent in parts. Sure, there are moments of brilliance, but also moments of dross.
I much prefer his Standards Trio, which I think set the standard for piano trios post Bill Evans’.
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