Jazz Beat (Part 37)

BEN WEBSTER / AT THE RENAISSANCE / CONTEMPORARY / 1960 / ANALOGUE PRODUCTIONS GOLD CD

Personnel: Ben Webster - tenor saxophone, Jim Hall - guitar, Jimmy Rowles - piano, Red Mitchell - bass, Frank Butler - drums

 

LOL - btw "Epitome of Crap" would make a great name for some irony-laden avant postmodern music group

 

Sounds like a Mikey Fremer phrase

 

Archie Shepp - Things Have Got To Change

 

That's a cover Sonny Blount would have loved.

 

Yes no doubt in reference to some "cheapo/inferior" turntable like my Technics - since everyone knows you really can't get into the big leagues for less than $30k...

 

Listening to the two Ornette Coleman Sound Museum albums this afternoon. Too much Denardo kick drum -- a thought I've found myself having a lot in the times I've seen Ornette in the last 20 years -- but really enjoying especially the Hidden Man album (for those who don't know, same band, same repertoire and unusually for Ornette pretty much all songs he'd previously recorded, but two very different albums in terms of performances) -- a lot more space to the performances and more Ornette it seems to me on Hidden Man and really digging Geri Allen's playing on it. Really good record I haven't returned to a lot since it's release.

 

Bill Evans ~ Alone

Verve

 

If you like Allen, seek out the 5 records with her Haden and Motian in trio format. At least you'll get away from the nepotism.

 

Are you sure? My partly new system (Naim and KEF, both from England) has a price tag of about $5700 (1 euro = $1.10) and it's considered pretty high-end I used to have a $30K+ system (Mark Levinson and Quad ESL), but was never really satisfied with its sound and on top of that it turned out to be quite vulnerable.

 

Oh I'M sure it's great - I was just saying the "you have to spend X amount" is the kind of nonsense you hear Fremer say.

 

I don't read his stuff. I gather he's pretty controversial.

 

And a walking/talking advertisement for how NOT to waste an Ivy League education

 

Yeah, I like her, and I've seen her. It was just a really unusual call at the time for her to play in an Ornette band, all of which had been keyboard free for 40 years at that point , and she very deftly negotiates the challenges of not playing changes and not laying it on too dense with polyphony in the Ornette context in a way that I think really works very well on those albums, esp. Hidden Man.

 

Stan Getz ~ Imported From Europe

Verve

Recorded in 1959 with local players including pianist Bengt Hallberg, tenor saxman Erik Nordstrom, baritonist Lars Gullin and trombonist Ake Persson as well as expatriate American trumpeter Benny Bailey.

 

Dig those cheerleaders!


Chet Baker Quartet ~ Jazz at Ann Arbor

Pacific Jazz, Original Mono Pressing 1954

 

I must be getting really old, 'cause I missed the cheerleaders and instead was immediately smitten by that beautiful Pacific Jazz red vinyl...

 

Your one Hepcat, 23 Skidoo!

 

Jim Pepper, THE PATH (Enja, 1988). This is unfortunately one of only a few recordings led by Pepper, due to his tragic early death. He was a distinctive tenor sax player (less so to my ears on soprano) and interesting musician, with his own vision and sound, informed (but not, to my ears, dominated by) his Native American heritage. Pianist Kirk Lightsey makes for a fine partner, and they are joined by Stanton Davis on trumpet, Santi Debriano on bass and John Betsch on drums. The tune choices are refreshingly original - there is by far Pepper's best-known original (thanks to coverage by Oregon and Jan Garbarek), "Witchi-Tai-To" and a couple of others, "Lullaby" by Paul Motian, Monk's "Reflections," one original apiece by Lightsey, Betsch, and Debriano, and the Rogers and Hammerstein standard "Hello, Young Lovers."

 

Dinner Music


Chet Baker & Stan Getz ~ West Coast Live

Recorded Live in 1953-54

Pacific Jazz cd, 1997

 

Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea - In Concert

 

Are you going? They aren't playing in AZ, but I heard the tickets prices are very high.


http://chickcorea.com/concerts/

 

EDIT: I just checked and the ticket prices aren't bad.