NP Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges - Back To Back (Verve) AP stereo SACD Now this is my kind of Ellington. Hodges is amazing. I've had this on cdr for years so glad to have a really nice version. Like Smokin' At the Half Note the sound on this disc is really superb.
Martini #2 calls for Miles' ultimate @$$holery on full display. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew Original 1970 US pressing on Columbia Records
I just got this SACD today as well, I was also thinking it sounded like they were in the room with me, well, ok, in my case I was actually thinking that it sounded like they were in the room next to me (since I was blasting it from the living room over to the kitchen), but same difference, I suppose.
Yeah, it has a real presence as does Back To Back (posted above). I'm listening to my last new disc which is Duke Ellington & John Coltrane on Impulse and while it sounds good it lacks that little bit of magic that the Verve albums have.
Listening to Eric Dolphy Last Date on a Japanese Limelight LP I picked up recently. I first heard this album about 30 years ago when I was in graduate school and borrowed the cd from the Evanston library. It is really a great album, music band and sound.
I enjoy jazz cover albums if they're innovative and a bit outside-the-box, and both of these qualify. As a big Bruce Cockburn fan, I've had the Occhipinti for a while but the CJT was a new one for me (my wife brought it home) and is a nice find; great sounding disc, to my ears. The Cockburn tribute features Don Byron, among others. Both are well worth seeking out if this kind of project floats your boat.
Well it looks like I kicked up some interest with this. I had pulled out the Blue Notes Collection [box, on Ogun] from 2008 last night and this morning read through the accompanying booklet. It's mind-blowing what those folks had to go through to simply play their music. Clearly it was the playing of that music that gave all of their lives a penultimate meaning and allowed them to so constantly bear the harassment, deprivations, poverty and general suffering that they did. Most of them were never able to return to their homeland either and virtually all of them died young, or too young. (I think Louis Moholo may still be alive.) There's a book written by Chris McGregor's wife Maxine published a number of years ago. It's a good read on the subject: Maxine McGregor: Chris McGregor and the Brotherhood of Breath: My life with a South African jazz pioneer. Flint, MI: Bamberger Books, 1995; ISBN 0-917453-32-8 I also heartily recommend the various Brotherhood of Breath recordings (and there are quite a few out there). Even though there is a lot of overlap in the specific compositions performed the energy and vitality of those recordings is quite unique in the pantheon of jazz.
Yes, they all shine here, but how many times do they quote "It Ain't Necessarily So"? This and Way Out West make me think Grant could've made a great Xmas record.
To the "It Ain't Necessarily So" quotes I say "So What" ("So What" seems melodically influenced by the Gershwin tune to me). Yeah, Grant could have made a great Xmas record. I'm glad he didn't. I don't really like Xmas records. My favorite Blue Note Xmas record is Duke Pearson's. I play it once every three years or so. . . .
NP El Chico Chico Hamilton August 65 Impulse Jimmy Cheatham Trombone Al Stinson bass Sadao Watanabe alto and flute Gabor Szabo guitar Victor Pantoja and Wilkie Bobo Latin Latin percussion Any of you drummers may like this very much percussive groove lp from Chico. I’m thinking Carlos Santana must have known this record
Yes, I love all the Chico Hamilton Impulse! records (though some on this forum dismiss them). Great players and some exciting music. As a drummer Kenny Clarke and Chico Hamilton were inspirations. And there is a recording of Chico's group playing on the evening I was born. . . which is cool. (And ironically Kenny Clarke also recorded the same day, perhaps even the same time, with Hank Jones as part of the Trio on Savoy).
I subscribe to the Now-Again Records drip.fm service and this was included. They also released it as a deluxe LP. I agree that considering they were budget recordings, the sounds is pretty good. I love hearing underground or private press jazz, and have enjoyed that reissue.
Amazing hearing Chico’s late 50s west coast sound and then his Latin Infused El Chico lp and then within 12 months he has this sound This track is so different with the syncopated percussion almost sounding like a machine or almost electronically processed ... It’s so modern in feel for 1966 to my ears anyways.
lovely synergy between Kenny, Ron Carter and Billy Cobham on this ...one of my favourites from Creed Taylor’s label
And now for my score of the day today. Not an original pressing, but close. Judging by the label and the advertisement inner sleeve, this was pressed around early 1969. John Coltrane - Coltrane Jazz (1961) 1969 US stereo pressing on Atlantic Records
