Louis Armstrong - Satchmo Plays King Oliver Louis Armstrong - Trumpet/Vocals Trummy Young - Trombone Peanuts Hucko - Clarinet Billy Kyle - Piano Mort Herbert - Bass Danny Barcelona - Drums Recorded at Radio Recorders Studios, Los Angeles - September 30 - October 2, 1959
Lonson, I am blaming you for this. At 6 am our niece woke us to say she heard water running in our basement. The water heater, which had been repaired last week, was leaking. Actually, it doesn't look that bad, but I know at least one box of CDs got wet. I'll have to make a thorough inspection later. The repairman came & we are getting a new water heater, free since the old one was still (just barely) under warranty.
Chris Wiesendanger - Urban Village Outside a couple cuts, this didn't really grab me, but I think it has the potential to be a grower. I do like Wiesendanger's piano, and the drumming shimmered throughout. At times, Mark Turner's soloing just seemed a little heavy handed and unimaginative relative to everything else that was going on in this rather contemporary cool post bop setting (the exception comes in a fine reading of Coltrane's "After the Rain"). Wiesendanger himself is beyond gorgeous on the closing minimalist/expressionist "Shunyata 2," perfectly balanced by the rhythm section and the restrained Turner. Maybe additional listens will reveal more, especially from Turner.
Added to Qobuz queue. Thanks for the tip! My preferred way is AP SACD (Doug Sax) on both titles, though I'll likely replace them over time as after comparisons I've found Doug Sax's work on that series rarely my preferred option. Thanks @Lonson - Glad to know Spellbound is doing decent work. Not a reissue label I'm familiar with. And there's not much Dorothy Ashby streaming that I can find, so physical media is the way to go. Never came across this Blue Note set before. Would you recommend it? This is a Joe Henderson date I haven't heard. 4.5 star review on AllMusic. How do you like it?
Now I'm actually able to sit down and hear this, the sound is absolutely fine, digital stage or no, and I can recommend this reissue to other free jazz fans.
NP Monk - Monk Alone: The Complete Solo Recordings on Columbia (Sony) 2 cd set I overslept this morning and dashed out of the house to the farmer’s market to buy a few things I needed for this week including a stalk of brussel sprouts. So I am now doing the more reasonable thing and having my well earned cuppa tea or three. Rude way to wake up but I did it to myself so no one to blame.
John Coltrane - Crescent This is a most excellent Coltrane album. He is still stretching the boundaries, but in a most accessible way. In the opening title cut, he threatens repeatedly to take the whole thing right off the rails, but always brings it just back from the brink. The effect is compelling. The following ballad, "Wise One" has the usually percussive McCoy Tyner opening with an incredibly delicate touch on the piano, preparing the space for one of the most marvelous ballads of the era. I quite simply can't get enough of that song. After that, "Bessie's Blues" delivers loads of good clean jazz fun. At almost 12 minutes, "Lonnie's Lament" is the longest cut on the album, and it is a dandy that holds interest throughout its length with its ballad intro leading into light swing that then morphs into some fascinating harmonic adventurousness and a rare extended bass solo courtesy of Jimmy Garrison. Again, Tyner can do no wrong here. Elvin Jones bring just the right amount of intrigue into his drumming to make the rhythm side of this album a perfect fit for the rest. The closing "The Drum Thing" is another song that would have fared less well in most any other hands. Opening closing with some of 'Trane's most special balladeering, sandwiched around a raucous Jones drum solo, it could easily have been nonsensical and disjointed, but these two pull it off. Much of this album has an understated level of intricacy that rewards the attentive listener. Were this not John Coltrane, I'd say this album is some kind of miracle, but coming from him, it's not all that surprising even as the music amazes and delights.
...happy Sunday all. Sorry to hear of more headaches Lon. Been enjoying the outdoors today. A beautiful 70-deg. and deep blue all around. The early Wailers have been my soundtrack, Bob Marley, Peter McIntosh and Neville ‘Bunny’ Livingston. Sweet harmonies abound over laid back rocksteady rhythms.
Thanks. Today has been the first "normal" day as far as utilities goes and my wife is especially relaxed again for the first time in a while, which is GREAT.
Panic-ed because we had a brownout for about 45 minutes. Thought we were in for another cold night with no water, but the power came back on. I'm listening for a bit more. . . had the system all warmed up and now it's cold again!
When my wife is especially relaxed, I quick go out to the porch and sneak in the music packages that have been delivered.
SF Jazz Collective "Music of Stevie Wonder and New Compositions" disc 1 Had listened to this on headphones last week, wanted to hear it over the speakers.
NP: Jackie & Roy Thanks to @Lonson for promoting this crisp vocal duo. The large ensemble includes: Bass – Ron Carter Drums – Billy Cobham Electric Piano – Bob James Flute – Hubert Laws even one tune with Paul Desmond Sugary sweet with Sebesky's orchestral strings. This was in the dollar bin and curious as to why Lon was drawn to this music, I picked it up along with the other CTI follow-up A Wilder Alias. There are other pristine jazzy vocal albums I've checked out—Tuck and Patti, Take 6, Swingle Swingers, Lambert Hendrix and Ross, etc. I suppose there are times when you want candy rather than a full meal of Billie, Ella, Sarah, etc. The harmonizing is fine—recalling Beach Boys or a capella polyphonics a la Pentatonix. Time & Love is more classical than jazz, which I wasn't expecting from CTI. AllMusic review: With the backing of a large orchestra, lush even by arranger Don Sebesky's standards, Jackie and Roy front an exquisitely recorded Creed Taylor production that mostly falls outside the idiom of jazz into a polished, jazzy, classical/easy listening plane. More to the point, the collective taste of Taylor and the Krals is incredibly rich, for they tap into a small mother lode of scintillating contemporary material that jazz people rarely touched, then or now -- like Leonard Bernstein's beguiling "A Simple Song" (from Mass) or Michel Colombier's "We Could Be Flying" (the high point of his Wings pop symphony). Sebesky's arrangements burrow deeply into his classical sources, whether juxtaposing Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" on top of the title cut or dovetailing Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" into Jerome Moross' "Lazy Afternoon"; Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5" is a perfect choice for a genre-fusing vocalese by Jackie. Paul Desmond pokes his quizzical head into the Brubeck/Gershwin medley "Summer Song/Summertime" -- who better than old Paul? -- and Hubert Laws enhances the Bernstein and Colombier tunes. Although neither Jackie nor Roy do anything resembling jazz singing here, forget about categories; this is gorgeous music that cannot be shackled to one genre.
WP Randy Weston - Saga (Verve) NP Randy Weston - Zep Tepi Two Westons in the hand are worth three in the bush.
I just saw an article about how the nation's largest musical instrument dealer is going into bankruptcy. The bankruptcy is rooted in the takeover in 2007 by Bain Capital which shifted over a billion dollars of debt onto the music dealer. Bain was the company of a former candidate for President in 2012. Shady dealings!
Their Storyville material is quite different, very bebop, shortly after their attention getting time with Charlie Ventura--I really like it, I like most of theirs I've heard.
John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman (Impulse! UCCI-40002) Two things about this amazing recording. One, this Hartman guy can sing. Two, anybody having any doubt about the mastery of Trane's quartet needs listening to Dedicated To You. This band could play jazz with the best of them.
NP Stanley Cowell - Blues For The Viet Cong (Arista/Freedom) lp One of my favorite Stanley Cowell albums.
