What Jazz are you listening to now?

[SimonNZ]

Duke Ellington - Premiered by Ellington (1953)

[SimonNZ]

Art Blakey - Orgy In Rhythm, Volume One (1957)
Art Blakey - The Witch Doctor (1968)



Art Blakey - Ugetsu (1963)

[SimonNZ]

Lena Horne and Gabor Szabo – Lena & Gabor (1970)

[Brian]

Simon, I just listened to Ugetsu on Friday. The Wayne Shorter era is my favorite Jazz Messengers era (and also the Jazz Messengers era is my favorite Wayne Shorter - am always drawn to the borderlands between the old and the new). Every Blakey album Wayne was on is gold, just about.

Have somehow never heard of the Orgy in Rhythm series. Must look it up immediately!

Edit: Looks like it is similar to a couple Blakey percussion-centric albums I have already (Holiday for Skins, peculiar title).

[SimonNZ]

Yeah, I'm particularly struck by the near mind-meld that Shorter has with trumpeters Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard on those albums.

Hope you like Orgy In Rhythm. I like it even more than Holiday For Skins, though both are great.

[George]

SACD
Analogue Productions
Mastered by Kevin Gray

First spin today and enjoyed it. 

[Karl Henning]

SACD
Analogue Productions
Mastered by Kevin Gray

First spin today and enjoyed it. 

Nice!

[Karl Henning]

Well, damn, this is good. Haven't enjoyed a new jazz album this much since ... The Bell, on which Smith and Taborn also played, and which inhabits a somewhat similar sound-world.

Noted.

[SimonNZ]

Jan Garbarek - Twelve Moons (1993)

[SimonNZ]

Johnny Hodges and Lalo Schifrin - Previously Unreleased Recordings (1963)

[SimonNZ]

Mike Melillo and Massimo Urbani - Duets For Yardbird (1987)

[George]

[San Antone]

Great recording.  That band was so good, "Surrey" is timeless.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Monk in France LP. One of the coolest covers ever and some great music, but very disappointing sound quality--far below par of other Riversides from the same era (which were good but not great).

[SimonNZ]

Ray Brown - Bass Hit (1956)
Hank Jones - Urbanity (rec. 1947-53)



Anita O'Day - The Lady Is A Tramp (1952)
Yusef Lateef - Before Dawn (1957)

[SimonNZ]

Will be spending the day - and maybe tomorrow and the next day - with Verve's impressive coverage of the '57 Newport festival:



George Lewis & Turk Murphy - At Newport (1957)
Red Allen, Kid Ory & Jack Teagarden - At Newport (1957)



Ella Fitzgerald & Billie Holiday - At Newport (1957) (the expanded cd edition also includes Carmen McRae's set)
The Teddy Wilson Trio & Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Bob Brookmeyer - At Newport (1957)



Toshiko Akiyoshi & Leon Sash - At Newport (1957)
Eddie Costa, Mat Mathews & Don Elliott - At Newport (1957)



The Gigi Gryce-Donald Byrd Jazz Laboratory & the Cecil Taylor Quartet  - At Newport (1957)
The Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Pete Brown, Jo Jones All Stars - At Newport (1957)



The Ruby Braff Octet with Pee Wee Russell & Bobby Henderson - At Newport (1957)
Dizzy Gillespie - At Newport (1957)



Count Basie - At Newport (1957)
The Drinkard Singers & The Back Home Choir - Gospel Singing At Newport (1957)



The Oscar Peterson Trio with Sonny Stitt, Roy Eldridge and Jo Jones - At Newport (1957)
Count Basie with Big Joe Williams & Dizzie Gillespie with Mary Lou Williams - At Newport (1957)


it also seems that the '57 sets for Louis Armstrong, Stan Kenton, George Shearling, Cannonball Adderly and Sarah Vaughan can now be found on these Pablo albums:






'57 sets still MIA: Jimmy Smith, Sidney Bechet, Erroll Garner, Chris Connor, Kai Winding, Jimmy Guiffre, Jimmy Rushing

[Brian]

Now there is a box set I would buy! Only have the Dizzy big band album - very interested in your thoughts on both albums involving Roy Eldridge and both Basie sets too. Will almost certainly grab the Adderley set but some of those others are rapidly going out of print.

[Alek Hidell]

Been on vacation this week and had little time for listenin', but I did get this one (a first listen) in:



Very nice indeed, as I'd been led to believe. This is nominally under Iyer's name but I get the feeling that it's Smith who leads the way a good bit of the time (the titles of the pieces seem more "Smithian," for one thing) - but, well, having said that, it really is a true collaboration: there are "abstract" moments that I associate more with Smith, and there is plenty of straight-ahead lyricism that I tend to associate more with Iyer; but then Iyer is capable of abstractness and Smith is certainly capable of lyricism. So this really does seem to be a meeting of the minds.

In any case, highly recommended.

[Daverz]

A favorite big band CD:

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[SimonNZ]

Now there is a box set I would buy! Only have the Dizzy big band album - very interested in your thoughts on both albums involving Roy Eldridge and both Basie sets too. Will almost certainly grab the Adderley set but some of those others are rapidly going out of print.

For some reason John Hammond butts in to introduce each song in the Basie set. Elsewhere for other artists there are only introductions for the opening of the set, and I was worried this would kill the momentum, but a couple of tracks in the band get into an uptempo pace that suits the setting well, and Jimmy Rushing in particular is in fine voice.

The Coleman Hawkins album with Roy Eldridge I thought was going to be okay/average until they got to the final number, a 15-minute no holds barred take ostensibly on "Sweet Georgia Brown". Absolutely worth whatever you pay for the album to get just that.