What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Henk]

Nate Smith - Live-action

[Henk]

Back to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues



Back to Back is a 1959 studio album by Johnny Hodges and Duke Ellington. It was followed by Side by Side (1959), which combines three tracks recorded at one of the same sessions with six tracks recorded in August 1958 by a different, Hodges-led group that did not include Ellington.

"Wabash Blues" (Fred Meinken, Dave Ringle) – 6:22
"Basin Street Blues" (Spencer Williams) – 8:05
"Beale Street Blues" (W. C. Handy) – 7:40
"Weary Blues" (Artie Matthews) – 6:50
"St. Louis Blues" (Handy) – 5:45
"Loveless Love" (Handy) – 6:05
"Royal Garden Blues" (Clarence Williams, Spencer Williams) – 5:20

Duke Ellington – piano
Johnny Hodges – alto saxophone
Harry "Sweets" Edison – trumpet
Les Spann – guitar
Al Hall – bass (tracks 1 and 4)
Sam Jones – bass (tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7)
Jo Jones – drums

Spinning (streaming) it now. Very laid back. Relaxing music.

[Henk]

Nate Smith - Live-action

Not really my thing. I feel sad about the direction those young artists take.

When it comes to jazz I'm at the point to select the artists I like and don't look further:

John Scofield
Ahmad Jamal
Tom Harrell
Omar Sosa
Bobby Watson

Some others are ok.

Maybe I keep listening to Peter Evans. Quite cool and new stuff.

And maybe Jon Irabagon too.

That's it for me.

[Philo]

Ellington's Blues to be There aka the "stank face" song - maybe the best live rendition of this tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wnPG4U-wrg

[San Antone]

Ellington's Blues to be There aka the "stank face" song - maybe the best live rendition of this tune

Actually it is a Strayhorn original.

This is a competent performance by a high school ensemble, but IMO the Live at Newport is the best performance of this tune. The official JALCO release also does a good job with it.

[T. D.]

This Mosaic doesn't get very much love, maybe because it's on the restrained/mellow side of contemporaneous hard bop releases. I picked it up late, mainly due to low price, but recommend the material highly.