What Jazz are you listening to now?

[SimonNZ]

Oliver Nelson - Full Nelson (1963)
Rex Stewart - Redhead (1959)

[Alek Hidell]

I've also heard it said that Rouse was Monk's "straight man" - after all, Monk's music is often quite funny, and Rouse did make a good foil.

Today:

   

[Spineur]

Thomas Enhco.  Feathers.  Nice piano jazz

[asin]B00T8N4IHQ[/asin]

[king ubu]

Monk in Tokyo (live)
Thelonious Monk – piano
Charlie Rouse - tenor saxophone
Butch Warren – bass
Frankie Dunlop – drums

On Columbia. I like this band, especially the rhythm section.  Rouse plays well, and the recorded quality is very good.

Agreed! Frankie Dunlop is so much fun!

Yes, Rouse got Monk better than any of his other collaborators - Coltrane was too strong and different of a musical personality.  Monk's music needs some space and you need to bring out the angularity , it does not work as welk with the constant streams of notes like Rollins or Coltrane tended to do.

Have to disagree here, and quite strongly. I don't think any of his horn players had nearly as deep insight into Monk's music as Coltrane did (agree though on wishing there was more w/Rollins!). Listen to the Carnegie Hall concert on Blue Note - that's one of the finest Monk recordings and Coltrane is just amazing, soli after solo. He really digs deep!

[SimonNZ]

Sonny Simmons - Reincarnation (2015)

[Alek Hidell]

Very nice. I like how they blues-ify Gershwin's "Summertime."

[San Antone]

A girl singer I haven't heard before ...



Norma Winstone : Descansado

Norma Winstone voice
Glauco Veneier piano
Klaus Gesing soprano saxophone, bass clarinet
Helge Andreas Norbakken percussion
Mario Brunello violoncello
Recorded March 2017, ArteSuono Studio, Udine

"Vocalist Norma Winstone returns to ECM with pianist Glauco Venier and reedplayer Klaus Gesing to explore the relationship between song and cinema. Interpreting the scores of Legrand, Rota and Morricone, among others, and referencing such filmmakers as Godard, Fellini and Scorsese, the result is a collection of moving images in and of itself."



More like cabaret than jazz singing, but this record is pleasant and enjoyable; and includes a nice selection of songs.  I find the pianist is a little bothersome, lots of patterns and repeated gestures which become tiresome over time, but other than that the band (which is really a chamber ensemble with unique instrumentation for a jazz group) offers sympathetic accompaniment for a singer with a unique voice and style.  There is a fragility to her voice which draws me in.  Typical ECM good sound.

[Tom 1960]

[Tom 1960]

[SimonNZ]

Ramsey Lewis - Down To Earth (1959)
Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier - Malphas:John Zorn's Book of Angels, Vol. 3 (2006)

[Mirror Image]

Ellington's New Orleans Suite:



One of my favorite jazz albums. The compositional brilliance of Ellington really gets a chance to shine. Of course, as usual, the arrangements themselves are wonderful with amazing playing from all involved.

[Mirror Image]

Now some Shirley Horn:

[Mirror Image]

Now some Brownie and Max Roach:

[San Antone]

Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band
Duke Ellington

Probably the best all-round band Ellington ever had, featuring Jimmy Blanton on bass, Ben Webster on tenor sax and Johnny Hodges on alto, along with many others, this band is widely thought to have the the golden period for Ellington.

Other great sidemen, in the primes of their careers, include:

Ray Nance – trumpet, violin, vocals
Harry Carney – clarinet, alto & baritone saxophone
Cootie Williams – trumpet
Lawrence Brown – trombone

But just about everyone in this band was a star.

[George]

Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band
Duke Ellington

Probably the best all-round band Ellington ever had, featuring Jimmy Blanton on bass, Ben Webster on tenor sax and Johnny Hodges on alto, along with many others, this band is widely thought to have the the golden period for Ellington.

Other great sidemen, in the primes of their careers, include:

Ray Nance – trumpet, violin, vocals
Harry Carney – clarinet, alto & baritone saxophone
Cootie Williams – trumpet
Lawrence Brown – trombone

But just about everyone in this band was a star.

A lovely set. I was able to grab a somewhat cheap copy not too long ago.

[San Antone]

A lovely set. I was able to grab a somewhat cheap copy not too long ago.

The tragedy is that Jimmy Blanton was with Ellington for just two years, leaving the band in 1943 and dying from tuberculosis shortly after, at the age of only 23.  There is a great recording of duets with Duke at the piano which are well worth hearing, as well.

I've been re-reading the biographies (some newly purchased this year) of Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton and revisiting their work. I had read bios long ago, but some new ones have come out somewhat recently and it spurred this revisiting.

It has been a very enjoyable, wonderful journey that I highly recommend to any fan of this music.

[SimonNZ]

Which is the album of Blanton/Ellington duets?

now:



Stan Getz - And The Cool Sounds (1957)

[San Antone]

Which is the album of Blanton/Ellington duets?

[king ubu]

Love the Blanton/Webster band! But then I love ALL things Ellington. The early forties band was great, the late forties band was amazing, the mid fifties to mid sixties band was great ... and all the thirties music is glorious anyway!

Re: Blanton/Webster, I still remember how hurtful it was to get that big sucker, the 24 CD RCA box ... it was for sale in a local store here for 550 CHF (that would've been around 400 US$ at that time I guess. I think I got it a bit cheaper, but music prices were crazy around here at that time, and that was the same time I was still in high school and had virtually no money (unless I'd work during vacation, which I did many times) ...

Anyway, I think the Blanton/Webster portion of the box is around 6-7 CDs, so that 3 disc set is just the main stuff, but no way complete, alas. And it was never reissued later on, with all the RCA/BMG mess that went on. Now they're back to putting out some stuff, but many years ago, they practically freezed all reissues, including Duke's (Monk was completed by that time, Brubeck and Miles were the only ones that still got some reissues ... not even for the double Basie jubiilee in 2004 they put out a big box, just the - more than decent, mind me - "America's Band No. 1" selection set with four discs).

I'd still with for a complete 1947-52 Columbia package (there was one in France, but that was before my time), and I'd also wish for a set collecting all the 1956-62 material that has not been reissued as part of the great Legacy reissues (the ones that were stopped around that time). And I'd wish they'd do right with some of the botched reissues ("A Drum Is a Woman" for one).

But then nobody seems to care anymore at Sony's.

[San Antone]

The RCA Centennial collection



Back (probably close to 20 years ago) when mp3 blogs still existed I got all of it.  But if it wasn't so expensive now I'd get the box, but a new copy is going for over $700.  You might be able to find a good used copy on eBay less than the $439 offered on Amazon, but you're right, it is a crime they don't reissue it at a sane price.