Jazz recordings you are considering

Started by XB-70 Valkyrie, June 22, 2015, 07:25:14 PM

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king ubu

Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on September 25, 2016, 05:44:24 PM
Cool. Do you have Alloy? Alloy is largely similar--subdued, introspective, minimalist--a long drawn out meditation in Feldmanesque style.

No, not yet ... still catching up on some Pi releases - great label, actually, but initially I focused more on the veterans and Chicagoans whom I love (Threadgill, Roscoe, Muhal). Got some catching up to do with the Steves (Colelman and Lehman) and some others.
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

XB-70 Valkyrie

If you really dislike Bach you keep quiet about it! - Andras Schiff

king ubu

Not really familiar with late Jamal (but heard a great concert with George Coleman and Idris Muhammad some 15 years ago).

The Cannonball is lovely, some spirited soloing by Cannon ... but it's lightweight and probably ranks at position 15 to 20 if ny favourite Cannonball albums.
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

king ubu

Quote from: king ubu on October 08, 2016, 07:11:40 AM
...

The Cannonball is lovely, some spirited soloing by Cannon ... but it's lightweight and probably ranks at position 15 to 20 if ny favourite Cannonball albums.

To follow-up on this, as I really love Cannonball Adderley's music - grouped, and sorted chronologically by group (not ba ranking):


top:

Somethin' Else (the near-mystique Blue Note classic with a shabby trumpet guy  ;) and a great rhythm section)
In San Francisco (the amazing live album with Bobby Timmons and his tune "Dis Here")
Cannonball in Europe! (live) (favourite of mine amongst the sextet albums with Lateef - dig him on oboe on "Trouble in Mind")
Nippon Soul (live) (second of my top tier albums by the sextet - more in the next group)


excellent:

The Savoy albums from 1955*
Quintet in Chicago (the Miles band sans leader, Cannon & Coltrane blowing up some storms)
w/Milt Jackson - Things Are Getting Better (other than the pairing with Bill Evans later down the road, this one is a smoking hot affair, Wynton Kelly and Art Blakey help, too!)
Quintet at the Lighthouse (live) (with Victor Feldman, who followed after a short stint by Barry Harris, see next group of albums)
Nancy Wilson & Cannonball Adderley
The Cannonball Adderley Sextet In New York (live) (the new sextet line-up with Yusef Lateef added to the brothers and Joe Zawinul on piano)
Jazzworkshop Revisited (live) (same group, all their albums are mighty good in my opinion, I love Lateef even more than Cannonball)
Live! (live) (the new sextet line-up w/Charles Lloyd in for Lateef)
Money in the Pocket (live) (the new quintet, the one that would pioneer use of the fender rhodes piano ... still w/Zawinul, of course!)
Cannonball in Japan (live) (a live album I've loved for almost two decades by now)
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (live) (the title tune is a classic, but the rest just about fails to make it into the very top group)
Why Am I Treated So Bad? (live) (another great and funky album - Capitol, the new label, understood that a live setting worked best)
Accent on Africa (David Axelrod over-production, but wow this is fun! and you get Cannonball on soprano)
The Black Messiah - Recorded Live at The Troubadour (live) (the new group with George Duke on keys comes in with a bang - a great live double album)


very good:

Cannonball Takes Charge (w/Wynton Kelly, sans Nat)
Them Dirty Blues (quintet w/Timmons and his replacement Barry Harris, who's not a natural, but some mighty good stuff on there - that slow blues is da shit!)
Paris, 1960 (live) (the band w/Feldman live)
What Is This Thing Called Love (live) (more of that)
Cannonball Adderley and the Poll-Winners: Ray Brown, Wes Montgomery (an all star album, but a very sympathetic one, sans Nat)
African Waltz (a big band album, arr. Bob Brookmeyer & Ernie Wilkins, Cannonball the star soloist and main attraction)
Quintet Plus (Feldman also on vibes, with Wynton Kelly guesting as the "Plus")
w/Bill Evans - Know What I Mean? (two different temperaments, not a classic but still lovely, sans Nat)
w/Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson: Cleanhead & Cannonball
Lugano, 1963 - Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series Vol. 3 (live) (a somewhat routine gig by the great sextet w/Lateef)
Fiddler on the Roof (the new sextet line-up with Charles Lloyd stepping in for Lateef)
Domination (another big band affair, this time in Oliver Nelson's hands)
74 Miles Away (Walk Tall) (yet one more by the new quintet line-up of the mid/late 60s - see group above for more)
Country Preacher (live) (next one of that series of mostly live albums)


good:

Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (EmArcy, some added horns, arr. Quincy Jones - from the days when he still wrote himself, I guess)
the EmArcy quintet albums by the brothers with Junior Mance **)
Quintets at Newport (live) (shared with the George Shearing quintet, the Adderleys sitting in with that band, too - nice but not essential)
Portrait of Cannonball (with Blue Mitchell and Bill Evans ... not the fastest start on Riverside, but not bad at all)
Live in Cologne 1961 (live) (two short sets - the other by Benny Carter - somehow not quite enough meat on the bone)
Cannonball's Bosa Nova - Cannonball Adderley and the Bossa Rio Sextet (lightweight but charming ... and nowhere near bossa nova of course, more like spirited soulful samba)
w/Ernie Andrews - Live Session (live) (fun stuff with a singer I otherwise don't know at all)
The Cannonball Adderley Quintet "In Person" with Special Guest Stars Nancy Wilson & Lou Rawls (not his best outing, but plenty to enjoy, incl. the two fine guests)
The Happy People (another latin affair)


three later Fantasy albums are on my shelves, but I'm not familiar enough with them to group them yet:

Inside Straight (live)
Pyramid
Phenix


*) best in the official two-disc set "Adderley Brothers - The Summer of '55", in typical Orrin Keepnews manner misses a few alternate takes, but this is great stuff, includes Kenny Clarke's "Bohemia After Dark" with both Adderleys, Donald Byrd and Jerome Richardson, Julian's "Spontaneous Combustion" with Nat, and Nat's "That's Nat" without Julian but with Richardson, who's an unsung hero of that era anyway ... should you want the missing takes, look for the old Denon/Savoy disc "Discoveries"

**) official double disc: "Sophisticated Swing - The EmArcy Small-Group Sessions", four albums (one under Nat's name) - this is all a bit too tightly produced (too many too short tunes with not enough blowing space) compared to the Riverside sessions


additions:

Introducing Nat Adderley (sans Cannon, but a great 1955 album with Johnny Griffin, Horace Silver, Paul Chambers and Roy Haynes - quite a band!) - mentioning this as it falls within the "Summer of '55" and later EmArcy albums and somehow belongs among them ... Nat later had his own series of Riverside albums, usually without Cannonball, the best of them I think are "Branching Out" (Griffin again, plus The Three Sounds), "Work Song" (my personal favourite, unusual instrumentation with just Nat's horn, Wes Montgomery, Timmons, Sam Jones partly on cello, Keter Betts, Percy Heath and Louis Hayes), and "That's Right" (with a sex section of Cannonball, Lateef, Jimmy Heath, Charlie Rouse and Tate Houston)


silly/of its time:

Soul Zodiac (Cannonball Adderley Presents "Soul Zodiac" Written and Narrated by Rick Holmes, The Nat Adderley Sextet)


there's more as far as sideman sessions go, including a mighty good Ray Brown big band album with Cannonball the star soloist, a gorgeous folksy third stream album by John Benson Brooks ... and of course the few sessions with Miles Davis, Machito's "Kenya" again with Cannonball the featured soloist, a side-spot as "Buckshot Le Fonque" with Louis Smith ...

after all, it has to be said that Cannonball's exuberance may get on some people's nerves rather quickly ... so don't jump in head over heels but get some, let it drizzle in and then figure out if he's for you or not - in my case, no further evidence needed, I think  ;D

I'd love the Capitol albums to be grouped and reissued in their entirety ... a few recent reissues I still have to get, but more is around than what made it to CD, they're surely a mixed bunch, but boxing them would be at least as revelatory as when Sony boxed Herbie Hancock's albums a while back (and I don't think the worst of Cannonball ever got near the hideous stuff that can be heard on the worst of Hancock's albums)
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

Dancing Divertimentian

#64
Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on October 07, 2016, 07:30:05 PM
Will probably get these...



No question about this one. Quality stuff. In fact, all three in the "Essence" series are must-haves. Jamal's late-career renaissance (starting from about the mid-90s on into the 2000s) is a storehouse of high quality music. It's not given the attention it deserves but the sheer originality of the music is impressive.

Jamal also began writing more of his own tunes at this time. But either way we win.


Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

XB-70 Valkyrie

Thanks gentlemen!

My intro to Cannonball was Somethin' Else--specifically the Blue Note 50th Anniversary LP I bought a couple years ago! Really eye-opening stuff, and it is amazing how much he sounds like Bird at times. I do want to explore more, so thanks very much for the list!!
If you really dislike Bach you keep quiet about it! - Andras Schiff

king ubu

Re: Jamal, as I said, I'm not really familiar with his later output ... but if you love his early stuff (Argo recordings, mainly the fabulous trio with Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier), you have to be aware that his playing changed, bigtime. Already by the time of his Impulse albums in the seventies, it got much less spacey and refined, and I guess that went on into 90s and 00s and to present day. Not saying that it's a bad thing, but I really think it would be hard for anyone blindfolded to tell it's the same guy.

As his mid/late fifties and early sixties output is - justly! - famous, for those familiar with some of it, his later music may be off-putting or just not what they expected. However, what I have heard of the later output was uniformly good to very good (though I do prefer the brilliant elegance of the early period, those recordings are quite simply unique in many respects ... which is probably why I know just some stray records from later on).
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

Dancing Divertimentian

Quote from: king ubu on October 09, 2016, 06:46:42 AM
Re: Jamal, as I said, I'm not really familiar with his later output ... but if you love his early stuff (Argo recordings, mainly the fabulous trio with Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier), you have to be aware that his playing changed, bigtime. Already by the time of his Impulse albums in the seventies, it got much less spacey and refined, and I guess that went on into 90s and 00s and to present day. Not saying that it's a bad thing, but I really think it would be hard for anyone blindfolded to tell it's the same guy.

As his mid/late fifties and early sixties output is - justly! - famous, for those familiar with some of it, his later music may be off-putting or just not what they expected. However, what I have heard of the later output was uniformly good to very good (though I do prefer the brilliant elegance of the early period, those recordings are quite simply unique in many respects ... which is probably why I know just some stray records from later on).

I agree with some of what you say but not all of it. Jamal's "middle period" is, as you say, lacking the direction and emphasis of his earlier period, which is justly famous.

However, starting with his Telarc discs in 1992 and on through is Birdology years in the mid-90s to about 2008 his music takes on a new force (as I mentioned, his "renaissance"). Here, to me, his music flowers to its absolute fullest, even SURPASSING his early period.

This late period - as of yet - lies mainly undiscovered by the mainstream but is Jamal at his greatest.

Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

king ubu

Diff'rent strokes, I guess ... I quite like his Impulse albums actually. The late period has so far just not touched me in a way his early recordings do.
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

Brian

Does anybody have any experience with "TCB The Montreux Jazz Label"? Specifically their "Swiss Radio Days" series? Looks like they've been releasing Swiss radio concerts of classic jazz artists for a couple decades now, stuff like


king ubu

Great series, usually in excellent sound quality.

Can list some faves later on, but on those three: Gordon and Webster only olay two loose jams together, for the rest it's either Frog or LTD with rhythm. A rather spontaneous affair, nice but far from essential.

The Rollins Trio/Silver Quintet is wonderful (but again there's so much from them, I'd hardly consider essential,  regardless of its excellence).

The Ella/OP I barely listened to so far ... but its instrumental counterpart - OP & JATP - is mighty cool as the band includes the real president, Lester Young.
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

Spineur

#71
Complete 1957 riverside recording.  It is a reissue of the 2006 edition on the Concord label.  There is a hires version but I am not sure if it has been remastered.


XB-70 Valkyrie

#72






If you really dislike Bach you keep quiet about it! - Andras Schiff

Brian

Anybody ever heard either album by the Riverside Reunion Band? Nat Adderley, Albert Heath, Tommy Flanagan, some other guys like that...

XB-70 Valkyrie

Bill Evans complete Fantasy recordings. Anyone own it?

If you really dislike Bach you keep quiet about it! - Andras Schiff

SimonNZ

I used to have that and it was a great introduction for me to many items in the Evans discography that are too often and unjustly overlooked by the critics.

It bothered be that by filling each cd to 1hour plus it split many of the albums across two discs without making it clear where one ended and the next started. Eventually I sold it and reacquired six or seven favorites from the box - including the Tokyo concert disc you mentioned on the other thread.

XB-70 Valkyrie

Thanks for your thoughts. The packaging is pretty disappointing, and of course it would be much more appealing (at least to me) if the sleeves had original cover art, and contained only the original album--even if this does make for shorter durations. I might look into downloads. I want to buy some of these LPs, but not all of them, so maybe some combination thereof...
If you really dislike Bach you keep quiet about it! - Andras Schiff

NikF

Quote from: SimonNZ on September 30, 2018, 03:00:24 PM
I used to have that and it was a great introduction for me to many items in the Evans discography that are too often and unjustly overlooked by the critics.

It bothered be that by filling each cd to 1hour plus it split many of the albums across two discs without making it clear where one ended and the next started.  Eventually I sold it and reacquired six or seven favorites from the box - including the Tokyo concert disc you mentioned on the other thread.

Yeah, that sounds the reasonable way to roll.

Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on September 30, 2018, 08:29:44 PM
Thanks for your thoughts. The packaging is pretty disappointing, and of course it would be much more appealing (at least to me) if the sleeves had original cover art, and contained only the original album--even if this does make for shorter durations. I might look into downloads. I want to buy some of these LPs, but not all of them, so maybe some combination thereof...

I've been there, mate. I think I've seen you post about enjoying vinyl? In that case, perhaps it has the potential of being a long term pursuit?
"You overestimate my power of attraction," he told her. "No, I don't," she replied sharply, "and neither do you".

Ghost of Baron Scarpia

Quote from: SimonNZ on September 30, 2018, 03:00:24 PMIt bothered be that by filling each cd to 1hour plus it split many of the albums across two discs without making it clear where one ended and the next started. Eventually I sold it and reacquired six or seven favorites from the box - including the Tokyo concert disc you mentioned on the other thread.

I listen to jazz with iTunes and my solution with those pile-of-albums sets is to make playlists for the individual albums - a case where computer makes it possible to return to the original packaging of the music.

XB-70 Valkyrie

#79
Quote from: NikF on October 01, 2018, 04:27:39 PM
Yeah, that sounds the reasonable way to roll.

I've been there, mate. I think I've seen you post about enjoying vinyl? In that case, perhaps it has the potential of being a long term pursuit?

Have been collecting vinyl since 1990, when everyone was getting rid of it. I absolutely love everything about vinyl, and in 20+ years of owning an Oracle Delphi III/SME V tonearm/Sumiko Blue Point, I have had ZERO problems. A clean, high-quality record on this rig is spectacular and even cheap/bargain vinyl from years ago is still wonderful. (My hearing is exceptional BTW--the best my ENT has ever seen) The late Brooks Berdan who set everything up, was certainly one of the greatest turntable/audio guys on the planet, and now his son has taken over and serves my audio needs quite well.

I do like CDs for larger sets and various other things--partly because I have limited time and bandwidth to digitize LPs. I actually really enjoy doing this, but a single LP takes about 2 hr from start to finish. I usually do one a week. Every few months, I take a dozen or so my LPs to my audio dealer's shop to clean them on the $6K Keith Monks, or lately, the ClearAudio machine, followed by some lunch and lounge drinks/dessert. It's a nice day out. (wife sometimes comes along and does her shopping).

I prefer the original vinyl (or sometimes the vinyl reissues) for various things like various classical performers, labels (Westminster, Period, early Decca, RCA Stereo, etc.). Especially lately, I like the original vinyl for jazz and jazz/pop vocalists from the 50s-70s. Julie London, June Christy, Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, and Tony Bennett--man I love those covers!

If you really dislike Bach you keep quiet about it! - Andras Schiff