7 Greatest Jazz CDs A fearless pick of the hippest and coolest ever. Let the arguments begin By CHRISTOPHER PORTERFIELD
May 15, 2006
May 15, 2006 BILLIE HOLIDAY LADY DAY: THE BEST OF BILLIE HOLIDAY Many other singers had better pipes or more agile techniques. But nobody transformed a song into something as deeply personal and affecting--and swinging--as Holiday. In these two discs, her reedy, frayed-at-the-edges voice, teasingly lagging the beat, instinctively breathes the bittersweet essence of the jazz life. What's more, she is surrounded by the finest sidemen of the era (1935-42), including pianist Teddy Wilson and her musical and emotional soul mate, tenor saxophonist Lester Young. MILES DAVIS THE COMPLETE BIRTH OF THE COOL In the late 1940s,...
then
John Coltrane.."A Love Supreme"
Charlie Christian.."The Genius of the Electric Guitar"
Charlie Parker.."Complete Jazz at Massey Hall"
Duke Ellington..."Never No Lament:The Blanton-Webster Band"
Louis Armstrong..."Hot Fives and Sevens"
as the author said in the title "Let the arguments begin". I read the print version, thought it might be of interest.
Blaise Pascal Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Pensees
Posts: 2917 | Location: Sverige | Registered: 21 June 2005
1. Duke - Black and Tan Fantasy 2. Hawk - Body & Soul 3. Bird - Night in Tunesia 4. Weather Report - Heavy Weather 5. Keith Jarrett - Standard vols 1 + 2 6. Miles - Kind of Blue 7. Trane - a Love Supreme
But: basically everything by Armstrong, Duke, Bird, Miles and Trane should be in that list...
BTW> Douglas, your picks are completely acceptable as well, to say the least...
Doug, bless you for posting something other than complaints about the world. It's a breath of fresh air.
I collect music and listen to all types. My favorite trumpet player at the moment is Roy Hargrove. Other jazz singers I like not on your list are Nina Simone and Eartha Kitt. For a while I was fixated on sax players from the 50's. This led me to the more bluesy sounds of Ben Webster and eventually Cleanhead Vinson who combines everything I like about blues and jazz.
I know Miles will have a good take on this.
<edit: beat me to it.>
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
Miles, here's a site with singles listed instead of cds, and they are classics . I was looking for Red Nickles [and the Five Pennies]. Also I read a story in London Review of Books, or Times Literary Supplement, a while ago about Lady Day and her tenor saxaphone soul mate mentioned in the opening post. If I can find it I can paste some of it, it was a beautiful piece.
Blaise Pascal Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Pensees
Posts: 2917 | Location: Sverige | Registered: 21 June 2005
had a rather heated argument with this man a few years ago by eMail about his Improv Primer, specifically about the so called 'Chord / Scale Theory', which I find an extremely problematic approach to Jazz improvisation.
Didn't manage to convince him, though.
Still, his texts make for worthwhile intrductory reading, so I would highly recommend it.
Miles was a great player and an interesting guy. Pretty angry. Got a little over the top free form for me at times. My father played trumpet in a band with Al Hurt back in the day. He tried to encourage me to take up the horn. Tried it for a couple years. Didn't stick.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
I do have Take 5 in the cd drawer. Now I listen to acid jazz and acid blues quite a bit. Ever heard Little Axe?
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
Can't say that I have. Oh and as far as posting something other than opinion, here's a snippet from a Vonnegut link on another thread
quote:
I guess you mean the fine arts. I hope you mean the fine arts. ... Anybody practicing the fine art of composing music, no matter how cynical or greedy or scared, still can’t help serving all humanity. Music makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it. Even military bands, although I am a pacifist, always cheer me up.
But that is the power of ear candy. The creation of such a universal confection for the eye, by means of printed poetry or fiction or history or essays or memoirs and so on, isn’t possible. Literature is by definition opinionated.
and I have a wide range of taste too, on my mp3 there's Deep Purple "Hush", Edie Brickel, and Three Penny Opera Mack the Knife, Bobby Darin, even Julie London. When my wife met me in London we went to see "Smokey Joe's Cafe" musical of Leiber & Stoler songbook, amazing.
Blaise Pascal Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Pensees
Posts: 2917 | Location: Sverige | Registered: 21 June 2005
Putumayo has an interesting catalog. This is an album I like a lot. It gets away from jazz a bit into a combination of blues and electronica. Little Axe has a couple cuts on the compilation.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
A good site, with samples. Started going through some of my old stuff, too..Lester Young with Count Basie, Fats Waller, Mills Brothers- "...just like Sammy Kaye..."-, Glen Miller, "Moonlight Serenade", Peggy Lee [a younger Lee] with Benny Goodman in 1942, Woody Herman. To supplement Vonnegut's 'ear candy' reference, Daniel Boorstin wrote a trilogy- "Discoverers", "Creators", and "Seekers"- and surmised discoverers can be superceded, or replaced, but creators never are, musicians are creators..even as they discover. a Little Axea little British bluesand a little more Miles that was a good reccommendation- 'outsideshore'
Blaise Pascal Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Pensees
Posts: 2917 | Location: Sverige | Registered: 21 June 2005
Doug - just be critical. Some things he claims are just plain not true.
For instance:
"Most jazz since the bebop era is based on a form that is actually quite similar to the sonata allegro form from classical theory."
What he MEANS is 'from calssical period' or something. The music theroy didn't devise that form, it evolved in the music over a period of 200 years or so.
Besides, most most jazz since the bebop era is based on a form that is actually quite similar to the classical variation form, in which the theme is a so called song form, or 'short form'. For instance: "It Could Happen to You', a musica song that has been transferred to jazz by people like Chet Baker, is a clear cut (compound) period.
Ok, sorry about all of that. Got a little too excited there.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
A bunch of white guys playing the blues, what a novel concept. Can't get much whiter than snow.
But back on topic, "Stormy Monday"... remember that movie with Tommy Lee Jones and Sting from the Police? There was a jazz band in that movie called "The Krakow Jazz Ensemble" that I thought was pretty great. One of Sting's experimental bands. Does anyone remember that?
Posts: 3959 | Location: Santa Fe | Registered: 11 June 2003
All popular American music of the 20th and 21st centuries from Dixieland Jazz to Hip Hop has one common denominator: the drum set. The modern day drum set was invented and developed in the Jazz era going all the way back to the original "trap sets" of Dixieland Jazz. Of the many creative and amazing Jazz drummers that helped to develop the set and the styles of playing it, one man still does the occasional tour today; Louie Bellson, my personal favorite drummer and Jazz musician in general.
For all you Metal fans out there, Louie is credited as the man who invented the double bass drum set which he made popular during his time playing for Ellington, who described Bellson has "the world's greatest drummer."
I once had the good fortune of meeting Louie. He was playing at a local community college and a student I knew there got me into the event. Louie did a clinic beforehand that for some reason was not well received. There were only about 20 people there, and of those about five were an obnoxious group of freshmen who clearly had no appreciation for Jazz. Even Louie became annoyed enough to stop and yell at them for their rude behavior (when he was done he looked at the rest of us and said, "and you all thought Buddy was the mean one.") After all that, I asked him about a comment he once made in an interview where he insisted that drummers shouldn't count. In answering my question he played a beautiful solo to demonstrate soloing while keeping time without counting. Louie Bellson, my personal favorite and an undeniable great of the Jazz era played a drum solo just for me.
As a funny side note, after the event I went out to the lobby and was bragging to a lady who was selling Bellson memorabilia that I had met him and he played for me. A few days later I saw Bellson on the Carson show with his lovely new wife Francine -- who happened to be that lady I was bragging to! Louie had been married to Pearl Bailey, who had died a few years earlier.
Yes, I'm a drummer.
On a slight political side note, only Bob Hope has played the White House more often than Louie Bellson.
Louie's greatest work, in my opinion, is his 1987 release of "East Side Suite" which includes my favorite song of all time, "What Makes Moses Run" (written by Louie, who is an accomplished composer as well as an incredible drummer).
Jason, a great site, the drum battle video w/Louis, Lionel Hampton, & Don Lamonde was good, I checked out Buddy Rich on the Sinatra show, then Ginger Baker, and Krupa's Benny Goodman Quartet video was especially impressive, liked the xylophone and clarinet on that one too. Russ Kunkel didn't have a video. Krupa's sing, sing, sing from '37, ...
Blaise Pascal Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Pensees
Posts: 2917 | Location: Sverige | Registered: 21 June 2005
Mel Tormé "Lulu's Back In Town", arr. Marty Paich Kind Of Blue Birth Of The Cool Sinatra@the Sands Ella & Duke - The Stockholm Concert Ella & Louis Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now
Posts: 1927 | Location: pending | Registered: 18 December 2004
Always thought the bass element in Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks was 'always lookin' good', "A Euphonius Wail" they had/have as well. Previews Klaus, I gotta admit my choice was more visual, since I remember always seeing Hot Licks playing the accoustic bass fiddle, in addition to the sound. But it was better than my first image,- Jack Lemmon as Daphne, the bass player in "Some Like it Hot" with Marlyn Monroe on vocals...which,...back to Vonnegut's quote...ear candy and eye candy I guess are not mutually exclusive.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: douglaslee,
Blaise Pascal Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Pensees
Posts: 2917 | Location: Sverige | Registered: 21 June 2005
