Jazz for aficionados

Today's Playlist:

Laughin' to keep from Cryin'
Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Harry 'sweets' Edison
No fireworks, just the best Jazz ballard playing possible.
Lester Young is one of the true Giants of the music. Even plays Clarinet on a few tracks. And how can Eldridge and Edison be on the same record? Amazing! Good sound. 1958 / 2000.

Stormy Monday
Lou Rawls and Les McCann
Good song selection and backup. A young Rawls. He will get better later, and make these songs his own!

Zodiac Suite
Mary Lou Williams - piano
Short pieces named after the signs of the zodiac. Some alternate takes. Sound not the best. Piano does not sound like it's in tune. Could be just the recording. Recorded in 1945. Smithsonian / Folkways. Did not make a great impression on me. The professional critics loved it.

Bernard Purdie's Soul to Jazz
with Eddie Harris, the Brecker Brothers and the WDR Big Band
The song lineup would lead one to assume this would be one of the best CDs ever. Includes everything from 'Senor Blues' to 'When a Man Loves a Woman'. All 13 tracks mega hits in their own right.
The problem is, the WDR big band is the, Westdeutscher Rundfunk big band. I know they can play, all the radio bands can, they just can't play Jazz. Should stick with Strauss. Prudie is a drummer and has some resume, played with Aretha and Miles. But the American talent is let down by the arrangements and the band. The producers are named Wolfgang and Siegfried, that should have been a red flag. Very nice album art and foldout. I have had this several years and never play it. Just reminded myself why.

Cheers

Actually Rok, the Youtube link of Alfredo Rodiguez that I posted above perfectly illustrates what I am talking about. The rhythmic structure is clearly rooted in "clave" (Africa), the form of the composition and the improvisation around it is clearly rooted in European (Spanish) tradition, and the harmonic flavor of the piece is derived primarily from the use of the harmonic minor scale (Arab). A perfect hybrid: Latin stuff.

Regards.

Senor Rodiguez is quite the virtuoso. Jazz? If you insist. It could have come from a practice book. The Goldberg variations of the Jazz world?

The point is this. If someone wants to play a Jazz number with a 'spanish' or 'arabic' or middle eastern motif, that does not mean those types of music are the building blocks of Jazz. A lot of Jazz has been played with spanish and middle eastern motifs. Written and played by people in the USA. Even in New Orleans! if means nothing. Like Dvorak and his 9th. American themes, indian and black. Does that mean Indians and Blacks or Americans are components of the essance of european classical music?

I can sing the Star Spangled Banner in German. Means nothing. It does not make it German music.

Nice try.

Cheers

"Ok, take away the Spanish, and Arab components and what is left? Drumming?"

You might want to reconsider this.

Cheers

Chazro, with the exception of Paquito, whose more into jazz, the other Cuban musicians play very beautiful Cuban music. They have followed a historic lineage, and they've done it very well. That's not to say they're imitating the past, but improvising on it, and incorporating new music of their own. That new music is still distinctly Cuban.

This is not a matter of "old versus new", but what sounds beautiful and sensual according to my musical sensibilities. Those are two traits the new musicians retained, as they must for authentic Cuban music. I liked them very much, and they will be added to my collection.

Enjoy the music.