Jazz for aficionados

Rok, It's my fault that you're confused. When I said the man on that horn was not "Yusef Lateef", I meant it was him, playing music that was prescribed, and not his music; but that all cleared up later on when the "real" Yusef Lateef (according to my musical conception) appeared when he played the flute on "Angel Eyes".

In regard to "Switzerland or Germany" there was no difference in personnel. I looked at both on You tube, and you couldn't even tell the difference. I hope that clears everything up.

Enjoy the music.

Thumbs up on Barney Wilen.Rare,but now downloadable,is "Barney" from 1959 on French RCA with Duke Jordan and Kenny Dorham...great session.A little off the beaten track,and a record that has bounced around to a few labels under different names is "Movie themes from france" from 1989.This is a quartet with Mal Waldron,Stafford James and Eddie Moore.You can pretty much guess the tunes and they are played in an almost calmly seductive manner.He was one of the poster boys of the French new wave cinema Jazz soundtracks.Of course,as mentioned,The Miles soundtrack is a masterpiece.I bought the dvd of the film with the bonus footage of Miles playing to the soundtrack and have to confess i have yet to watch it.I will do that this week and report back.First saw that film on the late,late show as a teenager when it played in the U.S. under the name "Frantic",which may have been the name of the novel it was based on.Hats off to Barney who slipped away in '96.

Jazz At The Philharmonic: Best Of The 1940's Concerts

well, lets see, we have: Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Charlie Parker, Willie Smith, Roy Eldridge, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Buddy Rich, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat 'King' Cole, Les Paul, Gene Krupa, Jo Jones, Billie Holiday, and company.

Why can one possibly say? The sound quality was very good, all things considered. It being live and the 40's.

Most of the soloing was great, and I felt like an 'Ellington/Gonsalves at Newport' moment would break out at any minute.

Ella was awesome and never sang one word of English or any other language. She is like another instrument in the band.

Billie was as good as any singer not named Ella ccould be.

The liner notes of this CD are very interesting. There seems to have been a little controversy surrounding the entire JATP thingy. Two excerpts from the liner notes:

"great storytelling is a matter of mastering structure and pacing, not divine intervention. In bringing the Jam Session to a mass audience, Granz robbed it of it's mystery, and some critics never forgave him for it."

"If people liked it, it wasn't Jazz. Jazz has a cult mentality and Cannot deal with mass acceptance without feeling like a whore."

I must do some research into the whole JATP thing.
Comments on the two quotes are welcomed.

Cheers

Jazz is not a single dish, it's a banquet, and I'm going to give you a sampling of some other treats in this same time frame, and genre.

Although everyone knows "Stan Getz", not everyone knows all the facets of Mr. Getz. "Focus" is his most unique album in my opinion. It just flows from one cut to the next. That continuity gives the complete album a certain "unity" as opposed to an album consisting of separate cuts. This is my favorite album by Mr. Getz, and I give you "I'm late, I'm late" from "Focus"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAyrdlUcZIw

While Mr. Yusef Lateef could play "stereotypical" jazz on the tenor sax as well as any man alive, his personal musical tastes were not at all "stereotypical"; he always gave jazz a different twist. Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he also plays oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, and also uses a number of world music instruments, notably the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, Xun, arghul, sarewa, and koto. He is known for his innovative blending of jazz with "Eastern" music. This is from one of my favorite albums by Yusef Lateef, "The Blue Yusef Lateef".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McZsu4riOm8

Next is "Ahmad Jamal", he influenced Miles; I don't think you can get a recommendation higher than that. Miles liked his use of space, he was never in a hurry. I liked the way he did standards, regardless how many times you heard one of these tunes, it always sounded new and fresh when Ahmad Jamal did it. First I give you "Moonlight in Vermont" followed by "Ahmads Blues".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Y0mUGp-bM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7RIDZulyHA

I hope you've enjoyed my presentations, and I'm looking forward to yours.

Enjoy the music.

I don't think i would characterize Norman Granz as a "robber"...stealing the "mystery" of the jam session, and exposing it to the public? In reality, few were privy to the "Jam Session" as it was the musicians domain,lets say the hunting grounds for the lions and tigers of the late night,feasting on the young and unproven musician who had to prove they could stand next to the kings of the Jungle.This is one thing that eventually eroded Jazz was the lack of public humiliation to make youyrself a better player.How do you think the young Bopper's matured so quickly?...they played.played,played! Thank goodness for the Harlem spots like Minton's Playhouse and Clark Monroe's uptown house, where nighly jams brought the older players to joust with the youngsters,albeit the Boppers were working on their own" alchemy" of variations on the "changes".The question became what older established players would get with the new and adapt, and forge, the way to the new music.Such is the way in the veldt...eat or be eaten.The "Jam Session" was a proving ground....the story aboput Bird being gonged off the stage by a cymbal being thrown....over ten years later a similar humiliation would be suffered by Ornette Coleman in Los Angeles.
What Granz did,among MANY things,was bring the excitement of this competion to the public with a new found dignity,a showcase for the myriad of talents within the music..Bird,Prez,Ella,Tatum...he took the greats of the music and brought them to your town.
An amazing look at the reclusive and innovative Norman Granz is ..."Norman Granz....The man who used Jazz for Justice" University of California Press 2011.Author Tad Hershorn spent years just getting the interviews with Granz and finally suceeded and opened the mysterious world of this man.Hershorn is a member of the Rutgers based Institute of Jazz studies,his is a multi-layered,scholary approach.The evolution of the "JATP" concept is a major part of this book,the tours,players,recordings and the fight for the dignity of the musicians of "color",not always easy in the 1950's.He shares the details of Granz' musical adventures with an ease and a flow that make this great reading.You will come away with a respect for the man who realized that Art Tatum needed to sit in the studio and record over one hundred solo performances.He was among the very first who listened to the artist and gave them freedom.You will lament the unfulfilled sessions (Lester Young with strings and Charlie Parker and Art Tatum duets)You will be amazed at what one man accomplished for Jazz.