Jazz for aficionados

This weekend's playlist:

Eddie 'cleanhead' Vinson & Cannonball Adderley -- Cleanhead & Cannonball
Cleanhead sings, Cannonball Quintet plays. It just, does not work. This probably looked good on paper. They both do their respective things well enough, it's just not a good pairing. The Quintet just does not have the proper sound and instrumentation to back a blues shouter.
This would have been better with a Carmen McRae or a Nancy Wilson type singer, or Basie backing Vinson. On the track 'Audrey', Cleanhead tries to be a crooner. A total disaster!! You're a Shouter, not a Crooner!! (full metal jacket) Ain't got it? You don't need it.

Count Basie (w/ Joe Turner & Eddie 'cleanhead' Vinson) -- Kansas City Shout
After the disappointment above, I moved down the shelf to Basie. He has Cleanhead and Joe Turner. Both guys sing great. Turner is showing his age, but that don't matter!! Great selection of tunes. Some of the same tunes as on the cannonball CD. As you audiophile folks say, 'Night and Day' !!

As an added bonus, you get to hear the Basie Band, The Basie Quartet and the Basie Trio. Great playing. Basie gets to stretch out on piano. Wow!!

Favorite blues line? "woke up this morning, got me a jug, and laid back down". hahahahahahaha It's called the blues! (With all due respect to you clapton and canned heat fans). I love this stuff. Ain't got it? You know the drill!, Git it!!!

Art Blakey's Jazz messengers -- Ugetsu
The messengers live at Birdland. Way above average for the Blakey group. Hubbard, Shorter and Curtis Fuller (trombone) on the horns. Good atmosphere. Art played the entire set without taking a solo. I think that's good. Those guys should concern themselves with keeping time. I feel that most drum solos just disrupt the flow of the music. Recommended.

Roy Hargrove -- Roy Hargrove's Crisol : Habana
This is what is called a GEM!! Roy Hargrove and his quintet in Cuba. WOW! This is well played, well written music by a semi-large group of professionals.. 10 members. The percussion playing is awesome!!
A lot of big time guys on board. Chucho Valdez, David Sanchez, Horacio Hernandez, John Benitez, Russell Malone and others. No one person dominates. Everyone gets their time. Even Chucho is under control, at least until the last tune. He wrote it, called Mambo for Roy. Great stuff.

Horace Silver -- The Hardbop Grandpop
Not BlueNote. But Impulse is close enough. This could easily have been recorded in the 50's. Silver has not lost his touch.
Roditi, Michael Brecker, Steve Turre,. Ronnie Cuber, Ron Carter and Lewis Nash on board. My worst fears were not realized, they all meshed and played beautifully. Recorded 1996. I guess we can call it Late Silver.

I hope someone finds some of these to their liking.

Cheers

Charles1dad, All of the artists you mentioned are well represented in my collection.

Harold Land is special to me because he appears on one of my favorite LP's. Clifford Brown & Max Roach; this features Harold, tenor sax; Richie Powell, piano, and George Morrow, bass. My favorite cut on that LP is Delilah, and here she is..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OGfCBlJ8y4

Here is Lands end.

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

Enjoy the music.

Thanks O-10,
I read long ago an interview with Max Roach where he`s discussing his band of the 1950s.He said they preferred Land to Sonny Rollins at that time.Many jazz fans likely found that surprising as Land is by far the lesser known of those two.Land would be my choice also.
Regards,

Charles1dad, when you're a true jazz aficionado, as you are; you're guided by your "inner ear" and not by public opinion, consequently you will often prefer the lesser known artist.

Enjoy the music.

Excellent comments re Harold Land; with which I completely agree. He was a great tenor player and while not as widely known by the public as some of the tenor stars, no question about how his peers felt about him. I heard him play live in 1982 in a small club in a small town in the mid-West (I was on tour and there were so many small towns that I don't remember which one it was). What I do remember (and this goes to Rok's question re how jazz musicians make money) is thinking and wondering what a great player like that was doing playing in such a small club, practically in the middle of nowhere. How much could that club be possibly paying him?

The comparison to Sonny is an interesting one, and one that is a study on just what it is, exactly, that makes a great player. As with most things, it's all about context. There is no question, IMO, that Sonny is the more important player in the overall scheme of the history of the music. He was (is) a true innovator with a distinctive sound and approach, and an incredibly powerful musical personality. When one listens to his recordings there is no doubt that he is the overwhelming driving force. It is almost as if the rhythm section plays around HIS time feel; not the other way around, as is usually the case. That was one of the reasons that his piano-less performances were so successful. Harold Land was a more subtle player with a certain elegance in his improvisations who did not demand that he be the "center of attention"; this made him a much better ensemble player and a better complement to Clifford's playing.