Jazz for aficionados

Back at ya!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fEWHPM_xeE

Cheers

Hi Acman, just saw  your post.  It really should be no surprise to anyone that Jaap is going to New York (there are many New York critics with short memories acting surprised/disappointed).  They wanted him very badly eight or ten years ago, when Dallas beat them to his signature, and they were very upset about it.  Now they are finally getting the guy they wanted back then.  He is a great musician and a great fundraiser - as Frogman said, it should be a good marriage, at least for a little while.  

Jimmy Blanton was an influential American jazz double bassist. Blanton is credited with being the originator of more complex pizzicato and arco bass solos in a jazz context than previous bassists.

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Blanton originally learned to play the violin, but took up the bass while at Tennessee State University, performing with the Tennessee State Collegians from 1936 to 1937, and during the vacations with Fate Marable. After leaving university to play full-time in St Louis with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra (with whom he made his first recordings), he joined Duke Ellington's band in 1939.

Though he stayed with Ellington for only two years, Blanton made an incalculable contribution in changing the way the double bass was used in jazz. Previously the double bass was rarely used to play anything but quarter notes in ensemble or solos but by soloing on the bass more in a 'horn like' fashion, Blanton began sliding into eighth- and sixteenth-note runs, introducing melodic and harmonic ideas that were totally new to jazz bass playing. His virtuosity put him in a different class from his predecessors, making him the first true master of the jazz bass and demonstrating the instrument's unsuspected potential as a solo instrument. Ellington put Blanton front-and-center on the bandstand nightly, unheard of for a bassist at the time. Such was his importance to Ellington's band at the time, together with the tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, that it became known as the Blanton–Webster band. Blanton also recorded a series of bass and piano duets with Ellington and played in the "small group" sessions led by Barney Bigard, Rex Stewart, Johnny Hodges, and Cootie Williams in 1940-41.

In 1941, Blanton was diagnosed with tuberculosis, cutting short his tenure with Ellington. His last recording session was cut on September 26, 1941 in Hollywood. Blanton died the following year after retiring to a sanatorium in California, aged 23.

Jimmy Blanton is a bassist I've been hearing about since I can remember, but he was before my time; meaning jazz time when I started collecting records. Since I only collected AB records (AB stands for "After Bird") I don't know if I have him in my collection, but that can be remedied.

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrvHckvHj90


                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPB7hBU6oj0




Here are two cuts by Mr. Blanton, You be the judge.


Enjoy the music

Folks...try Bosko Petrovic Quartet - Tiffany Girl...you wont be sorry...you will hear how Croatian jazz band play world class session....and good sound too....

O–10, the KOB documentary should be required viewing for every jazz fan.  I seem to recall a debate here about the relative merit of KOB.  If the comments by the various jazz giants in that documentary don't dispel any notions that KOB is "audiophile candy" and nothing more, then I don't know what will.  It is a monumental recording in jazz, and the fact that it has been adopted by the audiophile community as a fave should be applauded.  Imagine if the closest that audiophile favorites got to jazz were Diana Krall!  It's a fascinating video offering many interesting insights.  The comments about music are actually pretty basic and, imo, every serious music lover should strive to understand, at minimum, what is talked about in the documentary;  I think it would be a great goal.  Thanks for posting it.

Alex, nice clips featuring Horace Parlan; very good player and probably underrated although he is highly regarded by musicians. Have always loved Stanley Turrentine with his distinctive sound and vibrato.  One of the players who "went commercial" but whose work always had a lot of integrity; hard not to love the way he played a pop ballad.

I agree completely with Acman3 about the importance and role of bassists and drummers; and love the football analogy.  I would even say he is being a bit gentle with his dissent.  While the contribution of a bassist or drummer MAY be more subtle than that of the player in the frontline, it may be as important or even more important.  I can't imagine Mile's 60's band with any other drummer than Tony Williams and his unique synergy with Ron Carter, or Trane's "A Love Supreme" without Elvin, or the Thad Jones big band with any other drummer besides Mel Lewis?  All added, in their way, just as much to the sound of the band as the headliner did.  Speaking of Scott LaFaro, what would the whole concept of the modern jazz trio be without his huge contribution in developing the "conversational" style of playing (as opposed to mostly "time keeper") that became the sound of the Bill Evans trio and would influence just about every other jazz bassist that followed?  Listen to Herbie Hancock talk about that single cymbal crash in the intro to "So What" on KOB.  

Great clips of Blanton with Ellington, and while they show how far jazz bass players have come in the virtuosity and conceptual departments, there's not much one can say when the playing is simply "right" for the music at hand; simple, tasteful and great sound.  Great stuff.  On the other hand Abdul Malik just doesn't do it for me.  Very rudimentary player who in my opinion is riding the "lets do something different" wave; probably with a bit of political correctness to support his efforts.  Some of the improvisation on those clips is almost embarrasing.  It's not the choice of instrument (oud) that's a problem; it's the command of the jazz  language that is.  Quaint, in a way, for its marriage of jazz and a Middle Eastern vibe, but its not good jazz nor good Middle Eastern.

Speaking of marriages, Rok, that of Johnny Hodges and Lawrence Welk is indeed a strange one.  I have that record and when I first bought it, I had high hopes for it in spite of the Lawrence Welk presence.  Don't get me wrong, I think Welk's band could sound great for what they do, but this just doesn't work.  Simply a little too much grease in Hodges' playing for that band's vibe.  As much as I hate to say it, I think the problem is Hodges and not Welk.  On the other hand, I have always felt you shortchange Metheny.  He is a great musician with a very wide range and his partnering with Ornette is really not that much of a stretch.

Landing in ten minutes, so want to post one of my favorite bass players (as a sideman):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y8PjvxET91U

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zgmUWTAhsa8