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Jazz for aficionados

Jazz for aficionados

I'm going to review records in my collection, and you'll be able to decide if they're worthy of your collection. These records are what I consider "must haves" for any jazz aficionado, and would be found in their collections. I wont review any record that's not on CD, nor will I review any record if the CD is markedly inferior. Fortunately, I only found 1 case where the CD was markedly inferior to the record.

Our first album is "Moanin" by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers. We have Lee Morgan , trumpet; Benney Golson, tenor sax; Bobby Timmons, piano; Jymie merrit, bass; Art Blakey, drums.

The title tune "Moanin" is by Bobby Timmons, it conveys the emotion of the title like no other tune I've ever heard, even better than any words could ever convey. This music pictures a person whose down to his last nickel, and all he can do is "moan".

"Along Came Betty" is a tune by Benny Golson, it reminds me of a Betty I once knew. She was gorgeous with a jazzy personality, and she moved smooth and easy, just like this tune. Somebody find me a time machine! Maybe you knew a Betty.

While the rest of the music is just fine, those are my favorite tunes. Why don't you share your, "must have" jazz albums with us.

Enjoy the music.
orpheus10
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 

John Coltrane and Yusef Lateef were two jazz musicians who I revered my entire jazz collecting life, although I can't grasp mathematical concepts in music, I can absorb from a spiritual perspective.

Both Coltrane, and Lateef generated music that resonated in the deeper reaches of the soul, that is to say one felt their music more than one heard it. As I've stated before "A Love Supreme" is almost like a religious mantra. Many have spoken of the spirituality of Trane's music.

The sound of "Juba Juba" projects a slave struggling with an extremely long and heavy bag of cotton, and with each step he can taste the freedom of never having to endure this struggle again.


          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNXq4OE0Vw0&list=PL_3xd62cNSKBAgK0bqWR9sIqq3y5XFhYH


"Like it is" continues on that same theme in such a dramatic way that you can feel all the emotions of the oppressed. How this all relates to mathematics, I don't have a clue, but since both Trane's, and Lateef's music generate such powerful emotions, it must somehow relate to the mathematical theory.


                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz2SND7lgq4&list=PL_3xd62cNSKBAgK0bqWR9sIqq3y5XFhYH&index=2
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 

This is one of the most perfect jazz cuts ever, "Blue Trane";


          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1GrP6thz-k

This composition is like a puzzle, and each musician's solo is the perfect piece to the puzzle.

My favorite Trane; (maybe), but there are many Trane's that are my favorite Trane on a given day.


          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWG2dsXV5HI



Enjoy the music.
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 

"Into the misty mid region of Weir"; here is where this music takes you if you listen from beginning to end.


BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
The skies they were ashen and sober;
      The leaves they were crispéd and sere—
      The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
      Of my most immemorial year;
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
      In the misty mid region of Weir—
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
      In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.


              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wftjgLr4Yds
astewart8944
499 posts
 
@orpheus10 Ah Blue Train--I have played this recording too many times to count. Trust me, my family tells me so. The whole album is wonderful and the title song itself never grows old to me.  
From the original liner notes: "The title number, Blue Train, is a moving, eerie blues. Trane rides swiftly down a lonesome track with Lee (Morgan) and Curtis (Fuller) shoveling extra coal into the boiler near the end of his solo....What is the most striking attribute (among many) about this LP is its free, but not disorganized, blowing mood that has everyone in exceptional from both individually and collectively"--Robert Levin
Levin got it right in describing the whole of this record. I too think the song Blue Train, recorded here, is close to jazz perfection.
I must say that Rudy Van Gelder listened to some of the best music ever made in real time--right there in front him.  

schubert
7,386 posts
 
RVG was the man alright, I used to just buy an album on his name alone .
But more i listen a lot of his work is too "in your face" for my current taste .
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