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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
frogman
7,478 posts
 
pryso, your link didn’t work for me so I am reposting in case anyone else has the same issue.  Great recording and very important recording.  Several years ago I had the pleasure of playing a new composition for large ensemble that Ornette composed for a performance by a dance troupe.  He oversaw the production and I was thrilled to get the chance to have a couple of conversations with him.  I will never forget some of the interesting (some would say “off the wall”) things that he spoke of re his and music in general.  My favorite comment of his was his indication to the ensemble to play one particular passage “ahead and behind the beat...at the same time”.  Very unusual and brilliant musician.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OIIyCOAByDU
inna
7,354 posts
 
Frogman, I also like the complexity and ability to play silence as he did in Mila Repa. Reincarnation is another track from the same album worth listening, different enough.
In Django composition I think, it is my guess, John intentionally stayed somewhat in the background, letting Jeff play his best. In fact, everyone played his best with McLaughlin. I only know one more musician with the same talent - Miles Davis.
Even Paco de Lucia played his best with John, with some exceptions.
I used to like Joe Pass, I said it, he is good.
Returning to McLaughlin, for me there was no album after 1992, Que Alegria, that I like. There were performances from time to time, that's all.
inna
7,354 posts
 
Orpheus10, I didn't really explored modern Sub-Saharan African music, but you may be right that most of it moved to the New World.
Slavery, loss of habitat and strange new lands are obvious. But there is at least one more factor that surely contributed - daily interactions with white people. Not all slave owners were bad or mostly bad, but interaction even with bad can give a lot. Black music in Americas developed in a situation of unusual environment. Let's give credit to everyone who often unknowingly contributed. 
inna
7,354 posts
 
I was thinking..there are almost 1.5 million views of this thread. The contributors did a lot to 'spread the word of gospel'. This is the most important thread on Audiogon.
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 

Inna, everyone who listens to Brazilian, Cuban, or Afro Cuban jazz explores Sub Saharan rhythms.

Music is not a zebra, or an elephant; it has no habitat, it exists in the minds of people.

I was speaking specifically of the rhythms that came from Africa, primarily the drum rhythms. African American musicians had to go to Africa to discover them. I did not say back to Africa because they had never been to Africa in the first place; they were descendants of slaves who had been brought to America involuntarily in slave ships.

While they brought the drum rhythms with them, they were forbidden drums because the slavers said they used them to communicate, and I can't give any examples of Sub Saharan drums in early African American music, but they exist in Cuban, Brazilian, Haitian, and other South American music; there must be a reason.

"Daily interactions with white people. Not all slave owners were bad or mostly bad, but interaction even with bad can give a lot."

Slaves lived on plantations in Mississippi and other Southern States, what daily interactions with white people, the one's with the whips.

I'm sure you can give plenty examples of "good slave owners'".
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