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.
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.
- ...
- 31744 posts total
So many of your good thoughts, I could contemplate on each of them. About the closings. Imo, closings are good, healthy but also dead. Healthy dead - meaning that’s easier way of dealing with things (sometimes highly appreciated but that is not the point here). You finish with it and walk away for good. The harder way: A seed of life planted in closing - to give the chance for a new type of closing sometime in the future. Desirably an improved one. ’Cause things change. We change. What they told you about the wolf, his coat and his disposition concerns only the animal world. Like to think we are more than an animal. Well, mostly. On lyrics. I used to liked songs with lyrics. Actually, those were the only one I liked. Words were far important to me than any melody. Now I rarely listen the songs with lyrics. It is not because I do not like the lyrics but it’s because that in this case I find singer failed in performance in some way. If the job is done right, lyrics and music should be melted - You hardly notice when the singer started singing or when the singing ended. If the job is not done right, either one or another stands in front of other, jumping out from the railway, preventing me from enjoying the song in full. I also think that somewhere the lyrics in song are surplus. The same as sometimes the spoken words are surplus - there is simply no need for them. |
Do you need words in the song like this, my all time favourite... I envy no rock guitarist as much as I envy the ones in classic. The purity of each note made on the guitar and high discipline is never so required as in classic guitar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzEFQW9CXGc No words required... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD6k2E61ABY But this song I can’t imagine without Billie’s voice. All melts perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouuRsRz8syM |
I understand italian but not that good and from some reason I need not to undrestand all words in this song. Does that mean that words could be surplus here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPrf-svWUAQ But how would I react on this song if I haven’t heard it with lyrics before? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xixFY8v4Nmg Does right question ever has firm answer? Right question raises another question... |
One further thought on the issue of lyrics and why this debate is, as I said before, much to do about nothing. First, let’s establish some semantics guidelines; it would be helpful in avoiding confusion. By definition, a “song” is a musical composition intended to be sung; it has lyrics. A wordless composition is a ”tune”, “instrumental”, or “piece”; which doesn’t become a “song” until lyrics have been added. Obviously, I have no way of knowing the actual percentage, but I would wager that at least half of all “songs” were composed by a song writing team. George and Ira Gershwin, Kander and Ebb, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Bernstein and Sondheim, Lennon and Macartney and Elton John and Bernie Taupin to name just a few of the most prominent ones. As described in the film “Rocketmam” that I saw recently (didn’t like), often one half of the team (John) has a stack of “tunes” that he has composed waiting for the other half of the team, the lyricist (Taupin), to write lyrics for the tune; or, the lyricist has a stack of lyrics waiting for a tune. Many of the great and popular songs played as Jazz instrumentals were written first as wordless tunes and lyrics were added after the fact; or the reverse is true. Any tune is a candidate for lyrics. mary_jo, of course the question has “firm answer”. As you point out the performance is key. A great singer can make inferior lyrics sound fantastic. A poor singer can take poetic genius and make it sound terrible. Same for the musical performance part of it. As always, our personal bias has a tendency to creep into our reaction. Forgive me if I am mistaken and I don’t mean to take liberties, but I suspect that your feeling about lyrics being unnecessary, for Aranjuez in particular, became stronger as you became a stronger guitarist yourself. Here’s an interesting twist to the question. Two vocal versions; one in Spanish the other in French. Same song, same singer, two different languages. She can sing and has recorded in several different languages. Which version of the song is more effective? Both beautiful, but for me the Spanish version wins hands down. Is that because of my personal bias (Spanish is my native tongue); or, is this a reflection of the well documented connection between the music and the language of a culture making the Spanish version more effective? Spanish: https://youtu.be/VQA-0q9f4qo French: https://youtu.be/sERXZEM6sy8 You may find this quote interesting: “That melody is so strong that the softer you play it, the stronger it gets, and the stronger you play it, the weaker it gets." - Miles Davis |
- 31744 posts total