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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
acman3
4,337 posts
 
I went to a Jazz on the Lawn, at a museum once, and Sonny Fortune was there that night. From the moment he started playing, a guy up front yelled Blue Rondo Al A Turk, over and over, until Sonny said, " I think you may have me confused with someone else. We don’t play that song".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB1PH9mLswA
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78yQbcppNdw&t=197s
frogman
7,561 posts
 
pjw, there is no “best” drummer. Awards of that kind are nice and all, but can’t possibly be a definitive statement of “best” anything. An obviously subjective, not to mention, narrow call. Obviously a great drummer, and I would say he was probably the “best” drummer for Brubeck’s quartet. Could Joe Morello have been as effective as Elvin Jones in Trane’s quartet? No way. Just as Elvin Jones’ style would have sounded completely wrong playing “Take Five” WITH BRUBECK’S QUARTET.

The success of Brubeck’s best known records owes a lot to the great combination of players with similar musical sensibilities. I can’t imagine some of Brubeck’s best known music without the drumming style of Morello nor Desmond’s alto sound.

I would say Brubeck owes a good amount of his deserved popularity to his sidemen and would probably have been the first to say it.  When Brubeck made it on the cover of TIME Duke Ellington himself knocked on Brubeck’s hotel room door to congratulate him.  Brubeck said “It should have been you”. 
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 

Frogman, I was about to post this before you posted, now I'm going to post it anyway.



Pjw, no body is a bigger fan of Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, and Joe Morello than I am, but to compare drummers, you'll have to make some distinctions. We would have to consult Frogman in order to determine how to classify different drummers, but comparing Joe Morello, Max Roach, and Chico Hamilton would seem to me like comparing different horses of different colors; or other quite different animals; I don't know how you do it, maybe Frogman has some ideas.



pjw81563
1,834 posts
 
frogman and orpheus10,

I did not contend that Joe Morello was the best drummer. It was Playboy magazine and Downbeat magazine. My question was not "is there a best drummer" or "so and so was the best drummer"

My question, which you both failed to address, was do you think it was Morello being a member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet that was influential in his receiving these accolades from 2 of the best selling magazines at the time.
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