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
O-10, with respect, I think you may be mixing up a couple of things re the origins of Brazilian music and its African component.

**** Something had to be added to the Anacondas, Native Americans, plus the Portuguese music to make the music that is so common in Brazil today. Could it have come in on those slave ships I see on the horizon? Could it have sounded like this. ****

That is all true.....except the last sentence.
All those influences that you mention including the rhythmic component melded into what we recognize as Brazilian music. However, it is only the rhythmic component that has its origins in Africa. The melodic and harmonic components (and language) are very much Portuguese and never existed in Africa. So, no, one doesn’t find music that sounds like that in Africa for the simple reason that it never did....except the rhythmic component (in part). That rhythm, by itself, is a common African rhythm still found in African music and, by extension, in Afro-Latin music. A similar process, with some different and some similar ingredients became Jazz. Re the instruments used:

Instruments are always just a means to an end. The sound of the berimbau is a signature sound in Brazilian music and as you point out it had its origins in Africa; the “kalumbu”. It did not cease to exist in Africa when the slaves took it to Brazil and still exists and is used in African music.

https://youtu.be/wk5c-VsKn1E

https://youtu.be/u5uPqqZPrbM

Bottom line: Brazilian music is wonderful as you say. The sophistication of European melodic and harmonic tradition and the rhythm tradition of Africa.


Frogman, a drum is a drum, but there is no comparison as to what one man can do with a drum as opposed to another.


There is no comparison to what Brazilians do with the "Berimbau" and what you presented.



Why don’t you give me a presentation of the Portuguese music so I’ll know exactly what you’re talking about?

Frogman, there are enough different kind of rhythms from Africa to fill a library. As a matter of "fact", there was a library in Haiti in which someone cataloged  the different drum beats and rhythms from various parts of Africa. This was presented once.

Because you can not distinguish or hear the different rhythms, they do not exist to you, I can hear and distinguish the different beats and rhythms, but first you give me an example of that Portuguese music you are speaking of?

Do the "Afro Peruvian" rhythms sound any different from the "Afro Brazilian" rhythms, or the "Afro-Cuban" rhythms, or the "Haitian Voodoo" rhythms?