Jazz for aficionados

@curiousjim I rally like that acoustic guitar rendition of Take Five. Very tasty!

And I am happy you like Blue Mitchell's Blue Soul album. 

Mitchell recorded 6 albums for Riverside between 1959 and 1962 before switching over to Blue Note in 1963. All Music's Scott Yanow rated 5 of them at 4 stars while Michael G. Nastos, also from All Music rated Blue Soul at 4.5 stars.

IMHO all 6 deserve the high ratings given to them and I have all 6 on CDs. 

All 7 records Mitchell recorded for the Blue Note label were also rated at least 4 stars. Only one, "Heads Up", was rated 3 stars, with 1964s "The Thing to Do" rated at All Music's highest mark at 5 stars.

Mitchell was a great trumpet player and when credited as the leader for a recording session always used the cream of the crop with his backing personnel including, among many other greats:

Benny Golson, Joe Henderson, Jimmy Heath and Junior Cook on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Wynton Kelly and Andre Previn on piano, Paul Chambers and Sam Jones on bass, Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones and Billy Higgins on drums.

You cant go wrong with musicians like that playing well thought out arrangements.

@alexatpos Those are great Victor Felman sessions. Thanks for posting.

Drummer Stan Levy and bassist Scott LaFaro need no introduction. LaFaro went on to play bass in the Bill Evans Trio (the great Evans-LaFaro-Motian trio).

Stan Levy is a great and under rated drummer who played with many of the greatest be boppers in the 40s. Levy was one of the few "white men" Miles Davis liked and a young Miles roomed in Levy's NYC apartment for weeks at a time while he was up and coming.

Your second selection does not drop off one bit. Great jazz and great personnel.

This Bossa Nova session with Feldman leading, is an under rated gem. Probably because it was overshadowed by the Getz/Gilberto sessions evan though Feldman released his album 4 years prior to the Getz/Gilberto collaborations. It has a great cover too. Do you have this on vinyl? If so how do you like the music and that great album cover?

@pjw81563 

I listened to five of Mitchell’s albums back to back and could have listened to more except life got in the way.😁 I’ve never thought about making a list of favorite trumpet players, but if I did, Blue Mitchell would definitely be on that list.

Oh and I’m glad you liked the Paul Desmond video. I watched it with great envy. I tried desperately to learn guitar in the last century and never got better than bad! So when I see a video of someone making it look easy, I flash on how hard I tried and how I could never move my fingers, I get a little jealous.

@ho249 

What a great album Etudes is. I will definitely have it on my Sunday playlist.

Thanks for sharing.