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 

Thanks for your response. I'm always learning something new from your posts !

Perhaps my ear is simply not sufficiently acute to perceive the dominant  "Jazz/Rock sensibility" you pick up on in Potter's playing. Or perhaps this is simply a result of my not having heard him in enough settings to form a more rounded opinion. 

As far as abstraction is concerned, it was not atypical for the Dave Holland Quintet (live at least) to venture "outside". The music could get fairly Free during such interludes. You might have disagreed with me had you been sitting in the venue but at such times, but what was played did not in my ears/brain, evoke associations or parallels with/to Jazz/Rock's harmonic language. More like Freed-up New Orleans style simultaneous improv. 

I now see I misunderstood your original comment. I didn't consider whether Miles would've found Potter's playing in synch with his vision at the time Shorter was enlisted. I'm sure you're right that Miles was not looking for a Coltrane disciple at that point. 

Finally, regarding the link, Shai Maestro's playing sounds quite Pop-influenced to me. That's not something that, to my ear, figures strongly in Dave Holland's compositions, so I wouldn't expect Potter to respond the same way. Having said that, I'm not a professional musician. No doubt there is much that is obvious to you that I miss!  

 

@stuartk ,

Thank you for your post.

You are a very astute listener (I believe you are also a musician). Your posts make it obvious that you have very good ears and understanding of the music, so no apology necessary for your discernment. Quite the contrary. I always appreciate your posts as well.  A couple of “fine tunings” to what I wrote previously.

I did not at all say that Potter’s style has a “dominant Jazz/Rock sensibility”. I wrote “hints of a Jazz/Rock sensibility”. Btw, to have some Jazz/Rock sensibility is not a negative at all in my book.  It is the reality of where the music went over the course of the last four or five decades. If one listens to Michael Brecker, broadly considered to be the greatest of the post-Coltrane tenor players one can hear a similarity in Potter’s tone and more subtly in his inflections. (Brecker, who was very prominent in the Jazz/Rock and Pop genres as well as mainstream Jazz was a huge influence on tenor players of the last five decades or so). As opposed to, for instance, Joe Lovano, a contemporary of both Brecker and Potter who has a decidedly different tone approach. Warmer and less aggressive and at times ethereal as opposed to the “horn about to split at the seams” tone approach that characterizes most post-Coltrane players.

Early(ish) Brecker with the recently posted guitarist Jack Wilkins. This record was posted here a couple of years ago:

https://youtu.be/WyqcP03Mj9s?si=DXk4HxfmSZz_PiB1

 

@frogman 

Ah -- "hint of..." -- my mistake!  

Yes; I can definitely see how Lovano and Potter differ. 

This isn't the case regarding Potter and Brecker. I'm not disputing the parallels you draw, it's just that I haven't listened much to Brecker. I'm generally not a fan of whatever one calls electrified amalgamations of Jazz , Rock, Pop and Funk (as distinct from early "classic Fusion" ala Mahavishnu) and Brecker seems to have recorded an awful lot in that vein. I have heard a few examples of Brecker playing in straight ahead all-acoustic settings and while I admire his "iron" chops and  intelligence, I don't find him particularly emotionally engaging. I'm aware that Potter has released some more commercial-sounding recordings but I haven't heard them. The recordings I have heard by him have not left me feeling emotionally unengaged. For one thing, he displays a lyrical bent at times that seems very different from what I've heard so far from Brecker. 

 I know -- "Ignorance of the Jazz is no excuse" -- I shouldn't be so constrained by my tastes.  Although they sound like quite different players to these ears, I'll take your word for it regarding Brecker's influence on Potter.