What jazz music are you listening to?

[bart]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Is BIGGER better?



The soprano saxophone, unlike the clarinet or tenor sax, was never popular in jazz until Sidney Bechet, who was the first jazz musician to use it exclusively. A contemporary of Louis Armstrong and like Satchmo a New Orleans native, Bechet moved to Paris and became a famous exile. He recorded, among other things, the first instrumental cover of Gershwin’s classic “Summertime.”

The soprano sax was unpopular because, for one thing, it was difficult to play in tune–a real problem when you’re playing in a group. Bechet mastered it and made it sound beautiful. He also extended its range by taking it out of New Orleans and popularizing it in Paris.




Bechet’s soprano DNA was furthered exponentially by Steve Lacy, who started as a Dixieland musician only to discover and fall in love with the modern music of Thelonious Monk.

Lacy, like Bechet, used the instrument exclusively and modernized its use. Lacy also moved to Europe in the 1960′s and was based in Paris. He perfected the sound of the unwieldy horn, practicing tirelessly and achieving total mastery of it.

When Lacy would perform live on my “Morning Becomes Eclectic” and “Café LA” shows, he told the engineer to keep the room absolutely dry–no reverb, no wetness. He had a sound so big that he didn’t need any artificial sweetening.


Lacy passed the torch onto another master, John Coltrane, who was inspired to take up the horn after hearing Lacy. Coltrane recorded “My Favorite Things” in 1961, two years after Rogers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music hit big on broadway.

The album was a smash hit for Coltrane and Atlantic Records, whose jazz wing was run by Nesuhi Ertegun, brother of the more prominent and famous Ahmet. Coltrane used the 13 minute song to improvise with major and minor modes and scales based on his constant study of Russian emigré Nicolas Slominsky‘s masterful and comprehensive book Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns.

Serge, you inspired me to listen to this album.
You can clearly hear Lacy was Coltrane's predecessor.
Highly enjoyable.
Very good piano playing by Wynton Kelly also.

Steve Lacy - soprano saxophone
Wynton Kelly - piano
Buell Neidlinger - bass
Dennis Charles - drums

[bart]

And now THE master himself on soprano sax:

John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane
Qobuz 24/96




Since I was 17-18 one of my absolute favourite albums.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by bart

Serge, you inspired me to listen to this album.
You can clearly hear Lacy was Coltrane's predecessor.
Highly enjoyable.
Very good piano playing by Wynton Kelly also.

Steve Lacy - soprano saxophone
Wynton Kelly - piano
Buell Neidlinger - bass
Dennis Charles - drums

Bart, here is a brief Steve Lacy interview on John Coltrane.
https://youtu.be/4oVOeL1iazs

[PHC1]

[bart]

Originally Posted by PHC1

A piano-less quartet recording. All the Alto and Baritone saxophone goodness one can handle. Smooth, rich and a nice, mellow, afternoon listen.


Paul Desmond – alto saxophone
Gerry Mulligan – baritone saxophone
Jim Hall – guitar (tracks 10 & 11)
John Beal (tracks 4, 5, 7, 10 & 11), Joe Benjamin (tracks 3, 6 & 9), Wendell Marshall (tracks 1, 2 & 8) – bass
Connie Kay (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5 & 8), Mel Lewis (tracks 3, 6 & 9), Ed Shaughnessy (tracks 10 & 11) – drums


Released 1962
Recorded June 26, July 3 and August 13, 1962
Studio RCA Studio A, New York City
Label RCA Victor LPM 2624
Producer Bob Prince & George Avakian

Very agreeable album indeed.

[PHC1]

A very nice evening listen. Stan Getz post Bossa Nova stage of his career.

Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Grady Tate.

Released Last week of July 1967[1]
Recorded March 21 and 30, 1967
Studio Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

[joel_hifi]

Originally Posted by bart

Bobby Hutcherson - The Kicker
via Qobuz




Recorded Dec. 29, '63.
We're fortunate that it eventually got released!


Bobby Hutcherson recorded frequently for Blue Note in the 1960s, though this session remained unissued until 1999. The first half features the vibraphonist in a cooking hard bop session with Joe Henderson and Duke Pearson, starting with an energetic take on the normally slow ballad "If Ever I Would Leave You" and a sizzling Hutcherson original, "For Duke P." Guitarist Grant Green is added for the second half, beginning with the first recording of Henderson's "The Kicker," which became well known from it's later rendition on Horace Silver's highly successful release Song for My Father. Because this is part of Blue Note's limited-edition Jazz Connoisseur series, don't delay in picking it up.

© Ken Dryden /TiVo

Bart, enjoying this very nice session!

Edit: and some very good compositions and playing by Joe Henderson

[bart]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Serge, streaming 'Lonely Woman' now.
Somehow I have always overlooked this album.
Although I prefer a rawer version of the title track (by Ornette Coleman himself for example), this is a one of the finer efforts from the Modern Jazz Quartet.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by bart

Serge, streaming 'Lonely Woman' now.
Somehow I have always overlooked this album.
Although I prefer a rawer version of the title track (by Ornette Coleman himself for example), this is a one of the finer efforts from the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Yes, I do too Bart.

I believe the album was one of Coleman's earlier works and he was just "fitting in with the group"

As it was put by Ben Ratliff on NYT:

"The first time you hear Ornette, there's this kind of roughness and chaos," says New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff. "And yet you get older and you hear the incredible beauty and the truth of the rhythmic feeling and the kind of honesty in it. The fact is it's been explained to the detriment of the music. Jazz has this kind of shroud of seriousness around it and studiousness. And the general message of Ornette's music is that it's for anybody."

However on this particular album: Lewis and fellow MJQ members Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, and Connie Kaye capitalize on the dramatic theme of "Lonely Woman" while adding a bit of chamber music complexity to the mix. The quartet doesn't take Coleman's free form harmolodic theory to heart with a round of quixotic solos, but the group does spotlight the often overlooked strength of his compositional ideas. And while the MJQ further plies its knack for involved pieces on Lewis originals like "Fugato" and "Trieste," the group also balances out the set with looser material more in tune with Jackson's blues and swing sensibilities. A great disc that's perfect for the curious jazz lover.

[bart]

Originally Posted by joel_hifi

I will go with this one, NHØP playing with one of my favorite pianist

Michel Petrucciani & Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen

Edit: Recorded at the Copenhagen Jazzhouse in 1994, released in 2009

Good recording, excellent interplay.
Such great musicians, both of them.
Magnificent double live album, that is also well recorded.
Thank you for this recommendation Joel!