What jazz music are you listening to?

[PHC1]

In 1954, pianist Horace Silver teamed with drummer Art Blakey to form a cooperative ensemble that would combine the dexterity and power of bebop with the midtempo, down-home grooves of blues and gospel music. The results are what would become known as hard bop, and the Jazz Messengers were one of the leading exponents of this significant era in jazz history.

Before Silver's departure and Blakey's lifetime of leadership, this first major session by the original Jazz Messengers set the standard by which future incarnations of the group would be measured. The tunes here are all Silver's, save the bopping "Hankerin'" by tenor man Hank Mobley. Such cuts as the opening "Room 608," the bluesy "Creepin' In," and "Hippy" are excellent examples of both Silver's creative composing style and the Messengers' signature sound. Of course, the most remembered tunes from the session are the classic "The Preacher" and "Doodlin'," two quintessential hard bop standards. In all, this set is not only a stunning snapshot of one of the first groups of its kind, but the very definition of a style that dominated jazz in the 1950s and '60s.

[PHC1]

[PHC1]

Harold Floyd Brooks was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and was the brother of David "Bubba" Brooks. The nickname "Tina", pronounced Teena, was a variation of "Teeny", a childhood moniker. His favorite tune was "My Devotion". He studied harmony and theory with Herbert Bourne.

Initially, he studied the C-melody saxophone, which he began playing shortly after he moved to New York with his family in 1944. Brooks' first professional work came in 1951 with rhythm and blues pianist Sonny Thompson, and in 1955 Brooks played with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton.

Brooks also received less formal guidance from trumpeter and composer "Little" Benny Harris, who led the saxophonist to his first recording as a leader. Harris, in fact, was the one who recommended him to Blue Note producer Alfred Lion in 1958.

Brooks is best known for his work for the Blue Note label between 1958 and 1961, recording as a sideman with Kenny Burrell, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Freddie Redd, and Jimmy Smith. Around the same period, Brooks was McLean's understudy in The Connection, a play by Jack Gelber with music by Redd, and performed on an album of music from the play on Felsted Records, a session which also featured Howard McGhee.

Brooks recorded five sessions of his own for Blue Note (including one jointly with McLean).

[PHC1]

Back to the Tracks is a hard bop album by tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks recorded in 1960 and released posthumously.

Stephen Erlewine, writing for Allmusic, states "Listening to Back to the Tracks, it's impossible to figure out why the record wasn't released at the time, but it's a hard bop gem from the early '60s to cherish."

David H. Rosenthal in his work Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955-1965 dedicated a number of pages to Brooks. Of his composition Street Singer, Rosenthal wrote it is "an authentic hard-bop classic" where "pathos, irony and rage come together in a performance at once anguished and sinister.



Released January 27, 1998
Recorded September 1 and October 20, 1960
Studio Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Genre Jazz
Length 38:32
Label Blue Note
Blue Note 21737
Producer Alfred Lion


Tina Brooks – tenor saxophone
Jackie McLean – alto saxophone (track 2 only)
Blue Mitchell – trumpet
Kenny Drew – piano
Paul Chambers – bass
Art Taylor – drums

[PHC1]

Book:

Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955-1965 Paperback – February 24, 1994


It's nineteen fifty-something, in a dark, cramped, smoke-filled room. Everyone's wearing black. And on-stage a tenor is blowing his heart out, a searching, jagged saxophone journey played out against a moody, walking bass and the swish of a drummer's brushes.

To a great many listeners--from African American aficionados of the period to a whole new group of fans today--this is the very embodiment of jazz. It is also quintessential hard bop. In this, the first thorough study of the subject, jazz expert and enthusiast David H. Rosenthal vividly examines the roots, traditions, explorations and permutations, personalities and recordings of a climactic period in jazz history.


Beginning with hard bop's origins as an amalgam of bebop and R&B, Rosenthal narrates the growth of a movement that embraced the heavy beat and bluesy phrasing of such popular artists as Horace Silver and Cannonball Adderley; the stark, astringent, tormented music of saxophonists Jackie McLean and Tina Brooks; the gentler, more lyrical contributions of trumpeter Art Farmer, pianists Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan, composers Benny Golson and Gigi Gryce; and such consciously experimental and truly one-of-a-kind players and composers as Andrew Hill, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus.

Hard bop welcomed all influences--whether Gospel, the blues, Latin rhythms, or Debussy and Ravel--into its astonishingly creative, hard-swinging orbit.

Although its emphasis on expression and downright "badness" over technical virtuosity was unappreciated by critics, hard bop was the music of black neighborhoods and the last jazz movement to attract the most talented young black musicians.

Fortunately, records were there to catch it all. The years between 1955 and 1965 are unrivaled in jazz history for the number of milestones on vinyl. Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, Charles Mingus's Mingus Ah Um, Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners, Horace Silver's Further Explorations--Rosenthal gives a perceptive cut-by-cut analysis of these and other jazz masterpieces, supplying an essential discography as well. For knowledgeable jazz-lovers and novices alike, Hard Bop is a lively, multi-dimensional, much-needed examination of the artists, the milieus, and above all the sounds of one of America's great musical epochs.

[joel_hifi]

Charles Mingus - At The Cafe Bohemia

One of his earlier albums, recorded live in NYC in 1955

Charles Mingus - Double Bass
Willie Jones, Max Roach - Drums
Mal Waldron - Piano
George Barrow - Tenor Sax
Eddie Bert - Trombone

[radio times]

The London Jazz festival on Radio 3 podcast's. Darn fine stuff. We have a really good lady saxophonist also, who has improved a lot since I saw her with her group last year at my local jazz weekend. And a Parker tribute from Sonny Stitt( sic).

[bart]

Erroll Garner - Dreamstreet
Qobuz 24/96




One of Joel's new records.
I don't find this to be one of his best, do you Joel?

[bart]

Originally Posted by PHC1

In 1954, pianist Horace Silver teamed with drummer Art Blakey to form a cooperative ensemble that would combine the dexterity and power of bebop with the midtempo, down-home grooves of blues and gospel music. The results are what would become known as hard bop, and the Jazz Messengers were one of the leading exponents of this significant era in jazz history.

Before Silver's departure and Blakey's lifetime of leadership, this first major session by the original Jazz Messengers set the standard by which future incarnations of the group would be measured. The tunes here are all Silver's, save the bopping "Hankerin'" by tenor man Hank Mobley. Such cuts as the opening "Room 608," the bluesy "Creepin' In," and "Hippy" are excellent examples of both Silver's creative composing style and the Messengers' signature sound. Of course, the most remembered tunes from the session are the classic "The Preacher" and "Doodlin'," two quintessential hard bop standards. In all, this set is not only a stunning snapshot of one of the first groups of its kind, but the very definition of a style that dominated jazz in the 1950s and '60s.

That's the album I started this thread with.
Quintessential jazz album.

[joel_hifi]

Originally Posted by bart

Erroll Garner - Dreamstreet
Qobuz 24/96




One of Joel's new records.
I don't find this to be one of his best, do you Joel?

Bart, I'm discovering Erroll Garner on the late but I received in the past few months a total of 8 used LPs of his works so I should be able to give you - hopefully - a more educated opinion as I go through those