What jazz music are you listening to?

[bart]

Don Wilkerson - Preach Brother!
via Qobuz




This is nice soul jazz from the early 60s. (Recorded June 18, '62).

The Allmusic review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine awarded the album 4 stars and stated "The result is another fine record that proves Wilkerson was one of the best, hardest-hitting soul-jazz saxophonists of the early '60s"

Don Wilkerson - tenor saxophone, tambourine
Sonny Clark - piano
Grant Green - guitar
Butch Warren - bass
Billy Higgins - drums
Jual Curtis - tambourine

[PHC1]

Still staying on the "mellow" side of things today. "Ballads" will hit the right notes for the mood.

"With Ballads Coltrane looks into the warmer side of things, a path he would take with both Johnny Hartman (on John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman) and with Duke Ellington (on Duke Ellington and John Coltrane). Here he lays out for McCoy Tyner mostly, and the results positively shimmer at times. He's not aggressive, and he's not outwardly. Instead he's introspective and at times even predictable, but that is precisely Ballads' draw."

Released March 1963
Recorded December 21, 1961; September 18 and November 13, 1962
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs
Genre Jazz
Length 32:18
Label Impulse!
A-32
Producer Bob Thiele


John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
McCoy Tyner – piano
Jimmy Garrison (#1-6, 8), Reggie Workman (#7) – bass
Elvin Jones – drums

[bart]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

Illinois Jacquet - God Bless My Solo
Black and Blue (2011), vinyl reissue

Outstanding - Jacquet is so smooth and rhythmic with a great tone.

Tony, streaming it now.
It has this cover on Qobuz:

[PHC1]

Time to step it up and get into the groove'...



"This is one of the best-known Hank Mobley recordings, and for good reason. Although none of his four originals ("Workout," "Uh Huh," "Smokin'," "Greasin' Easy") caught on, the fine saxophonist is in top form.

He jams on the four tunes, plus "The Best Things in Life Are Free," with an all-star quintet of young modernists -- guitarist Grant Green, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones -- and shows that he was a much stronger player than his then-current boss Miles Davis seemed to think. [Some reissues add a version of "Three Coins in the Fountain" from the same date, originally released on Another Workout."

[bart]

Originally Posted by joel_hifi

Michel Petrucciani, Wayne Shorter, Jim Hall - Power Of Three

Recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1986, released on Blue Note

Michel Petrucciani - Piano
Wayne Shorter - Tenor & Soprano Sax
Jim Hall - guitar

Edit: Very nice interpretations of "In A Sentimental Mood" (track no.6) & of "Bimini" (track no.7)

3 of my jazz heroes!
Excellent recommendation Joel!

[bart]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Although he is best known for his bluesy soul-jazz outings, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine's first Blue Note session as a leader was a much more traditional bop affair, and the resulting album, Look Out!, featuring a rhythm section of Horace Parlan on piano, George Tucker on bass, and Al Harewood on drums, shows as much artful restraint as it does groove.

Not that this is a bad thing, since it allows Turrentine's big, clear tone to shine through in all its muscular sweetness, giving Look Out! a wonderful and flowing coherence. Among the highlights here are the pretty ballad "Journey Into Melody" and the gently funky "Little Sheri."

Another great recommendation.

[PHC1]

Evening listening session.

(Rudy Van Gelder Edition 2009 remaster) Qobuz


Bluesnik, Jackie McLean's seventh session as a leader for Blue Note Records, was one of only two recordings issued by McLean in 1961. With a lineup of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Doug Watkins, pianist Kenny Drew, and drummer Pete La Roca, McLean laid down a hard blowing session of six tunes based completely on blues motifs.

Many critics -- as well as jazz fans -- hold to the opinion that Bluesnik may be McLean's most accessible session for the label. That said, not all of these tunes are blues numbers strictly speaking. They use blues forms, but don't all fall into the conventional 12-bar structure, and therefore even move hard bop paradigms a bit.

The title track opening the set is a prime example of this given that it quotes the theme in 12-bar but moves through a knotty ten-bar sequence before roaring into a furious but fluid cut time structure that allows for a maximum "stretching" of the changes by Drew. Drew's "Cool Green," screws around with the 12-bar in the melody, but given the introductory statements made before each line and in the solo breaks, it too pushes the standard blues architecture.

There are the great moments in blues here that helped to establish McLean as a giant, such as "Drew's Blues," and the lovely "Torchin'," that closes the set. Hubbard's role here is relatively minor in that he had not yet established himself as a leader and he was still growing into his choppy, taut method of soloing.

The swing factor of the rhythm section is undeniable, especially the interaction between Drew and La Roca. In all, this is a monster session effortlessly performed by a soloist at an early peak with a supporting cast of blazing sidemen.

[PHC1]

Clifford Jordan was a fine inside/outside player who somehow held his own with Eric Dolphy in the 1964 Charles Mingus Sextet. Jordan had his own sound on tenor almost from the start.

He gigged around Chicago with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and some R&B groups before moving to New York in 1957. Jordan immediately made a strong impression, leading three albums for Blue Note (including a meeting with fellow tenor John Gilmore) and touring with Horace Silver (1957-1958), J.J. Johnson (1959-1960), Kenny Dorham (1961-1962), and Max Roach (1962-1964).

After performing in Europe with Mingus and Dolphy, Jordan worked mostly as a leader but tended to be overlooked since he was not overly influential or a pacesetter in the avant-garde.

A reliable player, Clifford Jordan toured Europe several times, was in a quartet headed by Cedar Walton in 1974-1975, and during his last years, led a big band.

He recorded as a leader for Blue Note, Riverside, Jazzland, Atlantic (a little-known album of Leadbelly tunes), Vortex, Strata-East, Muse, SteepleChase, Criss Cross, Bee Hive, DIW, Milestone, and Mapleshade.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by bart

Streaming it now. (Qobuz 24/192)
A masterpiece!

Pure honey. I had to fire up the tubes for this one and savor every minute of it.

[PHC1]

"Milton John Hinton (June 23, 1910 – December 19, 2000) was an American double bassist and photographer.

Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the road with Cab Calloway, and "The Judge" from the 1950s and beyond. Hinton's recording career lasted over 60 years, mostly in jazz but also with a variety of other genres as a prolific session musician.

He was also a photographer of note, praised for documenting American jazz during the 20th Century.

Bassist Milt Hinton probably appeared on more records than any other musician in the world, and he remained a vital figure in jazz even into his 80s. He grew up in Chicago and worked with many legendary figures from the late '20s to the mid-'30s, including Freddie Keppard, Jabbo Smith, Tiny Parham (with whom he made his recording debut in 1930), Eddie South, Fate Marable, and Zutty Singleton.

He was with Cab Calloway's orchestra and his later small group during 1936-1951. Considered the best bassist before the rise of Jimmy Blanton in 1939, Hinton was featured on "Pluckin' the Bass" (1939) and was an ally of Dizzy Gillespie in modernizing Calloway's music.

After leaving Calloway, Hinton worked in clubs with Joe Bushkin, had brief stints with Count Basie and Louis Armstrong's All-Stars, and in 1954 became a staff musician at CBS, appearing on a countless number of recordings (jazz and otherwise) during the next 15 years; everything from Jackie Gleason mood music and polka bands, to commercials and Buck Clayton jam sessions.

By the 1970s, Hinton was appearing regularly at jazz parties and festivals, and his activities did not slow down for the next two decades; in 1995, he toured with the Statesmen of Jazz.

Although a modern soloist, Hinton also kept the art of slap bass alive. A very skilled photographer, Hinton released two books of his candid shots of jazz musicians, including one (Bass Line) which has his fascinating memoirs.

Milt Hinton recorded as a leader for Bethlehem, Victor (both in 1955), Famous Door, Black & Blue, and Chiaroscuro, and as a sideman for virtually every label."