Jazz and Stuff Related to It

Jim, get busy and write some more...you generated ...

2009-12-19T14:15:32.958-05:00

Jim, get busy and write some more...you generated a bit of excitement!

Write about the latest music you've listened to. I pulled out a Blue Note CD last night (I don't care what folks say, the RVG CDs may not be the best sounding on the face of the earth but they sure aren't a bad listen). Grant Green with Hutcherson on vibes, "Idle Moments"

Did a great job with MJQ's "Django" which is one fine homage to a great musician. It's a composition I play, from various LPs, every time I lose a friend or family member or a Jazz great passes.

The New Orleans feel of "So sad You're gone" and then a segue into "But you don't have to put up with the sh** any more, you're with God" of that song is so dramatic it always brings a tear to my eye then makes me smile.

I think I like it well enough to blow bucks on a reissue, or if an older piece of vinyl's cheaper, I can live with a Liberty Blue Note.

Played a Kenny Burrell Liberty directly after "Idle Moments" and found it was loved a bit too much by its former owner...oh well.

A superb book, it will get you excited about Impul...

2009-11-30T18:17:28.796-05:00

A superb book, it will get you excited about Impulse LPs.

Your first should be Coltrane, "Live at the Village Vanguard." If you can listen to the first cut without getting weepy-eyed, you are one tough cookie. Definitely, at oleast for this white boy, an "I'm black and so blue" type piece of music.

I've been listening to a lot of music such as that lately, Nina Simone's "Pastel Blues" on Phillips is powerful stuff.

Just thought of another Impulse LP to search for, it's been reissued but I think it's one of the more important Jazz LPs so you should seek out Oliver Nelson's "Blues and the Abstract Truth."
Dr. Notathing

Riverside did some absolutely fabulous Jazz, but w...

2009-11-15T12:30:51.132-05:00

Riverside did some absolutely fabulous Jazz, but what I've been concentrating upon lately is the Impulse catalog. Unbelievably great stuff...one of the most important (in my 'never humble in the least' opinion) being Oliver Nelson's "Blues and the Abstract Truth"

What is really turning me on is the trend for new releases from companies such as Nonesuch who give you a CD along with your LP purchase...how good is that?

A CD I just bought of Oscar Peterson's "We get Requests" on First Impression Music K2HD (HDCD) is not only a superb Oscar and Ray Brown outing, but the silver discs that First Impression is doing will rival any LP I ever heard.

Doc Notathing

Dr. Notathing, Sounds like you've got a lot-thing...

2009-11-14T21:10:59.592-05:00

Dr. Notathing,

Sounds like you've got a lot-things to offer and I look forward to learning more. I'm a babe-in-arms. I'm just learning. All I've got is love -- and that's a lot. Keep reading and responding.

Jim

I think the piano sounds just like Toussaint wante...

2009-11-14T21:03:26.715-05:00

I think the piano sounds just like Toussaint wanted it to sound; a bit recessed.

For me, the record (2) is a trip to modern New Orleans and its roots in Traditional Jazz (If you like the word Dixieland, that's OK, too). The traditional Jazz band had no piano, it was not easy to carry a piano while marching to a funeral, for instance.

At a gig, if they had a piano, fine, if not, no piano that night. While much music was written and performed for solo piano, it was still done in a place where you may have to duck your head as a bottle flew by. A hotel, a bar, the entire ensemble was the important part of the music, not solo. The entire band played, sometimes with breaks rather than true solo parts.

Thus the piano would have been placed toward the rear of the group, not in the front as modern Jazz groups would have it.

Or not.

Dr. Notathing