When you get up in the morning, you must have a song - Ray Charles

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Yusef Lateef - Morning


 Always nice to repost something that someone requested that I probably haven't listened to since I first posted it over 4 years ago. This is great stuff. Not a bad track across both lps.
 These are Lateef''s first sessions as a leader after his move from Detroit to NYC. Originally  released across 3 Savoy lps from just two sessions a few days apart.
 These sessions were recorded a year before I was thrust upon the world. These reissues were  released in 76, my senor year in high school. Only a year had passed since I had realized the fantastic sounds of Miles and Trane. This shit wasn't even on my radar. Tis a shame.


Yusef Lateef
Morning - The Savoy Sessions

1. Morning
2. O'Blues
3. Ameena
4. Metaphor
5. Yusef's Mood
6. Blues In Space
7. G. Bouk
8. Polarity
9. Midday
10. Happology
11. Space
12. The Beginning
13. Beauregard

Lateef - tenor, flute, argol, scraper
Curtis Fuller - trombone, tambourine
Hugh Lawson - piano
Ernie Farrow - bass, rabat
Louis Haynes - drums
Doug Watkins - finger cymbals, misc. percussion


originally released as Savoy lps 12003, 12009, and 12115 - these are taken from Savoy SJL-2205

Monday, November 3, 2014

Hozan Yamamoto + Masabumi Kikuchi - Silver World


 One of those rare records that are defined as "hauntingly  beautiful." This record was laid down when I was twelve tears old. 45 years later, I find myself mesmerized. A wooden flute really? Isn't the night sky beautiful, the clouds, the stars...the music.


1. Prologue
2. Silver World
3. Stone Garden of the Ryoan Temple
4. A Heavy Shower
5. Sawanee
6. Epilogue

Hozan Yamamoto - bamboo flute
Masabumi Kikuchi - piano
Gary Peacock - bass
Hiroshi  Murikami - drums

recorded 10/15-20/70

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Capitol Jazz Classics Vol 13 - Strictly Bebop



  Another reposted request from a few years back.


  A little bebop. This one from the Capitol Classics series. Some really great stuff on this one including a couple of vocal tracks by the ever entertaining Babs Gonzales.
  As much as I love the fiery intensity of the the small bebop combos, I really enjoy this big band stuff. Particularly when no one is about and you can crank it up on the stereo. The way the orchestra punches is like a loving kick in the chops.
  The line up on these tracks is beyond measure, but just the same I have to mention how much I enjoy picking Art Pepper's short solo on Prelude To A Nightmare. On the other hand, trying to pick out Coltrane (on rare alto sax) is like looking for Waldo.

Strictly Bebop
Capitol Jazz Classics Vol .13

1. Sid's Delight
2. Casbah
3. John's Delight
4. What's New
5. Heaven's Doors Are Wide Open
6. Focus
7. Capitolizing
8. Professor Bop
9. St. Louis Blues
10. Real Crazy
11. Prelude To A Nightmare
12. Say When
13. You Stole My Wife You Horsethief
14. Tally-Ho
15. Oo-la-la
16. Coast To Coast

Tadd Dameron and His Orchestra
1-2: Fats Navarro (tp), Kai Winding (tb), Sahib Shihab (as), Dexter Gordon (ts), Cecil Payne (s),
Tadd Dameron (p), Curley Russell (b), Kenny Clarke (d), Vidal Bolado 9conga), Rae Pearl (vcl) - New York City 1/18/49
3-6: Miles Davis (tp), JJ Johnson (tb), Sahib Shihab (as), Benjamin Lundy (ts), Cecil Payne (bs), Tadd Dameron 9p0, John Collins (g), Curley Russell (b), Kenny Clarke (d), Kay Penton (vcl) -
NYC 4/21/49

Babs Gonzales and His Orchestra
7-8: Bennie Green, JJ Johnson (tb), Julius Watkins (fhn), Jordan Fordin (as), Sonny Rollins (ts), Linton Garner (p), Art Phipps (b. vcl). Jack Parker (d), Babs G (vcl) - NYC 10/20/49
9-10: JJ Johnson (tb), Alberto Socarras (fl), Son Redman (ss), Sonny Rollins (ts), Wynton Kelly (p), Bruce Lawrence (b), Roy Haynes (d), BG (vcl) NYC 4/27/49
11: JJ Johnson (tb), Art Pepper (as), Herbie Stewart (ts), Wynton Kelley (p), PeeWee Tinney (g, vcl), Bruce lawrence (b), Jackie Mills (d), BG (vcl) - LA 3/20/49

Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra
12-14: DG (tp, vcl), Willie Cook, Don Slaughter, Elmon Wright (tp), Matthew Gee, Sam Hurt, Hameefan Mageed (tb), Jimmy Heath, John Coltrane (as), Jesse powell, Paul Gonsalves (ts), Al Gibson (bs), John Aces (p), Al McKibbon (b), Specs Wright (d) - NYC 11/21/49
15-16: same except replace with Floyd Smith (g). Add Chino Pozo (bongo), Joe Carroll (vcl)
NYC 1/10/50


Capitol Jazz M-11059  mono   vinyl rip