Sidney Bechet ep's

Tonight brings a couple of old Bechet sessions. Short but highly entertaining. I know this stuff has ended up on various compilations before so this is nothing the completest can't drag out. Yes, I cobbed this stuff together from a couple of lps.
 The first session is from that Jazz A La Creole lp. (for those keeping score, my cover is a dull pinkish color, otherwise exactly as above). I have only included the Bechet side because, well, it was the best part of the record. C'mon its a trio with Bechet, Lil Armstrong and Zutty Singleton. This shit is just so cool. It swings in all the best ways.
 Not to be outdone is the Bechet/ Spanier sessions, which swings in a whole different way. No drums, with guitar. These sessions were probably recorded for the H.R.S. I happen to own some crazy West German comp that pools the eps together.
 No matter how much I listen to "modern jazz" I always find myself amazed at this roots stuff.

Jazz A La Creole

1. Milenburg Joys

2. Rockin' Chair

3. Big Butter and Egg Man

4.My Melancholy Baby

5. Limehouse Blues

6. Black Bottom

7. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues

Sidney Bechet - soprano sax
Lil Armstrong  - piano
Zutty Singleton - drums

Archive of Jazz

1. Sweet Lorraine

2. The Lazy River

3. China Boy

4. Four or Five Times

5. That's A Plenty

6. If I Could Be With You

7. Squeeze Me

8. Sweet Sue, Just You

Sidney Bechet - clarinet and soprano sax
Mugsy Spanier - cornet
Carmen Mastrem - guitar
Wellan Braud - bass

Benny Carter Plays Can-Can & Anything Goes

Another one swung over from the Cole Porter thing, this one though is a disc a ran across who knows where.
 Taken from a couple of short sessions recorded in '58. Both are fine blowing sessions that reflect the times perfectly. There some real stray tunes here that you don't get to hear much..


Don't know what it is, but CP seems to grab at my underlying pop sensibilities. I would figure I am not alone given that so many fine folk cover his songs. Get used to it, they're here to stay.

1. I Love Paris
2. C 'est Magnifique
3. It's All Right With Me
4. Allez-vous En, Go Away
5. I'm In Love
6. Anything Goes
7. All Through The Night
8. Waltz Down The Aisle
9. Buddy Beware
10.You're the Top

Benny Carter - alto
Hal Schaefer - piano
Joe Banjamin  - bass
John Drew - bass*
Gus Johnson - drums
Ted Sommer - percussion~
Teddy Charles - vibes*

recorded NYC. The Can-Can session~ was recorded 10/58, the Anything Goes* was recorded  11/58.

This was re-released by Lone Hill Jazz and is from their cd 

Miroslav Vitous - Infinite Search

 When I was just a young lad, still held in the throes of prog, and other lesser 70s ilk, I was the first of my friends to turn my eye in the direction of jazz. At first it was the relatively accessible lps of CTI, then of course the Blue Notes and Impulses but even then these were rarities in the used bins, my main source of records. Easier to find were fusion records and they were the hot item at the time. I fell in line...for awhile. Eventually found the records too...busy for my herbal induced lifestyle, and they fell by the wayside.
 Funny thing about life is everything seems to cycle back through at some point. 30 something years later, and I find I'm listening to fusion again, albeit in a much more particular manner. I've been through free jazz and world music and this stuff doesn't seem as frantic as I remember.
 That's one long winded tale to show off this record which I really dig.
 Released a year after Bitches Brew, with this crew, this can be classified as nothing but fusion. Add to the fact that the session leader plays bass, even though this is his first date as such, you know where you stand before you drop the needle.Still it must have been a buzz being so young and landing this gig, and playing your own tunes as well.(The opener is by Eddie Harris, a fusion dude himself.) It is passionate and awesome. Easily one of my favorite lps of the genre and I am glad I snatched it up when I did, wherever that may have been. Still a bit lost in that herbal cloud.

Infinite Search

1. Freedom Jazz Dance

2.  mountain In The Clouds

3. When Face Gets Pale

4. Infinite Search

5. I Will Tell Him On You

 6. Epilogue*

Miroslav Vitous - bass
Joe Henderson - tenor sax
John McLaughlin - guitar
Herbie Hancock - piano
Jack DeJohnette - drums
Joe Chambers - drums*


recorded NYC 1970
Embryo Records SD 524

The Music Of Cole Porter Played By America's Greatest Jazzmen.

I'm gonna move some of the Cole Porter stuff from my other blog over just cause I think it is too cool to go unnoticed. Porter  just always seemed to translate well to jazz renditions.
 The first one is this Moodsville lp, which was just Prestige light, right? These recordings are smooth but swinging. There are some great performances included here that probably slipped through the cracks in the grand scheme of things. Hope everybody digs em like I do.

 I wonder what Shirley Scott thought about being billed on a record titled "America's Greatest Jazzmen?".

The Music Of Cole Porter

Played By America's Greatest Jazzmen


1. You'd be So Nice To Come Home To
2. Easy To Love
3. Love For Sale
4. Just One Of Those Things
5. I've Got You Under My Skin
6. All Of You
7. You Do Something To Me
8. Get Out Of Town
9. What Is This Thing Called Love

1. Frank Wess - flute; Dorothy Ashby - harp; Herman Wright - bass; Roy Haynes - drums
2. Gene Ammons - tenor; Richard Wyands - piano; Doug Watkins - bass; Ray Baretto - conga;
 JC Heard - drums
3. Billy Taylor - piano; Earl May - bass; Candido - conga; Percy Brice - drums
4. Steve Lacy - soprano sax; Gil Evans - piano; Louis Mucci, Jake Koven - trumpets; Jimmy
 Cleveland - trombone; Bart Varsalona - bass trombone; Willie Ruff - french horn; Dave    Kurtzer - bassoon; Lee Konitz - alto; Paul Chambers - bass; Nick Stabulas - drums
5. Stan Getz - tenor; Al Haig - piano; Tommy Potter - bass; Roy Haynes - drums
6. Modern Jazz Quartet - Milt Jackson - vibes; John Lewis - piano; Percy Heath - bass; Connie Kay - drums
7. Shirley Scott - piano; George Duvivier - bass; Artur Edgehill - drums
8. Coleman Hawkins - tenor; Tommy Flanagan - piano, Major Holley - bass; Eddie Locke -drums
9. Red Garland - piano; Paul Chambers - bass; Art Taylor - drums


Moodsville 34

Sadao Watanabe - Pamoja

 Here's one you don't see around much. I stumbled across this little beauty in a little record store on my last visit to Chapel Hill. I probably wouldn't have given this a second look if it wasn't for all those great Japanese records that our friends at inconstant sol have been posting the last couple of years.
 I will say that I faced a conundrum when I picked up this lp. As usual I had more records in my pile than my budget allowed. But this record had two names that I had finally become acquainted with that I knew I really dug. Watanabe, the leader and Masahiko Togashi, the percussionist, whom I had several lps that seriously smoked.
 The point was that I had several records in my hands that I loved but only had rips of, but this was new stuff. Unheard and untested. Yet I felt confident that it would be up my alley. I just hoped the flute and guitar didn't play too prominent roles. The Cole Porter tune was the clincher. I slipped one of the other records back into the bin and took this in the pile to the counter. Couldn't wait to get home and listen, although that would be a couple of days and many lps later.
 Well the flute was certainly in the lead on the first track but damn it, it was still pretty cool. By the time the guitar finished it's turn in the spotlight, I was a believer. This ensemble is tight, with not a slacker in the bunch. I hope it makes a believer outta you as well.

Pamoja

1. Vichakani

2. Musitoni

3. Pamoja

4. Ev'rytime we Say Goodbye

Sadao Watanabe - alto sax, flute
Hiroshi Fukumura - trombone
Yoshiaki Masuo - guitar
Takehiro Honda - piano
Isao Suzuki -bass
Hiroshi Murakami - drums
Masahiko Togashi - percussion

recorded live 10.27.75 at Yomiuri Hall, Tokyo

East West records EW-8022

Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk And The Hunter

 I'll be honest. I don't often enjoy strings with my jazz.Well instrumentalists anyway. Even with singers I am a tad wishy-washy. It's like that thick icing on birthday cakes, all show but so cloyingly sweet it can only be ingested in small amounts. Save the strings for soundtracks is my general philosophy.
 But then again, when a giant of the idiom and a personal favorite thinks it's a good idea, I have to give it a listen. A fair listen.
 As any follower of this blog will note, I am a big Hawkins fan and besides just laying over some strings, he brought along a rhythm section for this recording. Well, actually two, and one of them sports one of my favorite pianists as well, Hank Jones.
 Despite the fact that the strings do indeed get a bit saccharine at times I still kinda dig this lp.It's very reminscent of those Moodsville lps. Hawkins shines through especially on the self penned tunes. Unfortunately this version of Brahm's Lullaby makes me long for a version without strings. That would have been some ballad.

Groovy cool cover for bonus points.

The Hawk and the Hunter

1. Easy Walker*

2. Traumerei

3. All The Time *

4. Lazy Butterfly

5. Not Quite Right*

6. Pebbles*

7. I Knew Dana*

8. Lullaby

9. Hawk Talk

10. Misty Morning

11. Lonely Tenor

12. Whisper To Me*

Coleman Hawkins - tenor sax
Frank Hunter - conductor

tunes marked *
Dick Hyman - piano
Milt Hinton - bass
Osie Johnson - drums

all others
Hank Jones - piano
George Duvivier - bass
Jimmie Crawford - drums

no recording info included

Mira records LP-3003
 

After Hours - Grand Award Collection

 As much as I love jazz and the directions it is going, some nights I love looking back. This is one of those nights.

I have a few of these Grand Award lps. What a weird way of selling records. The encouragement of peeling off the cover and framing it seems a bit out there to me. None the less they produced some decent records with cool covers. Someone can come along and tell us if these sessions were originals or not.

Side 1 sports a fine cast with Hawkins standing out. I just dig his lyricism on these tunes. Side 2 doesn't swing as hard but it covers Hoagy Carmichael in no less of a deft manor.

Cover by Arthur Shilstone - whose fame rests mostly with outdoor/landscapes paintings - is pretty damn cool...and remains intact.

1. Caravan

2. Sweethearts On Parade

3. My Blue Heaven

4.Organ Grinder's swing

5. Honeysuckle Rose

6. Perdido

7. Stardust

8. I Get Along Without You

9. Rockin' Chair

10. Georgia On My Mind

11. New Orleans

12. Blue Orchids

1-6  Cozy Cole's All Stars
Cozy Cole - drums
Coleman Hawkins - tenor sax
Rex Stewart - trumpet
Tyrone Glenn - trombone
Claude Hopkins - piano
Billy Bauer - guitar
Arvell Shaw - bass

7-12 Marian McPartland's Quintet
Marian McPartland - piano
Jimmy McPartland - trumpet
Jimmy Rainey - guitar
Trigger Alpert - bass
Joe Morello - drums

Grand Award G.A. 33-334

250 - Duke interview

A few months off never hurt anybody, did it? Got a few things I wanna get up in the new year. But until it gets really cold and I am forced indoors.....

Well anyway this little oddity is post # 250.

See ya soon...




Duke interview

Ahmad Jamal Quintet - Listen to...

 When I lived in Chicago you could find Ahmad Jamal lps in every basement of every "antique" store you wandered into. Most times they were beat to death, but with diligence I found all that I wanted for only a couple of bucks apiece. The years go by and I dig these lps out occasionally and ponder how much I like them late at night. Recently one night while flipping through a pile of rock and roll records, I happened across this...woefully misfiled and certainly forgotten for many a year.
 Now I can share it with you. This is a crazy lp with Jamal using his stellar working group at the time but adding some strings in the form of guitar and violin. How cool is that?

Listen To The Ahmad Jamal Quintet

1. Ahmad's Waltz

2. Valentina

3. Yesterdays

4. Tempo For Two

5. Hallelujah

6. It's A Wonderful World

7. Baia

8. You Came A Long Way From St. Louis

9. Lover Man

10. Who Cares

Ahmad Jamal - piano

Israel Crosby - bass

Vernel Fournier - drums

Joe Kennedy - violin

Ray Crawford - guitar

Recorded 8/15, 16,17/60 Ter-Mar Studios, Chicago

Argo 673

Marian McPartland plays the music of Billy Strayhorn

 Such a beautifully understated record. Marian McPartland is a musician that I have learned to respect and enjoy but rarely seek out. This lp falls into a category of records that far too often fall by the wayside. I would take one of these records over a hundred common rock and roll records I grew up with.

 I've slowly come to believe that "A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing" Is one of these most enchanting tunes ever committed to vinyl.

Marian McPartland plays the music of Billy Staryhorn

1. Intimacy Of The Blues

2. Isfahan

3. Lotus Blossom 

4. Raincheck

5. Lush Life

6. U.M.M.G.

7. A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing

8. Take The "A" Train

8. Daydream

9. After All

Marian McPartland - piano

Jerry Dodgion - alto sax

Steve La Spina - bass

Joey Baron - drums

1987 Concord Jazz lp CJ-326