David S Ware - Surrendered

I have had this record in the queue for awhile but I hesitated because I thought it might be to widely available still. I stand by that and yet here I am offering to whoever because I love it so much and it would be a shame to delete the file.
So on this New Year's Eve I offer this not so rare record (in the comments) while I wish y'all the most grooviest, stress-free and fulfilling wishes. Thanks to all who have made this blog a fun thing to share.

Keep swingin'. Direct orders from Chez Hook and we have never knowingly offered bad advice.


surrendered

Sam Rivers - R.I.P.

 Well I was hoping to not make a post until after the new year but sadly we have to say goodbye to Sam Rivers.

He played on some of my favorite records like Andrew Hill's Changes, Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds, and Bobby Hutcherson's Dialogue. He recorded that great lp with Don Pullen Capricorn Rising.

This was his first date as a leader. Dig around, there are a couple of Rivers' post on the blog.

R.I.P.

David Murray Trio - The Hill

My first thoughts about this aren't even going to be about the music but rather the cover itself. I love the photo and it is one of those that photos that looks so great on an lp cover even if it doesn't reproduce so well here. The dark curtains blowing in the old window sets a tone for the music inside I believe. As a cd cover it is shit.  You can barely make the photo out and you're always drawn to that god awful typesetting. That lettering belongs on a Cheap Trick record but I digress.
  I mentioned in my first David Murray post that for years I had a hit and miss relationship with his music.  You see I came late to Murray and several other like minded musicians. I had no one to lead me. The only jazz my friends listened to was all too well known to me and I was the one looking ahead. So I didn't become an ardent fan of Murray's until a good 25 years after he started recording. Since then he has become a favorite.
 This record has also been a standout in his career to me. What I like about sax trio records is there is nowhere to hide. You hire a crack rhythm section and you play your heart out. Murray opens with a smoking version of "Santa Barbara and Crenshaw Follies", a track I know from an octet outing  recorded several years prior. Before this ends you know you've just gotten your money's worth and you have the rest of the lp to follow. And follow it does, without slowing down or missing a beat, that is until the last song when everyone takes a deep breath, the vibes are rolled out and we get what may be one of my favorite versions of Strayhorn's Chelsea Bridge. Link pulled, check comments

David Murray Trio

The Hill

1. Santa Barbara and Crenshaw Follies

2. The Hill

3. Fling

4. Take the Coltrane

5. Herbie Miller

6. Chelsea Bridge

David Murray - tenor sax, bass clarinet

Richard Davis - bass

Joe Chambers - drums, vibes

Black Saint, 1988   120 110-1

Lee Konitz Franco D'Andrea - Inside Cole Porter

This thing is too cool to just reside on the Cole Porter blog, which has laid neglected for far too long, so I'm gonna post it on both.

These are really nice duets between Konitz and relatively unknown pianist Franco D'Andrea. I say relatively unknown because our friends at wikipedia have very little information on him but I know he has recorded several lps that are not listed there. He hails from Italy (and damn don't they have a fine jazz scene there?) but even so he rarely shows up on the Italian jazz blogs. He may be on a half dozen Horo releases but always a sideman.

Additionally this was recorded "In celebration of Lee Konitz 70th Birthday" so he takes the majority of the solos. D'Andrea steps up and rolls out some fime solos himself while tastefully accompanying Konitz on these Porter songs that I am sure he was intimately familiar with already.

Lee Konitz - Franco DAndrea

Inside Cole Porter

1. The Song Is You

2. Medley: The Song Is You (intro); What Is This Thing Called Love; Everytime We Say Goodbye (intro)

3. Everytime we Say Goodbye

4. I Love You

5. Love For Sale

6. Medley: Easy To Love (intro); Night and Day (intro); Easy To Love

7. It's All Right With Me

Lee Konitz - alto sax

Franco D'Andrea - piano

recorded at Mu Rec studio, Milano on May 2, 1996

NLJ 0967-2

Coleman Hawkins - Crown LPs

Even if you have never heard these records before they are as comfortable as that jacket that Woodie Allen has worn in his last 15 movies. You can be hipper than Woodie. Swing to these groovy tunes laid down in the early 60's.

Here's a pair of Hawk lps on the Crown label. How the hell do they end up there?
I upgrade these records every chance I get but ya just don't see em around much. As a matter of fact the current copy of the earlier lp was purchased sans cover but was still in better shape than the one I had at the time.


A double dose of Bean...same band both sessions.

Coleman Hawkins and his Orchestra

1. Bean In Orbit

2. After Midnight

3. Hassle

4. Moodsville

5. Stalking

The Hawk Swings

6. Cloudy

7. Almost Dawn

8. Stake Out

9. Cross Town

10. Shadows

Coleman Hawkins - tenor sax

Thad Jones - trumpet

George Duvivier - bass

Eddie Costa - piano, vibes

Osie Johnson - drums

Crown Records CST 206 and CLP 5207

James P. Johnson - Watch Me Go

I know damn well this won't appeal to everybody but I think some of my readers may enjoy it. I really do enjoy stuff like this from the very early days of jazz. While these are all accompaniments, I can't imagine what it was like to hear piano like that way back when.

Some of these songs are just plain silly as so many period pieces can be, it was after all a much simpler time so they say. That said there are still many awesome songs on this record that would never have seen the light of day if it weren't for true jazz collectors. we owe them a debt of gratitude. The back cover liner notes are extensive albeit spotted with typos, so if anyone really wants them e-mail and I will find a way to get them to you.

James P Johnson - Watch Me Go

Rare accompaniments: 1921~34

1. Watch Me Go

2. You'll Never Miss A Good Thing Till It's Gone

3. Original Black Bottom Dance

4. Nobody Worries About Me

5. Black Snake Moan

6. Fortune Teller Blues

7. Doggone Blues

8. Can't Be Bothered With No Sheik

9. Oh, Mr. Mitchell

10. Where Is My Man?

11. You've Got To Be Modernistic

12. Shout On

13. All That I Had Is Gone

14. Lucy Long

15. Jazzbo Dan and his Yodelin' Band

16. Syncopatin' Yodelin' Man

17. Ooh! Looka There, Ain't She Pretty

18. Uncle Sammy Here I Am

1, 2 - Lavinia Baker

3, 4 - Sadie Jackson

5, 6, 7, 8 - Rosa Henderson

9, 10 - Clara Smith

11, 12 - Great Day New Orleans Singers

13, 14 - Perry Bradford

15, 16 - Roy Evans

17, 18 - Clarence Williams

From my vinyl copy of  IAJRC 52

Leonard Feather Presents: 52nd Street with Phil Woods

Don't know much about this record. There  is no recording dates listed on the sleeve, although it is apparent it is from two separate sessions. I'm not sure what was supposed to happen here but this record does a fine job of highlighting the early bop movement, coupling several veterans with some of the young up and comers at the time.

 The liner notes kinda imply that this record is sorta wrapping up the bop movement, a silly idea at any time.

What is there to say about these tunes that hasn't been said a thousand times before. Pure bop standards  performed for the joy of it it seems to me.

Many's a time when I wish I could have recorded and released a bunch of my friends jamming some tunes. Feather did it as well as anyone. Back when it mattered.

Leonard Feather Presents

52nd Street

1. Little Benny

2. Be Bop

3. Lemon Drop

4. Ornithology

5. Anthropology

6. Salt Peanuts

7. Groovin' High

8. Shaw "Nuff

9. Billie's Bounce

10. Hot House and 52nd Street Theme

George Wallington - piano

Phil Woods - alto 

Curley Russell -bass

Idrees Sulieman - trumpet...

Denzel Best - drums (1-5)

Thad Jones - trumpet...

Art Taylor - drums (6-10)

VSOP 12

Pharoah Sanders - The Latin Jazz Quintet Featuring PS

I was going to post this awhile back until someone asked for the Live at The East record so I want to get back to it now before it disappears in the stacks.

I picked this lp up for, not surprisingly, next to nothing. First off it is a reissue of an older scarcer lp and second the very idea may be a bit hard to swallow. I won't snow you and tell you this is a great lost classic or anything but it is a fun record. I'm always interested when I discover something that puts my favorites in a unusual setting. I wonder what the reaction was to this upon initial release.

 Unfortunately there is very little info to go by on the sleeve. What I gather is that PS has actually joined a handful of musicians who play under the moniker "The Latin Jazz Quintet". These fellows hold their own and the compositions are theirs, nothing written by Sanders. One of the things I like about this record is that Sanders plays within the ensemble, and isn't necessarily the focus of the lp. He seems to be having fun playing some swinging solos including a couple on the soprano sax.
 You're not gonna find anything even vaguely outside here.You won't walk away feeling like you have been cheated outta 40 minutes either.

The Latin Jazz Quintet featuring Pharoah Sanders

1. Oh! Pharoah Speak

2. Daria

3. The Dues Payer

4. Harlem

5. Midnight Monturo

6. P's and Q's

PHX309

Bud Powell - Radio Broadcasts Summer 1953

Just wanted to get one last one in before the end of the month. I've had this ready to go for awhile. Wasn't really sure how much interest there would be in this. Enjoy...

Here's one I found as I was cleaning out some old cassettes. The sound quality isn't that great, but i suspect it wasn't on the original source as I was using a Nakamichi deck at the time I would have grabbed this. I probably grabbed this from a late night radio show. The fact that the sound is muffled is probably why the cassette languished in a box all these many years. Despite that I found myself enjoying the music once I decided to give it a quick listen before converting or trashing. I'm thinking that may even be Mingus on bass and then, what the hell that has to be Bird on a couple of tracks. So yeah, we're keeping it and even sharing it here.

*While researching before posting I see now that ESP was offering digital dls of this but physical product. What's this world coming to? Also their track listings appear to be different than what I have on tape. I'll try to do my best to reconcile the two, as I sometimes have problems recognizing even the most common songs, or rather recognizing the titles of such. They also supplied all the info as I had nothing but a cassette in a plastic case.

Bud Powell 

1953 Summer Broadcasts

1. I've Got You Under My Skin

2. Autumn In New York

3. I Want To Be Happy

4. Moose The Mooche

5. Cheryl

6. Budo

7. My Heart Stood Still

8. Dance Of The Infidels

9. Dance Of The Infidels

Bud Powell - piano

Charles Mingus - bass

Art Taylor - drums

add Bird (as) and Candido (cgs) to tracks 3 & 4

recorded at Birdland
1-5 - 5/30/53
6-8 - 6/20/53
9 - 7/11/53

here

Jorge Lopez Ruiz - Bronca Buenos Aries

This came as a recommendation from an acquaintance. I am often suspect of recommendations, more often than not they turn out to be mediocre lps that someone has a personal affinity towards. Not that I don't have many lps in my collection that would easily fall into that category.
 This on the other hand caught me off guard. I was fully expecting a decent '70's brazilian record. I had no idea how cool this thing was gonna be. It easily slides from quiet ensemble passages to Tranesque sax workouts to full modern big band arrangements. Never a misstep

From the liner notes.".recorded and composed in B.A. by Argentinian bassist Jorge Lopes Ruiz in 1971. Based on the writings of Jose tcherkaski and the "El Cordobazo" uprising,"

Bronca Buenos Aries

1. La Cuidad Vacia

2. Relatos

3. Amor Buenos Aries

4. Bronca Buenos Aries

Soloists

Horacio  "Chivo" Borraro - tenor sax

Fernando  Gelbard - Pianos and flute

Jorge Lopez Ruiz - bass

Carlos "Poncho" Lapouble - drums

Guests

Santiago Giacobbe - hammond

Alfredo Remus - electric bass

Enrique "Zurdo" Roizner - drums

the choir and orchestra appear are all locals.

recorded at Estudios  Ion; Buenos Aries; 1971

this is a cd reissue and not the real thing...wmcd-0082