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5 plus Jazz Albums Essential to Nearly Maintain SanityMay 20 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line The 10 Jazz disks I wouldn't want to live without.
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Here are 6 Jazz albums equaling 10 cds worth of Jazz that I must listen to on a regular basis. That doesn’t mean these albums are the greatest or most influential jazz albums ever made. They are just part of my gut and touch my heart, move my soul or get my groove on. I wrote a piece similar to this more than 3 and a half years ago. It was a quick write and intended on updating it substantially but all I did was fix some of the worst typos and just let it be. Rather then dumping the original even though it’s not a pretty piece… I’m keeping that one intact and writing an expanded improved version of it. It will keep me humble. Let me know what you think.. Enjoy. 5. – DON BYRON- BUG MUSIC Bug Music is music originally performed by Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club orchestra, John Kirby and his orchestra or the Raymond Scott Quintette (that’s how they spelt it). Some of the original music was the backbone of Carl Stalling Cartoons in the 30s and 40s. A lot of it was very popular in its day and much of it is almost forgotten and often pooh-poohed by critics particularly after be-bop and 50s Jazz took over the scene. Clarinet player/composer Don Byron arranged, transcribed, produced and recorded this incredible up-beat and extremely likeable album in 1996. It’s a gem. Several of Byron’s other albums have a completely different compositional tone, texture and style to them. I particularly enjoyed his Tuskogee Experiments album and his Romance with the Unseen collaboration with the sublime Bill Frisell. But its BUG MUSIC that cooks and is FUN. 4. -Milt Jackson - Reverence and Compassion A beautiful album of jazz highlighting Milt at his best on the Vibes with solid support from Cedar Walton on Piano, John Clayton on Bass and Billy Higgins on drums. Wonderful sax work from Jeff Clayton, Ronald Brown and Jack Nimitz. 3. Gets/Gilberto Stan Getz is a fave of mine and I'm a huge fan even of the People Time album with Kenny Barron. There’s a lot of brilliant jazz and big band sax players both past and present. The voice GETZ spoke with through his saxophone is among my very very favorite. Yeah I usually prefer it to Coltrane and Bird. Of all the albums of his I treasure his bossa-nova work and must hear some of it on a regular basis. It began with Jazz Samba in 1962 and then at the tail end of the bossa nova craze he fought the record company tooth and nail to release this album which deservedly won 4 Grammys and stayed on the charts for nearly 2 years. This album was almost not released!!!! This is the a;bum that features Getz on Sax and guitarist Joao Gilberto with composer Antonio Carlos Jobim on piano. ‘Girl from Ipanema became a monster hit and an instant classic and was song by Astrud Gilberto the guitarist’s wife who besides having absolutely no professional experience as a singer did not speak English and when she switches from Portugese to English she is doing it phonetically. The other two standards on this album are Corovado (aka Quiet Night) and the best version of Desafinado every recorded. 2. The Verve Story 1944 to 1994 Okay call me a cheater. Four Cd's of some of the best tracks ever recorded on the Verve label. I believe it adds up to 58 tracks (about 5 hours of primo Jazz) and represents a who’s who in Jazz playing some of the most definitive versions of what are now Jazz standards ever recorded. So don’t ask. You can’t borrow it because I revisit it over and over again and I don’t want to try to replace it. How could I not want to hear: Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Billy Holiday, Gene Krupa, Dizzy G AND Stan Getz, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Lionel Hampton, Lester Young, Ella, More Getz, Duke, Mulligan, Mel Torme, Kenny Burrell and much much more. Tie at 1. Joe Sample Rainbow Seeker and MILES DAVIS : Miles Ahead Joe Sample- Rainbow Seeker This set, more than Carmel, more than all the Crusaders albums, touched me deeply years ago and continues to get to me with every listen. ‘Melodies of Love’ remains one of the finest cuts of modern Jazz, and one of the most moving and beautiful piano jazz performances I've ever heard. Wow. 1- Miles Ahead - Miles Davis + 19 under the direction of Gil Evans Highpoints include: Miles Ahead, Blues for Pablo and New Rhumba (which has the most recognizable hook on the album). This is Miles and Evans’ breakthrough 1957 album of orchestral jazz. They met on the legendary Birth of the Cool project. but here Evans arranges the band around Miles’ trumpet and has made some solid song choices that play right into Miles’ strengths. This is Miles’ warm sound at its peak. Most of us when we are younger do not appreciate space and quietness in our music but as our taste matures we come to appreciate that music is much more than just loud driving and angry (although there is absolutely nothing wrong with such music). So it is that over time most come to appreciate Miles Davis. This is a must for any true music fan and I am sure I’m preaching to the choir regarding this CD to you straight ahead jazz lovers. I'm not an expert on Jazz and won’t pretend to be. My faves also include things like: Coltrane's My Favorite Things, and Brubeck's Time Out and certainly Louis Armstrong (I almost put the Armstrong plays W.C. Handy down here—do make sure you listen to the St. Louis Blues that’s on the set--wow) and of course the superb Thelonius Monk. I will even admit to enjoying some Dave Sanborn, Dave Koz, Larry Carlton, Spyro Gyra, and even a few Bob James tunes. Kenny G? Uh no .. sorry technically he’s very good but I don’t get a sense of deep passion and authenticity from him at all. I also still have a few Paul Whiteman on 78 discs and treasure the recreation of the Paul Whiteman concert that featured the premiere of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue that I have on CD. Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby (his swing Jazz stuff and those sides he recorded with Louis Armstrong) and some Sinatra too. Ella, Sarah, Billie, Betty Carter, Shirley Horn are faves too. Now you know. Copyright© Christopher J. Jarmick 2004.  |
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