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Jazz Recommendations?

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Dignan2000 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Dignan2000 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2020 at 10:28pm
Check out Ron Carter's All Blues from 1974 featuring Joe Henderson on four of its six tracks and Billy Cobham. There's a solid recent reissue of this LP by Pure Pleasure.

 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Jul 2020 at 12:17am
Originally posted by miT miT wrote:

My recent demo of the FH3 speakers introduced me to Anouar Brahem (world jazz?) so his name was noted for my next shopping spree....

Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, etc are ok although I do prefer velvety female vocals....

Mongo Santamaria's - Watermelon Man is also fantastic and is one of my longer-owned albums. Apart from Latin jazz I also like instrumental types, with Jimmy Smith being a favourite.

Hi Tim

If you're looking for brassy big band stuff with a "latin" feel, you could do a lot worse than investigate Machito's output - as well as running his own outfits, he worked a lot with Charlie Parker and (especially) Dizzy Gillespie - fast company! Good starting points would be this classic from 1951:


or this more recent collaboration with Diz:


Anouar Brahem is wonderful - IMHO you can't go far wrong with any of his ECM albums, though I have a particularly soft spot for this one:


- as I was lucky enough to see this fabulous trio live. Big smile

As for "velvety female vocals" (a taste I share), you'll be wanting Ella Fitzgerald and (especially) Sarah Vaughan for starters - this is an all-time favourite late-night classic:


After which, you might also want to sample Peggy Lee (Black Coffee is a classic LP), Carmen McRae, Helen Merrill (another personal favourite), Julie London, early-period Nina Simone, e.g.


or the sublime live set:


If you want to try a soothing/light male voice (as a polar opposite to Sinatra in many ways) with the added bonus of the singer also being a top trumpet player, look to Chet Baker:


More recommendations anon - the jazz world is a big place! Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Jul 2020 at 12:55am
[QUOTE=miT]

If I've got this right "hard bop" and "soul jazz" are the main sub-genres I have discovered that I enjoy (so far), which I believe lived around the 50s-60s. I forgot to mention "funky jazz" at the outset because I wasn't particularly looking for that this time but as the artists evolved into this style towards the 70s(?), its probably worth listing as well.

As for big band I love the planned, rhythmic style of it, and something about the trumpet sections just grabs me. While I also enjoy the sax, I find it works better as the lead in a small band setting; it doesn't feel right leading the whole song with a big band (including trumpets)... I welcome countering examples though. While I don't mind it, big band swing is also ok but in small doses. It is too lively (and generally vocal) for me at the moment; swing isn't what I would call background/chilled out music whereas the other stuff is (generalising).

/QUOTE]

So much great hard bop and soul jazz - the Prestige and Blue Note labels issued masses of it (of surprisingly high overall quality given the overall output) from the mid-50s to the late-60s. Some tracks were even pressed as 45s and became jukebox hits in the States - Lee Morgan's classic 'The Sidewinder' being one example. All of the following led various great outfits during the period - and the first two were really the definitive standard-bearers for hard bop whoever was in their band:

Herbie Hancock - e.g. http://https://www.discogs.com/Herbie-Hancock-Takin-Off/master/163780 (where 'Watermelon Man' originates....)

For brassy big-band sounds, tightly marshalled, try the now unfashionable (but beloved in the 1960s, not least by Simon Dee!) Maynard Ferguson - or, from an earlier era, the big bands of Dizzy Gillespie (often with added "latin" flavours) or Count Basie - this in particular is a stormer:


As mentioned by others, for subtler orchestrations Gil Evans is the go-to guy, particularly in the late 50s/early 60s - all his collaborations with Miles Davis are sublime, but this one (with Spanish themes throughout) might be particularly to your taste:


And for a "little big" band with amazing impact, you can't beat the great Charles Mingus, e.g.


Of course, looming above them all is the greatest of all greats* - Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Ellington and His (justly) Famous Orchestra. You could spend a lifetime immersing yourself in his catalogue (I'm currently 40+ years in and counting....Wink) - but if you want a big band who could do everything (and had an unmatched motherlode of original compositions to do it with), this is the one. All periods up to the late 1960s are differently "classic", but 1940-1946 and 1956-1966 (or so) are particularly rich seams. A stunning brass section is offset by great sax soloists (Harry Carney! Johnny Hodges! Ben Webster! Paul Gonsalves!) who'll convince you that big-band saxophones can indeed "feel right" Thumbs Up

f.

* In my less-than-'umble opinion, obviously! Embarrassed

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Jul 2020 at 1:08am
Originally posted by patientot patientot wrote:

Originally posted by Bags Bags wrote:

I've been enjoying the Basie band again recently and would love to find something with the same dynamics but with some serious Latin drive/percussion.

Any recommendations?

I wish I knew more about Latin music from the big band era. All my latin related stuff is from a bit later, like Fania related stuff (Willie Colon et. al) and Cal Tjader. One of my friends was playing a bunch of albums by Sabu Martinez the other day - definitely something I want to get more into. I don't have any of his solo albums, only a couple things he's plays on. Might be up your alley. 

A suggestion I posted above:

If you're looking for brassy big band stuff with a "latin" feel, you could do a lot worse than investigate Machito's output - as well as running his own outfits, he worked a lot with Charlie Parker and (especially) Dizzy Gillespie - fast company! Good starting points would be this classic from 1951:


or this more recent collaboration with Diz:


A lot of Dizzy's big-band stuff from the 1950s had that Machito/Chano Pozo feel IIRC - e.g.


And there's always Perez Prado:


Once the Bossa Nova craze starts kicking in from the early 60s, it's hard to look beyond this as the starting point, tho' "big band" it ain't Wink:


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote kgilroy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 2021 at 7:51pm
Just something a little different:


I have another one of Tod Gustavsen’s albums as a hires download but was looking for vinyl and hence this.  The music is very atmospheric but they still manage to swing.  All of his recordings sound good regardless of the media.

BTW I also love the Getz/Gilberto album mentioned in the last post.
Keith

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote kgilroy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Feb 2021 at 7:48pm
So I have been indulging in a bit of retail therapy lately buying a variety of jazz albums to keep be energized during lock down,  I'm also retired so what else am I going to do Smile

Anyway these are all quite different but I really enjoy them all:

https://elusivedisc.com/patricia-barber-cafe-blue-1step-180g-45rpm-2lp/

Now, Patricia Barber is a bit of an acquired taste but if you like her music this One-Step pressing is excellent although expensive.

https://www.discogs.com/Monty-Alexander-Love-You-Madly-Live-At-Bubbas/release/16279723

A Resonance Records recent release.

https://www.discogs.com/Art-Pepper-Quartet-The-Art-Pepper-Quartet/release/10171512

Can't get enough Art Pepper.
Keith

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote patientot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Feb 2021 at 8:32pm
Originally posted by kgilroy kgilroy wrote:


A Resonance Records recent release.



Resonance does interesting stuff for sure. Some of their releases can be a bit expensive though. I had a Sonny Rollins live release in my hand and had to put it back when I looked at the price tag! I might grab that one on CD as it's a bit cheaper. I have some Wes Montgomery and Grant Green releases from Resonance on vinyl from a few years ago. 

If you like the archival live recording stuff that Resonance does, check out Cellar Live/Reel to Real. They do a similar thing and put out quality stuff, not too expensive either. I have a couple of their releases and will pick up more when I can. Like Resonance, they do both vinyl and CD releases. 

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