What jazz music are you listening to?

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by bart

I thought about a very special album, but then I decided to play this:

Joe Newman - The Complete SWINGVILLE Sessions
via Qobuz

Just good, mainstream jazz.
Very enjoyable music, that simply makes you happy.
And that is what it is all about in this fantastic style of music!




PS Thank you my friends, for the honour!

Congratulations and thanks for the wonderful thread and countless contributions!

Listening to the album now in celebration.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by bart

I thought about a very special album, but then I decided to play this:

Joe Newman - The Complete SWINGVILLE Sessions
via Qobuz




Just good, mainstream jazz.
Very enjoyable music, that simply makes you happy.
And that is what it is all about in this fantastic style of music!




PS Thank you my friends, for the honour!

Was having problems finding that one so went with this instead. Nice listen! I have not listened to Joe Newman much before but will explore his work closer.

[PHC1]

In the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, Osie Johnson was one of the most in-demand drummers in New York, making a countless number of recordings and working steadily in the studios. He started working professionally in 1941, was with Sabby Lewis' band in Boston (1942-1943), and then was in the military where he played in a Navy band (1944-1945).

After five years freelancing in Chicago, Johnson was a member of Earl Hines' band during 1951-1953. Stints with Dorothy Donegan and Illinois Jacquet followed before he became a busy session musician, playing and recording with a who's who of mainstream (including Coleman Hawkins, Dinah Washington, Wes Montgomery, and Sonny Stitt).

In addition to contributing tasteful and supportive drums, Osie Johnson was an occasional composer, arranger, and singer, leading sessions for Jazztone (1955) and RCA (1956).

[PHC1]

An unusual arrangement of two guitars (Jimmy Raney, Jim Hall), Steve Swallow on the bass and Zoot's Tenor sax.

First time listening and I liked it.

[JDCheek]

Serge, you posted a listen to this a few weeks ago! I like Duke Ellington, as most big band artists, and gave it a listen. I needed up purchasing the 45rpm ORG album, and just finished it on vinyl for the first time. Truly enjoyed it and it sounded great for a 1959 recording. Most excellent!

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by JDCheek

Serge, you posted a listen to this a few weeks ago! I like Duke Ellington, as most big band artists, and gave it a listen. I needed up purchasing the 45rpm ORG album, and just finished it on vinyl for the first time. Truly enjoyed it and it sounded great for a 1959 recording. Most excellent!

Awesome! Enjoy. I find myself streaming all the time and as such, it has become a powerful tool to sort and select albums that I enjoy. If you stream and preview, at least you will know you will love it before purchasing. I used to buy many CDs only to be disappointed... No more of that.

[PHC1]

Nice morning listen. Relaxed and tasteful as the morning brew in your cup.



"Sunday at the Village Vanguard is the initial volume of a mammoth recording session by the Bill Evans Trio, from June 25, 1961 at New York's Village Vanguard documenting Evans' first trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. Its companion volume is Waltz for Debby. This trio is still widely regarded as his finest, largely because of the symbiotic interplay between its members.

Tragically, LaFaro was killed in an automobile accident ten days after this session was recorded, and Evans assembled the two packages a few months afterward. While "Waltz for Debby" -- in retrospect -- is seemingly a showcase for Evans' brilliant, subtle, and wide-ranging pianism, this volume becomes an homage, largely, to the genius and contribution of LaFaro.

That said, however, this were never the point. According to Motian, when Evans built this trio based on live gigs at the Basin Street East, the intention was always to develop a complete interactive trio experience. At the time, this was an unheard of notion, since piano trios were largely designed to showcase the prowess of the front line soloist with rhythmic accompaniment".


Bill Evans – Piano
Scott LaFaro – Bass
Paul Motian – Drums

[PHC1]

One of the most celebrated and influential jazz pianists of his generation, McCoy Tyner was known for his harmonically expansive modal voicings, commanding two-handed block-chord style, and fearless improvisational lines that touched upon African and Eastern musical traditions.

Along with contemporaries Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, and Chick Corea, Tyner redefined the sound of the modern jazz piano from the '60s onward, and his playing continues to guide up-and-coming musicians. Although primarily recognized for his work as a member of saxophonist John Coltrane's famed quartet with bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones, Tyner distinguished himself as a leader in his own right

[PHC1]

Picked up the tempo a bit but could not resist another Bill Evans treat over lunch. Beautiful album.


Cited years later as one of Evans' personal favorites, this 1961 LP (his second with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian) features his gorgeous versions of How Deep Is the Ocean; Sweet and Lovely; Nardis; Beautiful Love (two takes), and more. The last studio session by this great trio (LaFaro died a few months later).

"When this album was recorded in February of 1961, it had been more than year since the Portrait in Jazz was issued, the disc that won the critics over. By the time of this issue, Evans had released four albums in six years, a pace unheard of during that time.


Evans, with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro, was onto something as a trio, exploring the undersides of melodic and rhythmic constructions that had never been considered by most. For one thing, Evans resurrects a number of tunes that had been considered hopelessly played out, and literally reinvents them -- "How Deep Is the Ocean" and "Sweet and Lovely.""

"His harmonic richness that extends the melodic and color palette of these numbers literally revived them from obscurity and brought them back into the canon. He also introduced "Haunted Heart" into the jazz repertoire, with a wonderfully impressionistic melodic structure, offered space, and depth by the understatement of Motian and extension by LaFaro's canny use of intervals.

Also noteworthy is Miles Davis' "Nardis," which Evans first played on a Cannonball Adderley set a couple of years before. The rhythmic workout by the Motian and LaFaro places Evans' own playing in a new context, with shorter lines, chopping up the meter, and a series of arpeggios that open the ground for revelatory solo in counterpoint by LaFaro. Explorations is an extraordinary example of the reach and breadth of this trio at its peak."

[bart]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Artist Biography by Richard Skelly
"Not unlike his namesake, Luther Allison, pianist Mose Allison suffered from a "categorization problem," given his equally brilliant career. Although his boogie-woogie and bebop-laden piano style was innovative and fresh-sounding when it came to blues and jazz, it was as a songwriter that Allison really excelled.

Allison's songs have been recorded by the Who ("Young Man Blues"), Leon Russell ("I'm Smashed"), and Bonnie Raitt ("Everybody's Cryin' Mercy"). Other admirers have included Tom Waits, John Mayall, Georgie Fame, the Rolling Stones, and Van Morrison. But because he always played both blues and jazz, and not one to the exclusion of the other, his career suffered.

As he himself admitted, he had a "category" problem that lingered throughout his career. "There's a lot of places I don't work because they're confused about what I do," he explained in a 1990 interview in Goldmine magazine. Despite the lingering confusion, Allison was one of the finest songwriters in blues of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Born in Tippo, Mississippi, on November 11, 1927, Allison's first exposure to blues on record was through Louis Jordan recordings, including "Outskirts of Town" and "Pinetop Blues." Allison credited Jordan as being a major influence on him, and also credited Nat "King" Cole, Louis Armstrong, and Fats Waller. He started out on trumpet but later switched to piano. In his youth, he had easy access, via the radio, to the music of Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Meade "Lux" Lewis. Allison also credited the songwriter Percy Mayfield, "the Poet Laureate of the Blues," as being a major inspiration on his songwriting.

After a stint in college and the Army, Allison's first professional gig was in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1950. He returned to college to finish up at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he studied English and philosophy, a far cry from his initial path as a chemical engineering major.

Back Country SuiteAllison began his recording career with the Prestige label in 1956, shortly after he moved to New York City. He recorded an album with Al Cohn and Bobby Brookmeyer, and then in 1957 got his own record contract. A big break was the opportunity to play with Cohn and Zoot Sims shortly after his arrival in New York, but he later became more well known after playing with saxophonist Stan Getz. After leaving Prestige Records, where he recorded now classic albums like Back Country Suite (1957), Young Man Mose (1958), and Seventh Son (1958-1959), he moved to Columbia for two years before meeting up with Nesuhi Ertegun of Atlantic Records.



He recalled that he signed his contract with Atlantic after about ten minutes in Nesuhi's office. Allison spent a big part of his recording career at Atlantic Records, where he became most friendly with Ertegun. After the company saw substantial growth and Allison was no longer working directly with him, he became discouraged and left. Allison also recorded for Columbia (before he began his long relationship with Atlantic), and the Epic and Prestige labels.


Your Mind Is on VacationAllison's discography is a lengthy one, and there are gems to be found on all of his albums, many of which can be found in vinyl shops. His output after 1957 averaged at least one album a year until 1976, when he finished up at Atlantic with the classic Your Mind Is on Vacation. There was a gap of six years before he recorded again, this time for Elektra's Musician subsidiary in 1982, when he recorded Middle Class White Boy.

After 1987, he recorded with Blue Note/Capitol. His debut for that label was Ever Since the World Ended. Allison recorded some of the most creative material of his career with the Blue Note subsidiary of Capitol Records, including My Backyard (1992) and The Earth Wants You (1994), both produced by Ben Sidran. Also in 1994, Rhino Records released a box set, Allison Wonderland.

Allison's first new studio album in some 12 years, the Joe Henry-produced The Way of the World, appeared from Anti early in 2010. It would be Allison's final studio album; he died in November 2016 at the age of 89."

Just listened to this.
'Jostber' and Julian (aka 'Audionut') posted him earlier.
I remember him from my early jazz days but had forgotten a bit about him.
Interesting listen.