I picked up the usual
Blue Note releases that they reissued since my last post. I am too lazy to list them all. Anyone that has any questions about a particular one in terms of sound or which ones to get first from which of the batches feel free to ask.
Ben Webster –
Ben Webster & Associates – A smoking set that includes the
Father of the Modern Sax,
Coleman Hawkins. In addition,
Little Jazz is the trumpet player. That is
Roy Eldridge for those that don’t know.
Jo Jones is the drummer and
Budd Johnson is the third tenor sax. Anyone that knows Jazz can understand what I mean by a killer recording. It was recorded in memory of
Lester Young. When it comes to the tenor sax, you followed either the
Coleman Hawkins School or the
Lester Young. For example,
Sonny Rollins and
John Coltrane went the
Coleman Hawkins route and
Stan Getz went the
Lester Young.
Dave Burrell –
Expansion. I already commented on this in
what are you listening to thread in the Jazz forum.
Duke Ellington -
Masterpieces by Ellington. I already commented on this one in the
what are you listening to thread as well.
John Zorn –
50(7) Masada. Not exactly sure what the title for this would be. It's the 7th release from the
Zorn 50th Birthday Series. For
Zorn’s 50th Birthday, Zorn played or others played his music for a month straight at the
Tonic in NYC. I was in
NYC at the time for work and I pitched tent at the
Tonic a good many nights. Especially for all the
Masada performances. For this release, it is the first set from the first of 7 nights that
Masada performed in that month.
Masada in my opinion really is at their best when live. The first 3 studio recordings of the 10 are their best, but it is the live recordings you really want.
I picked up a few of the others from the
Birthday Series of nights that I had wanted to go but couldn't make it because of work. I will get around to my thoughts on those after a listen.
Jimmy Smith -
Root Down, is you are a
Beastie Boys fan this is where their song comes from. I had the lp but upgraded to the cd since they included unedited versions of 3 of the songs and added an alt take of
Root Down.
Herbie Hancock -
VSOP -
Live Under the Sky. This was basically the
Miles Davis' 2nd quintet with
Freddie Hubbard on trumpet instead of
Miles. Two completely different styles of playing the trumpet.
This is another performance I happened to be at. I was 16 at the time this one was recorded in
Japan on
July 26 & 27 of 1979. I was visiting my uncle's family who was still stationed in
Japan at the time. The rain soaked croad was going crazy. It was raining like you would not believe. The musicians were drenched while they played.
Freddie Hubbard and
Tony Williams were really on fire.
This is one group I wished had recorded more!
For this reissue they have included one track from the first night the 2nd nights performance which adds over an hour of unreleased and very hot music! I believe the group also peformed a couple days later, which is not included in this release. The memory is not clear on that fact at the moment.
Converge -
You Fail Me, only heard this new recording once so far. Basically as background music, so I really haven't "listened" to it. I am not sure what I think of it yet. They throw a 7 minute acoustic track called
In Her Shadow right in the middle of it. It's no
Jane Doe that is for sure!
Will comment on the more of the other purchases sometime in the future.
