Thelonious Monk - Liza (All The Clouds’ll Roll Away) (1964)
To this humble listener’s ears, Monk’s standard interpretations are an ongoing education in music and mood, light and life.
Close your eyes; all the clouds’ll roll away.
Always reblog Monk doing standards.
Curtis Fuller - Da Baby (1958)
It flies under the radar, but this recording is well worth a listen for some signature swing-times. The two trombones toot well together with the rollicking rhythm section led by the myth, the legend, the brilliant Sonny Clark.
There is no groundbreaking modal post-bop here, just a straight-ahead, hip-shaking swing-a-long.
We’re just gonna reblog Hoist the Jazz Flag posts for the rest of May.
“Beatrice” - Sam Rivers (RIP)
Big fan of this LP. R.I.P., Sam.
Goooorgeous
solarflares:the archives.
John Coltrane & Rashied Ali - Mars
img: drummerworld
July 1, 1935 - August 13, 2009
Respect.
\\\Originally posted in August, 2009 after hearing that Rasheid Ali passed onto the cosmos, this was to mark a brilliant drummer, not to mention play a favourite track from one of Trane’s last studio sessions.
I eased off on the de rigeur Trane talk that accompanies so much of his work, but this track always stood out as a cathartic, beautiful stunner. If I remember the details from the fantastic bio Chasing the Trane correctly, it was around this point that he knew that the cancer was doing its horrible thing.
Alot has been repeated about Coltrane- the spiritual angle, the searching tone, the restlessness—- all of it pretty much true, but this track always stunned me: the sound of a man confronting something, red-lining it before ascension. I don’t believe in capital-G-god, but Trane’s playing on this track fits the mythology: his horn was an antenna for god, however you want to spell it.
Hang on tight for this one.
Charles Mingus by Thomas Reichman
In 1968 filmmaker Thomas Reichman made a documentary which primarily consists of band footage and one to one interviews with Charles Mingus. What is revealed is an intimate portrait of one of America’s most prolific and original composers as well as arguably the genre’s greatest bass player. Throughout the documentary Mingus’ demeanour is steeped in bitterness and anger as he ranges through topics as diverse as race, sex, democracy. The film has moments of poignancy particularly at the end when a run in with the Police leaves Mingus being questionably arrested with an abrupt ending leaving the viewer to wonder as to how the situation was resolved. (via passionjunkies: Shook.fm)
(Source: passionjunkies)
Autumn Leaves - Cannonball Adderley
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on March 9, 1958.
Personnel: Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone); Miles Davis (trumpet); Hank Jones (piano); Sam Jones (bass); Art Blakey (drums).
Producer: Alfred Lion.
Looks like Trane in the pic. No biggie. The rest of the album is fantastic, and makes mundane things like taking the bus to work a little more pleasant.
Arkadin’s Ark: Dorothy Ashby - Self-titled (Argo)
via Give the Drummer Some,\ WFMU
“Long before settling into a comfortable life doing West Coast session work for artists like Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, and Earth Wind & Fire, jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby was an enormously inventive, deeply swinging improviser. At the time she made this record (released by Argo in 1962) Ashby was the host of a jazz radio show in Detroit. “
