[LugBug1]

Quote:

Yeah, that Blakey set's killer. I actually got to meet "Bu", as his friends called him (his Muslim name was "Buhaina"). He was hip and regal in his soul. And that band was the proving ground for damn-near a half-century of phenomenal talent. I always dug that Blakey stated to the audience his philosophy for continuously hiring younger players on the very first Messengers album, A Night At Birdland, Vol. 1. "[It] keeps the mind active", he says from the mic in 1954, like he already saw the future in front of him.

Wow! He does come across as one cool dude. I suppose that's where "Buhaina'a Delight" comes from!
 
I think I would be tongue tied if I met someone like Blakey... I'd try to act cool but probably say something stupid like "so.. ya been playin any drum's lately?" ha ha
 

 

[LugBug1]

Quote:

I can't decide if this or Moanin is my favorite of all the Blakey records. Both are very similar in feel. I think I find this one more consistent throughout and probably listen to this one the most. 
 
About 4:12 into Sortie, the long resolving phrase that Wayne Shorter throws in there gets me every single time. That has to be one of the great releases of tension ever in a jazz solo. 
 


 

Thats a tough call with Moanin every track is a killer aswell.
 
This is one that could easily be left behind, originally released through riverside 1962. I'm sure you's all know it well, but I'll recommend it for noobs. He does one hell of a version of Duke's Caravan. A great, if more relaxed session and another Blakey classic!
 

 

 

[tru blu]

…alright, now for something completely different—sort of. I know I said I'd get to Randy Weston, but I figured it'd be cool to go directly to the African continent for my Afro-Blue. Tenor saxist Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi recorded Yakhal' Inkomo (Bellowing Bull), the best-selling album of South African-jazz in history, in a Johannesburg studio in 1968. It'd play like a Blue Note- or Coltrane-inspired disc (he does versions of Horace Silver's "Doodlin'" and Trane's "Bessie's Blues") were it not for the uniqueness of the much-anthologized title track, which is where indigenous grooves meet swing seamlessly.
 

 

[Questhate]

Essential album from a non-quite-essential band leader: 
 

 
Oliver Nelson recruits an all-legend sextet with Roy Haynes, Paul Chambers and Bill Evans in the rhythm section and Freddie Hubbard and Eric Dolphy in the front line. Stolen Moments is the bonafide classic, but this entire session has absolute quality playing throughout.
 
Oliver Nelson actually puts out some real quality sessions in the early 60's:
 

 

 

 

 

[jamesta]

Freddie Hubbard's First Light is FUNKALICIOUS but still very technically bebop.  I'm lovin' it right now with some ES5!

 

[LugBug1]

Great recommendations guys, this is turning out to be a great thread for collectors both noob and old!
 
I'm going to add a bit of a gem. I don't know much about Pete LaRoca, only this recording. If you like your Jazz relaxed and soulful with a slight latin twinge this is for you, great for late at night with a tall glass of Bourbon (recommended but not essential). It's in a similar vain to Coltrane's Ballards only without the mighty Coltrane... Henderson is certainly up to task as tenor though and produces some spine tingling moments. The rythm section makes this a special recording especially pianist Steve Kuhn . It's a grower, and you may well think you've heard the opener before...?? 
 

     

 

[LugBug1]

....and now from the other end of the spectrum, that was the mid sixties....
 
I Introduce to you, the one and only.. Mr Don Cherry!!
 
Ornette's right hand man, and very talented Cornetist (is that a word?), One of only a few recordings with Don as leader, and I do like this one. It's on the "Free Jazz" train, but it's organized. Two songs.. thats all you get. But two great coherent mid sixties ramblings. There is so much to discover in both of these pieces, there is classic rhythm and grooves aswell as free exercising verging on chaos but allways keeping it together... as if it has all been planned from start to finish. And I genuinely believe it was!
 
 

 
  

 

[tru blu]

 
Quote:

I'm going to add a bit of a gem. I don't know much about Pete LaRoca, only this recording. If you like your Jazz relaxed and soulful with a slight latin twinge this is for you, great for late at night with a tall glass of Bourbon (recommended but not essential). It's in a similar vain to Coltrane's Ballards only without the mighty Coltrane... Henderson is certainly up to task as tenor though and produces some spine tingling moments. The rythm section makes this a special recording especially pianist Steve Kuhn . It's a grower, and you may well think you've heard the opener before...??     

Pete "LaRoca" Sims…excellent drummer who left jazz for decades to work as an attorney. He still practices law, but does gigs every now and then. Not to make this into a smackdown, but as good as Basra is (and make no mistake, it's great), there's an even more obscure Pete Sims quartet disc from a coupla years later that's even better: Turkish Women At The Bath. One of the reasons it's obscure is that for years it was out as Bliss! under the name of its much more famous pianist: Chick Corea. (Who better than a lawyer to legally fight to get that fixed, though it took a long time.) The other thing that makes Turkish Women truly original is the presence of saxist John Gilmore, in one of his rare appearances outside the Sun Ra Arkestra. Of course, I have Turkish Women and Basra, so why shouldn't everybody else?
 

 
 

 
…also posted the cover of Bliss!, 'cause it can still be found on eBay—in some instances, pretty cheap…enjoy, cats!

 

[LugBug1]

You are indeed a world of Jazz knowledge tru blu! I'm gonna have to check that one out in either format because I do love Basra 

 

[BlazingArrow74]

 
An underrated 1961 stunner ... The supporting cast is excellent throughout, and the master Philly Jo is as-expressive-as-ever ... You can hear Freddie's advanced harmonic knowledge even at this early stage in his recording career.

 

[tru blu]

…wanted to go back to the '50s. This record is certainly not an obscurity, but it's also not one I see namechecked a whole lot, though I've never really understood why. By all accounts, it was a harmonic convergence: Coltrane's mature sound began coming together here, while Monk was finally beginning to get some overdue recognition. I've always liked the variety on it, that Monk is heard solo, with a quartet (the Trane stuff) and in a sextet that sounds as big as an orchestra with Coleman Hawkins and forgotten bad-ass Gigi Gryce on alto. One way to appreciate Monk is to hear how beautifully his compositions translate in different configurations. On a more personal note, I think it was the first Monk or Coltrane I ever heard, so it's kinda where jazz began to get its hooks in me…
 

 

[LugBug1]

and when this little forgot about gem from 1957 came to light! 
  
 
They are two of the most influential Jazz artists of all time, and playing together live during what is arguably the greatest time in Jazz. It's one of those recordings that gave collectors wet dreams waiting for it to be released, but boy is it good!   

 

[tru blu]

 
Quote:

and when this little forgot about gem from 1957 came to light! 
 
They are two of the most influential Jazz artists of all time, and playing together live during what is arguably the greatest time in Jazz. It's one of those recordings that gave collectors wet dreams waiting for it to be released, but boy is it good!   

Yup…nothing but superlatives for that disc…and what also messes with my head is the gig poster on the inside cover: It was a Thanksgiving Day benefit concert, and the rest of the bill was Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles (not the headliner yet; it was 1957), Chet Baker and Zoot Sims Quartet and Sonny Rollins…almost makes my head explode…
 

 

[LugBug1]

Quote:

 

Yup…nothing but superlatives for that disc…and what also messes with my head is the gig poster on the inside cover: It was a Thanksgiving Day benefit concert, and the rest of the bill was Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles (not the headliner yet; it was 1957), Chet Baker and Zoot Sims Quartet and Sonny Rollins…almost makes my head explode…
 

Absolutely unreal! wouldn't it be fab if they released the whole concert on a box set...? they must have recorded it all because it was meant for a later radio broadcast. Come on Blue Note!   
 
It's got me thinking of good old Sonny, recently been listening to "This is what I do" and hes' still got it in 2000. But thats not the 50's/60's.
 
But this is!
 

 
 
To be fair I haven't collected many of Sonny's releases and there isn't many anyway, considering how long hes been in the buisness. I think hes always favored playing live rather than in the studio. I ofcourse love "Colossus", but for anyone who hasn't heard this, then check it out imediately. It's not stop, raw classic Jazz from start to finish.  "The surrey with the Fringe on top" just Sonny and Philly is just brilliant.

 

[rroseperry]

So I'm not working on this newsletter by looking over eMusic's new arrivals. What do I see but this:

This came out in 1965. I like Shorter in just about all his incarnations.