This week’s theme: Sonny Rollins plays the compositions of Sonny Rollins. Musicians include Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Clifford Brown, George Morrow, Richie Powell, Art Blakey, JJ Johnson, Horace Silver, Paul Chambers, Red Garland, Philly Joe Jones, Kenny Burrell, Jim Hall, Bob Cranshaw, George Cables, Tommy Flanagan, Arthur Taylor, Miles Davis, Percy Heath, Kenny Clarke, and many more.
This week’s theme: More Ella Fitzgerald. Artists include Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Flanagan, Roy Eldridge, Duke Ellington, Don Abney, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Paul Smith, Jim Hall, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Jo Jones, and many more.
This week’s theme: A collection of jazz waltzes. Featured artists include Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Desmond, Hank Mobley, Jim Hall, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, Scott LaFaro, Paul Motion, Gary Peacock, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Kenny Dorham, George Morrow, Harold Land, Wes Montgomery, Dave Brubeck, Eugene Wright, Joe Morello, and more.
This week’s theme: Bill Evans on Verve. Featured artists include Paul Motian, Gary Peacock, Chuck Israels, Shelley Manne, Jim Hall, Eddie Gomez, Jack DeJohnette, Larry Bunker.
This week’s theme. More ballads. Featured artists include Jackie McLean, Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Sarah Vaughan, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Ben Webster, Nancy Lamont.
What’s everyone listening to in isolation? I can tell you what I’m doing. First off, I’m listening to my records more frequently than I have in a while. I guess being locked down with nowhere to go can be inspirational in that sense. I frequently go to records that I’ve loved but haven’t listened to in a while, or at least records that I haven’t listened to mindfully. Records, versus CDs or streams or anything digital, have sides. l still put on my “go to” sides for a lot of the records, listen to that side, and then move on to another record. Even with the infamous Shades of Redd my temptation was to just listen to Side One, which was my original preference. But, after all of the hoopla I made through the years about finding that record, I would have felt guilty not listening carefully to both sides and was pleased to have done so. Side Two is awesome, the equal of Side One. Read more
Happy New Year everyone. I hope all of your vinyl dreams come true. Perhaps you can find some on eBay, where we are, per usual, watching jazz records from our perch here far above Manhattan (well, actually, just seven stories), including the album Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074. This is one of those jam session records featuring Hank Mobley, John Coltrane, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, not to mention a pretty good rhythm section in Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. This is an original New York yellow label pressing that looks to be in VG+ or better condition for the record and Ex for the cover. The auction closes in more than three days and so far there are no bidders at a start price of $175. Read more
The other night I was sitting in the living room with The Lovely Mrs. JC and we she was reading and I wanted to put on some music. I asked what she would like and she asked for something mellow. I said I could do that. So I went up to the shelves and stared for a while, you know, how you just stare at an open refrigerator waiting for inspiration. For “mellow” my go-to choices would typically be Bill Evans or Coltrane Ballads or perhaps a Chet Baker, since The Lovely Mrs. JC is a fan of all of the above. But I wanted something different and I somehow settled on a Johnny Hodges record, In a Mellow Tone, Norgran 1092. Normally, Hodges is not someone that I would put on the turntable, but she asked for mellow and mellow was actually in the title of this record and it had always been one of my favorite Hodges LPs. Listening to it was quite a revelation. The music is of a pre-bop vintage, but it is actually quite timeless and absolutely beautiful. If you have it, put it on, and perhaps pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy. From there, I wanted to move to something a little bit more modern and I chose
I just picked up The New York Times this morning and saw the Jim Hall has passed away at the age of 83. He was an excellent player and quite influential. I used to see him quite often at the Village Gate in the 1970s, and as recently as a few years ago at the Village Vanguard. I loved the way he played off his fellow musicians, particularly Sonny Rollins and Paul Desmond. There’s an apocryphal story that Sonny Rollins fired Jim Hall after a Downbeat cover featured Hall and had Sonny in the background. The story was that it had to do with race and Sonny was pressured because he was the leader and Hall was the sideman. I don’t know if this story was actually true, but I have a feeling my friend Dan knows the real story, as he was friends with Jim. So I am hoping perhaps Dan can comment here. I was just looking through the collection I purchased last week and one of the records was Jazz Guitar: Jim Hall on Pacific Jazz. At some point today I will place it on the turntable. Perhaps also If Ever I Would Leave You from the Sonny Rollins Album What’s New. Or Time After Time, Jim Hall with Paul Desmond. There is a wide range of choices.
So I was at a record store recently and on the shelves saw a copy of the record 3 Degrees East –3 Degrees West on World Pacific. It had a cover I hadn’t recalled seeing. Even though I was pretty sure the cover I had at home was the original, the price was cheap enough so I purchased it. It was interesting when I got home and compared the two covers. The cover on the left in the picture is the original. This is the one I had in my collection. It has a copyright date of 1956 on the back and is on Pacific Jazz Records, PJ-1217. It also has the “kakubushi” framed cover. The record I purchased at the store, with the cover on the right, is copyrighted from 1957 and is on World Pacific Records, also number PJ-1217. The liner notes and pictures on the back are the same. Not sure why the company would re-release the record with different packaging just a year later: You’d think if
