JSngry Posted May 30, 2004 Report Share Posted May 30, 2004 Live in Baltimore, 1966, w/Lamont Johnson, Scotty Holt, & Billy Higgins. Long, INTENSE jams, perhaps the longest and most intense Jackie on record, a perfect blend of "out" playing over "in" tunes. There's a companion volume, TUNE UP, also on Steeplechase, which I have yet to hear. I need to remedy that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 30, 2004 Report Share Posted May 30, 2004 Also by McLean, also on Steeplechase, but from 1974: AMG's Jim Todd calls it correctly: Jackie McLean's band on New York Calling, the Cosmic Brotherhood, plays with uncompromising passion, fury, and intelligence. The group, a generation younger than the leader, has a sound that is definitive '70s advanced hard bop. Although not as well-known as some of their contemporaries, by the time of this 1974 recording, the members of McLean's quintet had logged playing time with many of the leaders of the hard bop scene: McCoy Tyner, Gary Bartz, Sam Rivers, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, and others. In addition to exceptional chops, the band has strong writers in trumpeter Billy Skinner and pianist Billy Gault. Their tightly voiced arrangements, punctuated by roiling power surges from the rhythm section, call to mind the work of Woody Shaw, whose classic Moontrane was also recorded in 1974. However, where Shaw's music possesses an urbane, majestic poise, Skinner and Gault go for a skittering, street-level urgency. McLean, recognizing the powerful talents in his midst — including McLean's son, René, on tenor, alto, and soprano sax — comes across as one among equals. It's to McLean's credit that the date bears the stamp of his band's artistry as much as it does his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 30, 2004 Report Share Posted May 30, 2004 Bill Barron - MOTIVATION (Savoy, 1972), quirkily original and stunningly executed. And vice-versa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 30, 2004 Report Share Posted May 30, 2004 Hadley Calliman - IAPETUS (Mainstream, 197?). Hell yeah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 30, 2004 Report Share Posted May 30, 2004 Oliver Nelson - BLACK BROWN AND BEAUTIFUL (Flying Dutchman, 1969) (not to be confused w/the totally unrelated Bluebird reissue of the same name) In some regards moreso than BLUES AND THE ABSTARCT TRUTH, this is the definitive Oliver Nelson album. One side "classical" oriented orchestral pieces (but 20th century classical, and definitely African-American in grounding), the other side some of Nelson's most probing, emotional, and challenging writing for conventional big band. A work of stunning complexity and depth, with more than a few chances taken, and more than successfully so. AMG's Douglas Payne calls it correctly, if briefly: A stirring tribute to Martin Luther King that is as searching and angry as it is contemplative and compassionate. Nelson mixes dissonant orchestral moments that nearly lapse into free zones with lovely, more familiar territory which celebrate a joy of love and life. Highly recommended but (as of yet) unissued on CD and very hard to find. Part of the difficulty in finding the LP might be due to the fact that there is a fully frontally nude photo of a woman who is black, brown, and VERY beautiful (at least from the neck down - her face is not shown), which probably cost sales originally, and which probably drives the album into the hands of a "different" type of collector these days. It's a pity, because this is music that NEEDS to be heard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted May 30, 2004 Report Share Posted May 30, 2004 (edited) And there's a Koch reissue of some Atlantic album featuring the same band (minus Booker), that's very good, too. That Atlantic LP was a reissue - the original was on Randy Weston's own label Bakton. And Booker Ervin is on it, too ..... Edited May 30, 2004 by mikeweil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 30, 2004 Report Share Posted May 30, 2004 ...and it's called AFRICAN COOKBOOK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 Sadao Watanabe - ROUND TRIP (Vanguard, 1974 (supposedly, but a few years earlier sounds more right to me). The justifiably mentioned Eric Kloss dates bring this, even more lesser-known, date to mind. Watanabe w/Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitous, and Jack DeJohette. The trio is firing on all cylinders, and is about as intensely in-synch and powerful as can be imagined. Watanabe often sounds like he's, at various points, in, almost in, or totally in, over his head, but BFD - the work of the trio is a total mindfuck, providing a different take on Corea's "out" playing since Vitous locks in differently w/him and Jack than Holland did in the Lost Quintet, and both Vitous & DeJohnette provide strong voices that contrast strongly but equally w/those of Holland & Altschul in Circle (yeah, it's "that" kind of a session for the most part). Not a "lost classic" when Watanabe plays, but definitely one when he doesn't, which is most of the time. Not for the faint of heart, but everybody else, jump in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 (Image size not relative to musical quality!) Charles Tolliver shines on SPIRIT OF THE NEW LAND, and the little known George Harper puts in some quietly understated work on INFANT EYES that seems "so what?" until you actually LISTEN to it. Drummers kick ass on both, Michael Carvin on the former, Alphone Mouzon on the latter. Good stuff, very much "for the people" in the way that that meant back when people were looking for guidance and moral uplifting in their music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 Atlantic 1969/Label M 2001 You really need this one (Atlantic 1972, unissued/Rhino 1993)for the full picture, since it has five gorgeous cuts from a later session that haven't been issued anywhere else, but either one will do. This is as deep and daring as jazz singing gets. Try singing along. I dare you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 And as surprising as it might come to some, including myself, who know of my overall ambivalence towards most of his work, pretty much anything that Phil Woods recorded w/The European Rhythm Machine (George Gruntz or Gordon Beck, Henri Texier, & the always inspiring Daniel Humair) is a satisfying listen. The repertoire is fully modern-for-te-time-and-players, no holds are barred, and Woods plays with a probing passion that seems to have left him totally not too long after he returned to the US and became the grumpy old man of bebop. Check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 Speaking of Woods... http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=U...l=Akyaqoauayijv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 For that matter, some think quite highly of MUSIQUE DUBOIS (Muse, 1974), but I think that the classic Byard/Davis/Dawson rhythm section more than steals the show from him on that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 All of Lateef's Impulse output is very worthy of more attention I think. Maybe not underrated by the fans, but definitely underrated by the company it seems. Hopefully the release of the Golden Flute is a sign of more good things to come. Albert Mangelsdorff deserves some mention. Although recorded outside the timespan focused on here, his quintet albums Now Jazz Ramwong and (One) Tension ('63/'64) are very interesting outings that give you a European take on the inside/outside thing without relying on American role models too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Burke Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 All of Lateef's Impulse output is very worthy of more attention I think. Maybe not underrated by the fans, but definitely underrated by the company it seems. Hopefully the release of the Golden Flute is a sign of more good things to come. I'm very much a fan of 1984. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morganized Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 All of Lateef's Impulse output is very worthy of more attention I think. Maybe not underrated by the fans, but definitely underrated by the company it seems. Hopefully the release of the Golden Flute is a sign of more good things to come. I'm very much a fan of 1984. Could someone please give me a little help with brother Yusef Lateef. What do you guys consider essential? What about his Atlantic stuff? Thanks. I am enjoying the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 On Atlantic, The Blue Yusef Lateef is a wonderful album with some otherwordly wackiness in between when Lateef sings some Japanese song. I enjoy it, but it seems something others tend to skip. Besides that, the title is very apt: there is a lot of deeply felt blues in various disguises. Very variated even with that restriction. Highly recommended, and probably what they call essential. On Impulse, besides the already mentioned Golden Flute album, currently only his Live at Pep's recordings are available I believe. Those are both stunning documents of the band with Richard Williams on trumpet. Williams does some beautiful ballads here. Lateef is his beautiful self. Hard to go wrong with these two as well I should say. Of course the Savoy and Prestige/New Jazz/OJC stuff that comes before is as pretty and as accessibly original as any of it. Hard to go wrong with those really. The Atlantic period is a bit of a mixed bag and then there are two on CTI that are more for the fans of fusion. Somewhere in the 80s Lateef played more of that new age/mood music than what you might consider jazz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 Couw, I have the same regard for the Yusef Lateef albums on Savoy/Prestige/Verve as you have for the Jackie McLean BNs vs. the Prestige/New Jazz albums. Much prefer those to most of the later stuff on Atlantic and Impulse. Don't think those are bad but the rough early stuff from Lateef are the ones I play more often! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 As I wrote, it is hard to go wrong with Lateef's Savoy/OJC output, the ones I know are all excellent (still have to get some of those) My love for Richard Williams playing ballads draws me strongly towards some of the Impulse stuff though. And there are some very interesting inside/outside things to be found on the Impulse albums, which is what this thread is about of course... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 (edited) Lateef's 'Live at Peps' is one of the greatest from this vintage (or maybe it's slightly earlier). Probably my favourite live jazz recording, along with Morgan's 'Live at the Lighthouse'. So much great stuff over this vintage both on BN and other labels. Off the top of my head: Chick Corea 'Inner Space' (Vortex/Atlantic) All of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis UA albums Everything Gerald Wilson ever did for Pacific Jazz/World Pacific... lots of great British jazz of this vintage such as the John Surmans on Deram, Mike Westbrook 'Celebration' and 'Release' also on deram, recordings by Neil Ardley's New Jazz Orchestra, Harry Beckett's 'Flare Up', Rendell-Carr 'Dusk Fire', 'Phase III' and 'Live', Stan Tracey 'Under Milk Wood' and John McLaughlin 'Extrapolation' Lots of great post-1966 Jazz Crusaders LPs on Pacific Jazz/World Pacific Some great Denny Zeitlins on CBS including 'Live at the Trident' and 'Zeitgeist' Great MPS albums including 'Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band' and Freddie Hubbard 'The Hub of Hubbard' and all of the Clarke/Boland and Sahib Shihab material recorded for MPS/SABA/Rearward (already mentioned). Truly a vintage period for jazz... Edited June 1, 2004 by sidewinder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yul Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 Sorry if someone’s already mentioned this one: RON CARTER – Uptown Conversation Recorded in October 1969 with Herbie Hancock, Hubert Laws etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 The list continues: Jay McShann: The Man from Muskogee Ben Webster: Remember Randy Weston: Berkshire Blues Jimmy Lyons: Other Afternoons Roy Eldridge: The Nifty Cat Here Comes Earl Hines w. Elvin and Richard Davis The Lee Konitz Duets Charlie Parker Memorial Concert 3/27/65 (Dizzy, Konitz, Moody, Hawk, Roy, KD, etc.) Ted Curson Quartet: Urge Marion Brown: Porto Novo Sonny Rollins: There Will Never Be Another You - Underrated because it was only marketed for a short time until Sonny sued and forced Impulse to withdraw it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajf67 Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 Charlesp: THANKS for the "Three For Shepp" recommendation. I hadn't listened to that before. It's really dynamite. Here's one for the list, although it's from 1974: Shirley Scott "One For Me" with Harold Vick on tenor. On Strata-East. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Fitzgerald Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 That Sadao Watanabe record mentioned above is actually from 1970. I haven't listened to it in a while - I'll have to pull it out. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 1970 makes a LOT more sense. Thanks, Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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