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What are your favourite live jazz albums?


Phil Meloy

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Strangely enough there doesn't seem to be a thread on "favourite live jazz albums" so I've been prompted to start one by a particular CD which I've only had for a couple of weeks but it has immediately become one of my favorite live albums if not one of my favourute albums period. I didn't even know this recording existed until a short while ago when I stumbled across it on a site in South Africa which deals only in South African music. It's a recording of the late Moses Taiwa Molelekwa (piano) performing live in Nantes withs his quartet at the Fin de siecle Festival in 1997 in a converted warehouse called Tour a Plomb. The CD includes six original tunes, most of which appear on his studio releases but as much shorter versions than when performed live on this recording. The other musicians are fellow South Africans - Kaya Mahlangu (tenor/sopranu/flute), Fana Zulu (bass) and Sello Montwedi (drums). If you like South African jazz this is a great album. If you don't like South African jazz there's a good chance you will after listening to this CD.

MZA005.jpg

Anyway this is my favourite. What's yours?

Edited by Phil Meloy
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including only officially released stuff:

Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel (Miles Davis)

It's About That Time: Live at the Fillmore East (Miles Davis)

Live in Tokyo (Weather Report)

1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (John Coltrane)

live A Love Supreme (John Coltrane)

An Evening at the Village Vanguard (Sonny Rollins)

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I could go on for a while if allowed to choose more than one:

staying with officially released albums that have not been mentioned yet:

Miles - Agharta

Miles - Pangea

Miles - Dark Magus

Jimmy Smith - Cool Blues

Jimmy Smith - Live at Club Baby Grand

Roy Brooks - The Freed Slave ("Do your thang, Roy, DO YOUR THANG!")

Braxton - Dortmund 1976

Braxton - Basel 1977

Brotzmann's Die Like a Dog - Little Birds Have Fast Hearts

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Bap-Tizum

Edited by John B
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Eddie Davis / Johnny Griffin- at Mintons

Dexter Gordon- Swiss Nights

Chet Baker- The Last Great Concert

Kenny Burrell- A Night At The Vanguard

Paul Desmond Quartet- Live

Clifford Brown / Max Roach- at Basin Street

Wes Montgomery- Paris, 1965

Stan Getz- The Dolphin

Sarah Vaughan- Sassy Swings the Tivoli

Edited by Jim R
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Massey Hall Concert (Bird, Diz, Bud, Mingus, Max)

Mingus at Antibes with Dolphy, Ervin, Curson plus Bud on one track

Blakey in Paris with Wayne, Lee, Wilen & Bud Powell

Miles in Tokyo with Sam Rivers

Rollins at the Museum of Modern Art (THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER YOU - Impulse)

Coltrane at the Village Vanguard

Monk Orchestra at Town Hall

Dizzy Gillespie at Carnegie Hall '61 (AN ELECTRIFYING EVENING)

Dizzy Gillespie at the Village Vanguard '67 (with Pepper Adams, Chick Corea, etc.)

Shepp LIVE IN TOKYO '78 (Denon)

Hutcherson with Woody Shaw - LIVE AT MONTREUX

Ornette - London Concert '65

Getz '87 - SERENITY & ANNIVERSARY

That's off the top of my head. I'm certain there's lots more!

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I've got many favorites.

To name a few....

Art Blakey - Ugetsu (at Birdland)

Cedar Walton - Naima

Diz 'N Bird at Carnegie Hall

Ahmad Jamal - Olympia 2000

Horace Silver - Doin' the Thing

Just about everything Basie and Ellington put out ranks high with me.

Mainly the 50's Newport stuff, lots of energy.

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See my avatar. Never mind--I'll make it bigger:

60071530.jpg

This and the other 4 volumes offer some of the best played, best recorded live club jazz ever. I recently A-B'd these with some other live sets of the same 1959-61 vintage (Miles at the Black Hawk, Byrd/Pepper at the Half Note, Art Blakey at the Jazz Corner of the World, etc.), and the level of ensemble playing on this set, plus the clarity and presence of the sound, were way ahead of the others. Not that the others aren't good, but just that the Manne/Black Hawk recordings are phenomenal--at least to my ears.

And these haven't been remastered (at least in the US) since their initial CD issue in the early '90's. Frankly, there's virtually no room for improvement, which I guess Fantasy has figured out (and hence no U.S. 20-bit K2's).

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Wrong thread Allen.

Try the political section.

Che.

That's rich. :rolleyes:

Meanwhile, back at the Black Hawk . . . . :w

I enjoyed the BlackHawk album very much, but I guess it maybe something to do with Hank Mobley's playing, compared to that of John Coltrane. Now I am not trying to say this just because Coltrane is Coltrane, but the Blackhawk lacked a degree on intensity for me. Yes there was more swing, but there is something special about the Stockholm concert.

Che.

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