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Two Great Tastes That Taste Better Together


Dan Gould

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I think that's a paraphrase of the old commercial but you get the idea. Chocolate is great and so is peanut butter but it's even better together.

So what are your two great musicians who sound even better together? Instead of a list, how about restricting it to a single pair, but no restriction to jazz - any genre counts.

Mine would be Gene Harris + Stanley Turrentine. They only made two records together but whether its the mostly slow Blue Hour or the more uptempo live set put out by Concord, these two masters of the blues sound even better together.

Yours?

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I don't quite agree that Stanley sounds better than ever on those, but they're both super albums.

Sometimes it's just on the day. Les McCann and Eddie Harris, to me, sound better than ever on 'Swiss movement' but not on 'Second movement', which is just the regular thing.

I think Bill Doggett, Billy Butler and Clifford Scott sounded better together than any of them ever did without the others - but perhaps not always; I think there may have been some pretty ordinary sides I can't remember. Sometimes there's a perfect team and it doesn't really matter if not everything's up to the same mark.

Same goes for Art Blakey and Horace Silver.

Also Leon Spencer, Mel Sparks and Idris Muhammad.

And McDuff, Benson, Dukes.

But is this moving away from what you intended?

MG

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Well MG to keep up the analogy I think you're slathering the peanut butter and chocolate onto a cookie. :g

But it's cool.

Sorry, I'm a furriner :D

In Blues, how about Lowell Fulson & Maxwell Davis?

When were Lowell and Maxwell working together? Late 40s/early 50s? That's a hole in my collection that I've been meaning to close since the sixties - big mistake, eh?

MG

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No, at that time it would be Lowell and Lloyd Glenn, who would be a good pair too.

But Lowell and Maxwell Davis collaborated on all of his great 60s sides for the Biharis.

(Parenthetically, Lowell's greatest hit of that era was "Tramp" and the story goes that because he knew that if he recorded it at a session being run by Maxwell Davis, he'd add a horn chart, Lowell recorded it when Maxwell was on vacation. And the rest as they say .... )

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No, at that time it would be Lowell and Lloyd Glenn, who would be a good pair too.

But Lowell and Maxwell Davis collaborated on all of his great 60s sides for the Biharis.

(Parenthetically, Lowell's greatest hit of that era was "Tramp" and the story goes that because he knew that if he recorded it at a session being run by Maxwell Davis, he'd add a horn chart, Lowell recorded it when Maxwell was on vacation. And the rest as they say .... )

Oh, I think I have most of the Kent/Modern material. Didn't know the story about 'Tramp'.

MG

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Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell

Lockjaw Davis and Johnny Griffin

Paul Desmond and Ed Bickert

Robert Cray and Curtis Salgado

Charlie Baty and Rick Estrin

Gotta say, I don't agree with Smith/Burrell. I think together they were pretty much the same as apart. And Smith couldn't have made an album like 'Up the street, round the corner, down the block', which is about my favourite Burrell. But they DID go together very well.

Also Jaws and Griff... I have a marked preference for the two of them together over Griff alone, in general, but I think it's because Jaws is there :) There's a lot of Griff I like a lot, like 'Grab this', 'Big soul band', 'Soul groove' and 'Bush dance', but I think it may be who's with him, too. Often, he sounds a bit too much like a jazz musician for me. (A distinctly one-sided view, of course :g)

MG

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Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell

Lockjaw Davis and Johnny Griffin

Paul Desmond and Ed Bickert

Robert Cray and Curtis Salgado

Charlie Baty and Rick Estrin

Gotta say, I don't agree with Smith/Burrell. I think together they were pretty much the same as apart. And Smith couldn't have made an album like 'Up the street, round the corner, down the block', which is about my favourite Burrell. But they DID go together very well.

Also Jaws and Griff... I have a marked preference for the two of them together over Griff alone, in general, but I think it's because Jaws is there :) There's a lot of Griff I like a lot, like 'Grab this', 'Big soul band', 'Soul groove' and 'Bush dance', but I think it may be who's with him, too. Often, he sounds a bit too much like a jazz musician for me. (A distinctly one-sided view, of course :g)

MG

Who gives a fuck? :)

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Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell

Lockjaw Davis and Johnny Griffin

Paul Desmond and Ed Bickert

Robert Cray and Curtis Salgado

Charlie Baty and Rick Estrin

Gotta say, I don't agree with Smith/Burrell. I think together they were pretty much the same as apart. And Smith couldn't have made an album like 'Up the street, round the corner, down the block', which is about my favourite Burrell. But they DID go together very well.

Also Jaws and Griff... I have a marked preference for the two of them together over Griff alone, in general, but I think it's because Jaws is there :) There's a lot of Griff I like a lot, like 'Grab this', 'Big soul band', 'Soul groove' and 'Bush dance', but I think it may be who's with him, too. Often, he sounds a bit too much like a jazz musician for me. (A distinctly one-sided view, of course :g)

MG

Who gives a fuck? :)

Gawd blusher, Guv!

MG

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