Top 10 Blue Note sidemen

[Clunky]

For me it's mainly pianists and a few drummers that come to mind.

Wynton Kelly

Kenny Drew

Bobby Timmons

Harold Mabern

Billy Higgins

Art Taylor 

Philly Joe Jones

[paul secor]

Has Ben Dixon been mentioned?

[Gheorghe]

Though he made many BN albums under his own name, I want to mention Joe Henderson:

 After listening to some BN-albums from the second great decade of that label (60´s), I noticed again, that his presence as a sideman would create most exiting moments on albums where he was a "sideman".

This is the case on his solo on Hancock´s "The Prisoner". I think this highly emotional solo is the highlight of that tune, that album......

And on "McCoy Tyner´s" 1967 album "the real Mc Coy" I think I paid most attention to his playing.

And "Unity" with Larry Young......,

and all those others , with Andrew Hill that one from 1963 I forgot the title but it´s fantastic, all the stuff with Kenny Dorham, just fantastic what this great musician did........, one of the giants...... 

[mikeweil]

I'm really surprised nobody mentioned two essential sidemen: Bob Cranshaw and Joe Chambers.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Yes, surprising. They're fine, but not my favourites.

MG

[Gheorghe]

1 hour ago, mikeweil said:

I'm really surprised nobody mentioned two essential sidemen: Bob Cranshaw and Joe Chambers.

Right.

But as good as Bob Cranshaw is and I think he must have been part of the dream team of many sessions, nevertheless I dare to say, that he is mostly on the more "straight ahead" sessions from the label´s 60s period.

Let´s say: Albums like "Idle Moments" and so on they are wonderful music, timeless beautiful things, but from a certain point of view I´d pay more attention to the more advanced efforts, stuff that maybe did not sell as well as "Idle" "Sidewinder" "Song For My Father" and so on, but more the stuff men like Wayne Shorter, like Sam Rivers, like Andrew Hill would make, or the Jackie McLean projects with Graham Moncur III , and so on. Bob Cranshaw was steady and very very fine, but Ron or Richard Davis or some of those guys would fit better into the more advanced stuff.

Joe Chambers he was very very good and is a very sharp drummer and would push the music. There were other drummers who never did exite me really, though they good and steady, Al Harwood had a good timing, but he would not exite me......., other stuff with Tony, with Elvin, with.... yeah ...Joe Chambers.......

[soulpope]

5 minutes ago, Gheorghe said:

Joe Chambers he was very very good and is a very sharp drummer and would push the music.

Agreed ....

[mikeweil]

I think Blue Note is just as much hard bop and groove as it is experimental, so they needed musicians for both. 

[JSngry]

Nobody's mentioned Harvey Mason yet?

[Rooster_Ties]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Nobody's mentioned Harvey Mason yet?

Nor Vincent McEwan (trumpet), or Teddy Robinson (drums) -- ?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

10 hours ago, mikeweil said:

I think Blue Note is just as much hard bop and groove as it is experimental, so they needed musicians for both. 

That's right. Though if one had the energy to count 'em, on a really extremely boring day, one might find that hard bop issues slightly outnumbered soul jazz which outnumbered experimental. But they needed ALL those guys.

MG

[Gheorghe]

4 hours ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

That's right. Though if one had the energy to count 'em, on a really extremely boring day, one might find that hard bop issues slightly outnumbered soul jazz which outnumbered experimental. But they needed ALL those guys.

MG

But all of them ar good. Though for me BN means the period from late 40s (the Monk, Bud, Fats stuff etc.) the 50´s (all that Hard Bop ) and 60´s until maybe 1970 (hard bop, a few of the better boogaloo, and of course more advanced stuff´).

When I started to be aware of jazz, BN was something like a magic word for me, though it was the worst time for that label I think. At least in Europe many classics were OOP, and I remember I went to a record shop where the LPs were sorted by Label Name. I hurried to the BN section but to my embarassment there was no artist I might know, most of it seemed to be grossly overproduced mid 70´s studio stuff. Once I bought by mistake a Lou Donaldson album from 1974 and after one painful listening experience I threw it away...., I wanna say : Nothing against 70´s electric jazz, but not that kind.

 

[mikeweil]

Each to his own image of Blue Note!

[danasgoodstuff]

On 3/19/2018 at 11:02 PM, Gheorghe said:

Though he made many BN albums under his own name, I want to mention Joe Henderson:

 After listening to some BN-albums from the second great decade of that label (60´s), I noticed again, that his presence as a sideman would create most exiting moments on albums where he was a "sideman".

This is the case on his solo on Hancock´s "The Prisoner". I think this highly emotional solo is the highlight of that tune, that album......

And on "McCoy Tyner´s" 1967 album "the real Mc Coy" I think I paid most attention to his playing.

And "Unity" with Larry Young......,

and all those others , with Andrew Hill that one from 1963 I forgot the title but it´s fantastic, all the stuff with Kenny Dorham, just fantastic what this great musician did........, one of the giants...... 

If anything I think I prefer Joe Hen as a sideman.  He is so good on such a wide range of albums, from the Real McCoy to Idle Moments to Basra to Brown Sugar.  And he's on the two biggest hits the label had in that era too.  And he and Kenny Dorham are one of the great trumpet/sax tandems. It took me a while to really appreciate Joe and it was the cumulative weight of the sideman dates that did it.  Just two more I'll mention Unity and Point of Departure.  Now if they could've just gotten Sam R and John G to play some boogaloo....

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

39 minutes ago, danasgoodstuff said:

If anything I think I prefer Joe Hen as a sideman.  He is so good on such a wide range of albums, from the Real McCoy to Idle Moments to Basra to Brown Sugar.  And he's on the two biggest hits the label had in that era too.  And he and Kenny Dorham are one of the great trumpet/sax tandems. It took me a while to really appreciate Joe and it was the cumulative weight of the sideman dates that did it.  Just two more I'll mention Unity and Point of Departure.  Now if they could've just gotten Sam R and John G to play some boogaloo....

Can't say I enjoy Joe Henderson's leader dates for Blue Note: too much like hard bop. But I love 'Multiple', Canyon Lady' and 'If you're not part of the solution'. But as a sideman, with Johnny 'Hammond' Smith and others a bit later, he was as good as on 'Brown sugar'.

MG

[Brad]

The people listed above as sidemen were both sidemen and leaders so as someone noted they were never true sidemen. They were all part of the BN Family as someone noted or just the talent or bench that Alfred could draw upon for a date. 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

Billy Higgins is the #1 BN sideman.  he has no albums as a leader on BN and is the MVP on many bn sessions

[Milestones]

Isn't this strict definition of sideman too limiting for jazz?  I'm always most intrigued by the records on which every player is a leader (albeit at a lower rate for most bassists and drummers); and in Blue Note's heyday this was true of virtually all the great records.

 

[danasgoodstuff]

14 minutes ago, Milestones said:

Isn't this strict definition of sideman too limiting for jazz?  I'm always most intrigued by the records on which every player is a leader (albeit at a lower rate for most bassists and drummers); and in Blue Note's heyday this was true of virtually all the great records.

 

True, officially Miles is a sideman on Something Else....

[Milestones]

Yes, and Side 1 (at least) sounds absolutely like a Miles Davis record.

 

I might well argue that Basra (Pete La Roca) is the greatest Joe Henderson album on Blue Note.

[Holy Ghost]

Agree With Chewy

Exception, at least when I saw his name as leader or sideman, Jackie.

 

Otherwise, and if any of these other great musicians have already been mentioned...

Victor Sproles

Ronnie Mathews

Sonny Greenwich

George Benson

Melvin Sparks

Charles Tollivor

Lamont Jackson

Karl Berger

Scott Holt

Hugh Walker

Harold Alexander

Marvin Cabell...

 

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

5 minutes ago, Holy Ghost said:

Agree With Chewy

Exception, at least when I saw his name as leader or sideman, Jackie.

 

Otherwise, and if any of these other great musicians have already been mentioned...

Victor Sproles

Ronnie Mathews

Sonny Greenwich

George Benson

Melvin Sparks

Charles Tollivor

Lamont Jackson

Karl Berger

Scott Holt

Hugh Walker

Harold Alexander

Marvin Cabell...

 

Welcome Holy Ghost!!!

Do you mean that, as I did and do, you avoided getting Jackie McLean records or that you think he dominates his albums.

MG

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, Holy Ghost said:

Agree With Chewy

Exception, at least when I saw his name as leader or sideman, Jackie.

 

Otherwise, and if any of these other great musicians have already been mentioned...

Victor Sproles

Ronnie Mathews

Sonny Greenwich

George Benson

Melvin Sparks

Charles Tollivor

Lamont Jackson

Karl Berger

Scott Holt

Hugh Walker

Harold Alexander

Marvin Cabell...

 

Sonny Greenwich?!  I didn't know that. Which records? 

[sidewinder]

Hank Mobley ‘Third Season’

[sidewinder]

On 21/03/2018 at 0:41 PM, Gheorghe said:

But all of them ar good. Though for me BN means the period from late 40s (the Monk, Bud, Fats stuff etc.) the 50´s (all that Hard Bop ) and 60´s until maybe 1970 (hard bop, a few of the better boogaloo, and of course more advanced stuff´).

When I started to be aware of jazz, BN was something like a magic word for me, though it was the worst time for that label I think. At least in Europe many classics were OOP, and I remember I went to a record shop where the LPs were sorted by Label Name. I hurried to the BN section but to my embarassment there was no artist I might know, most of it seemed to be grossly overproduced mid 70´s studio stuff. Once I bought by mistake a Lou Donaldson album from 1974 and after one painful listening experience I threw it away...., I wanna say : Nothing against 70´s electric jazz, but not that kind.

 

That rings a bell with me. Circa 1975 when Blue Note in the racks here in UK meant  Donald Byrd ‘Places and Spaces’, Ronnie Laws, aforementioned Lou LPs with garish covers and not much else. Then the Brown Bag twofer series from Mesrs Lourie and Cuscuna appeared like a ‘mana from heaven’.

Edited March 24, 2018 by sidewinder