Jump to content

duaneiac

Members
  • Posts

    5,971
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    0.00 USD 

Everything posted by duaneiac

  1. Enjoying the DVD included in this set: I've only watched the first three programs on this 2 1/2 hour DVD. The second program included the Johnnie Spence Orchestra backing Ms. Fitzgerald on some numbers and Tubby Hayes was given a couple of very brief solos. The 1974 Ronnie Scott's set is very similar to the Pablo LP she recorded there around the same time. It was the one of the first "later era" Ella albums I encountered and it's one of my favorites, so it was fun to see that album "in performance", as it were.
  2. Anybody know when Ron Carter and Tootie Heath most recently recorded together? They sure worked well together here, 59 years ago.
  3. Disc 2 of 2, which includes the episodes "The Great Statue Debate" and "The Silver Doubloons"
  4. The first concert presented here marked Lee Konitz's arrival in the band and Mr. Kenton is effusive in his praise of the saxophonist. This version of the band also included Maynard Ferguson, Conte Candoli, Richie Kamuca, Bill Holman, Frank Rosolino, Bill Russo and Sal Salvador. This is the only one of this "Concerts In Miniature" series of CDs I have. The sound is good, but not terrific. Nice but brief liner notes by Kenton scholar/biographer Michael Sparke. Stan Kenton, before giving the band the tempo on "23 Degrees N - 82 Degrees W" here: "Gentlemen -- take my beat and make it yours"
  5. Disc 09 (of 24), which includes interviews by Ben Sidran with Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and McCoy Tyner.
  6. This album alone would probably make for an interesting blindfold test -- lots of familiar names playing bossa nova from back in the day when everybody had to learn to play their way through the bossa nova craze. Sure, Stan Getz is easy to pick out, but can you identify many of the others? If you are not up to that, this also serves as a nice getaway for those who may be sheltering in place, but whose minds are free to roam to faraway locales. Wouldn't exactly describe many of these as "rare tunes" though.
  7. Going through my McCoy Tyner CDs, I found this one, still unopened. It was one of the many items I bought during the Tower Records going-out-of-biz sale, however long ago that was now. I guess I must have looked at the program of all McCoy Tyner compositions and at the enticing band here and decided to save this disc for a future special listening occasion. It's sad that Mr. Tyner's passing turned out to be the "special occasion" that spurred me to break this one out, but I was delighted by my first (and eventually, second) listen to this. A very rewarding musical journey. Bobby Hutcherson is great here. I've seen this session issued in different version, but this is the one I have. I suppose it's good to be reminded that while McCoy Tyner was a true giant of music, he was also a gigging musician who had to make bank and this CD presents the trio in a club setting. An enjoyable, if not essential, session. I opened the liner notes to find an old ticket stub from when I saw the McCoy Tyner Quintet at Yoshi's on Jan. 26, 2000. Can't say I remember any details about that concert.
  8. Mark Murphy remains one of my favorite male jazz singers. I can appreciate that his style was not for every one and that he probably turned off a lot of potential listeners with some of the peculiar extremities of his style of singing. The one time I got to see him perform, he seemed either wryly resigned to or secretly proud of the fact that half of his audience did not return after intermission, saying something like, "Now we know who the real hip folks are". I admit there are moments on some of his records where even I am puzzled by some of his vocal flourishes and embellishments. But at his best and when everything -- singer, material, arrangement, backing group -- clicked, he was a fantastic singer. This record, recorded in 1967, found Mr. Murphy in a setting in which everything clicked indeed. Backed by an octet made up of members of the Kenny Clarke - Francy Boland big band, Mr. Murphy, his voice in excellent golden, velvety form, makes his way through Mr. Boland's arrangements with assuredness and agility. The album begins with the old (and possibly outdated by 1967) Duke Ellington number, "Jump For Joy". Mr. Murphy kicks off the song (and the album) acapella, which allows the listener to soak in the sheer beauty of his voice. When the band comes in, Mr. Murphy glides right along with them leading into a delightful scat chorus that emphasizes this song is about joy. Another winning track is Mr. Murphy's performance of the not-quite-love song, "You Fascinate Me So". Again, the opening allows listeners to hear the sheer beauty of his singing voice. Mr. Murphy starts out by singing this song fairly straight (if you'll pardon the expression). There is a Kenny Clarke drum break, which under other circumstances feels like it might have been a lead-in to a Basie style, big band swing chorus of the melody, but this is Mr. Murphy's album and the arrangement keeps the focus on his voice as the primary solo instrument. Mr. Murphy takes the tune a little further out in this section, offers up a few swooping Mark Murphyisms which work quite well in this hipsterish tune. Another break in the song and Mr. Murphy brings things back to the bare banes setting in which he started, singing the melody pretty much as intended, save for one more well placed swooping Murphyism (and notice where he chooses to place it; as Horace Silver said, "Jazz Has a Sense of Humor"). Then he brings the song in for a smooth landing that sounds like it would be right at home sung by Buddy Schmaltz and the SchmaltzTones Now Appearing in The Grotto Room of the Hideaway Lodge, but Mr. Murphy makes it sound smooth, sexy and hip. Not even Sinatra himself could have nailed this landing better. But what about ballads, you may ask. The album is called Midnight Mood, so shouldn't there be some soft ballads on there somewhere? Well, there are ballads, but I would not exactly call them soft. The album concludes with "I Get Along Without You Very Well", but in this setting, with Mr. Boland's piano serving as a kind of dull, persistent ache, Mr. Murphy seems to drop the brave false front of the lyrics choosing to present a 2 AM dark night of the soul moment. If you've ever been there, done that, this is powerful stuff. Like it or not (I quite like it), Mr. Boland's arrangement here shows he spent some time thinking about this song, what it says and how best to communicate to others what he feels the song is about. This is not only one of Mark Murphy's finest albums, I would include it in a list of "Essential Vocal Jazz Recordings", were I foolhardy enough to compile such a list. If you have sampled some Mark Murphy before and felt he was just not your cup of tea, you might do well to give this album a chance. If you can't dig him here, you might never dig him, but at least this album showcases his vocal skill & style at its best.
  9. I love this version of one of my favorite songs:
  10. Last night I watched this triple feature: Charles Laughton is superb and well deserved the Best Actor Oscar awarded him for his work. The actresses portraying his wives are also splendid, Merle Oberon, Wendy Barrie, Binnie Barnes and the wonderful Elsa Lanchester. An odd docudrama about Bob Mizer, who was sort of a low-rent, gay version of Hugh Hefner as a pioneering purveyor of "adult entertainment", in Mr. Mizer's case, as the photographer and publisher behind Physique Pictorial, a "men's fitness" magazine which featured very scantily clad (later to be fully naked) young men. The film includes interview segments with men who were actually around and part of the scene back in the L.A. of the late 1940's-1950's, the two gentlemen listed on the above DVD cover being the most well known names. The film also dramatizes events to show the rise of and some of the heyday of Mr. Mizer's photographic and filmmaking career. This part seems a bit too campy and less seedy than the reality likely was. The movie just kind of winds down around 1964, even though Mr. Mizer continued on with his work/passion until his death in 1992.
  11. A thoroughly enjoyable compilation, although including Lionel Hampton as a "singer" is certainly stretching the boundaries of that word's meaning. If you've never heard "Bon Bon" -- and likely few of the folks frequenting this board spend hours spinning Jan Savitt records -- then give this a listen. Wow! This is some superbly fluid scat singing. More about Bon Bon, Jan Savitt and this particular recording can be found here.
  12. There were a lot of musician cameos in Robert Altman's Kansas City, every one from David Murray to Ron Carter to Geri Allen to Russell Malone. Bobby Troup was in Altman's M*A*S*H Altman's version of A Prairie Home Companion included pianist/clarinetist Butch Thompson who was once the musical director for that radio program. Bassist Putter Smith played Mr. Kidd in the James Bond flick, Diamonds Are Forever. Anita O'Day was by far the best thing in The Gene Krupa Story. Tito Puente was in Woody Allen's Radio Days and in The Mambo Kings. Bobby Short was in Hannah and Her Sisters. Peter Martin, Christoph Luty, Jeff Hamilton and Matt Catingub accompany Dianne Reeves in her scenes in Good Night and Good Luck. Not film, but there was that one Kung Fu TV episode that Cannonball appeared in too.
  13. Very sad, but news I'd been dreading for some time now. He was a giant. I remember back in the good old days when he used to have his annual 2 week residencies at Yoshi's in Oakland. Saw him in several different musical settings that way. A genuine artist, one whose influence will be felt in the jazz world for decades to come. Rest In Peace, Mr. Tyner. "You Taught My Heart To Sing".
×
×
  • Create New...