So, What Are You Listening To NOW?

[jazzbo]

 

Ruby Braff “I Hear Music” Arbors cd

A great swinging date with a tight band.

Bass – John Beal
Tenor sax - Tommy Newsome
Cornet – Ruby Braff
Drums – Tony Denicola
Guitar – Bucky Pizzarelli
Piano – Bill Charlap
Vocals – Daryl Sherman (one track)

Recorded July 28, 2000.

 

Edited December 20, 2025 by jazzbo

[Balladeer]

Thelonious Monk - Bremen 1965 (Sunnyside)

[jlhoots]

25 minutes ago, Balladeer said:

Thelonious Monk - Bremen 1965 (Sunnyside)

👍

[John Tapscott]

A really fine recording. 

[jazzbo]

1Brother Jack McDuff, George Benson “The Legendary 1963–64 Concerts” Finger Poppin’ 2 cd set, disc 1

Edited December 20, 2025 by jazzbo

[Holy Ghost]

3 hours ago, Peter Friedman said:

Thinking about Jim Hall a lot lately, brilliant guitarist. 

[Peter Friedman]

[Gheorghe]

On 12/19/2025 at 6:36 PM, Holy Ghost said:

I love to listen to it whenever I am in a certain mood and I am quite often since early summer ! 😍

4 hours ago, jazzbo said:

COLD. It’s going to be one of those winters (as I keep finding myself thinking and repeating to myself).

Starting a day listeninig as Lucinda takes her first nap. . . a disc I haven’t heard long enough for it to be a joy to me after decades of listening to it. And in my favorite edition: a JVC XRCD in lp facsimile. There’s just a deeper soundstage to this mastering, and little details that reveal texture. . . I love the sound of this disc.

Steamin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet LP facsimile XRCD

 

GREAT. Tell you what. This was the FIRST LP I had when I was about 14 years old. It´s the album that made it for me, from that point on Jazz has been my life, at it´s 24 hours a day. 

Well at the same time I saw Miles live for the first time (late 1973) and though it was another kind of music I love it the same as I love those great old albums. 

Though I am more into stuff like late Trane, Pharoah, Alice Coltrane, Ornette, Sun Ra, it was just a few days ago that I listened to "Steamin´" in the small hours, after a gig back at home just to "come down" and if possible to catch a few hours of sleep....., well though I know every note of this record I didn´t fall asleep 😄

[jazzbo]

For me it was almost all the electric albums before retirement, then the quintet with Wayne, Ron, Herbie and Tony, and THEN the Prestige material. But I love it all.

[jazzbo]

Duke Ellington "Volume 4, 1928" Masters of Jazz Media 7 cd

Fantastic music from before the Big Crash.

[Peter Friedman]

2 hours ago, jazzbo said:

For me it was almost all the electric albums before retirement, then the quintet with Wayne, Ron, Herbie and Tony, and THEN the Prestige material. But I love it all.

In my case, it was first - Miles various Prestige sessions with Rollins, Horace Silver,Kenny Clarke and others.  Also the 2 early Blue Note's. Then came the quintet with Trane, Garland, Chambers & Philly Joe. Though I enjoyed the Quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, I preferred the previous Quintet.

I bought "Bitches Brew" and did not like it. From that point on , I lost interest in Miles Davis recordings.

 

[John Tapscott]

[jazzbo]

7 minutes ago, Peter Friedman said:

In my case, it was first - Miles various Prestige sessions with Rollins, Horace Silver,Kenny Clarke and others.  Also the 2 early Blue Note's. Then came the quintet with Trane, Garland, Chambers & Philly Joe. Though I enjoyed the Quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, I preferred the previous Quintet.

I bought "Bitches Brew" and did not like it. From that point on , I lost interest in Miles Davis recordings.

 

I think a lot depends on what years one "came up" into a musical listening life. I was 17 when I discovered Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Miles Davis at Fillmore, et al and had just returned from over five years living in Africa and my favorite music was Hendrix and Cream and African music I heard (Ethiopian, Swazi and South African). Electric Miles spoke to me in ways nothing else did, and then over the following years of the 'seventies I went back in time with Miles in my listneing, and followed Miles sidemen and artists Miles praised like Duke and Bird.

[optatio]

Junior Cook Quartet / The George Coleman Octet: Stablemates. Affinity CD AFF 766 [UK 1990]

[Peter Friedman]

34 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

I think a lot depends on what years one "came up" into a musical listening life. I was 17 when I discovered Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Miles Davis at Fillmore, et al and had just returned from over five years living in Africa and my favorite music was Hendrix and Cream and African music I heard (Ethiopian, Swazi and South African). Electric Miles spoke to me in ways nothing else did, and then over the following years of the 'seventies I went back in time with Miles in my listneing, and followed Miles sidemen and artists Miles praised like Duke and Bird.

Yes, I very much agree. I am likely the oldest person posting on this board. My strong interest in jazz  truly developed at the very time when both Hard Bop and West Coast Jazz were coming onto the scene.Though my interest in Lester Young started early.

As time passed I also went back in time and developed a strong interest in the music and musicians of the Swing/Mainsteam period such as Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Buck Clayton,  Johnny Hodges, etc. Then I became interested in the Eddie Condon School such as Pee Wee Russell, Bud Freeman, Wild Bill Davison and others.

I also developed an interest in Blues Music and people such as Muddy Waters & Lightnin Hopkins .

Other than a very brief stint of interest of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Rock music was never on my radar.

[Holy Ghost]

[Gheorghe]

2 minutes ago, Holy Ghost said:

I didn´t know he made his own album. I love him, it´s more the direction I am into. Like let´s say my beloved Sun Ra, but also in other settings. 

Like....let´s say I have the ESP album of Henry Grimes, that´s also fine. 

[Holy Ghost]

1 hour ago, Gheorghe said:

I didn´t know he made his own album. I love him, it´s more the direction I am into. Like let´s say my beloved Sun Ra, but also in other settings. 

Like....let´s say I have the ESP album of Henry Grimes, that´s also fine. 

Yeah, another minor masterpiece! I saw him live with Roy Campbell at CMA back in 2014, and I snapped a photo of him, but the flash went off, and he knew it was me and basically snarled at me with his signature headband and couldn't stop staring at me, like he was going to find me and kick my ass after the show. I was so embarrassed. I'm like did I just piss Henry Grimes off?

Like here is what he looked like when I saw hin around that time (the original photo is gone)

 

Edited December 20, 2025 by Holy Ghost

[John Tapscott]

1 hour ago, optatio said:

Junior Cook Quartet / The George Coleman Octet: Stablemates. Affinity CD AFF 766 [UK 1990]

That George Coleman Octet record is excellent. 

[Holy Ghost]

NP

 

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, jazzbo said:

I think a lot depends on what years one "came up" into a musical listening life. I was 17 when I discovered Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Miles Davis at Fillmore, et al and had just returned from over five years living in Africa and my favorite music was Hendrix and Cream and African music I heard (Ethiopian, Swazi and South African). Electric Miles spoke to me in ways nothing else did, and then over the following years of the 'seventies I went back in time with Miles in my listneing, and followed Miles sidemen and artists Miles praised like Duke and Bird.

It was 1971 when I started listening to jazzes, and a little bit of everything was out there, and that was what I liked. That turned into a lot of everything. Stories about people places and things real or not worlds known and unknown.

I have few complaints about that, and there's still more and other musics, some are quite engaging!

[T.D.]

 

 

Enjoying this. Some people don't like Cowell's "later straight-ahead" albums as much as his earlier work. Sometimes they can be slightly anodyne (which is why I was apprehensive about this one on the Japanese Venus label*), but: (a) he never played in a very "out" style; (b) he still plays great on the later recordings.

* Amusingly, discogs now censors the notoriously soft-porn Venus covers. You have to log in to view them. 🤣

With a funny West Side Story medley.

[Peter Friedman]

[Holy Ghost]

1 hour ago, Peter Friedman said:

Excellent!!!

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

It was 1971 when I started listening to jazzes, and a little bit of everything was out there, and that was what I liked. That turned into a lot of everything. Stories about people places and things real or not worlds known and unknown.

I have few complaints about that, and there's still more and other musics, some are quite engaging!

Fascinating accounts, I was barely one years old!

[jazzbo]

Bob Wilber and Bechet Legacy “Live At The Vineyard” Challenge cd

Bob and Randy are a great pairing and I’m enjoying this drummer-less quartet.

Bass – John Goldsby
Guitar – Mike Peters
Soprano Saxophone, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone – Bob Wilber
Trumpet – Randy Sandke