JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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I avoided Echoes Of A Friend for a long time because it’s a collection of McCoy Tyner piano solos, and because the friend Tyner is referring to in the title is Coltrane. Not that I have anything against Coltrane, but Tyner has referenced him so much elsewhere that devoting an entire […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Oftentimes, superstar groups don’t really live up to their billing — too many egos jostling for space. The same is true for double CDs. How many concepts really require 150 minutes of music? To some degree, the second truism applies to Miles From India.
The concept of Miles From India has several […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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Outbreak may have drummer Dennis Chambers’ name above the title, but this is really producer/keyboardist/arranger/composer Jim Beard’s date, and that’s just fine. Of course, Beard has designed the album to showcase Chambers’ awesome drum playing, and that’s one of the major pleasures of Outbreak, but only one among many.
Beard has recruited […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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My guess is that Black Market is one of Joe Zawinul’s favorite Weather Report dates. Why? Well, it’s a major Third World groove machine which, judging by the interviews Zawinul has given over the years, seems to be his main priority. Another thing that Zawinul should be justifiably proud of: his […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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Chick Corea is such a nice guy that sometimes I feel like a dick for criticising his music. On the insert for Change, he writes in his dedication: “To The Idealist, the Dreamer…To those who persist towards their goals of Betterment and Beauty…To those who truly Help, To the Artist in all […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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During the Brecker Brothers’ first incarnation, the band was all about merging jazz with funk and R&B. With The Return Of The Brecker Brothers, the brothers widened their net to include African pop forms and Brazilian music. If you want to hear what the Brecker Brothers might have sounded like if […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Too often on recordings that attempt to fuse Brazilian rhythms with jazz, one or the other element tends to get shortchanged. Either the rhythms are overly simplistic, or the improvisations substitute scale running for substantive improv. To some extent, that’s the case with Samba Jazz In Black And White.
True, reed player […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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Most of Thelonious Monk’s significant work was recorded fairly early in his career, so I was surprised to find out that Solo Monk dates from 1964.
Most of the tunes on this date are covers of pop tunes from the 30s and 40s. How Monk imbues these tunes with his personality gives […]

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I went to see the Realistic Orchestra on a lark, really. They were playing at Yerba Buena Gardens for free on a Saturday, and I happened to be in the area with my wife, shopping. I wasn’t even really planning to write a review, but I was fairly impressed.
The first thing that struck me […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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You might think a release consisting of almost nothing but variations on the blues could get a little monotonous, but in the case of Coltrane Plays The Blues, it’s the opposite.
Coltrane finds a variety of ways to play the blues: major blues, minor blues, differences in tempo, instrumentation, and rhythmic approach. […]