JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Alright, a little disclosure here. I’m not a big fan of either Milt Jackson or Wes Montgomery (I know — total heresy). So you might want to take my opinion of Bags Meets Wes with grain of salt.
I actually think it’s really good.
First off, it’s a straight bebop date, which […]

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 […]

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. […]

JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Power To The People is one of those releases that tend to fall through the cracks. Like much of Joe Henderson’s solo work, it is not overtly innovative, but instead works through already established forms. It also lacks the simplicity and clarity that would endear it to the small jazz […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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I used to think that guitarist Joe Pass was kind of square. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Sure he’s a straight up bebop player, but when you’ve got the chops, endless creativity and taste of a Joe Pass, who cares? He can play with a big band and get himself […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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The Real McCoy was the start of McCoy Tyner’s modern period, which would eventually reach it’s peak during the Milestone years.
On The Real McCoy, Tyner’s playing wasn’t as blistering as it would later become, but he was already delving into modal playing and composing, and he’s got a killer band to […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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In one sense, Fuchsia Swing Song isn’t a whole lot different than many post bop dates from the mid-60s. The structures of the tunes aren’t particularly radical. There’s a swing tune, a blues, one that’s a cycle of 7ths, and so on. The nonpareil rhythm team of Ron Carter on bass […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Occasionally, a date is so perfectly executed that it’s almost immaterial that there’s very little that’s challenging going on in the music.
Kenny Burrell’s Midnight Blue is a case in point. Most of the material is blues-oriented, which is no knock in and of itself, but Burrell approaches it in such an […]

JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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It might be hard to fathom, given vibraphonist Gary Burton’s current status as a conservative, mainstream jazz musician, but when he started his career as a leader, Burton was an iconoclast, and one of the greatest innovators of the 60s. It was Burton that made the first steps towards fusion, […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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If there was ever truth in advertising, this is it. Out There is pretty bizarre, but in a good way.
First off, there’s the instrumentation. Dolphy is basically using a chordless jazz trio, augmented with Ron Carter on cello. Roy Haynes plays the drums with a special delicacy designed to showcase the […]