WORTH A LISTEN
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What is it about getting old that turns fire-breathing young tenor players into Sonny Rollins?
Steve Grossman started out in a Coltrane bag, and spent much of the 70s applying this style to Latin and funk flavored fusion. But now, he’s playing mainstream jazz in that jolly, avuncular fashion that Rollins made […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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Most of the time, I don’t much like compilations. Usually, if a performer is worth plunking down money to listen to, it’s more enlightening and entertaining to listen to key recordings rather than rely on someone else’s judgement of what is essential and what isn’t.
But occasionally, there are performers I like, […]

CLASSICS THAT I HATE
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Man, I’ve been dreading reviewing this one. The Sermon (on the Blue Note label) is considered one of the major classics of jazz. Jimmy Smith is acknowledged by pretty much everyone, including other organ players, as having invented the organ as a serious jazz instrument and as it’s greatest exponent.
Why then, do […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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For me, it’s was kind of a struggle to figure out which Thelonious Monk CDs to buy when I was building my jazz collection. It’s a given that Monk is one of the architects of modern jazz, an original, and completely indispensable. However, he tends to repeat himself, and in his […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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For me, I’d rather listen to Tete Montoliu play solo more than any other single pianist. His 1974 release Songs For Love is one of the reasons.
He has a very consistent approach to material, which is not really a drawback for me.
Take Montoliu’s interpretation of J. van […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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Part of the problem here might be that I’m not a huge fan of Wes Montgomery (heresy, I know), but I’m not terribly impressed with Pat Martino’s Remember: A Tribute To Wes Montgomery.
For those who don’t know the story, Pat Martino had brain surgery in 1980 in order to correct an aneurysm, […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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When I first picked up Tango Palace, I fell in love with it. Over the years, I got sick of it, and it dropped to the bottom of my rotation, to the point that I think I began to undervalue it.
There’s a reason for that.
Tango Palace is mostly free improvisation, but […]

DON’T BOTHER
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Have you ever watched a movie and really grooved on the soundtrack, only to find that later on, when you bought the soundtrack and listened to it in isolation from the images, it wasn’t all that great? That’s a bit what it’s like to listen to Elevator To The Gallows (Ascenseur Pour l’Échafaud).
Mind […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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I’ve got to admit, I feel a little bit sorry for Charles Mingus. (Just a little bit, okay? I mean, I’d be happy to have the talent he had in his little pinky or one tenth his career in music.)
You see, back in 1959, Charles Mingus was absolutely at the vanguard […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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If you’ve never heard Charles Mingus before, Modern Jazz Symposium is a great place to start. It’s utterly accessible, and yet it contains all of the earmarks of what makes Mingus special.
Although free jazz had not officially been invented yet, there are free sections in this music. Mingus’ aesthetic was fluid. […]