WORTH A LISTEN
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First of all, let me say that I’m not really the audience for In Angel City. I’m not a huge fan of mainstream jazz, which is what Quartet West really is. Sure, Ernie Watts’ tenor sax solos show the influence of Coltrane and King Curtis and the rest […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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There are a lot of things that make Monk (released on the Prestige label) a classic date.
Let’s start with the tunes. With the exception of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, they’re all written by Monk, and every last one is a gem.
For that matter, Monk’s […]

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WORTH A LISTEN
I don’t care if Charlie Rouse played with Monk longer than any other saxophonist. He’s weak. There’s a reason why he disappeared after Monk stopped performing.
Truth be told, the only saxophonist that ever played with Monk and did justice to his compositions was Coltrane, during the legendary date […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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I’ve got to admit, I’m fond of Art Blakey. I like the way he ostentatiously plays constrasting cross rhythms every chance he gets. He’s a highly theatrical showoff, which is not a criticism. Besides, he’s probably the drummer who best understands Thelonious Monk, which definitely earns him brownie points with me.
Aside […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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I keep telling anyone who will listen about the time I heard the best Latin jazz and the best trombone player ever on my car radio while I was driving from Boston to Philadelphia. The station was WBAI out of NYC. The year was 1981. It was […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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Solo Piano is actually a two-fer composed of two releases recorded by Tete Montoliu in 1977, Yellow Dolphin Street, and Catalonian Folksongs, reissued on the Timeless Records label.
Any solo piano material from Tete Montiliu from this period is worthwhile, but Catalonian Folksongs is the classic of […]

JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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In the dark days of the 1980s, there was a commercial resurgence of interest in jazz, but it was the embalmed museum jazz of Wynton Marsalis and his ilk. For Marsalis, jazz effectively ended in the early sixties with Art Blakey’s Messengers.
In this environment, very few people dared to explore […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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I’m not much for straight-up bebop, but I’ll make an exception for Maggie’s Back In Town (reissued on the Original Jazz Classics label).
There’s not too much to say about this release, really.
Howard McGee spins out endlessly inventive melodies on trumpet, Phineas Newborn Junior is very impressive, […]

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JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RELEASE
Notwithstanding the recently discovered Carnegie Hall concert, 1958’s Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane (reissued on the Jazzland Records label) has the definitive performances of these two great jazzmen together.
The difference is, in the Carnegie Hall concert, Monk and Coltrane were professionals, dutifully offering up a carefully packaged […]

JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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I don’t usually like jazz that’s unadventurous and doesn’t attempt to expand the boundaries of the music, but I’ll have to make an exception for Hampton Hawes’ All Night Session.
All Night Session! is a pure, unadulterated hard bop date stocked with tunes by Dizzy Gillespie, Duke […]