What are you listening to?

[The Minsky Moment]

Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack (1960)

Funk-y  I had no idea anyone was this funky back in 1960.

That was the high point for soul jazz, of which Smith was a leading figure.  Other representatives:

Cannonball and Nat Adderley - e.g. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy  Live at the Club, pretty much any Adderley brother live album really
Bobby Timmons - e.g.  his work in Art Blakey's Moanin', and other 1960-61 Jazz Messengers albums.
Lee Morgan - also in that Blakey band.  Also his Sidewinder album and his sidemen sessions with Hank Mobley.
Stanley Turrentine- pretty much any 60s era Blue Note album.  For a sample, listen to "Trouble", 1st track off the Never Let Me Go album.
Hank Mobley's early 60s blue note albums, e.g. Soul Station
Horace Silver - Blowin' the Blues Away, Song for My Father, Jody Grind, others.

[garbon]

Whitney Houston - Queen of the Night

[Savonarola]

Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack (1960)

Funk-y  I had no idea anyone was this funky back in 1960.

That was the high point for soul jazz, of which Smith was a leading figure.  Other representatives:

Cannonball and Nat Adderley - e.g. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy  Live at the Club, pretty much any Adderley brother live album really
Bobby Timmons - e.g.  his work in Art Blakey's Moanin', and other 1960-61 Jazz Messengers albums.
Lee Morgan - also in that Blakey band.  Also his Sidewinder album and his sidemen sessions with Hank Mobley.
Stanley Turrentine- pretty much any 60s era Blue Note album.  For a sample, listen to "Trouble", 1st track off the Never Let Me Go album.
Hank Mobley's early 60s blue note albums, e.g. Soul Station
Horace Silver - Blowin' the Blues Away, Song for My Father, Jody Grind, others.

Heard "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at 'The Club'", that was a good album.  I had heard the song "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" before, but had no idea what it was called or who did it.  I'll try to get to the other ones later.

[The Minsky Moment]

Shirley Scott was heavily influenced by Jimmy Smith and took up the Hammond organ in the late 50s.  She got married to Stanley Turrentine and the played on each others' albums throughout the 1960s.  Their names aren't as big now as Cannonball or Art Blakey, but the material is very good - to my mind they personify that early 60s soul sound, even though the Blakey and Mobley groups were a bit stronger in overall personnel.

[mongers]

Re King Crimson - recent New Yorker article on prog rock:  http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/the-persistence-of-prog-rock
My own 2c is that the critics have a point - at it's best, prog was still a somewhat watered down version of jazz-rock fusion or classical-rock fusion, what's the point?  Then again, rock itself is subject to the same critique as watered down rhythm and blues: the "authenticity" of the Stones exists by virtue of their ripping off Bo Diddley.  Also article made a good point in the wake of the recent Beatles hagiographies of the clear linkage of the (always cool) Beatles from Rubber Soul on to (uncool) prog.

Well a good chunk of Bruford's solo work and later albums are squarely in jazz-rock /fusion territory, and rather good; maybe prog was the gateway drug for him? 


Also, the article mentions Gentle Giant as under appreciated and some of their output is worth checking out. A plus is I don't think they did many, if any concept albums and most songs were recognisable as such and the albums generally had eight to ten of them. 

[Josephus]

This is the best sentence in that article:

Listeners who wonder what they have been missing should probably ignore E.L.P. entirely and head straight for "Close to the Edge"—or, if they want something a bit more bruising, "Red," an austere album that a new version of King Crimson (including Bruford) released in 1974

[mongers]

This is the best sentence in that article:

Listeners who wonder what they have been missing should probably ignore E.L.P. entirely and head straight for "Close to the Edge"—or, if they want something a bit more bruising, "Red," an austere album that a new version of King Crimson (including Bruford) released in 1974

Indeed.

Plus the Gentle Giant bit.

[The Minsky Moment]

Also, the article mentions Gentle Giant as under appreciated and some of their output is worth checking out.

I tried two albums.  In a Glass House - weird combination of Renaissance polyphonies, baroque counterpoint, late 60s era Miles Davis-style jazz fusion, a smattering of guitar blues licks, and electronic-driven grooves that sound proto-New Wave.  Don't think it will work its way into a regular play rotation but I had fun listening to it.  Octopus is similar but less extreme - more straight Renaissance-rock fusion.   It didn't quite work for me, the musical elements just didn't seem to cohere.  I guess if your going to do this kind of concept you might as well go all the way.

[mongers]

Also, the article mentions Gentle Giant as under appreciated and some of their output is worth checking out.

I tried two albums.  In a Glass House - weird combination of Renaissance polyphonies, baroque counterpoint, late 60s era Miles Davis-style jazz fusion, a smattering of guitar blues licks, and electronic-driven grooves that sound proto-New Wave.  Don't think it will work its way into a regular play rotation but I had fun listening to it.  Octopus is similar but less extreme - more straight Renaissance-rock fusion.   It didn't quite work for me, the musical elements just didn't seem to cohere.  I guess if your going to do this kind of concept you might as well go all the way.

That's a really nice summary. Interesting experimental albums, but I tend to prefer their more 'conventional' albums, one of which went full on with the baroque and Renaissance. 

[Malthus]

My favorite Gentle Giant albums are "Power and the Glory" and "Free Hand". I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. 

[Savonarola]

Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba (1962)

Not the one with "Girl from Ipanema" on it (that's Getz/Gilberto) but still cool.     This is the first Bossa Nova album by American jazz musicians.

[The Minsky Moment]

I've been listening to some really really early Stan Getz.  From the Savoy records collections, starting with a 1945 session with Kai Winding when Getz was 18, to a precocious leader session at age 19 with Hank Jones and Max Roach, to an octet session in 1949.  The evolution is interesting - on the first recording he sounds like a very good Lester Young imitator, on the second recording he is doing a hot Charlie Parker impression but on tenor.  Only by the last recording do you start to hear the familiar Stan Getz sound.

He's actually only the second best white tenor player on that collection.  Allen Eager, who I never heard before, has some really great performances.  He was one of the few white musicians at the time regularly in demand by black-led groups.  Apparently he left music in the early 50s because it was the only way he could keep off heroin. 

[mongers]

My favorite Gentle Giant albums are "Power and the Glory" and "Free Hand". I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. 

Yeah, me to, I think 'Free Hand' is probably my favourite.

[Savonarola]

He's actually only the second best white tenor player on that collection.  Allen Eager, who I never heard before, has some really great performances.  He was one of the few white musicians at the time regularly in demand by black-led groups.  Apparently he left music in the early 50s because it was the only way he could keep off heroin.

His Wikipedia blurb reads:

Allen Eager (January 10, 1927 – April 13, 2003) was an American jazz tenor and alto saxophonist who also competed in auto racing and took part in LSD experiments.

He's the single coolest person who has ever lived.   

I'd never heard of him either (though I have read Kerouac's "The Subterraneans" which, though I didn't know it at the time, has a character "Based" on him).  He was an incredible performer.

[The Brain]

Ghost - Square Hammer