Kenny Burrell - Guitar Forms (1964)

"I didn't want to put out an album with a variety of sounds and persuasions just as a showcase, without having depth to it." So Kenny Burrell, master of so many guitar forms, remembers. His caution -- as well as his choice of arranger, Gil Evans -- paid off with this classic record that integrates his vast array of techniques in a timeless, artistic whole.

"I'd like to play many types of music. Guitar Forms is probably the best reflection of that of any album I've done, in terms of the variety of things I truly love."

Track listing:

1. Downstairs
2. Lotus Land
3. Terrace Theme
4. Prelude #2 - excerpt
5. Moon and Sand
6. Loie
7. Greensleeves
8. Last Night When We Were Young
9. Breadwinner


personnel:

Kenny Burrell Guitar
Jimmy Cleveland Trombone
Jimmy Knepper Trombone
Steve Lacy Soprano Saxophone
Lee Konitz Alto Saxophone
Roger Kellaway Piano
Grady Tate Drums

Gil Evans Arranger




Recorded at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on December 4, 1964, December 15, 1964, April 6, 1965 and April 12, 1965.

Original recordings produced by Creed Taylor

(flac with scans)

The Mar-Keys - The Great Memphis Sound (1966)

The Mar-Keys, formed in 1958, were a studio session band for the Stax label from Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1960s. As the first house band for the label, their backing music formed the foundation for the early 1960s Stax sound. The Mar-Keys was a play on the word "marquee" referring to the marquee outside of Stax studios (at the time called Satellite Records). They also recorded organ and saxophone oriented singles of their own, scoring a number three hit nationally with "Last Night" in 1961. Keyboard was played by Jerry Lee "Smoochy" Smith. Other singles of theirs from the early 1960s include "Philly Dog" and "Pop-eye Stroll." Members of this rhythm section later formed other nationally prominent Memphis studio session groups, including the Memphis Horns, the Packers, and Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Each of these offshoot groups also recorded popular instrumental albums of their own, in addition to serving as the backing band on albums by dozens of rock, r&b, and soul music stars on Stax, Volt and other national labels. The legacy of the Mar-Keys and later groups was that of having been key players in the development of soul music styles like Southern soul and Memphis soul. This 1966 out-of-print date is fun, feelgood music, perfect for those spring Sunday nights, enjoy.

Members

* Steve Cropper - guitar
* Donald "Duck" Dunn - bass
* Charles "Packy" Axton - tenor sax
* Don Nix - saxophone
* James Terry Johnson - piano
* Wayne Jackson - trombone, trumpet
* Jerry Lee "Smoochie" Smith - keyboards
* Booker T. Jones - keyboards
* Isaac Hayes - organ
* James Terry Johnson - drums
* Al Jackson - drums

Discography

* The Last Night!, 1961
* Do the Pop-Eye, 1962
* The Great Memphis Sound, 1966
* Back to Back, 1967
* Mellow Jelly, 1968
* Damnifiknow!, 1969
* Memphis Horns, 1970
* Memphis Experience, 1971
* High on Music, 1976

track listing

Honey Pot
Plantation Inn
Loving You Too Long
Cleo's Back
Grab This Thing
Philly Dog
Walking With The Duke
The Girl From Ipanema
In The Mood
"Dear James" Medley (Night Train, Papa's Got A Brand New Bag, I Got You, Good Loving, I'll Go Crazy)

rec. 1966

Bobby Enriquez - Wild Piano (1988)

Criminally underrated Philipino jazz piano great Bobby Enriquez (1943-96) in a set guaranteed to make your heart race. With bass ace Eddie Gomez and super drummer Al Foster successfully holding on, the exuberant pianist turns eight jazz standards inside out and takes "Classical Gas" as an unaccompanied solo. Highlights of this typically high-powered Enriquez date include "All Blues," "Bye Bye Blackbird," Thelonious Monk's "Four in One," and "Cherokee.

track listing:

1. All Blues
2. September Song
3. Classical Gas
4. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You
5. Bye Bye Blackbird
6. 'Round Midnight
7. Four in One
8. Pannonica
9. Cherokee

personnel:

Bobby Enriquez
Eddie Gomez
Al Foster


rec. 1988

Pharoah Sanders - Tauhid (1967)

Here's Pharoah Sandres' legendary "Tauhid" featuring the great late Sonny Sharrock (see previous post). Although introduced as a protege of John Coltrane and touted by many as his heir apparent, reedman Pharoah Sanders quickly proved his own man. His shared interest in the "cosmic" music of Coltrane's final period belies the fact that Sanders frequently plays with an unhurried sense of peace and satisfaction rarely found in his mentor's music. His use of space, African and Asian motifs and instruments, and simple, repetitive melodies also pointed the way for jazz, rock, and new age musicians in the '70s and '80s, while his sometimes raucous use of harsh, shrieking runs influenced many of jazz's most adventurous saxophonists.

Tauhid showcases both of those abilities. By turns meditative and impulsive, Tauhid's lynchpin is the 17-minute "Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt," on which Sanders plays piccolo in the first half and tenor sax in the second; the duality of the composition suggests both the ancient and modern aspects of Africa and, in turn, its melding with European and American culture. "Japan," a short composition on which Sanders performs a warm, spry vocalese, is both folksy and engaging, while the album's closing triumvirate of "Aum," "Venus," and "Capricorn Rising" proves wild and woolly.

track listing:

1. Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt 16:16
2. Japan 3:24
3. a. Aum b. Venus c. Capricorn Rising 14:46

personnel:

Pharoah Sanders (Tenor and Alto Saxophone, Piccolo and Vocals)
Sonny Sharrock (Guitar)
Dave Burrell (Piano)
Henry Grimes (Bass)
Roger Blank (Drums)
Nat Bettis (Percussion)

rec. 1967

Sonny Sharrock - Highlife (1990)

Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock (1940 – 1994) was one of few guitarists in the first wave of free jazz in the 1960s. He was known for his incisive, heavily chorded attack, his bursts of wild feedback, and for his use of saxophone-like lines played loudly on guitar.

Sharrock began his musical career singing doo wop in his teen years. He collaborated with Pharoah Sanders and Alexander Solla in the late 1960s, appearing first on Sanders's 1966 legendary effort, Tauhid. He made several appearances with flautist Herbie Mann and also made an uncredited guest appearance on Miles Davis's A Tribute to Jack Johnson, perhaps his most famous cameo.

He had in fact wanted to play tenor saxophone from his youth after hearing John Coltrane play on Davis's album Kind of Blue on the radio at age 19, but his asthma prevented this from happening. Sharrock said repeatedly, however, that he still considered himself "a horn player with a really fucked up axe."

Highlife was Sonny Sharrock's first studio album in three years, and it bore witness to several slight modifications in the guitarist's approach. Sharrock seems to be searching for ways to push his music forward, as he begins going farther afield for material and revisiting his past in the process. In addition to three full-fledged originals, he covers two traditional folk songs, the West African standard "Highlife" (learned in one of his earliest gigs with drummer Babatunde Olatunji) and the Harry Belafonte-associated "All My Trials"; he adapts several themes from Kate Bush's prog pop hit "Wuthering Heights" into "Kate"; and he returns to his legendary appearance on Pharoah Sanders' Tauhid album with a medley of two Sanders themes, "Venus/Upper Egypt."

track listing:

1. No More Tears
2. All My Trials
3. Chumpy
4. Highlife
5. Kate (Variations on a Theme by Kate Bush)
6. Venus / Upper Egypt
7. Your Eyes
8. Giant Steps

personnel:

* Abe Speller
* Drums

* Charles Baldwin
* Bass

* Dave Snider
* Korg Synthesizer, Korg M1

* Lance Carter
* Drums

* Sonny Sharrock
* Guitar

rec. 1990

Gunther Schuller · Joe Lovano - Rush Hour (1994)

Let's now move into more musically challenging territory: Gunther Schuller (b.1925) is a towering figure in American music. He participated under his capacity as a horn player in Miles Davis' "Birth of the Cool" seminal 1949 sessions. He is a leading classical composer, critic and writer (his two-volume jazz history Early Jazz and The Swing Era are recommended reading to everyone interested in jazz music) and, most importantly, he is the first to come up with the idea of the Third Stream (a term he coined) whence all the experimentation of fusing classical and jazz elements came to life and groups like the Jazz Quartet emerged.

This superb 1994 date teams the talents of Schuller as arranger with the robust sound of Joe Lovano on tenor sax in an all-encompassing offering including meterial by Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Billy Strayhorn as well as originals by these two great musicians and was 1995 Down Beat Critics & Readers Poll Album of the Year, Grammy Nominee Best Large Ensemble (and deservedly so). This is music that speaks to the soul and the intellect, enjoy.

personnel:

Joe Lovano - Tenor and Soprano Sax
Bass Clarinet, Drums, Arranger

Gunther Schuller - Arranger
Jack Walrath - Trumpet
David Taylor - Bass Trombone, Tuba
John Clark - French Horn
Richard Oatts - Flute, Tenor Sax
Ed Schuller - Bass
Mark Helias - Bass
George Schuller - Drums
James Chirillo - Guitars
Judi Silvano - Vocal

track listing:

1. Prelude to a Kiss (Ellington/Gordon/Mills)
2. Peggy's Blue Skylight (Mingus)
3. Wildcat (Lovano)
4. Angel Eyes (Brent/Dennis)
5. Rush Hour On 23rd Street (Schuller)
6. Crespuscle With Nellie (Monk)
7. Lament For M (Schuller)
8. Topsy Turvy (Lovano)
9. The Love I Long For (Duke)
10. Juniper's Garden (Lovano)
11. Kathline Gray (Coleman)
12. Headin' Out Movin' In (Schuller)
13. Chelsea Bridge (Strayhorn

Jimmy Ponder - Ain't Misbehavin' (1998)

Time to get acquainted with one of the best-kept secrets in guitar jazz, Mr. Jimmy Ponder from Pittsburg, PA (b. 1946). He began playing with Charles Earland at 17, and in the following years played with Lou Donaldson, Houston Person, Donald Byrd, Stanley Turrentine, and Jimmy McGriff. He moved to Philadelphia and later New York City in the 1970s, and recorded extensively as a leader for a number of jazz labels.

This superb date finds him in the company of the great late John Hicks on piano, Don Braden on tenor sax, Dwayne Dolphin on bass and Cecil Brooks III (who produced this album) on drums. Very tasteful and soulful jazz expertly delivered, enjoy.

track listing:

1. On Broadway
2. Sunny
3. I'll Remember April
4. Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)
5. Three Little Words
6. My One and Only Love
7. Summertime
8. Man Ain't Got No Thing on Me
9. Wave
10. All Blues
11. Ain't Misbehavin'


rec. in Pittsburg, PA, on June 16, 1998

Jozn Zorn

The Big Gundown - John Zorn plays the music of Ennio Morricone (2000)


One genius paying tribute to another in this 15th anniversary deluxe edition of John Zorn's 1985 reworking of Ennio Morricone's cinematic masterpieces we all learned to love bearing the seal of approval from the maestro himself, with 6 new tracks thrown in for good measure. This is contemporary kick-ass jazz of the highest order - not to be missed.

personnel:

Marc Ribot - guitar
Mike Patton - spoken vocals
Joey Baron - drums
John Zorn - spoken vocals, alto saxophone, piano, harpsichord, saw
Mark Feldman - violin
Erik Friedlander - cello
Mark Miller - drums, tympani
John Patton - organ
Wayne Horvitz - piano, organ, celeste
Bobby Previte - vocals, tympani, percussion
Tim Berne - alto saxophone
Anthony Coleman - vocals, piano, harpsichord, organ
Melvin Gibbs - bass
Jim Staley - trombone, bass trombone
Luli Shioi
Orvin Aquart - harmonica
Richard Quine
Vicki Bodner - oboe, English horn

Also: Toots Thielemans, Bill Frisell, Vernon Reid, Fred Frith, Arto Lindsay, Anton Fier, Diamanda Galas, Jody Harris


track listing:

1. Big Gundown, The
2. Peur Sur la Ville
3. Poverty - (Once Apon A Time In America)
4. Milano ODea
5. Erotico - (The Burglars)
6. Battle of Algiers
7. Giu la Testa - (Duck, You Sucker!)
8. Metamorfosi - (La Classe Operaia Va In Paradiso)
9. Tre Nel 5000
10. Once Upon a Time in the West
11. Sicilian Clan, The - (bonus track)
12. Macchie Solari - (bonus track)
13. Ballad of Hank McCain, The - (bonus track)
14. Svegliatti E Uccidi - (bonus track)
15. Chi Mai - (bonus track)
16. Ballad of Hank McCain, The - (bonus track)

The Kenny Clarke · Francy Boland Sextet - Calypso Blues (1965)

Had it not been for the post-war migration of many top American jazz musicians to Europe, it is quite likely that the legendary Clarke-Boland Big Band, one of the most noteworthy jazz big bands formed outside the United States, might never have come into existence.

It was formed in 1961, when, with the help of producer Gigi Campi, the US drummer Kenny Clarke and Belgian pianist and composer Francy Boland and ex-Duke Ellington bassist Jimmy Woode brought together several jazz musicians of note. Although based in Europe, the band was truly multinational, also having several US musicians in the line-up.

It was disbanded in 1972, after having recorded more than 15 albums. They released many of their albums on the German jazz record label MPS Records and members of this stellar outfit included Johnny Griffin, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ronnie Scott, Carl Drewo, Tony Coe, Derek Humble, Nat Peck, Ake Persson, Dusko Goykovich, Stan Sulzmann, Ack van Rooyen, John Surman, Jimmy Deuchar, Manfred Schoof, Albert Mangelsdorff, Eric van Lier, Ron Mathewson, Fats Sadi, Kenny Clare, Benny Bailey, Jimmy Woode, Art Farmer, Sahib Shihab, Shake Keane, Idrees Sulieman, Herb Geller, Jimmy Deuchar, and were joined on occasions by Phil Woods, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz and many others.

In between the much-acclaimed, epic recordings made by the Clarke-Boland big band, there were a number of memorable small group sessions, featuring key sidemen from the big band, which over the years have tended to be forgotten. This excellent 20-track compilation is largely a composite of two sessions: one recorded in the Alten Bahnhof von Rolandseck in Germany on September 25,1965 and the other recorded in Berlin on June 16, 1965. This is great and very hard-to-find latin-tinged music (used copies sell for big bucks on the used market), enjoy.

personnel:
Bass - Jimmy Woode
Drums - Kenny Clarke
Flute - Sahib Shihab
Percussion - Joe Harris
Piano, Arranger - Francy Boland
Vibraphone, Percussion - Fats Sadi


track listing:
1 Ebony Samba (3:55)
2 Tin Tin Deo (2:53)
3 Please Don't Leave (4:09)
4 Lush Life (4:27)
5 The Man From Potter's Crossing (3:17)
6 Wives And Lovers (3:20)
7 Ensadinado (2:32)
8 Lorraine (3:52)
9 Love Hungry (3:42)
10 Balafon (3:05)
11 Day By Day (2:41)
12 Calypso Blues (4:06)
13 Invitation (4:38)
14 Insensatez (2:41)
15 Serenata (3:23)
16 Con Alma (5:03)
17 Just Give Me Time (3:11)
18 Born To Be Blue (3:49)
19 Lilemor (4:25)
20 Sconsolato (2:32)

Queen Bey & Arthur Blythe - Live! (1997)

Fantastic bootleg live set from 1997 with excellent audio quality to boot (pun intended) as it was recorded directly from console to DAT capturing all the nuances and ambiance of a live performance, featuring the great vocalist Queen Bey from Kansas City in a loving tribute to another great, late blues queen, Dinah Washington. The supporting band is led by the great Arthur Blythe on alto sax and piano player Mike Hennessey from the UK who spices things up with a touch of British wit every time he makes an announcement through the microphone.
The repertoire is full of timeless standards expertly delivered. Great stuff indeed, enjoy.



track listing:

Vol.1

1. Just Friends
2. Stormy Monday Blues
3. The Lady Is a Tramp
4. Lover Man
5. All of Me
6. If I had You
7. Lover
8. Easy Living
9. What a Difference a Day Made



Vol. 2

1. Straight, No Chaser
2. Drink My Water
3. On Green Dolphin Str.
4. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
5. I Thought About You
6. In a Sentimental Mood
7. This is the End of a Beautiful Friendship
8. Misty
9. Teach Me Tonight
10.Kansas City Here I come
11.Summertime
12.C.C. Rider