Quoth zorzynek:
McCoy Tyner live was one of the best things that happened to me in past few years. I see You're heavily listening to that guy. I never got into his discography. Any ideas what should I check out first? (Of course, I know his recordings with Trane, it's solo records I'm interested in.) Thanks in advance.


I'll divide Tyner's magnificent career as a leader into four phases:

1. 
   
2. Tyner as a leader while still in the Coltrane Quartet
   
3. Tyner on Blue Note after the Coltrane Quartet
   
4. Tyner on Milestone 1972-1981
   
5. Tyner after Milestone/1981 onward
   

Tyner's albums on Impulse! are more tentative but also more lyrical and romantic than his middle period recordings. He is still in the Trane quartet at this time and so is not as assertive as he would be as he matured--but he was still in his early 20s at the time, so it is understandable.

Reaching Fourth is probably my favorite of that period, a trio setting--something he wouldn't record again for another dozen years or so--and it is lovely. The other Impulse! recordings are all good (and Tyner's good is better than many pianist's 'excellent'); Inception is a really nice debut for the young McCoy Tyner. Nights of Ballads and Blues has an intriguing lineup, and we're left to wonder what this band may have put together over time, but John Gilmore took a lot of "outside" jobs in the late 50s/early 60s, not only because he was a cited influence on many of the post-WWII tenors and thus producers wanted to work with him, but also because the Sun Ra band was in transisiton, and I think Gilmore's talents helped bring cash into the Arkestra's coffers. But I go back to Inception and Reaching Fourth more than the others from this period.

The second period was after leaving Coltrane. Although McCoy played on many, many Blue Note records from 1960 onward--considered by many as one of the Blue Note "house" pianists--there is a curious gap in Tyner's discography as a leader. His last Impulse! record was in 1964, Although he was considered one of the house pianists at Blue Note from 1960 on, his first Blue Note as a leader was 1967's The Real McCoy. From 1960 through 1970, he played piano on albums by Joe Henderson, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, and Stanley Turrentine, to name just a few. Tyner's "sound" helped define what many of us think of as the Blue Note sound of the 60s. There may have been a contract problem with Impulse! that prevented him from being employed as the leader on Blue Note until 1967, but in any case, Wolff & Lion used a collegial structure so that Tyner's "Real Mccoy" sounds a lot like Henderson's, Shorter's, or Hubbard's dates. McCoy was still growing as a composer and a leader. Biographers say that this was a time of struggle for Tyner--he wasn't making much money from recording and had a young and growing family to support. By 1970, he was considering making driving a cab his full time work instead of just using it to supplement his music.

But during that time, he recorded Expansions, Time for Tyner, Extensions, and Asante. Each one of them has its strengths, Expansions and Extensions are similar to each other in that Tyner uses Gary Bartz and Wayne Shorter on alto & tenor respectively. Extensions, with its national Geographic cover, adds Alice Coltrane on harp. Throughout his Blue Note career, it sounds as if Tyner is trying to remember, recreate and expand on the high points of the modal art of the Coltrane legacy. This is not a bad thing at all, and the music stands the test of time well.

But in 1972, Tyner was encouraged by Orrin Keepnews to put his all into reviving his recording career. They began their association with the astounding Sahara, and for the next ten years, the two of them, both geniuses in my opinion, shifted the band's personnel, the size and timbre of the band, here focusing on a tight ensemble, there on a big band, with a solo here, and strings there.

There's hardly ever a false step taken on any of these. And with Milestone, Tyner's percussive left hand (and he is left handed) takes center stage and becomes a driving force. Critics of Tyner point to albums like Song for My Lady and Sahara as evidence that he "plays too many notes." Takes all kinds, I guess. I love this period. Sama Layuca is a rumble in the jungle, Song for the New World shows Tyner's orchestral conception of the jazz big band.

I saw Tyner many, many times from 1972-1980, including one memorable night from the Enlightenment/Atlantis era when we sat just above Tyner and his keyboard at the old Jazz Showcase when it was in the basement level of the Happy Medium nightclub on Rush Street in Chicago. Tyner held a running banter with us the whole night, clearly enjoying being on top of his game. Azar Lawrence and Ricky Ford were two of his usual saxes during this time, and it's always been a disappointment to me that neither of these horns ever achieved a fraction of the fame they seemed destined for.

I've got most all of the Blue Note and Milestone recordings up through 1978's The Greeting. Top of the pack of the Milestones are:

1. 
   
2. Sahara
   
3. Sama Layuca
   
4. Enlightenment
   
5. Focal Point
   
6. Echoes of a Friend
   
7. Song for the New World
   
8. The Greeting
   
9. Atlantis
   
10. Song for My Lady
    

and yet, others like Fly With The Wind, Horizon, Passion Dance or 13th House are hardly a half-step off any of these. I'm prejudiced more in favor of the ones I've heard over and over. I've never been disappointed with any of those 1978-1982 Milestone recordings either.

In 1982, Tyner's contract with Milestone expired and he by then he was recognized as one of the finest musicians alive and one with an enviable and lengthy discography. he joined Columbia for a while, but the recording business itself was in flux. He's recorded for a number of labels in a variety of contexts after 1982. I'm not as familiar with a lot of this work--I bought several, but I never warmed to Alex Blake's bass work. He's a fine bassist, but there's something in the sound of his amplified pick up that's never struck my ears just right, and so I avoided Tyner's recordings after that time.

I've seen him a handful of times since 1980, and he clearly has earned his elder statesman reputation and his playing is still epic. I can't advise on recordings after 13th House, but I am sure there are many that are first rate. For me, Tyner's prime recordings outside of Coltrane's band are on the (seemingly hundreds of) Blue Note recordings where he is either a leader of a sideman, and then the peak is on the Milestone records produced by Keepnews, arranged and directed by Tyner.

Take the 50 top artists in your musical profile, and create a cloud of the similar artists that are not in your top 50. The result is a collection of highly recommended artists for your personal profile. You can generate your own cloud (in BBCode) at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/recommend.php

My recommendations are

4hero Alice Russell Art Blakey Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Art Pepper Beanfield Boozoo Bajou Charles Mingus Charlie Parker Chick Corea DJ Food De-Phazz Dexter Gordon Dizzy Gillespie Eric Dolphy Fila Brazillia Freddie Hubbard Funki Porcini Hank Mobley Horace Silver Jaylib Jazzanova Joe Henderson Joshua Redman Koop Kyoto Jazz Massive Lee Morgan McCoy Tyner Micatone Miles Davis Quintet Minus 8 Mo' Horizons Moodorama Mr. Scruff Nicola Conte Ornette Coleman Parov Stelar Red Snapper Skalpel St. Germain Stan Getz The Quantic Soul Orchestra Thievery Corporation Tosca Trüby Trio United Future Organization Up, Bustle and Out Weather Report Wes Montgomery Yonderboi

25 Great Hard Bop Albums at the Music Advice Center

For this compilation, I need to add a definition of hard bop, to distinguish this form from its close precedent, bebop, or simply, bop.

Here's what Scott Yanow (All Music Guide) has to say:
Although some history books claim that Hard Bop arose as a reaction to the softer sounds featured in cool jazz, it was actually an extension of bop that largely ignored West Coast jazz. The main differences between hard bop and bop are that the melodies tend to be simpler and often more "soulful"; the rhythm section is usually looser, with the bassist not as tightly confined to playing four-beats-to-the-bar as in bop; a gospel influence is felt in some of the music; and quite often, the saxophonists and pianists sound as if they were quite familiar with early rhythm & blues. Since the prime time period of hard bop (1955-70) was a decade later than bop, these differences were a logical evolution and one can think of hard bop as bop of the '50s and '60s. By the second half of the 1960s, the influence of the avant garde was being felt and some of the more adventurous performances of the hard bop stylists (such as Jackie McLean and Lee Morgan) fell somewhere between the two styles. With the rise of fusion and the sale of Blue Note (hard bop's top label) in the late '60s, the style fell on hard times although it was revived to a certain extent in the 1980s. Much of the music performed by the so-called Young Lions during the latter decade (due to other influences altering their style) was considered modern mainstream, although some groups (such as the Harper Brothers and T.S. Monk's sextet) have kept the 1960s' idiom alive. -- Scott Yanow

About the intent of the list: This isn't meant to be a final determination of the 25 best, but rather a starting point--if you listen to a few of these and find you like what you hear, use this list as a springboard. Look them up and see who's playing on them and take your search outward, backward, forward, or inward. Many great artists, many five star albums are not on this list. These are a consequence of the way our MAC-Jazz lists are constructed. Listeners add their favorites, one, two, or three at a time until we hit 25.

You don't agree with our choices? Drop a line here or over at the MAC Jazz Desk.

Andrew Hill - Black Fire (1963)
Art Blakey - Free for All (1964)
Bobby Hutcherson - Stick-Up! (1966)
Booker Ervin - Setting the Pace (1965)
Charles Mingus - Blues & Roots (1960)
Charles Tolliver - The Ringer (1969)
Chico Hamilton - Man From Two Worlds (1962)
Curtis Fuller - Boss of the Soul Stream Trombone (1960)
Elvin Jones/Jimmy Garrison Sextet - Illumination! (1964)
Eric Dolphy - At the Five Spot, Vol. 2 (1964)
Freddie Hubbard - The Hub of Hubbard (1969)
Jackie McLean - Destination Out! (1963)
Joe Henderson - Inner Urge (1964)
John Coltrane - Giant Steps (1959)
John Handy - Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival (1965)
Johnny Griffin - A Blowin' Session (1957)
Lee Morgan - Search for the New Land (1964)
Ornette Coleman - Change of the Century (1960)
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Rip, Rig and Panic (1965)
Roy Brooks - The Free Slave (1970)
Roy Haynes - Out of the Afternoon (1962)
Sonny Clark - Sonny Clark Trio (1958)
Walter Bishop Jr. - Coral Keys (1972)
Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil (1965)
Woody Shaw - Blackstone Legacy (1970)

List: 25 Great Hard Bop Albums, Count: 25

It's late November, and thoughts are inevitably drifting towards what will make it to our Best of 2007 lists. It's still a bit too early for that though, so instead I'll share some of the stuff that's been new to me this year - stuff I've only heard for the first time in 2007, despite the fact it's been around for a while. New Old Stuff, if you like, in no particular order.

Seefeel - Quique (1993)
My early-90s pedigree should really have ensured that I picked up on this the first time round; I didn't, however, so it's thanks to the glorious 2007 Redux Edition that I now know what I missed out on. Damn...

Joe Henderson- The Elements (1973)
Switched on to this from the Four Tet Late Night Tales CD. Apparently this guy plays two saxophones at the same time - here it sounds like more like ten. Maaan, this is some incredible shit.

Howlin Rain - Howlin Rain (2006) (Roll On The Rusted Days)
I don't usually do rock, but this is great - some of the west-coast heavy stuff, with a sense of impending damnation. Makes me drive like I had the top down on the 101, and I kinda guess that's the idea.

Dead Meadow - Feathers (2005)
...which I was pushed towards after checking out Howlin' Rain. Wicked narco-rock with a touch of original shoegaze, just the ticket for those of us with a heavy head.

Tim Buckley - Happy Sad (1969)
I'd heard Starsailor and frankly that had driven me away. This is more direct - tragic timeless pop songs, beautifully arranged. Maybe I'll revisit Starsailor someday, should I ever get tired of this.

Tommy McCook & The Aggrovators - King Tubby Meets The Aggrovators At Dub Station (1975)
In which our heroes provide us with one of the all-time King Tubby tunes - "The Dub Station", which I just couldn't hear too many times.

Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds (1972)
Yes, I'd heard the Floyd before. I'd never heard this though. Perhaps I'm getting old, but this is the kind of discovery that changes the way you think about music.

Trees - The Garden of Jane Delawney (1970)
Perfect British psychedelic folk, with an obvious debt to Sandy Denny-era Fairport Convention.

Bows - Cassidy (2001)
It's a shame that this was five years after it's time - this is lavishly-arranged trip-hop of the highest order.

Daedelus - Exquisite Corpse (2005)
The spaces left in my life by the terrible pop-conversions of RJD2 have been filled by this - beats for the mind, soul for the body.

Earlier this summer, as I prepared to travel to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, I wondered what my five indispensable albums would be were I to ever be stranded on a desert island. It took me a while to come up with just five out of an ever groing list of great music I have been listening to over the years.

Without much ado, here they are, just five:

1. Sunday at the Village Vanguard - Bill Evans Trio, 1961
Without a doubt one of the most beautiful albums to come my way in a long while. And by far the greatest live recording I have heard. This represents IMO the best of this trio or any trio that comes to mind. These guys play like nobody, their sense of musical interplay, timing, emotion is just top notch. Highlights in the album include My Man's Gone Now the most impressive re-work of any Gershwin work I have heard, Gloria's Step, Jade Visions, both Scott Lafaro's (bass) compositions. History was made on that sunday. I just can't praise enough the work these guys did on My Man's Gone now. I mean, from an obscure opera - one of the least recorded compositions out of Porgy and Bess- to one of the most lyrical tunes is just indescribable. For more from the same sessions at the Village Vanguard that sunday of 1961 check out Waltz for Debby, also a superb album.

2. Mingus Ah Um - Charles Mingus, 1959
A great introduction to the music of Charles Mingus. The album presents some of the various facets of the music of mingus, all at a very fine caliber. In here, you'll find Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, a stellar lyrical and emotional composition - written as an elegy to Lester Young -, some of Mingus' seemingly chaotic but well phrased and beautiful compositions such as Better Git It In Your Soul and Bird Calls, and some very unique and great compositions inluding Fables of Faubus, Open Letter to Duke, Boogie Stop Shuffle, among others. This is an album to listen to again and again end to end. No half baked track here. I like to think of the music of Mingus as "chaotic beauty", in that if you listen to it for the first time you may find it somehow chaotic and dissonant, but once to pay close attention you'll appreciate the logic and beauty in the music and wonder how anyone could dream up such music.


3. Kind of Blue - Miles Davis, 1959
A must have album in the genre. A joy to listen to end-to-end, any time, anywhere. Blue in Green is a track that leaves me speechless. I've once heard it being referred to as the perfect 2am tune - I am in full agreement. Clear simple yet beautiful and very inspiring, this tune has the penning and arrangements of the master of simplicity Mr. Bill Evans. Every one of the musicians in here plays so perfectly well it's remarkable - the piano, the muted trumpet, the cool bass and even the brush work on the drums. Certainly the album also has the boppin' All Blues, So What, among others. It's no wonder Davis is given the nickname Prince of Darkness - this is the album of after hours. It's an album of enormous significance of course as it is full of technical proess - matter of fact it was the first major modal jazz album in its time - yet manages to remain accessible even to non jazz fans.
Another 2am tune of Davis that comes to mind is his interpretation of Thelonious Monk's 'Round Midnight on Michel Legrand's album Legrand Jazz.


4. Saxophone Colossus - Sonny Rollins, 1956
The must have Rollins album. Some of the best blowin' one can find, and the sound of Rollis tenor has got to be one of the best - powerful and rich in texture. And he does ballads like no other player - just listen to him taking off on You Don't Know What Love Is. An end-to-end joy to hear. Indeed, what we got here is the Saxophone Colossus, period.


5. Mirror, Mirror - Joe Henderson, 1980
A refreshing recording from an era far past the golden age of jazz. Certainly memorable date. The title track(Mirror, Mirror) is yet another very lyrical tune, in which Chick Corea solos really well on the piano. And Henderson's playing is just fantastic, with a unique milky sax sound. And they do it again in What's new? and Blues Liebestraum. Joe's Bolero is just a wild blowin' track.


There you have folks, five must have albums for any jazz fan, whether on a desert island or not.

In retrospect, for someone who claims to have an extensive musical taste, it seems odd that all five of my favourite albums are drawn from the same genre. It is not so surprising, however, given that two of my selection criteria were:
a) the music must be timeless, because after all, if you are stranded in an island you have no other music. And all these albums will still feel fresh in years as they are today or were when they came out, most half a century ago.
b) the albums must be great end-to-end so as to get the most out of them. It is unfortunate that with most genres even great albums contain just a couple of good tracks and a bunch of fillers.

I imagine you have your own desert island five list. What are they? It's a fun exercise to try. Post them below.

Idle Moments

Отличный пример джазового произведения, как модерированной, непосредственно творящейся музыкой, структуры. Исполнители рассаживаются, вступают и играют вот этот самый, известный, грустный «мамин» вальс. В наше время аккорды подобной эмоциональной окраски звучали в окрестностях twin peaks. А в 63-ем…

Ансамбль очерчивает площадку и приглушает свет. И за Grant Green'ом — это единственный раз в композиции, когда солист выступает, что называется «по-старшинству», за Грином — право пригласить музыку вальсировать первым. Много-много кругов по залу с Грином… И галантных. И ярко обозначающих намерения. Всяких.

«Разрешите?…» — ведь королева лишь одна. Смена партнёра, фортепьяно и Duke Pearson. Гитара тактично удалилась. Грин не смотрит и не видит нового фаворита. Вопрос мужского доверия, чести — сродни офицерской. Знать бы им заранее — что не доверять следовало-бы альтовому саксофону Joe Henderson — его сладкий пиздализм просто неприлично описывать. Интрига в том, что никто не заметил — а когда музыка спелась с сексафоном? Было фортепьяно и… Но тем не менее — Хендерсон ярко возник. Эффектно увёл. Так уж получилось, что юный и влюблённый вибрафон Bobby Hutchersonа, цветы и произносимое им с колен — дама удовлетворённо слушала уже После.

Модерация, к исходному возвратимся — в чём? А в том, что компания вооружённых мужчин с серъёзными притязаниями — вне зависимости от своего желания и формальной должности «музыкант» — позволяет себе играть только в случае, когда это делать Можно. Вот эта дама, музыка — подпустила, была благосклонна. Следует очевидный мужской ход. А не: «дали дудку — буду-надо дудеть». Соотвественно — слушая Idle Moments, надобно понимать и отмечать — а почему, собственно, тот или иной музыкант, взял и заиграл? Что намекнуло зазвучать? Ведь не наличие же инструмента в руках.

P.S. Из базы ласт.фм играется НЕ Idle Moments, а какой-то весма клёвый, но совсем посторонний, быстрый блюз.

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NEW CD PURCHASES!!!!!!

- Bobby Hutcherson - Montara (1975: Blue Note)
- The Horace Silver Quintet - You Gotta Take A Little Love (1969: Blue Note, rudy van gelder Edition 2006)
- Coleman Hawkins - All Stars (1960: Swingville, a Prestige subsidiary, Recorded by rudy van gelder)
- The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York (1962: Riverside, now a Concord subsidiary, featuring Cannonball Adderley, Yusef Lateef, Nat Adderley and Joe Zawinul)


I went to a music industry conference a little over a year ago and there was a roundtable discussion happening about changes in the music indsutry, specifically the effect of digitalization on the traditional recording industry. At the core of this conversation, I recall someone mentioning record stores, and how the ones that have survived are the ones selling merchandise (posters, t-shirts, stickers, bongs, sex toys, etc.) or computers/appliances (Best Buy/Circuit City), using CDs to lure customers in to buy more expensive shit.

I mention this discussion now, because someone mentioned Newbury Comics as an independent record store that HAS kept up with the changing times. To this factoid, someone scoffed, "if you can really call them an 'indie' store anymore, they're so huge!" And it's true... and this is where I buy my CDs, because honestly, where else can you pick up 4 CDs for $25!! If you know, tell me! Despite any anti-corporate feelings I may harbor, I don't see anything wrong with them selling Korn T-Shirts, comic books, and shitty fish-net stockings if the effect is that I can buy my jazz cd for $3.99 :)

Oh, and a shout out to BOB at Newbury Comics for the Joe Henderson Quintet suggestion!

Saw Esperanza Spalding Trio this past week at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, MA. She's a bassist, my age, cute, and totally amazing! I highly recommend checking her music out. She's the future of jazz, ladies and germs. The inside scoop is that she will be recording a new CD soon (probably after the summer festival season).
- http://www.last.fm/music/Esperanza+Spalding (no samples yet..)
- http://www.myspace.com/esperanzaspalding (check out "I Adore You")
- http://www.esperanzaspalding.com (currently down)
- http://www.imnworld.com/esperanzaspalding

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my new CD purchases this week:
- Jimmy Smith - Straight Life (2007: Blue Note 85192 - Connoisseur CD Series; Recorded 1961, Rudy Van Gelder, Engineer)
- Joe Henderson - Big Band (1996: Verve 314 533 451-2; recorded 1992-1996)
- Joe Henderson Quintet - At the Lighthouse (2004: Milestone MCD-47104-2; recorded 1970)