CONSEQUENCES TRIO New York Contemporary Five Consequences Fontana : 1963 Archie Shepp, tenor sax; Don Cherry, trumpet; John Tchicai, alto sax; Don Moore, bass; J.C. Moses, drums. The New York Contemporary Five barely lasted a year all told, but they recorded five albums that shaped the jazz to come. They were a supergroup after the fact – the stellar frontline [...]
Abbey Lincoln - Through The Years (UMGD/HIP-O ) Abdullah Ibrahim - Bombella (Sunny Side ) Anita O'Day - All Sad Young Men (Universal ) Anita O'Day - Swings Cole Porter Rogers (Universal Japan/Zoom ) Antoinette Montague - Behind The Smile (Igv ) Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Art Blakey!! Jazz Messengers!! (Analogue Productions ) Barb Jungr - Men I Love:New American Songbook (Indie Europe/Zoom...
I don't post too much jazz here on The New Confusion, mostly focusing on hip-hop and the like, but in my continuing quest to understand modern soul and hip-hop through the lens of the musical traditions that they are informed by, I have often been inspired by certain classic and contemporary jazz artists. Here are a few songs that feel perfect for listening to at dusk on a cold winter Thursday: This...
Daedalus Books and Music is a company that sells remaindered or overstocked books and recordings. It is the beneficiary of what we might conservatively call a state of flux in the fields of book publishing and recorded music. Daedalus and...
The album Electric Music for the Mind and Body by Country Joe and the Fish is probably one of the 10 best albums of genuine 60's West Coast psychedelic rock . And we are talking some pretty heavy company: Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Love, Moby Grape, The Doors, The Byrds, Steppenwolf and on and on. " Not So Sweet Lorraine", this week's featured track...
Wilbert Harrison at the piano...this might be the only known footage of him. I never saw this footage of JB Lenoir before, shot in Chicago circa 1964. JB Lenoir again, this time with the great Freddie Below on drums. 1965 JB, at home with cool Kay guitar Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup wonders where the money went. Big Joe Turner with the Johnny Otis Show, 1970. Big Joe at the Apollo, early 50's. Little Walter...
Count Basie Live in Berlin and Stockholm 1968 Impro Jazz 2009 Every jazz fan, while listening to an album by one of their favorite legends of the genre, occasionally closes their eyes to imagine what it might have been like actually to be there for the recording itself. Due to the fact that jazz performances and recording sessions were in the past so rarely filmed (and because time travel has yet to...
Jazz isn't always about breaking new ground in terms of sound and genre. It's just as important to preserve the music of the masters, and nobody carries the torch of tradition more elegantly than tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton. His heroes include Ben Webster , Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young --in short, the founding fathers of swing saxophone playing...
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Art Blakey!! Jazz Messengers!! (Analogue Productions ) Barry Finnerty - Blues For Trane (Pony ) Brian Smith - Rendezvous (Fone ) Carbon / Elliott Sharp - Void Coordinates (Phantom ) Charles Mingus - Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (Analogue Productions ) Chick Corea - Return To Forever (Pid ) Coleman Hawkins - Wrapped Tight (Analogue Prod. ) Coleman Hawkins -...
ASV/Living Era almost always does it right, sonically, musically, chronologically. This doubledisc set by Jack Teagarden, putting together two absolutely packed discs of material ranging from 19281954, is a serious case in point. Here Teagarden is showcased leading his own mighty bands and playing in the company of the Louis Armstrong AllStars, Glenn Miller, Benny [...]
In Sugar Hill, a Street Nurtured Black Talent When the World Wouldn’t by David GonzalezNew York is a city of blocks, each with its own history, customs and characters. Yet from these small stages spring large talents. Anyone who doubts that need look no further than a stretch of Edgecombe Avenue perched on a bluff near 155th Street. It was part of Sugar Hill, the neighborhood of choice for elegant...
Recorded live at his home club on Chicago's south side, Anderson is joined at his birthday gig by a top-notch group for three long-form pieces that skronk, squeal, soothe, and swing. Saxophonist Fred Anderson, a longtime fixture on the Chicago jazz scene, has been at it since the 1960s, cranking out some of the most inspired playing to come out of the Windy City – or any city, for that matter....