Home Music Archive by category "Jazz" (Page 25)

Category: Jazz

Friday AM – Some Jazz! – Fourmost – Jimmy Smith

Ok so one of my favorite jazz artists is the incredible organist Jimmy Smith and another is guitarist Kenny Burrell. Sit;’s no wonder that the album Fourmost is a favorite! Fourmost joins Jimmy Smith on organ and Kenny Burrell on guitar with other jazz greats Stanley Turentine on sax and Grady Tate on drums. The set was recorded live in 1990 at Fat Tuesday’s in New York City

One of my favorite tracks on the album is one of the two Ellington songs covered on the album  “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be”. The other Ellington cover is “Main Stem” .Kenny Burrel’s guitar is as always great especially on his composition “Soulful Brother.” From most reviews I read of the album the closing track “Quiet Night of Quiet Stars,” may be  record’s highlight. It’s a textured bossa nova jam that has Smith shouting “Oh, my God!” by the end of the track! read more

David Brewbaker – A Sign of Life

So for the last month or so an album by friend from the No Depression Community David Brewbaker has been on my mp3 player. The album is A Sign of Life and every time I listen to it and become more familiar with the tunes, I like the album more and more! Brewbaker’s music is a nice mix of blues and jazz and the first artist that I thought of who plays that cross-over type music was Robben Ford and after several listens and hearing the sax work on the album provided by Brain Graham of Sly Chi, Portland Maine’s award-winning R&B/Funk band, I thought of Steely Dan. Anyway the music is great and so are the songs. read more

More Jazz -New Vibes – Steve Hobbs – Spring Cycle

So I spent this evening multitasking , with part of me watching the Phils squeak one out against the Diamondbacks, another part reading C.J. Box’s new book Nowhere to Run and part of me still looking for new jazz musicians (at least to me). This time I was looking for new vibraphonists!

Last night I was looking for young vibes players and came across Stefon Harris and Blackout and I listened to some of their album Urbanus. Liking what I heard I was planning on listening to the whole album tonight, but in true Edward fashion I looked back at the Roots Music Chart and saw that at number 19 and rising was an album Vibes: Straight Up by Steve Hobbs so I went to Rhapsody and while they didn’t have that album they did have the his album Spring Cycle released in 2005. The players forming the Steve Hobbs Quartet in addition to Hobbs include: pianist Bill O’Connell, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer John Riley. The following from Steve’s website tells about the album better than I can: read more

Saturday Quick Pick – organissimo

So the other day I was thinking about the jazz that I listen to and the title of an older  Milt Jackson album  popped into my head Ain’t But a Few of Us Left. Which made me think, who are the new jazz artists out there making the type of jazz I like who are the younger Milt Jacksons, Jimmy Smiths and Wes Montgomerys? So I went to the Roots Music Chart for jazz and looked down the chart and there at number 16 sat an interesting band name organissimo. The album listed was Alive and Kickin’. So then I went to Rhapsody and the first album listed was Groovapdelphia. So I downloaded it onto the mp3 player and set off to visit Toms River. I was not disappointed organissimo is a jazz trio from Michigan featuring  Jim Alfredson on Hammond organ, Joe Gloss on guitar and drummer Randy Marsh. On Rhapsody they are listed as Acid Jazz but to they are just a great funky jazz trio with great organ and guitar interplay! From their website were you can find out more about the band read more

Good Vibes from Gary Burton!

So last night I mentioned that I love the vibraphone and the three musicians that I’ve listen to the most are Gary Burton, Milt Jackson and Cal Tjader. I love all three  and probably in the order I listed. I’ve also listened to Bobby Hutcherson and Walt Dickinson and like them also. Here is a video of Gary Burton and Makoto Ozone (see Thursday Mix Part 2) – doing a Cal Tjader song “Afro Blue”  A version of that song can be found on my favorite Gary Burton CD For Hamp, Red, Bags, and Cal

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Thursday Mix Part 2

so the during the  rest of the day I listened to some early Greenwich Village scene music Fred Neil’s first solo album Bleecker and MacDougal and an earlier album  Fred Neil  released with Vince Martin entitled Tear Down the Walls. Now most of Fred’s music was released a little before I started listening to folk music in 1968-69 so while I knew of his music and especially loved “Dolphins”. I don’t have any of his albums. But I enjoyed both of these CDs and will probably listen to them both a few more times over the next few weeks. The one song on the album that has been covered several times by several folks including Jefferson Airplane was “The Other Side of this Life”. The other track that I remember when I heard it was “Little Bit of Rain” read more

Thursday Night – Live at Tsubo!

So I’ve written about the folk music I listen to and the blues, bluegrass, and some rock but I haven’t really written about the jazz I listen to. So tonight spinning in the CD player is one of my favorite jazz musicians the incomparable Wes Montgomery. I was still in high school when I started to listen to Wes Montgomery. He recorded three albums on A&M records that were the most commercially successful of his short career. (He died in 1968 of a heart attack). Those three albums A Day in the Life , Down Here on the Ground, and Road Song. all of which contained covers of pop hits along with Wes’ great guitar work were my introduction to his music. read more

Thursday – Mixed Bag

So Thursday’s eclectic mix started with three CDs I picked up at the Dollar Tree the other night. First up was a self-titled album Tribaljazz from a band that I had never heard of,  but the sticker on the cover said it was John Densmore’s (drummer of The Doors) band so, aside from the price, that was good enough reason for me to pick it up. The band is a great eclectic jazz band lead by John Densmore on drums and Art Ellis on flute and the rest of the band is composed of musicians from around the world. John Densmore from the liner notes: read more