(no subject)
so. i'm back from paris, it was good. i dont feel like writing all about it yet or posting pictures but i think ill get around to it eventually. probably not till after this weekend though. brooklyn, philly, hopefully etown here i come...
easing my boredom:
artist: Cannonball Adderly
album: Best of Cannonball Adderly
year: 1961?
label: Riverside 3038
condition: exc
price: $10 @ Shady Dog
value: $15
amg rating: couldn't find it
my rating: 3 stars
My earliest personal experience with jazz was listening to my Dad's copy of Blue Train (the only jazz cd he owns- or owned; i've totally liberated it) on the bus in like 8th grade. For some reason, and this is really weird that this is coming back to me, I specifically remember hearing "lazy bird" on the stretch of road right after Sarah Hexem's stop. Why I can remember a song and place so vividly, but not even the year it happened is beyond me. Anyway my point was it was quite awhile between that experience and the day I walked into Shady Dog and said something along the lines of "I think I'm ready to get into Jazz." That sounds like such a super pretentious statement, but I really imagined it as having to immerse myself in this difficult genre. Looking back, that's pretty silly- but Mike and Dave were glad to help. They pulled a bunch of records they thought would be a good starting point. I don't know why but I'm pretty sure this is the only one I walked away with that day. It wasn't the first jazz LP i bought on my own (that prize goes the thelonious monk greatest hits lp i bought for a jazz/rock history presentation for mrs dickenger, which I suppose would place this purchase sometime later in 9th grade), but it still holds a special place in my collection...
That having been said, jazz greatest hits collections bother me. Pulling a track from one session here and a track from another session there just doesn't do it for me. I know Jon feels the same way- for some reason Jazz has always been more of an album genre for us. There's great playing on here; personnel includes Art Blakey, Milt Jackson and Percy Heath among others, but it's hard to get a sense of Cannonball's full capacity with so many different line-ups. That seems counterintuitive- wouldn't you get a better feel for the range of his talents with so many different dates, his so-called recording peaks? No, instead you get a seemingly random sampling of choice cuts from sessions ranging from 59-61. The songs themselves are great, but I find myself focusing on who he's playing with rather than what he's playing. Wynton Kelly, Bobby Timmons, Bill Evans- they steal the show. The only common denominator is Cannonball's bluesy, mainly major alto sax. A lot of people don't like Cannonball for pretty much sticking to the blues his entire career, but at least he played them well. I think my favorite cut from this LP is his reading of Dizzy's "Groovin' High." Blakey absolutely lays it down while Jackons vibes and Kelly's keys provide a nice backdrop for Adderly's spirited blowing. It's just weird to find it sandwiched between sessions with different bands from different eras. You wouldn't have a Rolling Stones greatest hits where they went from Brian Jones era Stones to Mick Taylor era Stones to Ron Wood era Stones then back to Brian Jones era Stones, so why do it to Cannonball?
artist: Cannonball Adderly Sextet
album: Jazz Workshop Revisited
year: 1963
label: Riverside 444
condition: VG
price: $1 @ Shady Dog
value: $7.50
amg rating: 4 stars
my rating: 4.5 stars
When listening to this album I sort of drifted into the world of Jack Kerouac. More specifically I was thinking about the San Francisco jazz scene in On The Road. That would've been a few years before this '62 appearance, but many of the cats would've been the same. These were SF scene guys (for the most part) and the line-up here is absolutely incredible. You've got Cannoball, his brother Nat on cornet, Yusef Lateef on flute & tenor, Joe Zawinul on keys, Sam Jones on bass and Louis Hayes on drums. Every single player brings something to the table and the records varied sounds give the impression that this must have been one hell of a concert to attend. Sam Jones' gentle drumming carries his beatiful ballad "Lillie," a stark contrast to the previous cut, Nat Adderly's burnin'(and according to the cover, "hit single") "Jazz Samba." The playing is hot, but it's even hotter they left in Cannonball's stage banter. He sounds exactly how you think he would, and for that matter how he looks as well. Fat and jolly, his words are the verbal embodiment of his alto playing on Jazz Workshop Revisited. Besides Something Else, which might as well have been a Miles Davis album, this is my favorite of all the Cannonball stuff I've heard. I like his soul-jazz stuff he went on to record, but I wish he'd stuck with this line up just a little bit longer, if only to see where Yusef would've taken the group.
easing my boredom:
artist: Cannonball Adderly
album: Best of Cannonball Adderly
year: 1961?
label: Riverside 3038
condition: exc
price: $10 @ Shady Dog
value: $15
amg rating: couldn't find it
my rating: 3 stars
My earliest personal experience with jazz was listening to my Dad's copy of Blue Train (the only jazz cd he owns- or owned; i've totally liberated it) on the bus in like 8th grade. For some reason, and this is really weird that this is coming back to me, I specifically remember hearing "lazy bird" on the stretch of road right after Sarah Hexem's stop. Why I can remember a song and place so vividly, but not even the year it happened is beyond me. Anyway my point was it was quite awhile between that experience and the day I walked into Shady Dog and said something along the lines of "I think I'm ready to get into Jazz." That sounds like such a super pretentious statement, but I really imagined it as having to immerse myself in this difficult genre. Looking back, that's pretty silly- but Mike and Dave were glad to help. They pulled a bunch of records they thought would be a good starting point. I don't know why but I'm pretty sure this is the only one I walked away with that day. It wasn't the first jazz LP i bought on my own (that prize goes the thelonious monk greatest hits lp i bought for a jazz/rock history presentation for mrs dickenger, which I suppose would place this purchase sometime later in 9th grade), but it still holds a special place in my collection...
That having been said, jazz greatest hits collections bother me. Pulling a track from one session here and a track from another session there just doesn't do it for me. I know Jon feels the same way- for some reason Jazz has always been more of an album genre for us. There's great playing on here; personnel includes Art Blakey, Milt Jackson and Percy Heath among others, but it's hard to get a sense of Cannonball's full capacity with so many different line-ups. That seems counterintuitive- wouldn't you get a better feel for the range of his talents with so many different dates, his so-called recording peaks? No, instead you get a seemingly random sampling of choice cuts from sessions ranging from 59-61. The songs themselves are great, but I find myself focusing on who he's playing with rather than what he's playing. Wynton Kelly, Bobby Timmons, Bill Evans- they steal the show. The only common denominator is Cannonball's bluesy, mainly major alto sax. A lot of people don't like Cannonball for pretty much sticking to the blues his entire career, but at least he played them well. I think my favorite cut from this LP is his reading of Dizzy's "Groovin' High." Blakey absolutely lays it down while Jackons vibes and Kelly's keys provide a nice backdrop for Adderly's spirited blowing. It's just weird to find it sandwiched between sessions with different bands from different eras. You wouldn't have a Rolling Stones greatest hits where they went from Brian Jones era Stones to Mick Taylor era Stones to Ron Wood era Stones then back to Brian Jones era Stones, so why do it to Cannonball?
artist: Cannonball Adderly Sextet
album: Jazz Workshop Revisited
year: 1963
label: Riverside 444
condition: VG
price: $1 @ Shady Dog
value: $7.50
amg rating: 4 stars
my rating: 4.5 stars
When listening to this album I sort of drifted into the world of Jack Kerouac. More specifically I was thinking about the San Francisco jazz scene in On The Road. That would've been a few years before this '62 appearance, but many of the cats would've been the same. These were SF scene guys (for the most part) and the line-up here is absolutely incredible. You've got Cannoball, his brother Nat on cornet, Yusef Lateef on flute & tenor, Joe Zawinul on keys, Sam Jones on bass and Louis Hayes on drums. Every single player brings something to the table and the records varied sounds give the impression that this must have been one hell of a concert to attend. Sam Jones' gentle drumming carries his beatiful ballad "Lillie," a stark contrast to the previous cut, Nat Adderly's burnin'(and according to the cover, "hit single") "Jazz Samba." The playing is hot, but it's even hotter they left in Cannonball's stage banter. He sounds exactly how you think he would, and for that matter how he looks as well. Fat and jolly, his words are the verbal embodiment of his alto playing on Jazz Workshop Revisited. Besides Something Else, which might as well have been a Miles Davis album, this is my favorite of all the Cannonball stuff I've heard. I like his soul-jazz stuff he went on to record, but I wish he'd stuck with this line up just a little bit longer, if only to see where Yusef would've taken the group.