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Nathan Davis Quintet: The Hip Walk
by Ken Dryden
There are numerous examples of talented American jazz musicians who had long careers but were overlooked by critics, broadcasters and much of the jazz audience, often because they spent decades as full time jazz educators, which limited their opportunities to tour in support of their recordings. Nathan Davis, primarily known as a tenor and soprano saxophonist, though he was also a fine flautist and clarinetist, falls into that category, though part of the reason he is lesser known is that ...
read moreMiles Davis Quintet: In Concert At The Olympia, Paris 1957
by Ian Patterson
Another live Miles Davis recording. Well, once the studio outtakes have dried up, this is the only seam left to mine. Happily, with advances in sound technology, old radio broadcasts are increasingly being dusted down and treated to a little digital TLC. Since 1983, Fresh Sounds Records has been a leading light in reissues and archival releases (see Fresh Sound Records and the Legacy of Recorded Jazz), in addition to producing many hundreds of contemporary artists. This one from Jordi ...
read moreMiles Davis: Miles Davis With Tadd Dameron Revisited
by Chris May
1949 was a year of massive change for Miles Davis, and not in a good way. It began, in January, with him fronting the first of the recording sessions, made with a nonet, that became generically known as The Birth Of The Cool and which, if he had achieved nothing else of note, would have secured him a lasting place in jazz history. It ended with him strung out on heroin, a habit that reversed his ascent and which took ...
read moreKenny Clarke: The Golden 8
by Greg Simmons
The first time I dropped a needle on a Music Matters 33 rpm test-pressing of Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland's The Golden 8 I was surprised to hear something quite unusual: a Blue Note record that was clearly not recorded in Hackensack. With only a few exceptions, most Blue Note records of the 1950s and 60s were recorded in Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio with a unique sound that many listeners can pick out in just a ...
read moreClarke - Boland Sextet: Swing Im Bahnhof
by Angelo Leonardi
Protagonista di questo disco da tempo introvabile, è un medio organico estratto dalla big band diretta da Kenny Clarke e Francy Boland, che dal 1961 al 1972 operò in Europa, caratterizzandosi tra le massime orchestre mainstream dell'epoca. Introdotto dal famoso attore e mimo francese Marcel Marceau, il sestetto inaugurava il 25 settembre 1965 un centro d'arte a Rolandseck, vicino Bonn, presentando un accattivante repertorio profumato di aromi centro e sudamericani, tra musiche caraibiche e bossa nova. Il percorso ...
read moreKenny Clarke: Klook's The Man
by Chris May
Kenny Clarke Klook's The Man Proper Records 2007
Of the three great African American drummers whose work in the early and mid 1940s shaped the contours of bop--Kenny Clarke, Max Roach and Art Blakey--it was Klook" Clarke who lit the first and fattest fuse: taking timekeeping away from the bass drum and onto the ride cymbal, freeing up bass and snare drums for dialogue with soloists and establishing a paradigm which became one of ...
read moreHank Jones/Milt Hinton/Bobby Rosengarden: The Trio
by Jeff Stockton
In an article published in the Village Voice a couple of years ago Gary Giddins traced a history of recorded jazz in song, year by year, and Hank Jones’ solo “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” was pegged as the noteworthy performance of 1977. As his rhythm section lays out, Jones tinkles his piano as if prompting a dream sequence, then leaves the song behind as he performs one harmonic digression after another before returning to the tune with an almost-barrelhouse ...
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