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Miles Davis: Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings
by Mark Corroto
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus never met Miles Davis, but his famous observation, No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man," seems tailor-made for the trumpeter. Few artists transformed themselves as completely or as often as Davis. Listeners encountering his music today can struggle to reconcile the cool, lyrical trumpeter of the bebop era with the architect of jazz-rock fusion, the creator of On the Corner (Columbia, ...
Continue ReadingMiles Davis: Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings
by Mike Jurkovic
Let us imagine for the moment that it is a day or two after the Big Spirit Beyond Wonder has separated the wheat from the chafe. The terrible, unwanted wars have ceased. Global climate change is no longer a threat. Autocracy is in the dustbin of history where it rightfully belongs. Illness has passed. The world, as it was in the beginning, is free of the subterfuge and manipulations of humankind. Now the Big Spirit turns their attention ...
Continue ReadingRed Garland Revisited!
by C. Michael Bailey
Prestige Records released Red Garland Revisited in 1969. However, Rudy Van Gelder recorded the eight selections comprising the album 12 years earlier at his Hackensack, New Jersey studio. Using bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor as his rhythm section, adding guitarist Kenny Burrell on two pieces--Miles Davis's Four" and Walkin.'" Recorded May 24, 1957, this session took place during a busy period for Garland, between a date for trombonist Curtis Fuller on May 14 resulting in Curtis Fuller with ...
Continue ReadingMiles Davis: Miles '55: The Prestige Recordings
by Richard J Salvucci
It is hard to imagine any casual jazz fan failing a blindfold test on the vinyls on offer here. It is a game people play: how quickly can you identify the performer. A lot of horn players make it into the competition, because horns are boisterous and mimic the human voice and persona. Clark Terry, some say, requires one note. And for much of his career, starting in the mid-1950s, a compatriot and mentee of Terry's: Miles Davis was equally ...
Continue ReadingDorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached, 1957-1965
by John Chacona
Imagine if Sidney Bechet, Charlie Christian and Jimmy Smith were barely remembered and recordings of their music were long unavailable and known only on the geekiest corners of Discogs. That is essentially the status of harpist Dorothy Ashby. Like the three figures cited above, Ashby essentially created a language for her chosen instrument, the harp, where virtually none has existed before and established it as a legitimate and expressive vehicle for jazz improvisation at the highest level. Just how brilliantly ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp: Blase And Yasmina Revisited
by Chris May
The three albums tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded in Paris for BYG Records during one week in August 1969 tend to get overlooked in the slipstream of the dozen or so he made in the US for Impulse earlier in the decade. More is the pity, for as Blasé And Yasmina Revisited so resoundingly attests, the BYGs contain some of the most audacious, many splendored and deep roots music that Shepp has recorded in his still-kicking career (at the time ...
Continue ReadingJohn Coltrane: Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions
by Chris May
A date for your diary... 18 September 2020. That is when Atlantic / Rhino releases two cracking new editions of John Coltrane's first landmark album, Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960). The main event is enhanced audio quality, which has noticeably more presence than any previous reissue. The double CD and vinyl Remastered Edition and digital-only Super Deluxe Edition consist of material which has been newly remastered by John Webber at Air Studios in London. The Remastered Edition includes ...
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