Jazz Articles about Art Taylor

About Art Taylor

Reassessing

From the outset, pianist Sonny Clark's sophomore effort as a leader is crisp, white-hot hard bop. Leading a standard bop trumpet-tenor saxophone quintet (Donald Byrd, John Coltrane), supplemented with trombone (Curtis Fuller), Clark and his most reliable rhythm section of bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor carve five dictionary examples (with alternate takes on the CD) of the music evolving from bebop, principally on the East Coast (if we consider that cool jazz took root on the West Coast ...

Reassessing

Red Garland's Piano

by C. Michael Bailey
May 25, 2020

Pianist Red Garland follows up his debut recording A Garland of Red (Prestige, 1956) with what might be his finest statement leading a jazz trio, Red Garland's Piano. Garland continues his association with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor forming his most durable rhythm section, and one that would record with him on ten of his 45 recordings as a leader. The trio recorded the sides that would become Red Garland's Piano in December 1956 and March 1957 at ...

Reassessing

A Garland of Red

by C. Michael Bailey
May 9, 2020

Like pianist Wynton Kelly and Kelly's debut recording New Faces -New Sounds (Blue Note, 1951), William McKinley Red Garland performed for years as a sideman before releasing his first recording as a leader, A Garland of Red. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Garland migrated to New York City after a stint with Hot Lips Page in 1946. There, Garland recorded with Eddie Lockjaw" Davis and Charlie Parker, basically just kicking around until drummer Art Blakey heard him one night playing a ...

Album Review

Tina Brooks Quintet: The Complete Recordings

Read "The Complete Recordings" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 9, 2020

Mosaic Records' spring 2020 release The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70, the second of the label's box sets devoted to the copiously recorded (and rightly so) Hank Mobley, prompts thoughts of another of Blue Note's singular hard-bop tenor saxophone stylists. Unlike Mobley, Tina Brooks was woefully under-recorded, making just four albums under his own name. But like Mobley, Brooks had an instantly recognisable sound, was a spellbinding soloist and was also a gifted composer. In addition to his ...

Album Review

Gene Ammons: Boss Tenor

Read "Boss Tenor" reviewed by Matthew Aquiline

by Matthew Aquiline
July 20, 2016

Tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons' tone can be best described using the qualities of an ideally brewed cup of joe: rounded, bold, smooth, and exhilarating after first taste. Widely regarded as an original founder of the “Chicago school of tenor sax," Ammons' nonchalant, yet indelible sound--echoing the soft, breathy tone of Lester Young--drove him to a great deal of fame within the post- World War II jazz crowds of the '50s. Ammons, famously nicknamed “Jug," had an inherent ability ...

Album Review

Art Taylor: A.T.'S Delight

by AAJ Italy Staff
August 29, 2007

Con Art Blakey, Art Taylor rappresenta al meglio le caratteristiche più tipiche del drumming dell’hardbop. Incisivo, dinamico, multicolore ma anche duttile, come dimostrano le sue collaborazioni discografiche a tutto campo con Coltrane, Davis, Coleman Hawkins e mille altre stelle del firmamento jazzistico, tra gli anni ’50 e ’60. Art’s Delight è il suo terzo disco da leader, che si attesta sui consolidati parametri di un hardbop godibile e di buona fattura. Senza prevedere azzardi timbrici ed armonici, lo alimenta un ...

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Album Review

Bud Powell: The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall

Read "The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 9, 2005

In 1953 the jazz genre called Be Bop, Bop, Re Bop, or Modern Jazz had fully matured and was settling in as the established mainstream rather than the cutting edge movement it had been in the early 1940s. Jazz as a style collective had begun to further fray at the ends and Be Bop gave way to such subtypes as “Cool," “Hard Bop," “Third Stream," and “Soul Jazz," all considered reactions to Be Bop's frenetic, nervous nature. However, on May ...