Jazz Articles about Paul Chambers

Paul Chambers: Bass on Top – 1957

by Marc Davis
May 18, 2016

In the world of 1950s hard bop, there is no more prominent bassist than Paul Chambers. The man was absolutely everywhere. He shows up on an astonishing number of jazz classics, including Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, John Coltrane's Giant Steps, Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners, Sonny Rollins' Tenor Madness and Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth. He was a sideman on 200 albums from the '50s and '60s. So it's natural to associate Chambers ...

Paul Chambers: Whims of Chambers – Blue Note 1534

by Marc Davis
March 12, 2015

At Blue Note Records in the 1950s, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones were about as common as grits at a Southern diner. And about as noticeable, too--not flashy, just solid and reputable. Blue Note never had a “house band," but if it had, Chambers and Jones would have been the hard bop core. Art Blakey may have been the more famous and more aggressive Blue Note drummer, and Charles Mingus the more famous (non-Blue Note) ...

Lee Morgan: The Cooker

by Samuel Chell
January 29, 2007

Although Lee Morgan had already made a handful of albums at the age of 19, The Cooker (1957) represents his throwing down the gauntlet as successor to Clifford Brown's vacated throne. It's close to being a pure bebop session, suggestive of a date like For Musicians Only (Verve, 1956), on which Gillespie, Stitt and Getz set some sort of record for NPS (notes per second). At the same time, the precocious trumpeter, already brimming with confidence, is not about to ...

Miles Davis: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions

by George Kanzler
January 6, 2007

The Miles Davis Quintet The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions Prestige Records 2006 (1955-56)

Miles (aka The New Miles Davis Quintet), Workin', Relaxin', Steamin' and Cookin' were the titles of the original Miles Davis Quintet LPs for Prestige that make up the first three (of four) CDs of this yet-again repackaging of what have become among the most familiar sides of Davis' recorded oeuvre. (The other studio album by this band was 'Round About Midnight ...

Miles Davis: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions

by Doug Collette
August 27, 2006

The Miles Davis Quintet The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions Prestige Records 2006 (1955-56)

Adorned by a painting rendered by the man with the horn himself, the elegant understatement of the packaging of The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions is wholly in line with the music it contains. The four-CD set--the latest chapter in the seemingly endless, but well justified, series of homages to Miles Davis--captures the entire output of Davis' mid ...

The Miles Davis Quintet: Miles Davis: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions

by C. Michael Bailey
May 24, 2006

The noted Irish-American author Thomas Cahill has written a series of books called “The Hinges of History" where, instead of concentrating on war, outrage, and catastrophe, the author illuminates stories of grace, great gift-givers and the evolution of our human sensibility. Cahill brings to life those personalities who had the greatest impact on who we are. In the realm of jazz music, we have an artist who regularly installed hinges in the history of American music. He ...

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

by Jim Santella
March 12, 2005

Columbia's latest release of this essential album includes the original liner notes by Bill Evans, a new liner note essay by Robert Palmer, a bonus track alternate take of “Flamenco Sketches," a 25-minute documentary DVD on Kind of Blue, and the original music itself. It sounds as good today as it did 46 years ago. In the words of television journalist and jazz devotee Ed Bradley, “It's as strong today as it was for me in ...