Home » Jazz Articles » Philly Joe Jones
Jazz Articles about Philly Joe Jones
The Miles Davis Quintet: Miles Davis: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions

by C. Michael Bailey
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 ...
Continue ReadingElmo Hope: Trio and Quintet

by AAJ Italy Staff
Questo è uno dei pochi dischi di Elmo Hope in circolazione oggi in Italia. Un plauso alla Blue Note che l'aveva già pubblicato in CD (con identica copertina e stessi brani) 15 anni fa ed oggi lo riedita per il beneficio di chi se l'era perso.Dopo anni di totale oblio, lo sfortunato pianista e compositore bop ha avuto nel decennio scorso una certa rivalutazione critica ma dal pubblico jazz è ancora ampiamente ignorato.Un vero peccato, perché ...
Continue ReadingHank Mobley: The Flip

by Germein Linares
Leonard Feather once hailed Hank Mobley as the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone." Mobley was better than that. An exquisite soul messenger, Mobley was criticized for not being as aggressive, voluminous, or trailblazing as his contemporaries. Indeed, he was not. Instead, his music was steeped in care, precision and nuances. In Mobley's hands, such treatment often dazzled, as on his latest Blue Note reissue, The Flip.
Recorded in 1969 at Studio Barclay in Paris, this album would be Mobley's ...
Continue ReadingFreddie Hubbard: Hub Cap (RVG Edition)

by Robert Gilbert
As was customary with Blue Note releases during the 1950s and '60s, the names of the musicians performing on Hub Cap are listed on the album’s front cover. The name of Freddie Hubbard, the leader, is--not surprisingly--most prominent. However, the factor that elevates Hub Cap a notch above similarly styled LPs released at the time is the fifth name listed under Hubbard’s: drummer “Philly” Joe Jones.Within a minute of the opening title song, Jones has made his presence ...
Continue ReadingFreddie Hubbard: Hub Cap (RVG Edition)

by Richton Guy Thomas
Freddie Hubbard brought a beautiful tone and an instinct for swing to Hub Cap. This record came out in 1961, three years before Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch and four years before Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage : two significant titles in the library of America's improvised music which feature a consequential role by Hubbard.Freddie Hubbard leads a particularly talented sextet on this reissue. Four of the six compositions are Hubbard originals; two numbers were composed by Cedar Walton, ...
Continue ReadingArt Pepper: Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section

by C. Michael Bailey
Making a classic better and affordable? Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; The best of life is but intoxication: Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunk The hopes of all men, and of every nation; Without their sap, how branchless were the trunk Of life's strange tree, so fruitful on occasion: But to return,Get very drunk; and when You wake with headache, you shall see what then. George Gordon, Lord Byron, from Don Juan
Continue ReadingPhilly Joe Jones: Drum Songs

by C. Michael Bailey
That Fire...
Did Philly Joe Jones do anything after leaving the first great Miles Davis Quintet? Jones left shortly before Davis recorded Kind of Blue in 1959. He went on to appear as a sideman on hundreds of recordings many now considered classics. It is a bit disingenuous to suggest that Jones had his high water mark with Miles Davis and never approached that mark again. Jones’s recordings as a leader are few in comparison, but are uniformly fine and ...
Continue Reading