Jazz Articles about Philly Joe Jones

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Hank Mobley: The Flip

by Germein Linares
January 17, 2004

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 ...

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Freddie Hubbard: Hub Cap (RVG Edition)

by Robert Gilbert
February 24, 2003

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 ...

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Freddie Hubbard: Hub Cap (RVG Edition)

by Richton Guy Thomas
January 26, 2003

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, ...

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Art Pepper: Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section

by C. Michael Bailey
October 2, 2002

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

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Philly Joe Jones: Drum Songs

by C. Michael Bailey
September 1, 2002

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 ...

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Philly Joe Jones: Philly Mignon

by Derek Taylor
February 1, 2001

Pun-laden title aside this is a gourmet collection of hard swinging jazz. Philly Joe in his later years may have been a shade less audacious than in his youth, but you’d never know it listening to his bristling precision traps work on these five tracks. Manning his kit like a man possessed Jones pushes his rhythm mates with well-worn sticks and cast iron swing. He and Carter are actually the only constants with two different front lines cycling through the ...

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Kenny Dorham: Whistle Stop

by Robert Spencer
May 1, 1997

If you’re looking for “straight ahead" jazz (in near-perfect form), here it is. Kenny Dorham plays here with the burning rhythm section John Coltrane used on Blue Train : Kenny Drew on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Hank Mobley adds his tenor sax to this 1961 session that features Kenny mining the blues and more in a variety of contexts.

“’Philly’ Twist" is a Parkerian (Charlie, not Evan, folks) blues with energetic comping from ...