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Miles Davis: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions

by Doug Collette
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 ...
Continue ReadingThe 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 ReadingRed Garland: Red Garland Trio at the Prelude

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
This double-disc set gathers material from four previous albums that dribbled out over twenty years, from the '60s to the '80s. It's the complete record of one night in Harlem--October 2, 1959--when the Red Garland trio did three sets at a club called the Prelude. The night was historic for many reasons; my focus is what the music actually sounds like, and why it's still of interest nearly half a century later.
Aside from the incomparable energy of a live ...
Continue ReadingRed Garland: Red Garland

by C. Michael Bailey
Red Garland (1923-84) is often critically dismissed a cocktail pianist only worthy of tinkling in the background of a lounge, but his depth as a musician is much deeper than that. A member of the first classic Miles Davis Quintet (with John Coltrane), Garland won favor with the bandleader for the way he used musical space, approximating the approach of pianist Ahmad Jamal. As a part of that band, Garland helped shape a good deal of Davis' Prestige output, as ...
Continue ReadingRed Garland Trio At The Prelude

by C. Michael Bailey
Red Garland Red Garland Trio At The Prelude (Complete) Prestige Records 1959/2006
Following the success of Bill Evans: The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 (Riverside 3RCD-4443-2, 2005) the Concord Music Group has slated for release several historically complete thematic sets. Among these is The Red Garland Trio At The Prelude. The some 135 minutes of music comprising three sets on the evening of October 2, 1959 at Harlem's Prelude Club, has characteristically been released ...
Continue ReadingRed Garland: Red Garland's Piano

by David Rickert
Red Garland's career got a boost with a stint in Miles Davis's first great quintet, where his laid-back, bluesy style perfectly suited the small group swing of the classic Prestige dates. But Garland was also capable of holding the spotlight all on his own and crafted a series of appealing trio recordings for the same label. Red Garland's Piano (1957) showcases what made the pianist a man worthy of admiration: a firm left hand provided a punchy rhythm while the ...
Continue ReadingRed Garland: Red Alone

by Derek Taylor
Solo piano sessions hold only a fraction of the mystique they once did in jazz. These days it’s far from uncommon for a pianist to crank out a session of him- or herself alone at the ivories, the precedence for the practice having long since been set. But back when this recently reissued Moodsville album came out, the format was still relatively fresh. The idea of an improviser left solely to his own devices at the keys carried a heavy ...
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