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Jazz Articles about Ron Carter
Hank Crawford: Help Me Make It Through The Night
by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
One of the first artists signed by Creed Taylor for CTI's subsidiary Kudu label, Hank Crawford suffered violent criticism during the period (1971-1978) he recorded for the label, being accused of making mellow and commercial albums. On the other hand, Hank achieved a new level of popularity during his CTI/Kudu years. Some of the eight albums he cut for the label sold over 100,000 copies with almost no promotion. And his Kudu debut, Help Me Make It Through The Night, ...
Continue ReadingAlan Shorter: Mephistopholes to Orgasm Revisited
by Stefano Merighi
In questo CD dedicato ad Alan Shorter (tromba, flicorno, composizione) si ripropongono le sedute integrali di Orgasm (1968), precedute però da “Mephistopheles," di tre anni precedente, che figurava nella scaletta di The All Seeing Eye, del più celebre fratello Wayne. È un pezzo di una cupezza angosciante, sostenuto da un pedale ritmico minaccioso, dalle cui spire fioriscono severi interventi dei fiati e delle percussioni. Con i due fratelli Shorter, suonano James Spaulding (alto), Freddie Hubbard (tromba), Grachan Moncur III (trombone), ...
Continue ReadingTadd Dameron: Fontainebleau & Magic Touch Revisited
by Maurizio Zerbo
Le linee guida di Fontainebleau e Magic Touch, i due capolavori di Tadd Dameron qui riuniti in un solo CD, furono teorizzate dal pianista di Cleveland sulle pagine della rivista Record Changer, in cui descrisse come la sua adesione all'estetica del bebop fosse mediata dalla classica scrittura swing. Le forme multitematiche ABA e i trasporti di chorus di “The Scene Is Clean," nonché i quattro movimenti di “Fontainebleau" che non contengono una sola nota improvvisata, forniscono prove tangibili ...
Continue ReadingDon Ellis: How Time Passes to Essence Revisited
by Angelo Leonardi
Nelle storie del jazz Don Ellis è ricordato principalmente per l'innovativa big band che guidò per un decennio, dalla metà degli anni sessanta. Questa preziosa riedizione ci rammenta i suoi inizi di carriera, quando esplorava nuove soluzioni a partire dalla tromba: accoppia il suo debutto in quartetto (...How Time Passes...) dell'ottobre 1960 con alcuni brani di Essence, risalente al 1962. Il trombettista losangelino aveva appena compiuto 26 anni e registrava il primo album accompagnato dal pianista Jaki Byard, ...
Continue ReadingFlorian Arbenz, Michael Arbenz, Ron Carter: The Alpine Session: Arbenz vs. Arbenz Meets Ron Carter
by Neil Duggan
1937 was a landmark year: the Golden Gate Bridge opened and Edward VIII abdicated the British throne. In jazz, Billie Holiday made her debut with Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie began his recording career. It was also the year Ron Carter, the most-recorded jazz bassist in history, was born. With over 2000 recording sessions to his name, many of them on iconic albums, he could be forgiven for putting his feet up and reflecting on past glories, but that is ...
Continue ReadingMiles In France 1963 & 1964: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
by Doug Collette
At the very same time Beatlemania was slowly but surely beginning to engulf the globe, Miles Davis was inexorably proceeding toward what was the most adventurous music of his career. Miles In France -The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 captures a group of musicians led by “The Man with the Horn" on the threshold of forming what is referred to as his second great quintet, then actually coalescing into that stellar outfit. And the drama within that designation rapidly ...
Continue ReadingJohnny "Hammond" Smith: Wild Horses Rock Steady
by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
Born John Robert Smith on December 16, 1933 (in Louisville, KY), formerly known as Johnny Hammond Smith, and later as Johnnny Hammond, one of the all-time best jazz organists passed away on June 4, 1997, in Chicago, Illinois. For some of his early fans, some of the best albums he recorded were done for Prestige in the Sixties. A younger generation, who grew up listening to the hip-hop influenced jazz sounds of the 1990s, prefers Johnny's over-produced sessions for Milestone ...
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