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Trio and Quintet
by C. Michael Bailey
Pianist and composer Elmo Hope has more in common with Tadd Dameron than most of his other jazz peers. Both men were primarily composers and arrangers who concentrated on their own music rather than standards. Both men spent their professional lives in New York City during the twilight of bebop and the flourishing of hard bop. Neither man boasted large discographies as leaders, but appeared on a significant number of recordings as sidemen. Their careers were both shortened dramatically by ...
Continue ReadingShelly Manne: Jazz from the Pacific Northwest
by Stefano Merighi
I luoghi comuni sono vacui ma spesso azzeccano un frammento di sincerità. Dire che il jazz californiano anni '50 annacqua e depotenzia la forza afroamericana di questa musica è riduttivo, certo, ma indiscutibile almeno in certe sue declinazioni. È il caso di queste registrazioni del quintetto di Shelly Manne, frutto del concerto al festival di Monterey del 1958, recuperate e pubblicate dalla Real to Real, in un doppio CD che contiene anche alcuni brani di otto anni dopo, ...
Continue ReadingTerry Gibbs Dream Band: Dream Band, Vol. 7: The Lost Tapes, 1959
by Angelo Leonardi
«Non credo che ci sia mai stata una band migliore di questa, compresa la mia». Mel Lewis espresse queste parole per la mitica orchestra che il vibrafonista Terry Gibbs guidò in California tra il 1959 e il 1961 e fu chiamata “Dream Band" per l'entusiasmo che suscitò tra i fortunati che l'ascoltarono dal vivo. Giudizi così perentori non vanno mai presi alla lettera ma ascoltando queste inedite registrazioni non li giudicherete troppo esagerati. Stan Kenton espresse simili opinioni ...
Continue ReadingTerry Gibbs: Dream Band, Vol. 7: The Lost Tapes, 1959
by Jack Bowers
In 1959, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs and his recently formed big band set up shop at the Seville, a Los Angeles nightclub owned by Harry Schiller. Many of those early sessions were taped, at Gibbs' request, by famed recording engineer Wally Heider before being left on a shelf and forgotten. After two weeks at the Seville, Gibbs and the band moved to a second club, the Sundown. The band was successful, drew large crowds, and was soon recording, first for Norman ...
Continue ReadingTerry Gibbs: Dream Band, Vol. 7: The Lost Tapes, 1959
by Richard J Salvucci
Someone once asked Terry Gibbs how it was possible that if you took his side men, or some subset of them, and put them together in another band, they never quite sounded as good. Gibbs replied, modestly, that it was all in the arrangers. He got the best arrangers, like Bill Holman, Marty Paich and Med Flory. Others did not. And so the story went. It would have been tempting to ask if, perhaps, Gibbs had ...
Continue ReadingShelly Manne & His Men: Jazz From The Pacific Northwest
by Pierre Giroux
Shelly Manne & His Men are presented in two iterations in never-before-released live recordings from the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival and from a 1966 date at The Penthouse in Seattle entitled Jazz From The Pacific Northwest. In this deluxe limited edition 180-gram 2LP set, co-produced for release by the estimable Zev Feldman and Cory Weeds, the band captivated the audience with intricate melodies and vibrant improvisations driven by Manne's virtuosic drumming. The band on LP1 from ...
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 ...
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