Jazz Articles about Tina Brooks

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Freddie Hubbard: Open Sesame

by Chris May
March 19, 2020

Blue Note's two 180gm vinyl-reissue series--Blue Note 80 and Tone Poet--continue on their enigmatic going on erratic, but mostly magnificent paths. Tone Poet is billed as the audiophile option but, on a fairly limited sampling of both series, there seems to be little, if anything at all, separating the two in audio terms. The key difference is that Tone Poet has the more luxurious, heavyweight packaging. Whatever. It is the music that counts—and 22-year old Freddie Hubbard's 1960 label debut ...

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Tina Brooks Quintet: The Complete Recordings

by Chris May
March 9, 2020

Mosaic Records' spring 2020 release The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70, the second of the label's box sets devoted to the copiously recorded (and rightly so) Hank Mobley, prompts thoughts of another of Blue Note's singular hard-bop tenor saxophone stylists. Unlike Mobley, Tina Brooks was woefully under-recorded, making just four albums under his own name. But like Mobley, Brooks had an instantly recognisable sound, was a spellbinding soloist and was also a gifted composer. In addition to his ...

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Tina Brooks: True Blue - 1960

by Marc Davis
December 25, 2015

I love finding little-known records by almost-unknown artists. There's nothing wrong with soaking in the comfortable pool of guys you know oh-so-well. I can listen to Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell all day. But even the greats can wear you out. How many times can you listen to the Beatles' “Hey Jude" before the na-na-na-na's get tiresome? For those moments, it's nice to sample a one-hit wonder. Tina Brooks is that guy.

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Tina Brooks: Back To The Tracks

by Matt Marshall
June 4, 2009

Tina Brooks Back To The Tracks Blue Note / Music Matters 2009 (1985)

Although probably not the intention, Back To The Tracks appropriately labels saxophonist Tina Brooks' mode of operation during the 1960 Blue Note sessions that would produce this album. Going unreleased until Mosaic put it out in 1985 (the result of one of those head-shakingly dismissive or sad, number-crunching decisions seemingly so common in Blue Note's history), the record spins ...

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Tina Brooks: True Blue

by Germein Linares
September 9, 2005

As with Minor Move and Back to the Tracks, Tina Brooks' True Blue is an album of hard bop excellence. Recorded in '60, it finds the tenor saxophonist accompanied by Freddie Hubbard on trumpet (a week after Brooks helped Hubbard on his debut album, Open Sesame), Duke Jordan on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Art Taylor on drums. The six original compositions by Brooks are well-crafted, though none are stellar. The group's cohesive sound, its consistent blues-induced jazz groove, ...

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Tina Brooks: True Blue

by Norman Weinstein
March 23, 2005

It is heartening to see an artist as obscure as tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks given the Rudy Van Gelder Edition treatment by Blue Note in this winning reissue. I have to admit surprise that Blue Note didn't marginalize Brooks, like Sam Rivers, in the label's limited-edition Connoisseur series. Frankly, Rivers is the more sophisticated artist with a potentially broader audience in my judgement, but Brooks has his lasting value also. There is a terrifically pensive blues cry ...

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Freddie Hubbard: Open Sesame

by Craig Jolley
March 1, 2002

Open Sesame (1960) was Freddie Hubbard’s first record as a leader. If it was his only record it would be legendary, but within two years he had recorded four better ones. What raised the other records above Open Sesame was the drummers: Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, and Louis Hayes. There is nothing wrong with Clifford Jarvis—he swings, he interacts with the other players, and he fits the band’s conservative concept. But on his best records Hubbard fed off his ...