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Various Artists: Jazz For When You're Alone
by AAJ Staff
It began with JAZZ FOR A RAINY AFTERNOON, issued over a year ago. Beneath its beautiful cover was a splendid anthology, its gentle, slightly bitter tunes evoking rain and the emotions coming with it. It was a calculated attempt to sell “mood music”, maybe the first in jazz since the now-defunct Moodsville label. And it worked. Two more discs came out (same design, same general format), and all three made Top 15 on Billboard’s jazz chart. This is the latest, ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Blue Bossa - Cool Cuts From The Tropics vol 2
by Ian Nicolson
Baby, it's warm inside... and even if every artist featured on this latest revealing compilation drawn from Blue Note's influential Fifties and Sixties catalogues is a Norteno from several frontiers up toward the cold, there's a wealth of fine beach blanket bossa here. And because the Blue Note roster could boast the finest - and sharpest - commercial jazz players in the US, the bossa and latin boom found some of it's most successful expression in the hands of Stanley ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Town Hall Concert
by Ian Nicolson
Does the world need another recorded version of Cataloupe Island? Slip this reissue of the 1985 Blue Note relaunch into your player and, with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and the inimitable Tony Williams kicking as the rhythm section, the occasion is one of such joyful reunion the answer is plain.Founded by the evening's guest of honour Alfred Lion way back in 1939, Blue Note can lay claim to being the greatest Jazz label ever, and the thirty or ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: The West Coast Jazz Box
by AAJ Staff
At first it was hard to get noticed. Articles on the Dave Brubeck Octet were sent to jazz journals in 1948, but none were printed; it took the words of a New York critic to attract attention. In 1951 a bunch of Stan Kenton musicians decided to stake out on their own, while living in L.A. ("We'd meet after these occasional gigs ... and compare notes about how horrible it was and the things we had to play...") Then the ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Jazz For The Quiet Times
by John Sharpe
Jazz For The Quiet Times holds the distinct honor of being the first album from 32 Jazz to top the Billboard “Traditional Jazz" Chart. This 12-track compilation of soothing standards and ballads provides the perfect aural accompaniment to those days when you just want to stretch out and relax. Although no dates are given, it appears that the bulk of the tunes have been drawn from the vast Muse catalog of the mid-70s and early 80s. If you enjoy this ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: The Sampler
by Jim Santella
Introducing Concord’s Jazz Heritage Series of 29 individual compilations, is a sampler that contains 29 tracks to match the collection’s volumes. At almost two and a half hours, with a suggested retail price of $10.98, the introductory sampler serves as a smart shopper’s bargain – that is, if one doesn’t already own the material from which it is drawn. An inexpensive sampler provides a listener with something to acquaint himself/herself with music of a broad scope while permitting opinions to ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Jazz For The Quiet Times
by Jim Santella
Produced by Adam Dorn, this collection of slow heartfelt instrumental standard reissues featuring saxophone, organ & guitar, vibraphone, mellow trumpet, or a combination of those, is – quite simply – “music to relax to." Centered around an arrangement of Benny Golson’s “Whisper Not" featuring vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, the compilation consists of familiar ballad material with slow walking bass and a drummer’s swirling brushes. Working with Hutcherson are pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist John Heard, and drummer Billy Higgins, who share the ...
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