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110

Album Review

Various Artists: Swingin' Jazz for Hipsters Vol. 1

by Robert Spencer
February 1, 1998

That most prolific of jazzmen, Mr. Various Artists, is back again from Concord in a slick postmodern Fifties retro package crafted to appeal to folks who would never admit that they like “Feelin' Groovy," but groove to it all the same underneath their gentle sneer. Inside is a program heavy with pop tunes latter-day jazzed: “The Candy Man," “Isn't She Lovely," “The 59th Street Bridge Song" in the flesh-plus crossover things like Donald Fagen's “Walk Between the Raindrops" (presented here ...

162

Album Review

Various Artists: Standards On Impulse!

by Robert Spencer
January 1, 1998

Standards on Impulse! is a collection disc with a few twists, but not as many as one might expect from that label's classic Sixties roster. Art Blakey kicks off the proceedings with a driving version of Gershwin's “Summertime" that seems to owe a bit to John Coltrane's 1960 version, three years before this recording. Here Sonny Stitt plays lines that explain why they call it “hard bop," McCoy Tyner displays his characteristic intensity of the period, and Art Davis is ...

258

Album Review

Various Artists: Priceless Jazz Collection Sampler

by Robert Spencer
January 1, 1998

Okay, so your officemate, or your son, for goodness' sake, comes up and asks you, “What is this 'jazz,' anyway?" Time to haul out GRP's Priceless Jazz Collection Sampler. You get Billie Holiday sounding a trifle detached ("Good Morning Heartache"); Ella Fitzgerald scatting with as much verve as ever ("Oh, Lady Be Good"); Louis Armstrong playing no trumpet at all but singing as paradoxically sweetly as his famously grainy voice ever managed to allow ("What a Wonderful World"); Johnny Hartman ...

150

Album Review

Various Artists: Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture "Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil"

by Jim Santella
January 1, 1998

Clint Eastwood, who in 1971 incorporated footage from the Monterey Jazz Festival into his film directorial debut ("Play Misty For Me"), has released a Johnny Mercer songbook to accompany the current box-office hit set in Savannah and centered around a true-life murder that took place in the Mercer House. Established in 1860 by Mercer's great grandfather, General Hugh Mercer, the mansion sits in the center of a picturesque section of Savannah, and easily conveys visually the mood intended for much ...

134

Album Review

Various Artists: Songs That Made the Phone Light Up

by Robert Spencer
January 1, 1998

A compilation package with an interesting twist: Joel Dorn, the mastermind behind the controversial (and great) Rhino boxes of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Mingus, Trane, et al, has collected 13 songs beloved of his listeners on WHAT-FM in Philadelphia during the Sixties. He explains that besides all being favorites of his audience, none of these songs were hits. He has a high regard for the taste of his listeners from those days, even crediting them with production of this disc. From ...

139

Album Review

Various Artists: B-3in' Organ Jazz

by Robert Spencer
January 1, 1998

A groove-drenched various artistas reissue from Joel Dorn's 32 Jazz. Richard “Groove" Holmes, Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy Ponder (with Big John Patton handling the organ), Charles Earland, Willis Jackson (with Mickey Tucker on organ on one track and Earland on another), and Houston Person (with Jon Logan on organ). Person plays his silky and sinewy tenor on two other tracks: “Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me" with Holmes, and “Walking the Dog" with McDuff. He also produces McDuff's track ...

362

Album Review

Various Artists: Brazilian Horizons

by AAJ Staff
January 1, 1998

The influence of Caribbean and South American musical ideas on jazz goes as far back as Jelly Roll Morton and his “Latin tinge." Brazilian music, which first became popular in this country in the 60s with the samba craze, has always possessed a unique identity and sound. After Brazilian music was imported into America, a two way flow was established, with musicians from each culture listening to and working with musicians from the other. The results of this “cross-breeding" are ...