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Jazz Articles about Walter Davis Jr.
Jackie McLean: Let Freedom Ring to Destination...Out! Revisited
by Stefano Merighi
Rivisitando la vita e la carriera dell'altosassofonista e compositore Jackie McLean, mi viene naturale avvicinarle a quelle di Paul Bley. Entrambi hanno iniziato da ragazzini, conoscendo i maestri e suonando con loro; sia McLean che Bley hanno potuto affinare la propria personalità accanto ai più grandi creatori di jazz (Hawkins, Parker, Mingus, Rollins, Davis, Coleman, tra gli altri..); tutti e due erano spesso al posto giusto nel momento giusto ed hanno sviluppato un carattere indipendente e incurante del mainstream, con ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp: The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic of Ju-ju Revisited
by Stefano Merighi
In questa compilation dedicata ad un periodo importante di Archie Shepp, si dovrebbe iniziare l'ascolto dalla fine. Infatti, i quasi venti minuti di “The Magic of Ju-Ju," posti in chiusura del CD, sono dell'aprile 1967; il resto del repertorio è invece stato inciso nel biennio successivo. Pur non riuscendo a comprendere il criterio con cui si assemblano questi cataloghi sonori, è indubbiamente utile comparare alcuni lavori vicini eppure assai differenti di un autore come Shepp, all'epoca sugli scudi ...
Continue ReadingBob Mover / Walter Davis Jr.: The Salerno Concert
by Pierre Giroux
Alto saxophonist Bob Mover and pianist Walter Davis Jr. embark on a captivating journey in a 1989 live concert from La Botteghelle, Salerno, Italy, which has now been released by Reel to Real Records. Appropriately entitled The Salerno Concert, it is a testament to their virtuosity and intuitive support. These two adherents of the bebop tradition embark upon a musical recital of nine compositions sprinkled with recognizable anthems of the genre, paying homage to their predecessors and weaving intricate harmonies ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp: The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic Of Ju-Ju Revisited
by Mark Corroto
Allow me to expand on a much restated quote from Albert Ayler: “Coltrane was The Father, Pharoah was The Son, and I was... The Holy Ghost." If we remain with the Christian iconography, that makes Archie Shepp, Simon Peter, or the Apostle Peter whom Jesus called the rock upon which he built his church. Christened by his tenure in the early 1960s with Cecil Taylor, Shepp was baptized into what we now call a modernist approach. In meeting Coltrane, a ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp: The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic Of Ju-ju Revisited
by Chris May
2023 kicks off with the bangingest back-in-the-day bang from the Swiss-based ezz-thetics label, whose carefully curated and remastered 1960s sessions from Archie Shepp, Horace Silver, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler lit up the reissue calendar in 2022. Shepp's The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic Of Ju-ju Revisited comes in at a whisker over seventy-nine minutes and includes all four tracks from The Way Ahead (Impulse!, 1968), two tracks from Kwanza (Impulse!, recorded 1969, released 1974) and the ...
Continue ReadingWalter Davis Jr.: Davis Cup - 1959
by Marc Davis
Every now and then, I hear a musician in a band and I think, “Damn, can we get rid of the other guys and just hear this one by himself?" That was my immediate thought after listening to Davis Cup, a hard bop cooker from 1959. Walter Davis Jr. is a pianist with a slim discography. He recorded exactly one Blue Note CD as a leader--this one, his debut--and appeared mostly as a sideman on other people's records. ...
Continue ReadingDonald Byrd: Byrd in Hand (RVG Edition)
by Robert Gilbert
Of the jazz trumpeters who blazed a trail during the 1950s and '60s, Donald Byrd has never really gotten his due. He came into his own at the same time as Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Chet Baker, Kenny Dorham, etc. were on the scene, unjustly diverting some attention away from Byrd. Yet a listen to a small part of his recorded output reveals a trumpeter with a well-developed penchant for lyricism and who, over time, learned to use space as ...
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