Home » Jazz Articles » Bobby Timmons

Jazz Articles about Bobby Timmons

2
Radio & Podcasts

Mandatory Merriment

Read "Mandatory Merriment" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


It's that holiday season once again, and Santa Mike insists we cover a slate of season-appropriate releases. Are they jazz appropriate as well? Not really, but two are jazz adjacent and one at least features an ex-Messenger, so there's that. There's also, er, Swamp Dogg. Pop matters travels from Sufjan Stephens to late eighties England to the soothing, ambient sounds of the Zamboni, nature's Andreas Vollenweider. Bobby Timmons: Holiday Soul; Swamp Dogg: An Awful Christmas and a Lousy New Year; ...

5
Album Review

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings

Read "First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Perhaps Art Blakey's greatest gift was that he was able to—and also enabled you—to transport through time to when invention was new and not reheated, rebranded, or far worse, rejected out of hand. Just take his opening solo on the Charlie Parker-penned opener “Now's the Time" from the absolutely ribald and raucous First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings and get a riotous earful for yourself. Blakey bops, pops, and booms and you're there in the room in Tokyo, ...

13
Album Review

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings

Read "First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings" reviewed by Chris May


There is a saying in the opera world which, though innocuous on the face of it, damns a work before the overture has begun let alone after the fat lady sings. The saying, beloved of breathless publicists deaf to its implication, is that such and such an opera is “rarely performed." The reason it is rarely performed, of course, is because nine times out of ten it is a dud. When it comes to jazz albums the parallel ...

8
Album Review

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Just Coolin'

Read "Just Coolin'" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Great moments play all over Just Coolin', the new archival Blue Note Art Blakey release from 1959, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio with Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt. For a bit of history, let's just point out that Hank Mobley was returning to the tenor chair he held from 1951-56, but which had just recently (for back then) been occupied by Shorter, and before him Benny Golson. Not the slightest expectation here. And should there have been ...

15
Album Review

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Just Coolin'

Read "Just Coolin'" reviewed by Chris May


It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man or woman in possession of a good quantity of Art Blakey albums, must be in want of a lot more. Previously unreleased albums are particularly enticing. So do not be fooled by the Reid Miles-inspired cover of Just Coolin': the disc is previously unissued. It presents Blakey in his pomp fronting a dream-team Jazz Messengers lineup. AAJers do not need to be reminded that Blakey was at the ...

23
Extended Analysis

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Moanin'

Read "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Moanin'" reviewed by Mike Oppenheim


Throughout its history, jazz has constantly evolved, developing from and reacting against its earlier incarnations. The mid-1940s saw bebop reinvent jazz as an artist's genre, distinct from the swing style that was the popular music throughout the 1930s and '40s. Bebop was music for listening, not dancing, and the emphasis became virtuosic improvised solos instead of memorable tunes and arrangements. However, the advent of bebop itself led to further reactions and developments within jazz during the 1950s. The newer genre ...

380
Album Review

Lee Morgan: The Cooker

Read "The Cooker" reviewed by Samuel Chell


Although Lee Morgan had already made a handful of albums at the age of 19, The Cooker (1957) represents his throwing down the gauntlet as successor to Clifford Brown's vacated throne. It's close to being a pure bebop session, suggestive of a date like For Musicians Only (Verve, 1956), on which Gillespie, Stitt and Getz set some sort of record for NPS (notes per second). At the same time, the precocious trumpeter, already brimming with confidence, is not about to ...


Engage

Contest Giveaways
Enter our latest contest giveaway sponsored by Calligram Records
Polls & Surveys
Vote for your favorite musicians and participate in our brief surveys.
Publisher's Desk
How To Follow Staff Writers
Read on...

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.