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Laid-Back Jazz Guitar: Kenny Burrell and Grant Green
by Marc Davis
When I'm in the mood for jazz guitar, I have two go-to albums: Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue and Grant Green's Idle Moments. It always surprises me. Growing up in the 1960s and '70s, I was a big fan of hard and fast rock guitars. Who wasn't? Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Pete Townsend. ...
Sonny Clark: Cool Struttin’ – 1958
by Marc Davis
Blue Note Records was many things in the 1950s and '60s, but it was never the home of cool jazz. Yes, it was ground zero for hard bop in the '50s. And yes, it was the capital of soul-jazz in the '60s. But to release an album in 1958 (one year after Miles Davis' Birth of ...
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Moanin’ – Blue Note 4003
by Marc Davis
Jazz fans will argue forever over the best version of The Jazz Messengers. Was it the group with Wayne Shorter and Lee Morgan that made A Night in Tunisia in 1960? The 1954 edition with Horace Silver, Clifford Brown and Lou Donaldson that made A Night at Birdland? (Which isn't technically a Jazz Messengers album, but ...
Curtis Fuller: The Opener – Blue Note 1567
by Marc Davis
From the very first notes, it's obvious that Curtis Fuller's The Opener is something completely different. Yes, it's bop. Yes, it features the usual lineup of two horns, piano, bass and drums. And yes, one of those horns is saxman Hank Mobley, who, by law, was required to appear on every single Blue Note ...
John Coltrane: Blue Train – Blue Note 1577
by Marc Davis
John Coltrane was arguably the greatest jazz musician of the 1950s and '60s. Blue Note Records was arguably the greatest jazz label of the same period. And yet they had almost nothing to do with each other. Except for one album--and it's a classic. Blue Train is one of a handful of ...
Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore: Blowing in From Chicago – 1957
by Marc Davis
Imagine if Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, at the height of their popularity in 1957, invited a couple of sax guys you've never heard of to play with them. The result would be Blowing in From Chicago--a lively, wonderful record firmly in the Blue Note bop tradition. The rhythm section is ...
Various Artists: Verve The Sound of America: The Singles Collection
by Marc Davis
Verve is one of the greatest labels in the history of jazz, and Norman Granz was one of jazz's greatest producers. So why is The Sound of America: The Singles Collection such a mess of a box set? This had such great promise. After all, Verve was home to many legendary performers: Ella Fitzgerald, ...
A Deadly Sin: Gluttony
by Marc Davis
Many years ago, I committed the deadly sin of musical gluttony. I'm Pavlov's dog for a good box set. I love Springsteen's Tracks. I can listen over and over to all 5 CDs in the Brubeck For All Time box set. (Which isn't really a box set. It's just five previously released CDs crammed ...
Hank Mobley: Dippin' – Blue Note 4209
by Marc Davis
1965 was an interesting year musically, and Hank Mobley's Dippin' tries--mostly successfully--to capture all of it. It's a hodgepodge of styles that were very popular that year, ranging from soul to pop, hard bop to bossa nova. It's a fun listen--but don't expect any kind of consistent feel. The record pairs two ...
Art Blakey: Orgy in Rhythm, Volumes 1 and 2 – Blue Note 1554 and 1555
by Marc Davis
This may be the strangest album ever released on Blue Note Records, and I don't like it. I hate saying that. I love music, and I try to find something to like in everything. I try occasionally to go beyond the familiar. Opera baffles me, but I can't deny there are some ...
