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233

Article: Album Review

Ken Field: Under the Skin

Read "Under the Skin" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

The opening track's sounds of bass with alto saxophone improvising over a street beat are practically an invitation to dance, especially to anyone who's been a “second liner" in a traditional New Orleans funeral recessional. This music, after all, was composed by alto saxophonist Ken Field as “dance music," an integral component of a multimedia work, ...

235

Article: Album Review

Oliver Nelson With Eric Dolphy: Screamin' the Blues

Read "Screamin' the Blues" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

Screamin' the Blues is an apt description of the soloists' approach on this 1960 session, here reissued as an RVG remaster, the first of three matching leader Oliver Nelson with avant-gardist Eric Dolphy. Although not as well-known as Nelson's masterpiece, Blues and the Abstract Truth (1961), the date is characterized, above all, by “generosity" on the ...

185

Article: Album Review

Kenny Werner: Lawn Chair Society

Read "Lawn Chair Society" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

It would be an exercise in futility to attempt to classify this music. When standard tunes from the American Songbook and jazz idioms such as swing and bebop spark little to no recognition among the general public, music that could once be called “experimental" or “avant-garde" necessarily defines the modern mainstream. If there are similarities with ...

682

Article: Extended Analysis

Etta Jones: Don't Go To Strangers

Read "Etta Jones: Don't Go To Strangers" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

Etta Jones Don't Go To Strangers [Remastered RVG Edition] Prestige 2006 Mention Etta Jones to casual followers of the jazz vocal scene, and brace yourself for a quizzical expression in return. Or if the name produces a spark of recognition, wait long enough for the frequent retraction ("Oh, I thought ...

485

Article: Film Review

Tight: Johnny O'Neal Trio in Concert

Read "Tight: Johnny O'Neal Trio in Concert" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

Johnny O'Neal Trio Tight BoJazz Productions 2006 “It don't mean a thing..." If Duke Ellington's criterion for meaning were to be strictly enforced, most of the sounds that pass for music wouldn't rise above nihilism. Pianist Johnny O'Neal knows the difference between “keeping time" and “swing," which is as much ...

406

Article: Extended Analysis

Lee Morgan: The Gigolo

Read "Lee Morgan: The Gigolo" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

Lee Morgan The Gigolo Blue Note Records 2007 As we observe the 35th anniversary (Feb. 19) of the death of the talented trumpeter who would also become the major player in one of American music's more noteworthy Frankie and Johnny stories, the title of this Lee Morgan session and several ...

442

Article: Album Review

Thelonious Monk: Thelonious Monk / Sonny Rollins

Read "Thelonious Monk / Sonny Rollins" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

Since a 50th Anniversary edition of this recording was released only several years ago, it's possible that this recent RVG edition was seen by the parent company, Concord, as an opportunity to capitalize on the success--critical and popular--of the Monk/Coltrane Carnegie Hall concert (Blue Note, 2005). Regardless, this early meeting of masters, while yielding music of ...

421

Article: Album Review

Lee Morgan: Tom Cat

Read "Tom Cat" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

As a cat owner, I've learned the hard way that the outdoor variety of felines quickly exhaust their nine lives. Lee Morgan's Tom Cat must be the exception. Recorded in 1964, the session was first released in 1981 (too late, even, to count as “posthumous"), before its most recent reincarnation as an RVG remaster. Blue Note's ...

271

Article: Album Review

Blossom Dearie: Blossom Time at Ronnie Scott's

Read "Blossom Time at Ronnie Scott's" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

Several years ago Blossom Dearie said that of all her recordings, this on-location session from 1966 was her personal favorite. Although artists are notoriously unreliable critics of their own work, it's hard to quarrel with the singer/pianist's preference given the evidence on this reissue. Anyone who has yet to discover the inimitable, Lolita-like voice of this ...

255

Article: Album Review

Lee Morgan: City Lights

Read "City Lights" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell

This album may not enjoy the same status as Charlie Chaplin's revered movie of the same title, but it's a session that evokes similar feelings. Like the beloved Tramp, Lee Morgan wins our respect with a performance of exceptional warmth and dignity, grace and beauty, sprinkled with moments of gentle humor. His playing on this session ...


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