Category Archives: Records

Don Cherry: Symphony For Improvisers

Avant Garde/Improvisation, Jazz, Records, ,

Related: Don Cherry: Musician of the World

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Trumpet player Don Cherry was pretty much Blue Note’s premiere find in the 60s avant-garde jazz sweepstakes. The label was a bit late to the party, and though they ended up releasing excellent recordings by formidable avant-garde names such as Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor, that was only after these musicians had already done groundbreaking work on other labels who proceeded to drop them eventually.

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Chick Corea: Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (1968)

Jazz, Records, ,
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“Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” has long been considered one of Corea’s best recordings, featuring some of his best writing and a group (bassist Miroslav Vitous, drummer Roy Haynes) that must be considered one of the great piano trios. That it was out of print at one time is incomprehensible, but this, its second reissue, is great. Not only has Blue Note preserved the track order (tracks 1-5, with approximately 40 minutes of playing time comprise the original LP, followed by eight bonus tracks), but the 24-bit remastering renders the performances crystal clear.

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Cannonball Adderley: Cannonball Plays Zawinul

Jazz, Records, ,
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Cannonball Adderley encouraged Joe Zawinul to write for his band, and was receptive to the progressive sounds that Zawinul came up with. The result was a musical partnership that was truly inspired. Needless to say, Adderley’s band recorded a large number of Zawinul compositions, and on Cannonball Plays Zawinul, the composer/pianist himself chooses the tunes to be included.

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Thad Jones/Mel Lewis/Consummation

Jazz, Records, ,
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This absolute classic album was just remastered by Blue Note in 2002, and it sounds great. Thad Jones/Mel Lewis was the big band of the 1970s (they were around much before that, but were really carrying the torch in the ’70s), with powerhouse talent like Mrvin Stamm, Snooky Young, Jimmy Knepper, Jerome Richardson, Roland Hanna, Richard Davis, and Pepper Adams on board. Jones was at his writing and arranging peak as well, and churned out wonderful stuff like “Dedication”, “Tiptoe”, “A Child Is Born”, “Us”, and “Consummation.”

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Chick Corea: The Complete “Is” Sessions

Jazz, Records,
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The music collected on the 2-disc Complete “Is” Sessions was recorded during three days of sessions in May of 1969. At the time the rhythm section, comprised of Corea, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Jack DeJohnette, was working with Miles Davis, who was well on his way to defining a new sound with his electric band. The group is highly energized, displaying the same kind of kinetic restlessness that made Corea’s trio recording Now He Sings, Now He Sobs so effective.

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June Christy: Ballads for Night People

Jazz, Records,

Following the success of her signature recording Something Cool, originally recorded in 1953 as a ten inch and supplemented in ’55 with additional tracks for LP release, June Christy cut a number of long-playing albums with a loosely-based concept. The LP was still in its infancy, and many singers and musicians were experimenting with the form, creating new and interesting settings for the songs they performed and allowing the listener a more atmospheric listening experience.

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Stan Getz: Captain Marvel

Jazz, Records, , ,
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By the time Stan Getz recorded the album Captain Marvel with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Tony Williams, and Airto Moreira, he had been in the music business for nearly thirty years. Getz began his career during the big band era, and cut his teeth with bandleaders as diverse as Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman. A leader of swinging small groups throughout the ‘50s, Getz spent some time in Europe following a career disruption caused by long-standing drug problems.

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Luciana Souza: The New Bossa Nova

Jazz, Records, World Music

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by Marshall Bowden

Read Luciana Souza: The Book of Longing

Listening to Luciana Souza on The New Bossa Nova reminds one of the best elements of bossa, the music that American jazz musicians and listeners fell in love with some fifty years ago. Souza’s voice is so tightly focused, free of distracting embellishments or unnecessary ornamentation, that one can listen to it quite apart from the words, as one would the melodic line of a great instrumentalist. Of course, the voice is truly the most intimate of all instruments, because it is created by the singer’s own body and because it is capable of transmitting meaning not only in melodic or harmonic terms, but also in words.

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Aretha Arriving: Young, Gifted and Black

Funk/ R&B/ Hip Hop, History, Records, , , ,

Aretha Franklin, great American singer, songwriter and pianist, passed away on August 16th. As a tribute, New Directions In Music takes a look at her landmark 1972 recording Young, Gifted and Black and Ms. Franklin’s place in the movement for black equality in America.

by Marshall Bowden

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Aretha Franklin had already had a long career by 1972. She had recorded a number of records for Columbia Records in styles that were largely jazz and cabaret singer settings, with only smatterings of R&B and soul, with tepid results. Her move to Atlantic Records put her into the orbit of Jerry Wexler, Arif Martin, and Tom Down and Aretha’s subsequent Atlantic releases were largely R&B and soul affairs with pop covers and the occasional look back at an earlier style

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Too Cool For Words: June Christy and Something Cool

Jazz, Pop, Records, ,

by Marshall Bowden

Read June Christy/Ballads for Night People

“Something cool…I’d like to order something cool” says the dame in the smoky, slightly seedy bar that is something out of a Raymond Chandler story. The kind of place where maybe there could be trouble at any moment; where maybe a couple of guys in raincoats with noses as crooked as a gerrymandered voting district come in and start asking questions. And that can’t be anything but trouble for you.

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