Bix Beiderbecke – “Singin’ The Blues”
Bix wasn’t as influential as W.C. Handy or some of the other early jazz composers. Being from Iowa probably didn’t help.
Sam Jones x Grant Green
There are some combinations of players that always work: Sam Jones and Grant Green is one of those match-ups…
Albert Ayler Mourns
There’s nothing really to be said about Albert Ayler that hasn’t been said before. He’s still – perhaps – the greatest jazzbo outta Cleveland…
George Russell and the Lydian Scale
George Russell was a smart dude. That’s why he snagged Eric Dolphy for Ezz-Thetics.
Kenny Drew – “Undercurrent”
Kenny Drew and Rudy van Gelder turn in some hot bop stuffs…
Elton Dean: Sans Softs
For whatever reason, there aren’t any YouTube clips of Elton Dean working out selections from Oh! For the Edge. The video below’s from Just Us, which was released five years prior to that other disc. There’re some differences – mainly Dean and company get wild on that later date in a more impressive way – but the concept’s the same….
BLOGLOAD: Oh! For the Edge
O’Donel Levy: Funk/Soul/Jazz/Other
O’Donel Levy has his ups and downs. Simba was/is fantastically funky. And while the rest of his catalog is a mixed bag of soul jazz and awful smooth tripe, some of the better latter day work is stuffed into Windows. Just ignore the man’s singing.
BLOGLOAD: Windows
Charlie Christian x The Guardian’s 50 Great Moments in Jazz
THIS seems a proper companion to the way in which I ended last week. Charlie’s no slouch even if he wasn’t the first player to amplify a guitar.
Christian was the electric guitar’s first superstar, (he even made the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, even if it was almost half a century after his death) but he wasn’t the first electric guitarist. Experiments with pickups and amplification began in the early 1930s, with the Rickenbacker company, and Christian’s famous arch-top was developed by Gibson in the middle of the decade. Oklahoma prodigy Christian bridged the swing era of the 1930s to the leaner, faster, and more demandingly intricate small-group style of bebop in the 1940s…
Lonnie Johnson x Eddie Lang
I think, at this point, I like Eddie Lang a bit more than Django. Sacrilege, I know.
Lang, though, occasionally performed under different names and worked with Lonnie Johnson on and off again. That last guy might be as talented as the two older folks – he sang too. Bonus.
Barney Kessel x (Fomerly) Contemporary
This guys a pretty underrated guitarist. The track above, “Gypsy in my Soul,” sounds more aggressive than anything his contemporaries came up with. It might be a bit sloppy sounding at points – that’s relative – but Kessel gives an inspired performance in a trio setting nonetheless.
BLOGLOAD: The Poll Winners Ride Again!