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Monk is the father of standards, he was a genius and the defender of music "as is"... perhaps, hearing a composition not written by him is stranger and unique... anyway, a live record that shows a loose, fancy, groovy and cohesive ambient, with a perfect balance of improvisation and baselines. Awesome
Don't know why people say he makes an awkward accompanist. I personally love the way he's right up in the thick of a horn solo trying to create a dialogue. It comes off so well here especially as Griffin is so strong. Just a Gigolo is so querky, and I like his twist of making it sound poignant!
Ask a jazz fan about Herbie Nichols, and the reaction is likely to be either, "He's a genius," or "Who?" The pianist and composer is the paradigm of a genius neglected in his own time. Nichols's classic mid-'50s sides for Blue Note were all but forgotten when he passed at 44 in 1963. A.B. Spellman memorialized him with a chapter in 1966's Four Lives in the Be-Bop Business, but he didn't get much respect till… more »
It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »
A few years ago, Italian saxophonist Daniele D'Agaro was visiting Chicago, and a critic friend put on a fairly obscure record to stump him. D'Agaro listened for about three seconds, said: "Lucky." Good ears. He knows the distinctive sound of Lucky Thompson after he started hanging out in Paris and playing sumptuous tenor saxophone ballads recalling old idol Don Byas's Parisian sides. On "Solitude" and "We'll Be Together Again," from Lucky in Paris 1959, his tenor's… more »
Can a musician's reputation be harmed by the persistent paying of a compliment? Clark Terry has a warm, plump, utterly distinctive sound on trumpet and its chubby pal the flugelhorn. He's rhythmically assured at any tempo, and has a deep feeling for the blues. But some writers fixate on how he has "the happiest sound in jazz," as if one trait defines his art. To be fair, it's not a rep he's run away from, having… more »
