Charles Mingus - Tijuana Moods Recording Date: 1957
Release Date: 1962
Style or Subgenre: Hard Bop, Post Bop, Progressive Jazz
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Charles Mingus - The Clown Year: 1957
Style or Subgenre: Post Bop
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I like Mexican food a whole lot more than I like Mexican (or Mexican-inspired) music. So I was never in a rush to check out Tijuana moods. My loss, because....
Tijuana Moods is an amazing album. First, it's not an inspiration/style I would have pegged for Mingus (or that I would like), but he nails it (and I love it). Also, the sidemen are not household names, but play at a remarkable level, including sax man Shafi Hadi, trumpeter Clarence Shaw, and especially the most delightful to me performance of trombonist Jimmy Knepper. Mingus always seemed to get a lotta' something extra out of his trombonists! These compositions are all fantastic, and so full of variety and creativity. Such creativity that they all sound fresh today. And how do these guys pull off some of the tempo changes they do (especially on the opening "Dizzy Moods"... prog rock has got nothin' on these guys)!?! Incredible.
I also don't like clowns (unless its Killer Klowns from Outer Space, but I digress)
Having thoroughly enjoyed Tijuana Moods, I was feeling brave and then reached for The Clown.
Yeah, another big winner here (and again some really cool 'bone!.... as well as awesome alto from Hadi). After a very cool bass solo opening from Mingus, the opening "Haitian Fight Song is more straightforward than Tijuana's opener and swings along supremely before another classic Mingus solo late in the piece.
Even with the awesomeness of these openers, neither album lets down either. What a killer Thursday twofer.
Bill Perkins - On Stage: The Bill Perkins Octet Year: 1956
Style or Subgenre: Cool Jazz, West Coast Jazz
West coastie sax man Bill Perkins and a big name octet deliver some ultra cool jazz in this 1956 date. As you might expect, there is some fine swing here, but they also deliver in spades on the ballads as well.
Jerome Richardson - Midnight Oil Year: 1958
Style or Subgenre: Cool Jazz, Hard Bop
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Played this while taking down the Christmas village and tree. Bad move. At times, I had to stop working and just listen. Richardson had a way of grabbing my attention, whether playing flute or tenor. Solid late '50s stuff here for sure.
William Parker - Uncle Joe's Spirit House Year: 2010
Style or Subgenre: Soul Jazz
As much as I loved the Jerome Richardson which I listened to immediately prior, this came as a very welcome change. I'll have to listen more before I decide if that's because this is inherently great music or if it's just that I was in just the perfect mood for this music. In any case, the organ quartet format worked perfectly for me here. As on point as Parker's bass is, it's the interplay between organist Cooper Moore and saxophonist Darryl Foster that really grabbed me. Fantastic musicians all around who are obviously in dynamic, expressive sync with each other. A most joyous listen.
Tim Stevens - Three Friends in Winter Year: 2005
Style or Subgenre: Piano Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Ambient Acoustic
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Well, I definitely got off to a hot start on this cold midwinter new years day!
Not only did I find this album utterly compelling throughout, it even garnered praise from my no-so-musical wife. Partway through the first cut, she says "This is sure nice music," which was surprising in a couple ways. In addition to not being much on music in general, when she does listen, it's usually the pop hit of the moment. Now this album does have a bit of an ambient (albeit entirely acoustic) vibe, and my wife does like music for meditation, so I figured that must be what she was tuning into. Then I also recalled how she likes some of my minimalist classical (Gorecki's 3rd being a fave), and much of this has a bit of a minimalist vibe as well. But then again, it is far too active to be called minimalist in any sense. Which leads me to another surprising element vis-a-vis my wife; she's good with nice melody and while the melody here is again understated, it is often slightly angular, certainly not deliberately dissonant, but not at all ear candy either. There are no real hooks per se; for me, the "hook" was the gently shifting, modulating textures, like a sort of musical sand painting gradually shifting from one view to another.
Hampton Hawes - For Real Recording Date: 1958
Release Date: 1961
Style or Subgenre: Bop, Hard Bop
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Hampton Hawes - Four! Year: 1958
Style or Subgenre: Bop, Hard Bop
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Listened to For Real, then headed out for a mountain bike ride in a new year's day snowstorm, then came back and listened to Four! Three great events in a row!
These two 1958 Hawes dates (although For Real wasn't released until 1961) make for good variety with For Real rounding out the quartet with sax man Harold Land and Four! filling out the quartet with guitarist Kenny Burrell. I have long known of the wonders of Hawes and Burrell together and they certainly stoke each others' fires along the way here. This was my first time hearing Hawes with Land and it was also quite rewarding. The two together play a wonderfully seamless flow of bop/hard bop that makes for joyous listening. Two wonderful albums, for reals.
Pino Palladino & Blake Mills - Notes With Attachments Year: 2021
Style or Subgenre: Fusion, New Age Jazz, World Jazz
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I grabbed this based on a recommendation and it ended up being nothing like what I expected. Which is an odd thing to say since I had no conscious familiarity (they appeared on many titles as session musicians/producer) with either one. There was a lot of "yeah, but is it jazz?" but there was also a lot of joy of new discovery going on as well. This music certainly can be called jazz or at least jazz-ish, but it could also be called at least a dozen other things; new age, world music, fusion... or not. It really defies categorization, yet is not at all bizarre or even significantly challenging. It is eminently listenable, either as background music or in deliberate concentration. There is also a superb conjoining of variety and coherence across the album. Definitely a nice addition to my 2021 exposure.
Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Year: 1963
Style or Subgenre: Post Bop, Avant Garde, Progressive Jazz
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This was admittedly an album it took me a few cracks to really get. This is surprising not just because I usually catch things the first time around as a general rule, but more so because I found myself nicely in tune with other Mingus classics like Ah Um right from the get go. But this eluded me for a while. Here is an artist I both enjoy and respect, and here is his most acclaimed album (or very close to it), and I'm just not getting the same level of "wow" out of it.
Now when I don't really dig an album, I'll generally bail. Life is too short to force feed myself things I'm not enjoying.
This is the one exception. Something told me to stick with this one, although I can't say exactly what that something was. But I listened and then it clicked. That was a few years ago and I've been nothing less than thrilled with this album ever since. I hear something new in it with every spin. In this latest listen, I just fully sank into how vividly impressionistic it is. Both exotic and seedy at the same time, and utterly captivating in this combination.
I might still put this at around 3rd among my Mingus faves, but a fave it is and I only expect that appreciation to continue growing.
Peter Brötzmann - Machine Gun Year: 1968
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde, Free Jazz
You ever hear someone say or see someone post:
"Yeah, I like some free jazz, but I just can't get into this"?
That's kind of what's going on here. Although unlike some free jazz that takes a few listens to catch on, the opposite is happening here. I actually took to this album more upon early listens and my appreciation wanes with each new spin.
It truly is the most relentless aural onslaught I've ever heard in any genre. Really, the most aggressive thrash metal is tame by comparison.
But the problem is that there is so much emphasis on the bludgeoning, that I have some difficulty hearing the creativity. I hear moments, but never across an entire song, and those are some pretty lengthy songs, so a little structure or something identifiable as flow would really help.
I know this album is a landmark; pivotal, revolutionary, seminal.... and I'm not completely condemning the album, but it's something the more I tend to think of more along the lines of the naked emperor than a legit recipient of all that renown.
Never really heard of Pony Poindexter before today. Better late than never!
File this one under "If you ain't havin' fun listenin' to this one, you ain't listenin' right."
Straight ahead, but lively and spirited fast-paced bop music, sweetly wailing blues, and lyrical balladry.
What's not to like?
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