Saturday, July 21, 2012

Saturday Music Club: 10 jazz albums


"Hora Decubitus"



"Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise"



"Blue Shadows in the Street"



"Hackensack"



"News from Blueport"



"African Village"



"Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise"



"Four"



"Angelica"



"Event IV; Event VIII"


And a bonus track:
Toshiko Akiyoshi and her trio-mates not long after her emigration to the US, in 1958:

7 comments:

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Jazz is probably the only form of music I have never listened to and I know what I'm missing even though I might not understand the compositions, like classical music.

Anonymous said...

I have 8 of the 10, missing only the Tyner and one other.

Todd Mason said...

Prashant--there are so many forms of music that it's always dangerous to make a blanket statement like that...though among the self-conscious "art music"s, jazz folks have often been fascinated by the Indian classical tradition as also being heavily improvisational (moreso even than the Persian music Indian traditional "serious" music is akin to, or bluegrass). I hope you liked these...basically, as with most arts, the way to appreciate them is simply to experience them, jump in and see what you like.

Richard--The George Russell Orchestra featuring Bill Evans? Still waiting for the cd of that one, as cds go away.

Todd Mason said...

These are, probably unsurprisingly, ten records I've loved for most of my life at this point...and it's always amusing to me to see Akiyoshi when she still felt it more utile to dress formally in kimono.

Anonymous said...

Yep, you guessed it, Todd.

Casual Debris said...

MingusX5 is one of my all-time favourites, Mingus being among the first of the jazz legends I got into. Lately I've been listening to more contemporary fusion & experimental jazz, but really these guys owe a lot to the likes of Mingus, Coltrane & the rest.

Todd Mason said...

It might be my favorite of Mingus's albums (even with the ABC Impulse label slogan "The New Wave of Jazz is on Impulse!" famously altered to "The New Wave of Folk is On Impulse! Ethnic Folk-Dance Music" on THE BLACK SAINT AND THE SINNER LADY giving that one an extra point)...and, certainly, the free jazz of Coltrane, and the approaches to free playing of Mingus, also draw on their predecessors, not least the slightly older third stream guys (John Lewis was a real mentor to a number of free players, as were Gil Evans and Dave Brubeck, and of course George Russell). I've often thought the more adventurous fusion often a rather simplified version of free jazz, myself...though a fair amount of chamber jazz of the '70s and since can be similarly tagged...