listen to 40 jazz albums in 1 year

but it’s time to add a few to the list. The following are categoried as “smooth jazz” or jazz lite, but I still like em.

8.Marc Antoine…Madrid
9.Marion Meadows…Dressed to Chill
10.Ottmar Liebert…Luna Negra
11.David Sanborn…Time Again
12.Yellowjackets…Twenty Five
13.Pat Metheny Group…Offramp

begin on this goal. Jazz is the perfect inspiration for the abstracts I’m working on.

1. Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
2. Giant Steps – John Coltrane
3. Cafe’ Montmartre – Stan Getz
4. Wrapped in a Dream – Spyro Gyra
5. Ballads – Dexter Gordon
6. Take Five – Dave Brubeck
7. Bird & Diz – Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie

I posted all the music I’ve listened to this year to my all-consuming page. This has been a great year for jazz! I’m excited about the Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross albums—wouldn’t it be fun to learn all of thier transcriptions?

Far CryEric Dolphy (bass clarinet, as, f); Booker Little (t); Jaki Byrd (p); Ron Carter (b); Roy Haynes (d)_12/60

I got my month’s albums in the mail this week and they are both fabulous. The second album is Lee Morgan’s The Procrastinator a spirited and soulful recording that features most of the Miles Davis’ rhythm section that was recording Nefertiti at the same time. I’ll write reviews of these albums here in a few weeks.

Porgy and Bess
_Miles Davis (t, flhn); Paul Chambers (b); Philly Joe Jones (d); orchestra under the direction of Gil Evans._7-8/58 _

Poignant music from the period when Miles worked with Gil Evans. Here’s a review of this extraordinary recording.

Nefertiti
_Miles Davis (t); Wayne Shorter (ts); Herbie Hancock (p); Ron Carter (b); Tony Williams (d) _6-7/67 _

Enigmatic, impressionistic music from Miles Davis’ second great quintet. E.S.P. or Miles Smiles are probably better albums overall, but it is hard to top the roiling pulse of Tony Williams under the ebb and flow of the horns on the title track.

Good shit. ‘Nuff said.

Wayne Shorter (ts), Ron Carter (b), Elvin Jones (d), Freddie Hubbard (t), and Herbie Hancock (p)

Beautiful album. Beautiful compositions. It sounds like twice the horn section for your money.

Sonny Rollins (ts), Jim Hall (g), others

Gruff, aggressive, rollicking, and lyrical by turns, this album makes me wish I was on the bridge when Rollins was blowing this stuff the first time.

Mingus Ah UmCharles Mingus (b), Booker Ervin (ts), Shafi Hadi (as), others

I popped this into the CD changer on Tuesday and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. These are soulful, swinging compositions written during a composition workshop that Mingus hosted in the late 1950s. This music is, by turns, exhilarating and poignant. If you only own three jazz albums…

1. Dave Brubeck Quartet Time Out
2. Lee Morgan The Sidewinder
3. Cassandra Wilson Glamoured
4. Thelonius Monk Quartet featuring John Coltrane Discovery! Live at the Five Spot
5. Ginger Baker, Bill Frisell, and Charlie Haden Going Back Home
6. Brad Mehldau Trio The Art of the Trio, Vol. 4: Back at the Vanguard
7. John Coltrane Ascension

This is one of my all-time favorite albums and I listened to it straight through on the train Tuesday. I’ve also listened to Sarah Vaughn “Swingin’ Easy” several times this week. This week’s listens will include Coltrane’s “Ascension,” and the 1957 recording “Live at the Five Spot” by The Thelonius Monk Quartet, featuring John Coltrane.