What are you listening to tonight ?

"Julian Edwin “Cannonball” Adderley got the New York jazz world talking the second he took the stage in 1955. Originally from Florida, this gregarious man had originally intended to pursue graduate studies and came to Manhattan to do so. He had been the high school band director at the Dillard High School in Ft. Lauderdale and had a local following as a musician there as well. He and his brother Nat had played with Ray Charles in the 1940s. But, he didn’t come to New York to play the clubs specifically. He wanted a higher education. By chance, he was asked to sit in with Oscar Pettiford one night at the Café Bohemia and that changed everything. Talk of a new Charlie Parker on the scene began immediately.

Soon Adderley had formed a group with his brother and they worked the club circuit and recorded a number of albums for the likes of Savoy and EmArcy Records. Eventually, Cannonball was brought in to join the Miles Davis Sextet, which he played with for two years. After his split from Davis’ group, Cannonball went on to help pioneer soul jazz, post-bop and a number of other subgenres.

Adderley was a fun-loving guy who liked the audience to have a good time, but he was also a thought-provoking artist and he addressed that with every genre that he played in. Oh, about that nickname? During Adderley’s youth, a guy in one of his early groups tried to make fun of his weight by calling him a “cannibal” but mispronounced it as can-i-bol. The other bandmates used “can-i-bol” to lightly make fun of the would-be mocker and the name eventually morphed into Cannonball. Or so the story goes."




"Cannonball Adderley gave up his own band in 1957 when he had the opportunity to become a sideman in Miles Davis' epic ensemble with John Coltrane, eventually resulting in some of the greatest jazz recordings of all time (including Milestones and Kind of Blue).

Davis returned the favor in March of 1958, appearing as a sideman on Adderley's all-star quintet date for Blue Note, and the resulting session is indeed Somethin' Else.

Both horn players are at their peak of lyrical invention, crafting gorgeous, flowing blues lines on the title tune and "One for Daddy-O," as the rhythm team (Hank Jones, Sam Jones, Art Blakey) creates a taut, focused groove (pianist Hank Jones' sly, intuitive orchestrations are studies of harmonic understatement).

Adderley's lush, romantic improvisation on "Dancing in the Dark" is worthy of Charlie Parker or Johnny Hodges, while the band refurbishes "Autumn Leaves" and "Love for Sale" into cliché-free swingers. And "Alison's Uncle" puts a boppish coda on Somethin' Else, one of the most gloriously laid-back blowing sessions of the hard bop era."






somethin-else-0724349532922_0.jpg






cannonball-adderley-4.jpg
 
"John Williams skillfully utilizes the formidable talents of renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and equally beloved violinist Itzhak Perlman to flesh out director Rob Marshall's celluloid rendering of the bestselling novel by Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha. Elegant and predictable, Williams sticks to the source, building grand Western themes off of traditional Japanese melodies with a heady mix of regional instrumentation (shakuhachi and koto) and cinematic know-how. This is the composer at his most refined and nuanced, providing a textbook example of professional composition that revels in its subject matter without ever intruding."



Memoirs of a Geisha: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the film score to the 2005 film of the same name, composed and conducted by John Williams. The original score and songs were composed and conducted by Williams and features Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman as cellist and violinist, respectively.[1] The soundtrack album was released by Sony Classical Records on November 22, 2005.



The score won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, BAFTA Award for Best Film Music and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score but lost to the original score of the film Brokeback Mountain.



640W_640H.jpg
 
an enjoyable selection from Post-Bop Jazz.


Joe Lovano — tenor, alto, & soprano saxophones
Michel Petrucciani — piano
Dave Holland — bass
Ed Blackwell — drums

41xn96H6vIL.jpg
 
Though some will argue about whether ten-time Grammy winner Wayne Shorter's primary impact on jazz has been as a composer or as a saxophonist, few will dispute his importance as one of jazz's leading figures of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Though indebted to John Coltrane, with whom he practiced in the mid-'50s, Shorter eventually developed his own more succinct manner on the tenor horn, retaining the tough tone quality and intensity and, in later years, adding elements of funk. On soprano, Shorter is almost another player entirely, his lovely tone shining like a light beam, his sensibilities attuned more to lyrical thoughts, his choice of notes becoming more spare as his career unfolded. As a composer, he is best known for carefully conceived, complex, long-limbed, endlessly winding tunes, many of which have become jazz standards.



I much prefer the Qobuz 192/24 version to Tidal versions. Qobuz sounds much smoother.



Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone
Herbie Hancock – piano
Ron Carter – bass
Elvin Jones – drums



R-5656648-1401354556-4759.jpeg.jpg
 
Although he is best known for his bluesy soul-jazz outings, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine's first Blue Note session as a leader was a much more traditional bop affair, and the resulting album, Look Out!, featuring a rhythm section of Horace Parlan on piano, George Tucker on bass, and Al Harewood on drums, shows as much artful restraint as it does groove.

Not that this is a bad thing, since it allows Turrentine's big, clear tone to shine through in all its muscular sweetness, giving Look Out! a wonderful and flowing coherence. Among the highlights here are the pretty ballad "Journey Into Melody" and the gently funky "Little Sheri."

R-3996784-1351789948-2266.jpeg.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top