Nice titties up there.
One thing thing I want to try to do in this journal is explore the careers of certain musicians who managed to play on a surprisingly large number of great recordings. I know that people who start up ideas often bite off more than they can chew. This is one I'll just have to take my time about because naturally there's more writing to do if the musician is prolific. The first of these musicians I've decided to spotlight is
Philly Joe Jones. I'll be learning as we go. Please feel free to chime in.
Jones lived from 1923-1985 and played drums for the Miles Davis Quintet. Living and dying up to his name he was born and he died in Philadelphia.
I'm going to start here with this record and probably return to his discography every third post or so.
Drums Around the World
This is a swing hard bop connection album. Plenty of solos but no bull**** monkey tricks. Every beat must swing and they all do. He's not out to prove he's the greatest drummer ever. He's out to prove that percussion can lead a jazz band within the parameters of the asthetic. The album cover doesn't even mention my favorite musician featured, bassist Jimmy Garrison, but he's in there. This is from 1959 and unfortunately some of the attempted worldliness can seem a bit cliche through our contemporary lenses. It's not perfect or crushingly profound but it's still a good record to know if you care about piecing together how jazz built on itself.
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