Bebop, Hard Bop and Free Jazz album reviews and discussion
 

I have to confess I'm kind of a jazz novice, so I'm always a little unclear on where one subgenre of jazz ends and another one begins, but what I'm basically talking about here is jazz that was produced from the mid 40s to the mid 60s. It seems like most of my favorite jazz is from this era, and I think Bebop, Hard Bop and Free Jazz pretty much cover the sounds I'm talking about. I'll post some of my favorites and I hope other people will do so as well. Maybe we can all find out about some great albums we've never heard before. Your comments can be as long or as short as you want, but please say something about the album.

Here's one to start with...


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A Night at Birdland Volume 1—Art Blakey Quintet (1954)

This is not only one of my favorite Jazz albums but also, without a doubt, one the best live albums of any genre that I've ever heard in my life. For one thing the production is amazing, especially for the mid 50s; every single time I listen to it I feel like I'm right there sitting at a table at Birdland drinking a glass of bourbon.

It begins with a track of Pee Wee Marquette introducing the band. You can practically smell the cigar smoke on his breath and it sets the tone perfectly. Then the latinesque "Split Kick" jumps out of the speakers at you, grabs you by your hands and makes you want to dance. But Clifford Brown's trumpet lines do all the dancing the song requires. The man was truly a brilliant player and I was dismayed to find out recently that he died only two years later at the age of 25. Of course Art Blakey also really shines here as well, but that's pretty much a given.

The album's quality never wanes. From the soft tones of "Once in a While" to the sweaty "Quicksilver" all the way through to the rapid-fire closing track "Mayreh" this recording is pure sonic joy. And though I specifically mentioned Art Blakey and Clifford Brown in describing "Split Kick", the remaining members of the band are astounding too. Curley Russell on bass, though probably the most subdued of the bunch, manages to tie everything together beautifully. Lou Donaldson's saxophone intertwines with the trumpet magnificently. And Horace Brown on the piano is in a league of his own here. Even though he seems to push the spotlight away somewhat he's always doing something gorgeous and unexpected beneath and between everything else that is going on.

My copy of the album also includes two bonus tracks: "Wee-Dot" and "Blues (Improvisation)" both of which are taken from the third volume of this now two volume series. Both are quite good in their own right, apart from the album proper.

Interesting. I really like Free Jazz. That album sounds primo, i'd really like to hear it now.

Very interesting idea for a thread this, especially as bebop and hard bop are areas I've been looking to have a nice dig around in lately. I've got a handful of those kinds of albums myself, so I'll flag them up when I've got a bit more time on my hands.

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Here are a couple of great albums featuring Clifford Brown on trumpet, Max Roach on drums, Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone, Ritcie Powell on piano and George Morrow on bass. "Clifford Brown & Max Roach at Basin Street" and "Sonny Rollins + 4" were recorded in the early months of 1956 on June 26, 1956 both Clifford and Ritchie were killed in a car crash. These recordings are definitely must haves for Jazz fans.

^That's a great writeup! I only vaguely remember the album but your take sounds spot-on.

I also agree with you about the time period you mentioned: To me those are the best jazz years.

I'll suggest one of my well-loved Jazz albums:
KRUPA AND RICH, a session made with the 2 legendary drummers recorded in 1955 that was marketed as a battle between the two best drummers who ever lived.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q2dEe-_Mu0...aRichFront.jpg

Krupa was the established legend and Rich the young upstart. Both are backed up by other legends like Roy Eldrige, Dizzy Gillespie, and Oscar Peterson among others..
You be the judge.

I'll definitely have to check those two out. As I mentioned in the OP, I'm definitely a fan of Clifford Brown though my exposure to him is limited to the Night at Birdland albums.

Thanks!

That sounds great! I'm already a fan of Krupa's big band-era stuff so I'm sure I'll enjoy this.

And that video of him playing is fantastic. Any idea what it's from?

I got a hold of Krupa & Rich earlier today and am giving it a listen right now. "The Monster" is amazing! Any idea which horn players are on that track?

No, I just found it on youtube when I was looking for any Krupa recording from those years. A great piece of footage.

I have a re-issue CD and it has personnel listed together for both of the last tracks which were added later (but recorded a few months earlier than the others). So, between "Sunday" and "The Monster" horn players are: Thad Jones, Joe Newman, Ben Webster, and Frank Wess. Both songs are on the LP, The Wailing Buddy Rich.

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Ahmad's Blues—Ahmad Jamal (1958)

Ahmad's Blues is another live album that I'm pretty fond of. Though unlike A Night At Birdland it's not all taken from one performance but is instead culled from a series of live dates in Chicago. As a former resident of that city I wish I knew where it was recorded. Some of those old Jazz clubs are still open and it would be nice to have a mental image to put with the music.

Anyway, I should probably mention that unlike my previous review this album is not all sweat and fire and intensity, in fact it's totally background music. That may sound like a put-down but it's not at all. I mean that in the sense that, say, Tortoise is background music. It's low key and it just kind of permeates the air, coloring everything around you.

This is also very intimate music, just drums, bass and keyboard played with a lot of restraint and subtlety. It's also filled with a lot of interesting, mellow takes on jazz standards. My favorite of these is probably "Autumn Leaves", which is presented with very train-like chugging drum beat passing through cascading streams of piano.

Ugly cover art aside, this one is definitely a terrific late night album and certainly worth a listen if you enjoy that kind of thing.

An artist that gets overlooked a lot is Joe Henderson, I recommend the albums "Inner Urge", "In 'N' Out" and "Page One".

Awesome thread Janzoon, any chance you can review The Cowboy Bebop OST? I've been listening to that religiously the last two weeks and I think you'd really enjoy it. Let me know if you need a link and I'll sort you out.

I'm a total jazz n00b. I've always wanted to get into it, but never knew where to start. However, I've noticed, from what I've heard (and it's not much), that I tend to like jazz from this era - 40s, 50s, 60s. So, I'll be checking out this thread for recommendations, that's for sure.

The Art Blakey Quintet - A Night at Birdland double-live album that Janzoon cited in his first post is undeniably one of the quintessential hardbop albums, if not one of the best and most underrated jazz albums, period. Another of Blakey's albums that, for some reason, goes without much credit (which is a shame, because it swings so damn hard) is Free for All. I probably listen to it more than any other jazz album in my collection.

Hey man, thanks for reviving this thread! I'd love to check that album out if you feel like sending it my way. :)

I definitely have to check this out. I don't think I've ever heard anything involving Art Blakey that I didn't like.

Have you heard Money Jungle? It's a pretty sweet Duke Ellington album featuring Charles Mingus and Max Roach at the top of their game. It's quite different to Ellington's earlier swing and big band material, which is probably a good thing given your preferences.

Money Jungle is great! I actually got it based on some MB member's recommendation a while back. I think maybe it was Right-Track.

Done ;)

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Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack

Something I should tell you right off the bat is that I know almost nothing about Cowboy Bebop. I'm about seventy-five percent sure it's a TV show but I might be mistaken, it could be a movie. Or maybe it's both. No idea. I also am relatively sure it's Japanese anime but I might be wrong about that as well. I mention all of this to let you know, dear reader, that I have very little context for this music. All I know is it's a soundtrack that appears to consist mostly, but not entirely, of music by some band or person called Seatbelts. At any rate, I was asked to do this review by alert reader Loathsome Pete so here goes.

The first thing I noticed about this album is that, despite being the soundtrack for something called Cowboy Bebop, none of the music is actually bebop. In fact, some of it isn't even jazz at all. What it is is a mixed bag of stuff, the best of which is fairly quirky, somewhat jazzy and seems very heavily influenced by 1960s spy film soundtracks. Some of it reminds me of one of my idols, J.G. Thirlwell (Foetus, Steroid Maximus, Wiseblood, etc.), in particular his work on the soundtrack for the Cartoon Network show Venture Brothers. A lot of it also reminds me of Mexican space-age bachelor pad music maestro Esquivel.

Having never heard this in its intended context, I have no idea how well it works as soundtrack music, but I would guess it's pretty good. As an album it's a little patchy, as the mood drifts all over the place from song to song, but that's to be expected from tracks that were not originally intended to be heard one after another like this. It certainly starts off with a bang with "Tank!", a track that's evocative of some super-exciting spy movie opening credits. There are a number of tracks in a similar vein that I enjoyed a great deal as well, such as "Rush", "Cat Blues", "Too Good Too Bad", and the slightly John Zorn-esque "Bad Dog No Biscuits". And then there are some that are quite a bit different that I also really enjoyed, from the almost Brazilian sounding "The Egg and I" to a couple of hybrid-type tracks such as "Space Lion" and "Piano Black" which combine jazz elements with loops and synthesized sounds. Unfortunately, this album also has its share of missteps as well. These range from it's empty attempts at rootsy blues and/or western type stuff to the truly awful song "Rain" which sounds like every horrible hard rock 1980s cartoon theme song you can think of, only somehow much worse.

So is it any good? I say yes. Even though I only really enjoyed 50% or 60% of the tracks, that 50% or 60% is some sweet, swinging stuff daddy-o! Who wants a martini?

Haha I probably should have been a little bit more specific with the recommendation. Yes Cowboy Bebop is an anime and even had a movie come out a while ago. I also should have said that it wasn't really that much of a jazz album, more of a miscellaneous grab bag of different sounds and styles from the '40's-'60's. I'll also agree with you that it's pretty inconsistent with the songs, some really stand out, some don't really do anything, and like you said there are a few that are truly awful, like "Rain".

A little about the show. The show is about a group of bounty hunters traveling across our solar system hunting down bounties and trying to escape their shadowy pasts. I think it's set sometime in 207X, and while there's a lot of high tech sophisticated machinery around, all the music from the 20th century is still relevant. It's kind of like Firefly in mixing new and old together, and I think it really pulled it off quite well.

Good call on The Ventures Bros. similarities, I mean just watch the opening for the show: