Last 50 Years
There is a recording that I haven’t been able to really get over lately.
It’s a Charlie Haden record from Montreal w/ Don Cherry & Ed Blackwell.
I’m not sure if it’s still in print but I highly recommend picking it up
if you can. It’s a revelation!
Also, I’ve been re-reading Gary Giddens’ books, and there is a particular
article that stood out this time around. Giddens writes of post-war jazz,
and for every year starting in 1956 if I remember correctly he names one
song that stands out. As though naming on record isn’t hard enough,
limiting it to one song is nearly impossible, but really interesting to
look at it in that respect. One of the rules being that you can only list
an artist one time as a leader in the course of the list. A great rule: it
wouldn’t be really fair to list Miles as often as he deserves at the
expense of so much other great music. So inspired by Giddins list, I
decided to start my own, but instead of post- war jazz, I decided to
chronicle the last 50 years. So starting in 1957, I started to list one
song and the artist that stands out for that year. It was pretty fun to
do, however ultimately frustrating. 1965 was incredibly hard to narrow
down even by record. In other cases, I found what record the song should
come from, but almost impossible to narrow down what song to pick from the
record. For instance, I knew that I wanted to include Larry Young’s Blue
Note record Unity, but it seemed very difficult to pick between Moontrane,
Softly as in a Morning Sunrise, Zoltan, & Monk’s Dream. Incidentally, I
ended up picking Zoltan…Elvin playing on that record kills me every time!
So I am finishing up my list and should have it posted up here soon.
Hopefully, this will inspire other readers to post similar lists…I look
forward to checking them out.
Listening: SF JAZZ Volume 3 *(The Music of Herbie Hancock)…Joshua Redman
tune Parallelogram is excellent!, Ornette Coleman-Friends & Neighbors,
Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell-Corazon
It’s a Charlie Haden record from Montreal w/ Don Cherry & Ed Blackwell.
I’m not sure if it’s still in print but I highly recommend picking it up
if you can. It’s a revelation!
Also, I’ve been re-reading Gary Giddens’ books, and there is a particular
article that stood out this time around. Giddens writes of post-war jazz,
and for every year starting in 1956 if I remember correctly he names one
song that stands out. As though naming on record isn’t hard enough,
limiting it to one song is nearly impossible, but really interesting to
look at it in that respect. One of the rules being that you can only list
an artist one time as a leader in the course of the list. A great rule: it
wouldn’t be really fair to list Miles as often as he deserves at the
expense of so much other great music. So inspired by Giddins list, I
decided to start my own, but instead of post- war jazz, I decided to
chronicle the last 50 years. So starting in 1957, I started to list one
song and the artist that stands out for that year. It was pretty fun to
do, however ultimately frustrating. 1965 was incredibly hard to narrow
down even by record. In other cases, I found what record the song should
come from, but almost impossible to narrow down what song to pick from the
record. For instance, I knew that I wanted to include Larry Young’s Blue
Note record Unity, but it seemed very difficult to pick between Moontrane,
Softly as in a Morning Sunrise, Zoltan, & Monk’s Dream. Incidentally, I
ended up picking Zoltan…Elvin playing on that record kills me every time!
So I am finishing up my list and should have it posted up here soon.
Hopefully, this will inspire other readers to post similar lists…I look
forward to checking them out.
Listening: SF JAZZ Volume 3 *(The Music of Herbie Hancock)…Joshua Redman
tune Parallelogram is excellent!, Ornette Coleman-Friends & Neighbors,
Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell-Corazon
Labels: Artist Thoughts
