Paradox (Sonny Rollins) (LP 2373 - 2376)

Dizzy Gillespie/Sonny Rollins  Duets (CD, Classic Jazz Records, 2010, originally released 1958) ***  

Sonny Rollins  Tenor Madness (CD, Classic Jazz Records, 2010, originally released 1956) ****  

Sonny Rollins  Plays For Bird (CD, Classic Jazz Records, 2010, originally released 1957) *** 

Sonny Rollins  Worktime (CD, Classic Jazz Records, 2010, originally released 1955) ****  

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: FOPP

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Tenor Madness

Gear costume: The Most Beautiful Girl In the World (Tenor Madness)

Active compensatory factors: These four albums form a '4 Originals' CD package and the four albums are featured in the order above.

First up is really a Dizzy Gillespie album with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt taking turns on tenor sax with Dizzy's trumpet. I'm not a Gillespie fan. My dad liked him but I find his tone too strident.

Ray Bryant (piano), Tommy Bryant (bass) and Charlie Persip (drums) are the other musicians featured. 

Tenor Madness features the title track with John Coltrane joining Sonny. The other players on that track and the rest of the album are impressive as well - Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on double bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

AllMusic sums this album up with: a recording that should stand proudly alongside Saxophone Colossus as some of the best work of Sonny Rollins in his early years, it's also a testament to the validity, vibrancy, and depth of modern jazz in the post-World War era. It belongs on everybody's shelf.

Sonny Rollins Plays For Bird features material associated with Charlie Parker. It also has Kenny Dorham on trumpet, which both adds and detracts from Rollins own playing.

Worktime is a classic sax, piano, bass, drums quartet with Rollins joined by Ray Bryant (piano), Max Roach (drum titan), and bass player George Morrow. 

It's a terrific album. No trumpet cluttering up the approach. One of my favourite albums from Rollins, along with Tenor Madness.

Where do they all belong? Next up in the jazz section - St Germain.

Our delight (Red Garland) (LP 705 - 707)

Red Garland Quintet  All Mornin' Long (CD, Avid Jazz, 1957) ***

Red Garland Trio  Groovy (CD, Avid Jazz, 1957) *****

Red Garland Trio  All Kinds Of Weather (CD, Avid Jazz, 1958) ***

Genre: Piano jazz 

Places I remember: Ray's Jazz Bar in Foyles (Covent Garden)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: C Jam Blues

Gear costume: What Can I Say (After I Say I'm Sorry?) 

Active compensatory factors: All Mornin' Long features John Coltrane and Donald Byrd on Trumpet. That trumpet can get a little strident at times and so, this isn't as easy on the ear as the trio albums.

Groovy is both well named, and the pick of this set - his third album as leader and it hits a peak in the effortless stakes. Rubbish cover though.

All Kinds Of Weather is okay but the song selection is pretty eclectic, and again, Red is poorly served by the art department.

Where do they all belong? It's been a while (too long), but it's back to the vinyl next!!

The Pan Piper (Miles Davis) (LP 568 - 572)

Miles Davis Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (CD, Not Now Music, 1958) ***

Miles Davis with Cannonball Adderley   Somethin' Else (CD, Not Now Music, 1958) ***** 

Miles Davis Sketches Of Spain (CD, Not Now Music, 1960) ***

Miles Davis Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Giants  (CD, Not Now Music, 1959) *****  

The Miles Davis Sextet  Jazz At the Plaza Vol 1 (CD, Columbia, 1958 but released 1973) ***** 

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: HMV; the Warehouse (Hastings); Kings Recording (Abu Dhabi)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume: Sur L'Autoroute (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud), Autumn Leaves (Somethin' Else); Oleo (Jazz At The Plaza Vol 1)

Active compensatory factors: I confess to being a pleb when it comes to Miles Davis. 

I love Kind Of Blue (like everybody else does) and I love the hard bop sets of the late sixties that include John Coltrane (Jazz At The Plaza), Red Garland and Thelonious Monk (Modern Jazz Giants) or Cannonball Adderley (Somethin' Else).

Ascenseur is basically a movie soundtrack. It does a good job of it too, with soundscapes to (I presume) match the visuals. Sur L'Autoroute is a good example.

Somethin' Else is really a Cannonball Adderley album with Miles as a sideman but Miles has become the much bigger name so my re-released CD version has his name front and centre. In reality Miles and Adderley are part of a great ensemble with Art Blakey on drums and Hank Jones (piano). Sam Jones (bass) rounds out the group.

Sketches Of Spain is another key album in Miles' influential body of work, but it's one I can't appreciate much, somehow. Maybe all I can say is that it's not to my taste.

The Modern Jazz Giants album is brilliant though. The vibraphone sounds of Milt Jackson add some great textures and counter foils for the trumpet throughout the album and Coltrane appears on Round Midnight.

Finally, Jazz At The Plaza Vol 1 (Vol 2 was Duke Ellington recorded at the same event). This is the group that would shortly go on to record Kind Of Blue so we're talking genius level players.

There's a party vibe going on and the sound is a little spotty on the trumpet at times but Coltrane is on fire! He must have had off nights but I've never heard them. Bill Evans is also in sublime form. Wow - what it would have been like to experience this live.  

.

Where do they all belong? I haven't explored Davis beyond that late 50's/ early 60's period. At one time I bought Bitches Brew and Live Evil but quickly sold them off. Yikes - too tough for me. Free jazz, I've come to learn, is not my thing maan!

Giant steps (John Coltrane) (LP 366 - 372)

John Coltrane Coltrane (First Trane) (CD, Not Now Music, 1957) ****
John Coltrane Giant Steps (CD, MCPS, 1959) *****
John Coltrane Soultrane (CD, MCPS, 1958) *****
John Coltrane Coltrane Jazz (CD, Not Now Music, 1960) ****
John Coltrane Ole Coltrane (CD, MCPS, 1961) *****
John Coltrane My Favourite Things (CD, MCPS, 1960) *****
John Coltrane Africa/Brass (CD, MCPS, 1961) ****

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: The Warehouse Palmerston North

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Greensleeves from Africa/Brass is a firm favourite of mine.




Gear costume:  My Favourite Things 

Active compensatory factors: All those five stars? Too much? Not when you consider the singularity of the talent on display in every one of these songs.

Classics! One and all!

Repackaging of old Jazz albums has obviously grown as the copyrights have changed over time - good for collectors like me who can suddenly buy multipacks of quality music.

Blue Train is also on this 3CD set of 6 albums (for a bargain price of $10) but I've already written about that one.

These three multipack sets neatly cover some seminal albums from the 1957-1961 period.

Coltrane Jazz appears as a Twofer with Africa/Brass and Coltrane (First Trane) is twinned with Soultrane on another Twofer CD set.

They are each amazing in their own right but Giant Steps is the one I play the most.

The two main pianists on these albums also deserve a mention: Red Garland and McCoy Tyner produce some of their most inspired playing on these albums.


Where do they all belong? More to come from Trane.

On a clear day (Red Garland) (LP 349)

Red Garland The Quota (Vinyl, BASF, 1974) ****

Genre: Piano jazz 

Places I remember: Ray's Jazz bar in Foyles at Charing Cross, London

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Squirrel




Gear costume:  Love For Sale 

Active compensatory factors: Recorded in 1971 but not released until a few years later, Red shows that he still has the goods (I believe in jazz muso circles this is referred to as 'chops').

His legacy stretches back to the mid fifties, with Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Although not recording during the late sixties he returned in the seventies with a flourish. He passed away in April 1984.

My copy from the second hand bin at Ray's Jazz is a promo copy that also has a faded stamp on the back cover saying RR Records, Glendale, California. So it's much travelled, at least from America to London to New Zealand!

It's the perfect after school/work on a Friday afternoon sort of record. That is, it's brilliant piano jazz, played by vets who know what they are doing. 


Where do they all belong? A safe pair of hands! Pity about that cover though - worse in real life!

Makin' whoopee (Red Garland) (LP 273)

Red Garland A Garland Of Red (CD - Avid Jazz, 1956) ****

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: Fopp (Covent Garden) 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: A Foggy Day




Gear costume:   What Is This Thing Called Love?

Active compensatory factors: I love Radio 2 (from the Beeb Beeb Ceeb). I was listening to it in a hotel room recently and Jamie Cullum had a show, during which he played a Red Garland track.

It fit my mood perfectly - an up tempo piano jazz piece, and I was on a mission.

Vinyl is always preferable so I tried Chaldon Records and Books, the jazz racks at Foyles by Fopp in Covent Garden, but no luck.

Retracing my steps back to Fopp I picked this up, along with three other Garland albums on CD.

I'm not sure how I haven't been captured by him before. It's the kind of jazz my dad would have liked in the mid fifties before I came along, but he also didn't own any of Red's albums. Instead, dad went for the more cerebral Dave Brubeck. 

A pity - Red's the real deal.

Nevermind - it's great to make the discovery now, all thanks to Jamie Cullum!

Where do they all belong? Red's a shining star within the jazz world.