Essential Studio Albums

[VinylGuy]

I love that one

Been into a Mingus phase this year that i enjoyed a lot

[liebzz]

Cannonball Adderley - Somethin’ Else

Man, this is just phenomenal. The beat and rhythm section I am going to just put at the top is tight and wonderful, because I might otherwise get lost in the discussion on how great Adderley and Davis are playing together. The laid back cool jazz vibe of the rhythm lends a canvas really for the back and forth between Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley, who drop beautiful bluesy lines back and forth on the title track and One for Daddy-O. Autumn Leaves is another really killer track on this. Closing with Bangoon (aka Alison’s Uncle) is a hard bop blowout - like they are just letting you know they could have just blown themselves out all along but chose the laid back atmosphere for these players to really shine.

The Essential Track: Somethin’ Else

Up Next: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

[liebzz]

I love that one

Been into a Mingus phase this year that i enjoyed a lot

Yeah, I have to say I am pretty floored by his mind.

[doug rr]

I like the direction you're taking

[liebzz]

We have maybe a week left where Jazz is the dominant format, then it will shift to blues, folk, and country with some jazz mixed in until we get to the Beatles, where in theory all hell breaks loose. That’s at least the planned arc.

[VinylGuy]

Cannonball Adderley - Somethin’ Else

Man, this is just phenomenal. The beat and rhythm section I am going to just put at the top is tight and wonderful, because I might otherwise get lost in the discussion on how great Adderley and Davis are playing together. The laid back cool jazz vibe of the rhythm lends a canvas really for the back and forth between Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley, who drop beautiful bluesy lines back and forth on the title track and One for Daddy-O. Autumn Leaves is another really killer track on this. Closing with Bangoon (aka Alison’s Uncle) is a hard bop blowout - like they are just letting you know they could have just blown themselves out all along but chose the laid back atmosphere for these players to really shine.

The Essential Track: Somethin’ Else

Up Next: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

another classic...and oh boy you have KOB lined up!!! damnnnn

[liebzz]

Yeah, it’s a number of really great jazz albums in a row…

[liebzz]

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

In a lot of ways, the album speaks for itself. I always treated it as a jazz North Star - the one album I knew backwards and forwards that has a reputation all its own as a great work. And that it is, with Davis, Adderley, and Coltrane all at the top of their game playing soulfully and with incredible precision despite much of it being pure improvisation over a relaxed rhythm section. It makes sure those three are up front and center, less one-upping each other than playing off each other. There’s not a moment that’s not delivered with near perfection. I might end up having a few albums this far I prefer, but there’s no questioning this album’s greatness. The Dream Team playing all at their peak.

The Essential Track: So What

Up Next: Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain

[VinylGuy]

yeah, the true classic.

[liebzz]

yeah, the true classic.

Yeah, much of this journey so far was to get to that album, though I now have many new favorites. This one is pretty timeless though. Pretty incredible that there’s never any drop off between the three guys playing on an equal plane.

[VinylGuy]

yeah, the true classic.

Yeah, much of this journey so far was to get to that album, though I now have many new favorites. This one is pretty timeless though. Pretty incredible that there’s never any drop off between the three guys playing on an equal plane.

totally. And it sounds so fucking good too.

[liebzz]

Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain

So this is an experience all itself. Having apparently mastered the sound of cool jazz to the extent that he had numerous all time classics, Davis is inspired here to meld the worlds of jazz and classical music under Gil Evans’ conducting. Here’s the thing that truly blows my mind about this album, outside of the beauty of the music itself - I really don’t know whether Davis is improvising on top of the direction or not. Meaning that the playing is so natural that it could very well been fully planned out, but at the same time it is so reminiscent of traditional jazz trumpet improvisation and played so well it could be improvised. I could google search this in an instant and know the answer, but the mystery of not knowing adds an allure and mind blown aspect to this that elevates this even more. To have made Kind of Blue and this back to back - 2 absolute masterpieces that sound nothing alike, is quite incredible. The opening is what this thing was built around so it wins the essential track, but I really also loved Will o’ the Wisp for some reason.

The Essential Track: Concerto de Aranjuez (Adiago)

Up Next: John Coltrane - Giant Steps

[liebzz]

John Coltrane - Giant Steps

The last two jazz albums we discussed here were thematically consistent thoughts and moods from Miles Davis. What we get here is the antithesis of that, a frenetic jazz instrumental workout that leaves even the listener sweating in response. I think every song here has some semblance of a face melting sax solo, as if Coltrane was released out of the cage of Kind of Blue and set free to go wild. That’s not a criticism of Kind of Blue, a classic whose beauty in focusing on delivering a mellow but soulful sound. It’s a Coltrane here looking to flex, big time, and for those of us who enjoy a bit of up tempo jamming, this is a pure treat, a dessert that’s insanely sweet, without regard to any restrictions. Simply put: dude’s on fire.

The Essential Track: Countdown

Up Next: Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues Singers

[VinylGuy]

dude you are on fire with these comments.

I remember as a kid being kinda put off by Sketches..mostly because it was hard for me to listen to the Evans arrangements. I love it now.

As a contrast, Coltrane blew my mind as a kid, specially with Blue Train. So messy and weird.

[liebzz]

Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues Singers

These songs were sort of already covered on The Complete Robert Johnson Recordings, but this released much earlier, and clearly the impetus behind future recordings from rock bands looking to draw from this sound as inspiration (listen to Come On In My Kitchen, then put on the Rolling Stones’ You Gotta Move - eerily similar). Traveling Riverside Blues is great here, complete with some cringey lyrical lines (copied by Led Zeppelin - not to mention this song is covered by them). All of this is pretty great of course, so I’ll jump on the most influential (likely) song here, Cross Road Blues, as the winner, since an entire legend about Johnson’s natural gifts for the blues emanates from this story.

The Essential Track: Cross Road Blues

Up Next: Etta James - At Last

[liebzz]

dude you are on fire with these comments.

I remember as a kid being kinda put off by Sketches..mostly because it was hard for me to listen to the Evans arrangements. I love it now.

As a contrast, Coltrane blew my mind as a kid, specially with Blue Train. So messy and weird.

Thanks. All comments aside, that’s probably one of the best runs of music I can ever remember hearing. I both wish I heard much of it sooner, while also being glad I am being exposed now because I am in a more receptive space and may never have listened again in the wrong mental space.

[liebzz]

Etta James - At Last!

Combining soul, blues, vocal jazz, and pop, this album has a lot of killer moments in it, the most classic obviously being the title track, but the best here is Willie Dixon’s I Just Want To Make Love To You. I mean, that is a killer vocal delivery, which she brings on every track on this. Trust In Me, Spoonful, and Stormy Weather are also all great here. James has a mountain moving soulful voice, raw and moving, not unlike Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker would bring to rock music less than a decade after this album.

The Essential Track: I Just Want to Make Love to You

Up Next: Jorge Lopez Ruiz - BA Jazz

[liebzz]

Jorge Lopez Ruiz - B.A. Jazz

This is an interesting album from the Argentine jazz bassist. Much of this swings nicely, and the songs fly by, a departure from the norm in this era of longer tracks. The sax here really seems to be up front and getting the most play, but there’s no doubt Ruiz’s bass is acting as conductor. There’s no weak track here, all killer stuff that harkens back to an earlier time in this journey, likely prior to the jazz musicians having been so influenced by the LP and the creation of lengthier pieces, making this a refreshing listen.

The Essential Track: Village Blues

Up Next: Sonny Rollins - The Bridge

[liebzz]

Sonny Rollins - The Bridge

This was Sonny Rollins’ return to recording after a 3 year hiatus, apparently exiled on the Williamsburg Bridge. Would have been pretty damn cool to be walking over that bridge and hear him practicing (as a side note, I spent much of my time commuting in 2007-2008 by walking to my apartment in Williamsburg over that bridge). While this isn’t exactly a Zarathustra moment of returning from the wild with new insights, it is a really good recording that shows a man and band real tight. The interplay and decisions on John S. and The Bridge are really great, and Tou Do Something to Me also serves as a nice highlight that I was unconsciously moving to. Sonny Rollins is a freakishly great player, so to hear him in fine form here is very welcome.

The Essential Track: John S. (It’s really a tie with The Bridge)

Up Next: Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music

[liebzz]

Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vols. 1 & 2

Albums being delivered in popular music with a singular coherent vision was a relatively new thing. Sinatra surely pulled it off with In the Wee Small Hours, which we covered before, but delivering something beyond singles was not a standard thing for a few more years at what is likely the proper beginning of the album era. The vision here was to take country standards, and run them through the lense of Ray Charles’s fusion of vocal jazz and blues. The results show how music binds us together even if they are divided be genre, and for that this is a key album. It might be a bit too heavy on the ballads for my personal taste, and I love it when this occasionally picks up the pace (Oh, Lonesome Me), but the mission of this album is surely accomplished, and maybe sets the bar for concept albums in the years to come.

The Essential Track: Oh, Lonesome Me

Up Next: Bob Dylan