Earl Bostic

AVID Jazz continues with its Four Classic album series with a re-mastered 2CD release of by or featuring bandleader, arranger and alto saxophonist Earl Bostic, complete with original artwork and liner notes. Earl Bostic is arguably now best remembered as one of the pioneers of the post war Rhythm & Blues movement of which he was a major player. His name would not necessarily jump out if you were asked to name ten of the best alto sax players ever. And yet he was up there amongst the best when he began his career back in the 1930’s firmly in the jazz tradition.

Bruno Blum, himself part of the Punk movement in London in the late Seventies, here returns to the original forms of subversion contained in Rock. As hedonists looking for ways to overtake their own selves as well as their social status, Artists — and particularly Musicians — seemed to be the only ones who could free themselves of society’s rigorous norms.
From Charlie Parker to Bo Diddley via Artie Shaw or Richard Berry, the irreverence and arrogance later celebrated in the Punk Rock of Iggy Pop, The Clash or The Ramones has roots in the frenzied tempos of Bop and the contorted melodies of Free Jazz, with branches as far as the sexual allusions of the Blues and the wild solos of Rockabilly.

Fantastic Voyage follows 2011 s hugely-successful Jazz Noire collection by letting the same team return to those sleazy dives and bars, this time homing in on the dope, drink and dubious characters to provide a vivid picture of high-seeking low life between the 1930s and 1950s. The music on Drink Up Light Up! evokes that time when orchestras swelled, brass sections exploded like fireworks and blues dripped off piano keys onto booze- and tear-stained barroom floors, staggering cast including names like the Reefer Man and Snuff Dippin Mama, but the themes are just as relevant to today s recession-hit climate: the desire to escape by getting high (and the often unfavourable repercussions on relationships).

Don Byas Takes His Place Among the Greats A historical document of jazz at a time when the musicians, steeped in the swing tradition, were creating and setting the mold for the modern sounds of bebop. An Underappreciated Master
While Don Byas is lauded for his breathtaking solos – sumptuous and creamy on ballads, thoughtful and potent on uptempo numbers – his absence from the scene in the U.S. and a lack of recorded evidence might be reasons he is unfairly overlooked.
Starting today, Mosaic Records presents that evidence. Don Byas — who claimed to be inspired by Art Tatum more than any horn player — always considered himself more of a swing musician than a bebopper, but that might be because harmonic and rhythmic innovation were such important components of his personal style that he may not even have realized what an innovator and inspiration he was. Tenor saxophonists who followed him couldn’t help but take note of his highly inventive phrasing, with melodies that disregarded bar lines when he was still working on a thought; notes that squeezed in hurriedly to ornament the end of a line; and seductive shifts in register that were always unexpected surprises. If your ears and experience prepared you for something more typical, Byas gave you that and more.

Don Byas Takes His Place Among the Greats A historical document of jazz at a time when the musicians, steeped in the swing tradition, were creating and setting the mold for the modern sounds of bebop. An Underappreciated Master
While Don Byas is lauded for his breathtaking solos – sumptuous and creamy on ballads, thoughtful and potent on uptempo numbers – his absence from the scene in the U.S. and a lack of recorded evidence might be reasons he is unfairly overlooked.
Starting today, Mosaic Records presents that evidence. Don Byas — who claimed to be inspired by Art Tatum more than any horn player — always considered himself more of a swing musician than a bebopper, but that might be because harmonic and rhythmic innovation were such important components of his personal style that he may not even have realized what an innovator and inspiration he was. Tenor saxophonists who followed him couldn’t help but take note of his highly inventive phrasing, with melodies that disregarded bar lines when he was still working on a thought; notes that squeezed in hurriedly to ornament the end of a line; and seductive shifts in register that were always unexpected surprises. If your ears and experience prepared you for something more typical, Byas gave you that and more.

Rhythm & Blues was not recognised as a distinct musical genre until the late 1940s and these CDs from the middle of that decade reflect the musical taste of the black population of the United States as it moved away from country blues towards a commercial, dance-oriented fusion of jazz and blues that came to be known as jump blues.

Name a canonical jazz artist, and chances are Jimmy Cobb has shared a stage or recording studio with them. Starting with his first recordings with Earl Bostic at the tender age of 21 all the way up to his new album This I Dig of You, due out August 16 via Smoke Sessions Records, Cobb has been not just a jazz drummer but the jazz drummer — a musician unmatched in technique and experience.

Artist's Choice: Rolling Stones Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Released as part of Hear Music's ongoing Artist's Choice series, where major artists pick "the music that matters to them," the 2003 compilation Artist's Choice: Rolling Stones finds Mick, Keith, Charlie, and Ronnie running through 16 recordings of their favorite songs by other artists. It should come as no surprise that blues, R&B, soul, old-time rock & roll and reggae with a hint of funk form the core of the collection, since that's what's at the root of the Stones. In fact, the only left-field choices are Mick's pick of Sade's "By Your Side" and Ronnie hauling out the Beach Boys' "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" at the end of the record. But even if this is a bit predictable, it is a good selection of songs – hard to go wrong with Robert Johnson, Otis Redding, Eddie Cochran, Andre Williams, Sly & the Family Stone, the Isley Brothers, and (of course) Muddy Waters, after all – and the track-by-track commentary by the Stones is entertaining and lively (no more so when Keith assumes the still-alive Andre Williams is dead and, if he's not, "he's probably doing time"). You could do far worse with your money.