Jazz Live

Lionel Hampton & The Golden Men Of Jazz - Live at the Blue Note (1991) {Telarc CD-83308}
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© 1991 Telarc | CD-83308
Jazz / Mainstream Jazz / Swing / Vibes

For a 1991 gig at the Blue Note in New York, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton headed a nonet full of classic veterans that were termed "the Golden Men of Jazz": trumpeters Clark Terry and Harry "Sweets" Edison, tenors James Moody and Buddy Tate, trombonist Al Grey, pianist Hank Jones, bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Grady Tate. Even with its many loose moments, these great players came up with some notable moments, including James Moody's humorous vocalizing on "Moody's Mood for Love" and particularly fine playing by Terry and Grey; Tate and Edison do show their age a bit, but are welcome participants in what must have been an occasion for celebration.

This two-CD set (a reissue of an earlier two-LP set plus six previously unreleased numbers) brings back a memorable Carnegie Hall concert that both features and pays tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. The great singer is joined on a few numbers by a Chick Webb reunion band that has a few of the original members (plus an uncredited Panama Francis on drums). Although the musicians do not get much solo space (why wasn't trumpeter Taft Jordan featured?), the music is pleasing. Fitzgerald performs three exquisite duets with pianist Ellis Larkins and then sits out while the Jazz at the Philharmonic All-Stars romp on a few jams and a ballad medley. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge's emotional flights take honors, although tenorman Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and trombonist Al Grey are also in good form. Fitzgerald comes out for the second half of the show and sings 14 numbers with guitarist Joe Pass (including a pair of tender duets) and the Tommy Flanagan trio.

United by dalliances with purism as young men and an abiding love of classic blues and jazz, Eric Clapton and Wynton Marsalis are a more comfortable fit than it may initially seem. Both musicians are synthesists, not innovators, stitching together elements from their idols in an attempt to preserve the past while bringing it into the present, so their sensibilities are aligned and, in 2011, they’re amenable to a partnership that explores their common ground…

Thankfully, there is finally a definitive Jaco Pastorius anthology that offers an accurate portrait of the breadth and depth of his innovative artistry beyond what his contributions to Weather Report and his own Word of Mouth and Trio of Doom (which many would argue are sufficient in and of themselves) would suggest. This two-CD, 28-track collection ranges across the fretless bass inventor's earliest recordings, documented by a live appearance with Wayne Cochran's C.C. Riders and home playing the Cochran standard "Amelia," to his work with underground R&B act Little Beaver and such artists as Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Joni Mitchell in and out of the studio, Paul Bley, Airto and Flora Purim, Michel Columbier, Brian Melvin, and his diverse projects.

Chet Baker - Out Of Nowhere, Chet Baker Quartet Live, Volume 2 (1954) {Pacific Jazz 27693 rel 2001}
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© 1954, 2001 Pacific Jazz / Capitol Records | 7243 5 27693 2 2
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Trumpet

3 great Pacific Jazz CD's chronicling Chet Baker and Russ Freeman's live performances. This is where you really start to hear Chet find his own sound. He starts branching out on the two My Funny Valentine's found here, and his recordings of Stella By Starlight sound like the one's he did in the 1980's. The recording quality is pretty average in Volume 1, but it improves in Volume 2 and 3, especially considering how noisy American Jazz clubs used to be. Zing Went The Strings of My Heart is amazing, and it's one the fastest tempo tune Baker ever recorded. On several cuts, he plays the "Boo-bams", a bongo-type instrument invented by his friend Bill Loughborough.

The two Swedes Jan Lundgren and Hans Backenroth are musical storytellers, their playing is without any vanity and full of vivid stories. Qualities that Lundgren has already demonstrated with his own projects, the pan-European success trio "Mare Nostrum" and in duos with trombonist and singer Nils Landgren and bass icon Georg Riedel. Especially the latter finds a worthy continuation in the collaboration with Backenroth, an internationally sought-after European bassist.