The great tenor Coleman Hawkins started to go downhill in late 1965 (eating too little, drinking too much) and his career became progressively sadder until his death on May 19, 1969. This Enja CD (comprised of brand new material taken from a Baltimore club date) has five lengthy performances and strong work from the rhythm section (pianist Barry Harris, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Roy Brooks) but Hawkins' solos are consistently aimless and occasionally lost. His lines are shorter than in previous years and he seems to be gasping for air to an extent. The ironic part is that the audience is overly enthusiastic, loving every note no matter how desperate Hawkins sounds. Only on the brief closing "Ow" (where the tenor trades off very advanced phrases with Harris) does Hawkins sound up to par.
On this record (one incidentally that Hawkins, who is his own harshest critic, ranks among his best) we have a group of musicians who complement the master quite successfully. On trumpet is Emmett Berry, a Fletcher Henderson and Count Basie alumnus who has played and recorded with just about anybody you can think of. The trombonist is young Eddie Bert who was a member of such major bands as those of Charlie Barnet, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton and Red Norvo. On piano, Billy Taylor, a student of a great Art Tatum and a 52nd Street cohort of Hawkins. Tatum, generally acknowledged to be the supreme wizard of the keyboard, has called Taylor "the best young pianist in the country"…
Through the 1930s, Coleman Hawkins growth is exponential, especially in his ballad playing. Buttery warm and cozy, he finds notes that always work within the chord and are clearly there for anyone to find. But he's the one who finds them. And what is there to say about his solo on 1939's "Body and Soul" that hasn't already been said? This is the music that has proven so inspirational to generations of tenor saxophonists since; the endless possibility when taste and intelligence take on exceptional material. Our jam-packed set on eight CDs includes 190 tracks, 12 never before released. Included is material from Coleman's earliest days with Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds, his time with Henderson including various pseudonym bands and offshoots that shared personnel, the Mound City Blue Blowers, Benny Goodman's orchestra, Lionel Hampton, Benny Carter, Count Basie, co-leader sides with trumpeter Henry Red Allen, Cozy Cole, and a variety of all-star dates for Metronome, Leonard Feather, and Esquire, as well as recordings as a leader of his own dates. Our research has corrected many discrepancies in previous discographies.
The great American musical invention of the 20th century, jazz is an ever-youthful, still evolving music of beauty, sensitivity, and brilliance that has produced (and been produced by) an extraordinary progression of talented artists. JAZZ: The Smithsonian Anthology traces the turning points in its history through its legendary innovators among them Armstrong, Ellington, Basie, Parker, Gillespie, Davis, Hancock, Corea, Marsalis and notable styles, from early ragtime to
international modernism and every major movement in between.
Clifford Brown: "Best Coast Jazz" is the Five Star bookend session to "Clifford Brown All Stars", both having been recorded at the same session in Los Angeles in 1954. On the vinyl LP, each song took up a side, allowing for plenty of blowing room. "BCJ" would be released in 1955. One year later, Clifford Brown (and pianist Richie Powell and wife) would be dead from a car wreck on the Penn Turnpike during a rainstorm. Thus altering the course of jazz trumpet history in one tragic act. "CBAS" would be hurriedly released following the accident and we would once again shake our heads at the tremendous loss of trumpet genius Clifford Brown.
The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records is a four-disc set, compiled and annotated by author Ashley Kahn who wrote the book of the same name being published concurrently with its release. Impulse's great run was between 1961 and 1976 – a period of 15 years that ushered in more changes in jazz than at any other point in the music's history. Impulse began recording in the last weeks of 1960, with Ray Charles, Kai Windig /J.J. Johnson, and Gil Evans. While Impulse experimented with 45s 33 1/3 EPs, cassettes, and reel to reel tapes later in its existence, it was–and this set focuses on– it was the music on its LPs (with distinct orange and black packaging in gatefold sleeves containing copious notes) that helped to set them apart.