This CD includes the early steps of Bobby Jaspar as a jazz musician, when he started on clarinet and then tenor saxophone, as he formed the young award-winning Belgian band they called “Bob Shots” —the first in Europe to play “be-bop” back in 1947 under the guidance of Jaspar's influence, Don Byas. One year later he met Lucky Thompson onstage in an enriching experience, and he became his new inspiration. These two encounters helped Bobby grow musically in a way that would make him a success everywhere, a blend of styles that was a compromise between the turbulence of Thompson, Lester Young, Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, etc., and the rhapsodic style of Byas and Hawkins.
Fresh Sound presents 17 solid selections retrieved from Lionel Hampton's brief involvement with the Jazztone label. Recorded in New York City during the summer of 1956, this mixture of standards, ballads, and original work represents mainstream jazz at its warmest, friendliest, and most accessible. Hamp's front line consisted of trumpeter Ray Copeland, trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, and tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson; the rhythm people were pianist Oscar Dennard, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Gus Johnson. Hamp played vibraphone on all but two of the tracks; he is heard at the piano on "Look! Four Hands" and does marvelous things with a marimba on Gerry Mulligan's "Line for Lyons." The Jazztone record label existed between the years 1955 and 1957.
Jazz musicians have provided so many Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn tributes over the years that in the late '90s, one greeted an Ellington/Strayhorn homage with the question"Do we really need yet another one?" The frustrating thing was how safe many of those tributes continued to be - instead of taking chances and turning their attention to some of Ellington and Strayhorn's lesser-known works, many players chose only the most obvious standards. That's exactly what Tommy Smith does on The Sound of Love, a relaxed Ellington/Strayhorn tribute that unites him with pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Billy Drummond. It's frustrating that the Scottish tenor saxman doesn't surprise us more and that he pretty much sticks to often-recorded classics like "Solitude," "In a Sentimental Mood," and "Chelsea Bridge"…
Collins is never far in spirit from the 1940s and 1950s gin mills of his youth, where he soaked up blues, R&B, country and western, jazz, and all their various amalgams. On this 1983 date he impressively revitalizes his old Texas hit "Don't Lose Your Cool," turns the heat up on Guitar Slim's "Quicksand," and adds newfangled vocal and guitar insinuations to Big Walter Price's "Get to Gettin'."
So dubbed because these three sessions - two from early 1949, one from March 1950 - are where the sound known as cool jazz essentially formed, Birth of the Cool remains one of the defining, pivotal moments in jazz. This is where the elasticity of bop was married with skillful, big-band arrangements and a relaxed, subdued mood that made it all seem easy, even at its most intricate. After all, there's a reason why this music was called cool; it has a hip, detached elegance, never getting too hot, even as the rhythms skip and jump. Indeed, the most remarkable thing about these sessions - arranged by Gil Evans and featuring such heavy-hitters as Kai Winding, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, and Max Roach - is that they sound intimate, as the nonet never pushes too hard, never sounds like the work of nine musicians…
A prolific, award-winning Italian trumpet and flügelhorn player known for his warm tone and lyrical style. His style is based on the classic Miles Davis sound of the '50s, and the very lineup of his quintet is reminiscent of Davis' group, with excellent tenor Tino Tracanna. They mostly play originals and the music flows fresh and engaging, never a mere imitation.