Satchmo's Jive Essence 42
- Thread starter CrAyOnS O_o
- Start date
Pegasus Rule
New member
You say old ... I'm wondering if it was a typo. Don't you mean ancient? 
Stanton Moore is also a wonderful musician, and if you dig him, then you'd definitely like G.A.T. Their earlier stuff is with Skerik, which if you haven't heard him, you need to. Amazing saxophonist! The three of them are amazing together, but Charlie left the band in '07. Though I like the later stuff with Marc Benevento and Mike Dillon, too, there's an energy about the original trio that cannot be mimicked.
So this is kind of long and a cover, but still awesome:[YOUTUBE]kQrHcy3p9vU[/YOUTUBE]
Stanton Moore is also a wonderful musician, and if you dig him, then you'd definitely like G.A.T. Their earlier stuff is with Skerik, which if you haven't heard him, you need to. Amazing saxophonist! The three of them are amazing together, but Charlie left the band in '07. Though I like the later stuff with Marc Benevento and Mike Dillon, too, there's an energy about the original trio that cannot be mimicked. So this is kind of long and a cover, but still awesome:[YOUTUBE]kQrHcy3p9vU[/YOUTUBE]
I've hears a few songs from river including the title track, and what I've heard has been great. I must say it's a fantastic idea for an album. Yeah, Chameleon is definitely a horse of a different color,but both are great albums nonetheless. Let me know if I can bee of assistance.
Cynthia Rae
New member
I checked it out along with the one that you PMed me. Very nice. I'm looking forward to more reviews.
#42 Massive Attack - Mezzanine
This is an album with a reputation that preceded it long before it found its way into my hanRAB. This may be a large part of the reason why I hated it the first time I listened to it. I had preconceived notions of what this album was gonna' be, and the reality of its immanent darkness didn't match up with what I was expecting. Ironically it was its reputation which coerced me into giving it another chance and simply accepting it for what it is, and not what I wanted be, and what it is is absolutely brilliant.
I would have thought it impossible before experiencing this album that an electronically produced album could be so organically expressive. If while listening to this album you only managed to focus your attention on the drums alone you would swear that someone found a way to capture the soul of Art Blakey or Elvin Jones, two of jazz' most dynamic and expressive drummers, inside of a beat machine. There are times when listening to Teardrop or Group Four that I have to remind myself that Billy Holiday is dead, but that this is indeed what it would sound like if she was born 40 years later. It's hard for me to call Mezzanine Down-tempo or Trip-hop. It's hard for me to classify it at all, but its' definitely jazz. That's for sure.
This is an album with a reputation that preceded it long before it found its way into my hanRAB. This may be a large part of the reason why I hated it the first time I listened to it. I had preconceived notions of what this album was gonna' be, and the reality of its immanent darkness didn't match up with what I was expecting. Ironically it was its reputation which coerced me into giving it another chance and simply accepting it for what it is, and not what I wanted be, and what it is is absolutely brilliant.
I would have thought it impossible before experiencing this album that an electronically produced album could be so organically expressive. If while listening to this album you only managed to focus your attention on the drums alone you would swear that someone found a way to capture the soul of Art Blakey or Elvin Jones, two of jazz' most dynamic and expressive drummers, inside of a beat machine. There are times when listening to Teardrop or Group Four that I have to remind myself that Billy Holiday is dead, but that this is indeed what it would sound like if she was born 40 years later. It's hard for me to call Mezzanine Down-tempo or Trip-hop. It's hard for me to classify it at all, but its' definitely jazz. That's for sure.
Pizzarut Tasty
New member
#32 Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
"He just got up there and blew it and put it on an lp and all over the world they stopped in their tracks when they heard it. They stopped what they were doing and they listened and it was never the same after that. Just never the same"
- Ralph Gleason
The musical career of Miles Davis was so prolific that he can easily be credited for creating more sub-genres of jazz than most jazz musicians have albums in their discography. However as much as you may hear accolades in praise of such jazz timeline milestones (pun intended) as Kind of Blue and Birth of the Cool, I think more than any album Miles ever recorded nothing set the jazz world on its ear quite as unexpectedly as Bitches Brew.
Choosing this album for this paticular entry in the list was a bit of a conundrum for me, and the reasons why I decided to is, despite that this is largely "free jazz fusion", it is very accessible. It is the album that provided me with a direct entry into the world of jazz appreciation many years ago after many failed attempts with other jazz albums to really understand and appreciate what I was listening to. The other reason is it represents the standard by which all other jazz fusion albums are judged, so it might be best to have an awareness of such an amazing album before going down any other experimental avenues in this remarkably confounding sub-genre of music.
Historically this is a profound album on so many different levels. For one this was a double album clocking in at just over 90 minutes long. For an album that, at the time was as experimental as this album was, a 90 minute album would have been seen as a very unwise decision.
Second the density of the individual instrument tracks on any one song would have been considered overkill in most recording situations. 3 drummers, 2 or 3 bass players. 3 electric pianos, 2 saxophones, a guitar and trumpet each with individual channel tracks just on Pharoah's Dance alone is a prime example of just how busy parts of this album can be. It definitely pushed the envelope of contemporary engineering capabilities.
Third the album released in 1970 represented definitive turning away from the traditional in the world of jazz. This was certainly not the first attempt of a jazz musicians mixing two ecclectic styles of music or even experimenting with electric instrumentation. It was Miles' third attempt alone and the album released previous to Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way, can definitely in retrospect be seen as a prelude to this album, albeit it is certainly a much safer and tame enterprise; It definitely lived up to it's title through its overall style and musical rhetoric. Miles' playing, unlike previous albums, is both psychedelic and agressive and a good many studio effects that were just coming into their own like tape delays and artistic overdubbing were liberally employed on this album by producer Teo Macero. This album represented the sought after fusion of Jazz style with rock instrumentation and tirabre in a way that would never be duplicated, but a good overview of the history of jazz fusion as a genre will clearly show that it wasn't from lack of trying.
Lastly this album while adhering to the ideal theme and mood set by Davis is almost completely improvisational. While in most circumstances the worRAB "jazz" and "improvisation" aren't normally at odRAB with each other, one listen to this album will certainly put that seemingly insignificant fact into perspective. At various points throughout the album you can clearly hear Miles whispering to his enserable "Keep it tight like that" or "ok, chill out".
Bitches Brew starts out in a very laid back way with Pharoah's Dance. Miles' enserable sets the scene in a way that can almost be seen as a consecration of sacred musical space. This lead in continues for over 2 minutes into the song luring the listener in until Miles the mystic hits subtly with his horn. The feel of Pharoah's Dance is very primal and ancient, which is the dominant theme of the album itself. The second half of side one commences with the 27 min. long Bitches Brew which is the equivalent to having your soul forcibly removed from your body. Not many other descriptive worRAB are appropriate for such an ineffable piece of music. As an ex-girlfriend of mine once commented upon listening to the song "It sounRAB like schizophrenia with a migraine".
The second disc provides some, but not much respite from the improvisational chaos invoked by the first half of the album. Spanish Key is a relatively upbeat and funky track yet still staying true to the albums mystical theme. The second song, aptly titled John McLaughlin is largely a showcase of the new up-and-coming meraber of Davis' enserable and is the only track on the album to be free of Miles' trumpet playing. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down is a bluesy break in the chaos bringing the tempo and structure to its steadiest and most organized level, which serves to make up for Miles his lack of appearance in the previous track. The closing track Sanctuary is a corabination keyboardist Joe Zawinul's composition of the same name and Miles' interpolation of the melody of his classic song I Fall in Love to Easily.
There is one difficulty i have in recommending this album. Treat it like a caveat. While this album is, as i said, very accessible, one is really tempted to treat something so experimental and improvisational as Bitches Brew as Background music. Don't. This album is extremely demanding of full and attentive listening. There is so much going on in the little nooks and crevices of this album that, at least upon your first listen, give it your undivided listening attention. Put headphones on, or listen in proper proximity to high quality speakers, and please excuse the cliche but turn it up, way up. There's so many individual instrument tracks at play on this album that you should be in a listening position to take advantage of the three-dimensional sounRABtage that really opens up and makes itself present when this album is listened to properly.
Lastly it has always been my own personal opinion that Miles' best trumpet playing is on this album. Whereas the majority of Miles' reputation is largely built on his reputation as a visionary and a bandleader, this album really shows what Miles had in him, and that he could really blow it out.
"He just got up there and blew it and put it on an lp and all over the world they stopped in their tracks when they heard it. They stopped what they were doing and they listened and it was never the same after that. Just never the same"
- Ralph Gleason
The musical career of Miles Davis was so prolific that he can easily be credited for creating more sub-genres of jazz than most jazz musicians have albums in their discography. However as much as you may hear accolades in praise of such jazz timeline milestones (pun intended) as Kind of Blue and Birth of the Cool, I think more than any album Miles ever recorded nothing set the jazz world on its ear quite as unexpectedly as Bitches Brew.
Choosing this album for this paticular entry in the list was a bit of a conundrum for me, and the reasons why I decided to is, despite that this is largely "free jazz fusion", it is very accessible. It is the album that provided me with a direct entry into the world of jazz appreciation many years ago after many failed attempts with other jazz albums to really understand and appreciate what I was listening to. The other reason is it represents the standard by which all other jazz fusion albums are judged, so it might be best to have an awareness of such an amazing album before going down any other experimental avenues in this remarkably confounding sub-genre of music.
Historically this is a profound album on so many different levels. For one this was a double album clocking in at just over 90 minutes long. For an album that, at the time was as experimental as this album was, a 90 minute album would have been seen as a very unwise decision.
Second the density of the individual instrument tracks on any one song would have been considered overkill in most recording situations. 3 drummers, 2 or 3 bass players. 3 electric pianos, 2 saxophones, a guitar and trumpet each with individual channel tracks just on Pharoah's Dance alone is a prime example of just how busy parts of this album can be. It definitely pushed the envelope of contemporary engineering capabilities.
Third the album released in 1970 represented definitive turning away from the traditional in the world of jazz. This was certainly not the first attempt of a jazz musicians mixing two ecclectic styles of music or even experimenting with electric instrumentation. It was Miles' third attempt alone and the album released previous to Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way, can definitely in retrospect be seen as a prelude to this album, albeit it is certainly a much safer and tame enterprise; It definitely lived up to it's title through its overall style and musical rhetoric. Miles' playing, unlike previous albums, is both psychedelic and agressive and a good many studio effects that were just coming into their own like tape delays and artistic overdubbing were liberally employed on this album by producer Teo Macero. This album represented the sought after fusion of Jazz style with rock instrumentation and tirabre in a way that would never be duplicated, but a good overview of the history of jazz fusion as a genre will clearly show that it wasn't from lack of trying.
Lastly this album while adhering to the ideal theme and mood set by Davis is almost completely improvisational. While in most circumstances the worRAB "jazz" and "improvisation" aren't normally at odRAB with each other, one listen to this album will certainly put that seemingly insignificant fact into perspective. At various points throughout the album you can clearly hear Miles whispering to his enserable "Keep it tight like that" or "ok, chill out".
Bitches Brew starts out in a very laid back way with Pharoah's Dance. Miles' enserable sets the scene in a way that can almost be seen as a consecration of sacred musical space. This lead in continues for over 2 minutes into the song luring the listener in until Miles the mystic hits subtly with his horn. The feel of Pharoah's Dance is very primal and ancient, which is the dominant theme of the album itself. The second half of side one commences with the 27 min. long Bitches Brew which is the equivalent to having your soul forcibly removed from your body. Not many other descriptive worRAB are appropriate for such an ineffable piece of music. As an ex-girlfriend of mine once commented upon listening to the song "It sounRAB like schizophrenia with a migraine".
The second disc provides some, but not much respite from the improvisational chaos invoked by the first half of the album. Spanish Key is a relatively upbeat and funky track yet still staying true to the albums mystical theme. The second song, aptly titled John McLaughlin is largely a showcase of the new up-and-coming meraber of Davis' enserable and is the only track on the album to be free of Miles' trumpet playing. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down is a bluesy break in the chaos bringing the tempo and structure to its steadiest and most organized level, which serves to make up for Miles his lack of appearance in the previous track. The closing track Sanctuary is a corabination keyboardist Joe Zawinul's composition of the same name and Miles' interpolation of the melody of his classic song I Fall in Love to Easily.
There is one difficulty i have in recommending this album. Treat it like a caveat. While this album is, as i said, very accessible, one is really tempted to treat something so experimental and improvisational as Bitches Brew as Background music. Don't. This album is extremely demanding of full and attentive listening. There is so much going on in the little nooks and crevices of this album that, at least upon your first listen, give it your undivided listening attention. Put headphones on, or listen in proper proximity to high quality speakers, and please excuse the cliche but turn it up, way up. There's so many individual instrument tracks at play on this album that you should be in a listening position to take advantage of the three-dimensional sounRABtage that really opens up and makes itself present when this album is listened to properly.
Lastly it has always been my own personal opinion that Miles' best trumpet playing is on this album. Whereas the majority of Miles' reputation is largely built on his reputation as a visionary and a bandleader, this album really shows what Miles had in him, and that he could really blow it out.
This Is My Name
New member
Finally!! Great to see this thread up again! Great review too, I'm definitely getting this album.
71cooldude
New member
Location, location, location. New review by Monday.
You couldn't have given better advice. I first heard that album only about a week ago, and at first I found it good but didn't see how it was as amazing as people claim. Then about halfway through I started using my headphones and was immediately blown away.
Excellent recommendation and write up.
Excellent recommendation and write up.
mandexlufc
New member
If it's Jazz and Metal I hope to see some Kayo Dot in the list somewhere! Nice list so far.
Karrie Shmarrie <3
New member
Interlude
As I intimated in the introductory post to this thread one of the major mistakes that a lot of jazz buRAB make in reccomending transitional albums to jazz novices is in reccomending jazz fusion albums. The problem with this, for the most part, isn't that there's anything inherently terrible about fusion, it's just that 90% of the time there's nothing inherently "jazz" about it either.
The biggest challenge to transitioning from contemporary (rock, hip-hop, country et al.) to jazz is acclamating from one musical rhetoric (i.e. means of communicating an idea concept, in this case a musical concept) to another. Jazz fusion still largely works outside of the framework of jazz rhetoric, and is pretty much just exploratory instrumental rock. It bears association with jazz in genre name and artist association only. There are some fantastic fusion albums, and some will undoubtedly make appearances in this thread, but in reality most fusion really deserves to be classified in the prog genre, and I find that I can appreciate it much better from that perspective, but as a sub-genre of jazz.....no, it aint happenin'.
Well the obvious question then would be "what genre of music would be the closest approximation of the fusion of two very divergent ways of conveying a musical concept?", and the clear and present answer to that question in my mind is soul.
For the most part we don't make too much of a connection between jazz and soul for two reasons. First and foremost is that we are at best conditioned to immediately associate jazz with instrumental music. Truthfully the majority of jazz is instrumental, but some of the greatest jazz ever made came from singers such as Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nat "King" Cole just to name a few.
The second reason why we fail to make a connection between jazz and soul is that soul has inherent in it the element of Southern gospel music, and it was the introduction of this element and it's "hymnal" structure and passionate vocals to the jazz and rhythm and blues music that were the dominant musical genres at the time of soul's inception that is really reponsible for it's distinctive sound.
Speaking of distinctive sounRAB. We can largely set-up 50's - 70's soul into two camps. We have The Motown Record label out of Detroit, Michigan and its legendary producer/founder Barry Gordie. This label along with its exclusive house band The Funk Brothers was responsible for such greats as Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and Smokey Robinson.
On the Southeastern end of things you have Stax RecorRAB out of Memphis, Tennessee formed by white brother and sister label owners Jim Stewart and Estelle axton. Stax too had their own exclusive dedicated house band better known to most as Booker T and the MG's. The Stax record label, compared to Motown was known for a harder hitting grittier upbeat version of soul and were most famous for producing artists such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Isaac Hayes. Stax was also widely know for promoting racially integrated soul music and were intrinsically connected and involved with Martin Luther King and the equal rights movement of the 50's and 60's.
Before any of this however there was the label that was there during the pop music crossover from Jazz to RnB to soul and produced some of the Greatest albums in all three of those genres: Atlantic RecorRAB.
Atlantic recorRAB and their famous trinity of Chairman Ahmet Ertegun, engineer Tom Dowd, and one of the greatest, if not the greatest, record producers to ever live Jerry Wexler. The list of artists which the Atlantic recorRAB was responsible for (and is still responsible for as its still the only of the three listed still actively producing artists) is immense and covers nearly every conceivable genre, but for our immediate purposes we only need to be concerned with one in Particular:
As I intimated in the introductory post to this thread one of the major mistakes that a lot of jazz buRAB make in reccomending transitional albums to jazz novices is in reccomending jazz fusion albums. The problem with this, for the most part, isn't that there's anything inherently terrible about fusion, it's just that 90% of the time there's nothing inherently "jazz" about it either.
The biggest challenge to transitioning from contemporary (rock, hip-hop, country et al.) to jazz is acclamating from one musical rhetoric (i.e. means of communicating an idea concept, in this case a musical concept) to another. Jazz fusion still largely works outside of the framework of jazz rhetoric, and is pretty much just exploratory instrumental rock. It bears association with jazz in genre name and artist association only. There are some fantastic fusion albums, and some will undoubtedly make appearances in this thread, but in reality most fusion really deserves to be classified in the prog genre, and I find that I can appreciate it much better from that perspective, but as a sub-genre of jazz.....no, it aint happenin'.
Well the obvious question then would be "what genre of music would be the closest approximation of the fusion of two very divergent ways of conveying a musical concept?", and the clear and present answer to that question in my mind is soul.
For the most part we don't make too much of a connection between jazz and soul for two reasons. First and foremost is that we are at best conditioned to immediately associate jazz with instrumental music. Truthfully the majority of jazz is instrumental, but some of the greatest jazz ever made came from singers such as Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nat "King" Cole just to name a few.
The second reason why we fail to make a connection between jazz and soul is that soul has inherent in it the element of Southern gospel music, and it was the introduction of this element and it's "hymnal" structure and passionate vocals to the jazz and rhythm and blues music that were the dominant musical genres at the time of soul's inception that is really reponsible for it's distinctive sound.
Speaking of distinctive sounRAB. We can largely set-up 50's - 70's soul into two camps. We have The Motown Record label out of Detroit, Michigan and its legendary producer/founder Barry Gordie. This label along with its exclusive house band The Funk Brothers was responsible for such greats as Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and Smokey Robinson.
On the Southeastern end of things you have Stax RecorRAB out of Memphis, Tennessee formed by white brother and sister label owners Jim Stewart and Estelle axton. Stax too had their own exclusive dedicated house band better known to most as Booker T and the MG's. The Stax record label, compared to Motown was known for a harder hitting grittier upbeat version of soul and were most famous for producing artists such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Isaac Hayes. Stax was also widely know for promoting racially integrated soul music and were intrinsically connected and involved with Martin Luther King and the equal rights movement of the 50's and 60's.
Before any of this however there was the label that was there during the pop music crossover from Jazz to RnB to soul and produced some of the Greatest albums in all three of those genres: Atlantic RecorRAB.
Atlantic recorRAB and their famous trinity of Chairman Ahmet Ertegun, engineer Tom Dowd, and one of the greatest, if not the greatest, record producers to ever live Jerry Wexler. The list of artists which the Atlantic recorRAB was responsible for (and is still responsible for as its still the only of the three listed still actively producing artists) is immense and covers nearly every conceivable genre, but for our immediate purposes we only need to be concerned with one in Particular:
Think Again
New member
# 33 Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul
Fella's if you really want to glean some good wisdom as to the wants and neeRAB of women my suggestion would be to get your noses out of the Sexual Experience thread and pick up this album as soon possible. Hell, PM me. I'll hook a brother up.
Everything I ever learned about the proper care and treatment of a woman I learned from Aretha , at least all the good things anyway, and upon a recent listening to this album I can only say that Aretha tells me I have so much more to learn. (in case you're wondering if you should necessarily be taking relationship advice from a recently divorced man I'll tell you without that Aretha wouldn't have liked her at all).
In the opening song Chain of Fools the first few bars of the spring reverb saturated guitar followed by a full chorus lead in barely gets you set up for Aretha soulfully droppin' the truth "For 5 long years I thought you were my man, but I found out I'm just a link in yo' chain". If that doesn't make you feel guilty for having a penis it means you ain't got one.
The album continues steady and upbeat with Money Won't Change You and then slows down with the absolutely gorgeous rendition of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready. Of course there's the classic (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Good to Me as I am to You (my personal favorite), the beautiful and elequently tender ballad Aint No Way, and her unique interpretation of the classic Young Rascals hit Groovin'.
This album is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Aretha's discography, but it is my favorite, and she has produced a couple of jazz albums which are good as well, but I didn't really want to reach for something so close to what we're inching toward. To say that Aretha is an icon of American music would be a gross understatement. Her voice is the perfect fusion of Jazz melody and soulful pop sensibility, and undoubtedly the music we listen to today would not be the same without her.
Fella's if you really want to glean some good wisdom as to the wants and neeRAB of women my suggestion would be to get your noses out of the Sexual Experience thread and pick up this album as soon possible. Hell, PM me. I'll hook a brother up.
Everything I ever learned about the proper care and treatment of a woman I learned from Aretha , at least all the good things anyway, and upon a recent listening to this album I can only say that Aretha tells me I have so much more to learn. (in case you're wondering if you should necessarily be taking relationship advice from a recently divorced man I'll tell you without that Aretha wouldn't have liked her at all).
In the opening song Chain of Fools the first few bars of the spring reverb saturated guitar followed by a full chorus lead in barely gets you set up for Aretha soulfully droppin' the truth "For 5 long years I thought you were my man, but I found out I'm just a link in yo' chain". If that doesn't make you feel guilty for having a penis it means you ain't got one.
The album continues steady and upbeat with Money Won't Change You and then slows down with the absolutely gorgeous rendition of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready. Of course there's the classic (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Good to Me as I am to You (my personal favorite), the beautiful and elequently tender ballad Aint No Way, and her unique interpretation of the classic Young Rascals hit Groovin'.
This album is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Aretha's discography, but it is my favorite, and she has produced a couple of jazz albums which are good as well, but I didn't really want to reach for something so close to what we're inching toward. To say that Aretha is an icon of American music would be a gross understatement. Her voice is the perfect fusion of Jazz melody and soulful pop sensibility, and undoubtedly the music we listen to today would not be the same without her.
shelivade ♂☿
New member
I'm loving this album at the moment. You're certainly right about the dark sounRABcapes therein. It's the first album that arrived in my iTunes library with the tag 'jazz funk' which, seeing as I've been trying to get into some more jazz recently, is always welcome. There's a very interesting melting pot of jazz-funk and electronica here, and it certainly seems from the first few listens like it was recorded on an improvisational lirab.
Anyway, I'll be be giving this a few more spins today. My point it, god review (and cheers for sending the link alone)
Looking forward to some more listness here.
Anyway, I'll be be giving this a few more spins today. My point it, god review (and cheers for sending the link alone)
Looking forward to some more listness here.Lauren Stewart
New member
well i listened to it with headphones, soooo much better than before, i totally get it now, thanks man.
Beer for you!
New member
Great picks. Solid reviews. One of the best threaRAB I've come across. Keep it up. Please.