Satin Doll – Joe Pass

by | Jan 25, 2019 | Trio

You know a musician is truly great when you can literally listen to him play all day long and still want more. Joe Pass was one of those musicians … arguably the finest jazz guitarist of the Twentieth Century and one of the best jazz guitarists of all time!  Even his imperfections were so enjoyable that nobody cared.  He was a most serious musician who felt deeply about his music but liked to have fun with it at the same time.  Here, he performs the Ellington-Strayhorn classic Satin Doll with Bob Magnusson on bass and Joe Porcaro playing drums.

Hear my interview with Joe on our Jazz Scene PODCAST page.

Maynard Ferguson ’69

by | Jan 18, 2019 | Big Band

The first time I heard Maynard Ferguson was at the Pinebrook Show Tent in New Jersey and it cost me all of a dollar for a seat on a long wooden bench.  I was a kid in my impressionable teens and the tent was only set up for that one summer, but I was in the front row every Friday night.  I’ll never forget it!  That buck bought around three hours of nearly nonstop jazz performed by the likes of Ahmad Jamal, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton, Art Blakey, (Maynard of course) and so many others!  Sometimes I think the musicians had more fun than we did.

For my money, the band Ferguson had during the 60’s was his greatest ever.  It was before the days of “Theme From Rocky”, “Pagliacci”, and some of the disco tunes with which he experimented later on.  The three cuts below from 1969, to me, represent the sound of that incredible orchestra and the excellence that simmered just below the surface.

Maynard Ferguson and his Orchestra play “Somewhere” from Leonard Bernstein’s musical “West Side Story” on a 1969 TV show.  Whether or not you like show tunes, you’ve got to love this rendition by the original “Boss”.

Here is Maynard with his high flying treatment of “One O’Clock Jump”, a song usually associated with the Count Basie Band. Please excuse the time code in the middle of the screen, but the Orchestra was too tuned in to miss!

“Danny Boy” is a bit of a departure for the Ferguson Orchestra but is proof positive that this powerful band had a deeper third gear in addition to hot or mellow … sweet.  Brass, not pipes are callin’.

Hackensack – John Coltrane & Stan Getz

by | Jan 11, 2019 | Quartet/Quintet

John Coltrane and Stan Getz together is a rare find … especially when performing with a who’s who on the other instruments.  Recorded in Germany in 1960, here is just such a combo with Oscar Peterson on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb rounding out the rhythm section on drums.  The tune Hackensack is a Thelonious Monk composition, as if you couldn’t tell from the note structure.

Sunny Side Of The Street / Begin The Beguine – Arnett Cobb & Lionel Hampton

by | Jan 4, 2019 | Big Band

Sunny Side Of The Street was recorded July 16, 1978 in Nice, France.  They put on quite a show, with Arnett sounding particularly bright on tenor and Lionel singing and playing drums.  Neither is an everyday sight!

Begin The Beguine, also recorded in Nice in ’78, was practically Artie Shaw’s theme song, once upon a time.  Here it gets quite a different treatment between the tenor of Arnett Cobb and the vibe virtuosity of Lionel Hampton.