Cobb Salad

by | Oct 26, 2024 | Quartet/Quintet

Arnett Cobb was a stompin’ Texas tenor player, in the tradition of Illinois Jacquet … robust and sometimes raw.  He mixed the musical vocabularies of swing, bebop, blues and R&B, and originated the “Open Prairie” tone and “Southern Preacher” style of playing. There was always excitement in Cobb’s uninhibited, blaring style, which earned him the label “Wild Man of the Tenor Sax.” His rendition of Deep Purple (above), as well as the two tunes (below) are typical examples of the sound-salad that made him so popular, even with other jazz musicians.

Just Like That was recorded at the Grand Théâtre de Limoges, in France during March of 1980. It features Arnett Cobb on tenor, Roland Hanna playing piano, Eddie Locke drums, and Jimmy Woode on bass.

In 1987,  Arnett Cobb recorded this video of The Nearness of You … once again proving how a simple ballad can be turned into a masterpiece through the gift of improvisation and soulful sensitivity.

Precision Piano By Drew

by | Oct 20, 2024 | Trio

America’s loss was Europe’s gain. Kenny Drew’s move to Paris in 1961, and then to Copenhagen in 1964 proved to be permanent. Although he sacrificed much of the interest of an American jazz audience, he gained a wide following across Europe. Drew was a well-known figure on the Copenhagen jazz scene, but always remained somewhat underrated as a jazz pianist in the USA because of his absence.

His touch was described in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz as “precise,” and his playing as “a combination of bebop-influenced melodic improvisation and block chords, that included refreshingly subtle harmonizations”. You’ll hear typical examples of this (below) in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s It Might As Well Be Spring and (below that) in Sonny Rollins’ St. Thomas. Both were recorded in 1992 at the Brewhouse Theater in the UK. Kenny’s trio includes Alvin Queen on drums and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (NHOP) playing the double bass.

 

Byrd In Hand

by | Oct 12, 2024 | Septet/Octet, Tentet, Vocal Group

Cristo Redentor

by Donald Byrd | A New Perspective

Donald Byrd was considered one of the finest hard bop trumpeters of the post-Clifford Brown era. He recorded prolifically as both a leader and sideman from the mid-’50s into the mid-’60s and established a reputation as a solid stylist, with a clean tone and clear articulation. Toward the end of the 1960s, Byrd experimented with funk, fusion, and even dipped a toe into the waters of gospel. Jazz purists utterly despised it, but enraptured fans regard it as some of the most innovative, enduring work of its kind.

Cristo Redentor is reflective of his father’s ministerial influence, and features Byrd on trumpet, Hank Mobley on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock playing piano, Lex Humphries at the drums, Butch Warren on bass, Donald Best on vibes, and Kenny Burrell playing guitar –– talk about a stellar lineup!  (Below) the video is Stevie Wonder’s You’ve Got It Bad Girl, with Donald Byrd playing flugelhorn and trumpet; Fonce Mizell, trumpet; Allan Barnes, tenor and flute; Nathan Davis, soprano sax; Kevin Toney, electric piano; Larry Mizell, synthesizers; Barney Perry, electric guitar; Henry Franklin, electric bass; Keith Killgo, drums, and Ray Armando, congas and percussion –– all recorded live at Montreux on July 5th, 1973.

 

Heeere’s Doc Severinsen

by | Oct 4, 2024 | Big Band

Most people know Doc Severinsen as a nightly fixture on The Johnny Carson Show … fewer realize he is a highly talented and proficient trumpet player, Grammy winner, and the principal pops conductor for several American orchestras both during and after his time with Carson.  Under Severinsen’s direction, The Tonight Show Band –– a re-styled NBC Orchestra –– became, arguably, the best known big band in America! Doc has recorded more than 30 albums, from big band to jazz-fusion to classical … and at 96 is retired, but reportedly still going strong!

The (top) video is Dizzy Gillespie’s Night in Tunisia, with Doc and the University of North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in 2015. At the (bottom), Doc Severinsen performs September Song with The United States Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, at the 2012 National Trumpet Competition at George Mason University. In the (middle), Doc takes a mellow but powerful page from Hoagy Carmichael’s Georgia On My Mind … which Ray Charles pushed to the top of The Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1960.

Georgia On My Mind

by Doc Severinsen | Best of Doc Severinsen