Joseph Anthony Pass & Edward Kennedy Ellington

by | Feb 27, 2022 | Quartet/Quintet

Hearing Joe Pass and Duke Ellington together would normally be a rare treat in itself, but put them together in a small group setting and you have reason to celebrate!  Ellington was always an underrated piano player, probably because he is usually lost among 15 or 16 other incredibly talented musicians in his own band and you don’t really hear him.  After all, as the leader Duke is often buried in plain sight.  Now add bassist Ray Brown and drummer Louie Bellson to the mix, and what you have is the amazing quartet performing Cottontail in the video above and Love You Madly below on a cut from Duke’s 1974 “Big 4” album. Joe Pass?  Well, he sets fire to any group of fine musicians … large or small, slow or fast!

Love You Madly

by Joe Pass & Duke Elliington | Duke's Big 4

Delilah / Beautiful Old Ladies – Ellis Marsalis

by | Feb 19, 2022 | Quartet/Quintet

The Marsalis family’s musical gifts all flow from the “headwaters’ … an internationally renowned piano player named Ellis.   Sons Wynton, Branford, Delfaeyo and Jason have all become famous in their own right, with Wynton and Branford each standing with one foot in jazz and the other in classical music.  In the video, Ellis Marsalis is joined by Andrew Baham on trumpet, Derek Douget on sax, Gerald Watkins at the drums and Jason Stewart playing bass.  The tune is Delilah, recorded in New Orleans at The Jazz and Heritage Center December 15, 2018.  Below that is Beautiful Old Ladies, a tribute to older women from Ellis’s Whistle Stop album, featuring Branford Marsalis on soprano sax, Robert Hurst playing bass, Jeff Watts on drums and, of course, Ellis at the piano.

Beautiful Old Ladies

by Ellis Marsalis | Whistle Stop

Lee Ritenour And Fourplay

by | Feb 5, 2022 | Quartet/Quintet

Above, Lee Ritenour, Dave Grusin & Andreas Varady, perform Oliver Nelson’s  “Stolen Moments” at the 47th Montreux Jazz Festival in 2013. Tom Kennedy played bass and Chris Coleman was on drums.  Below, Lee adds Eric Marienthal’s tenor to his quartet for an infectious “Night Rhythms” … a Ritenour original recorded in 1988. Lee started as a session player when he was just 16 years old, and recorded his first solo album, First Course, in 1976.  By the way, Fourplay was the ‘supergroup’ that Lee Ritenour formed and performed with during the Smooth Jazz ’90s.

All Blues / Joshua – Miles Davis

by | Dec 3, 2021 | Quartet/Quintet

In October 1964, Miles Davis appeared in concert at the Teatro dell’Arte in Milan Italy with a dream quintet including himself on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on sax, Herbie Hancock at the piano, Ron Carter playing bass and Tony Williams on drums. It doesn’t get better than that!  This was the era of Miles I have always preferred … when he was still innovating and not just experimenting.  Even as he evolved, one thing that never changed was his adherence to his statement, “Don’t play the notes that are there.  Play the notes that are not there.”  The two cuts below are from that live 1964 concert … a Miles Davis original All Blues (upper) and a Miles Davis-Victor Feldman tune called Joshua (bottom).

The Virtuosity of Eddie Daniels

by | Nov 19, 2021 | Quartet/Quintet

Eddie Daniels recorded Slipped Disc during a “Benny Rides Again” tribute to Benny Goodman in 1992. The group was made up of Gary Burton (vb),  Makoto Ozone (p), Marc Johnson (b), Martin Richards (d) and of course Eddie Daniels (c).

Stompin’ At The Savoy was recorded in October of 2012 ‘upstairs’ at Vitello’s in LA.  Joe La Barbera (d), Tom Warrington (b) and Tom Ranier (p) provided a familiar rhythm section since they often head East to perform with Daniels in NY.

Hot House – Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Quartet/Quintet

This performance of Hot House is from a February 24, 1952 broadcast on the pioneering DuMont Television Network.  Broadcasting on the Earl Wilson Show ‘Stage Entrance’, Charlie Parker plays with Dizzy Gillespie in the only footage capturing “Bird” in a true live performance … a historic TV broadcast of the founding fathers of bebop playing together.  It is one of only two known sound films of Parker playing and the only one of him playing live, rather than synching to a prerecorded track.

The quintet playing on this rare video includes Parker on alto saxophone, Gillespie on trumpet, Sandy Block playing bass, Charlie Smith on drums and Dick Hyman at the piano.

Killer Joe / Autumn Leaves – Benny Golson

by | Nov 7, 2021 | Quartet/Quintet

Born in 1929, saxophonist Benny Golson is one of the last surviving links to the Golden Age of modern jazz, ushered in by the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and others in the early 1940s. Benny is a multi-talented, internationally famous jazz legend whose talents include composer, arranger, lyricist, producer and world renowned tenor saxophonist.

The video is from the Ramsey Lewis Legends of Jazz T.V. series and features Benny Golson on sax, Willie Pickens at the piano, Larry Gray on bass and Leon Joyce Jr. on the drums playing Killer Joe, a jazz standard written by Golson himself.  The audio track is another standard that is perfect for the season … Autumn Leaves.  It features another quintet with Benny on tenor, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Ray Bryant at the piano, Tommy Bryant playing bass, and Al Harewood on drums.

Autumn Leaves

by Benny Golson | Gone With Golson

The Enduring Freddie Hubbard

by | Oct 22, 2021 | Quartet/Quintet

God Bless The Child has been interpreted a thousand ways … but I’ll bet you never heard it quite like this (Above)!  In 1991, at Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen in Germany,  Freddie Hubbard and his quintet dazzled the audience with an arrangement that was both reverent and softly-swinging.  Freddie was joined by Don Braden on tenor, Benny Green at the piano, Jeff Chambers on base and Louis Hayes playing drums.  Earlier, in 1967 (Below), Hubbard teamed up with Kenny Drew (piano), Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (bass), and Alex Riel (drums) to perform an original tune named Birdlike at the Molde Jazz Festival in Norway.  You can bet the ‘Bird’ referenced here had a horn but no feathers!

John Pizzarelli Live!

by | Oct 7, 2021 | Big Band, Quartet/Quintet

Like so many great musicians, John Pizzarelli is a New Jersey Guy.  The son of swing guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, John was born in Paterson, began playing guitar at the age of six and has been performing ever since.  The topmost video, If I Had You, was recorded in 1992 during the Montreal Jazz Festival at the Club Soda Concert Hall and Music Venue in Canada, as was the lower-right video All Of Me.  Pizzarelli’s consistent excellence through the years is obvious as you listen to the lower-left video of Baby All The Time recorded in 2007 at the Festival Internacional de Jazz San Javier in Spain.  On Baby, he is joined by Larry Fuller at the piano, Martin Pizzarelli on bass, Tony Tedesco playing drums and Harry Allen on tenor sax.