Apr 17, 2021
A Lady at the piano Nina Simone.
seen from Slovakia
seen from Japan
seen from Canada
seen from Thailand
seen from T1
seen from China
seen from T1
seen from China
seen from Thailand
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from T1
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
A Lady at the piano Nina Simone.
Conversations with Myself (1963) by Bill Evans
Fred Lipsius: A Musical Genius?
The word genius is certainly thrown around too easily. But Fred Lipsius is an excellent alto saxophonist. Along with Randy Brecker (and later Lew Soloff) he was the true jazz voice in Blood, Sweat & Tears. This article in Patch.com fills in the rest of his career. Like other musicians who tour with crossover bands or make their living in the studio world, Lipsius’s jazz abilities has gone largely unnoticed.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Various Artists: Jazz Abstractions (1960)
Pianist John Lewis, founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet, receives top billing on this LP, but even that is an “abstraction,” of sorts, since he neither performed, nor was very involved here, other than “presenting” it and lending his composition “Django” to the proceedings.
So I followed the lead of numerous, far more knowledgeable jazz scribes with my “Various Artists” designation, among which the true instigators of these Jazz Abstractions were composer, conductor and musician Gunther Schuller and, to a lesser degree, guitarist Jim Hall.
It was Schuller who wrote the opening “Abstraction” that takes flight on fluttering strings over seemingly chaotic stabs of sax, guitar, bass and drums, in a synthesis of jazz and classical music that I’ve now learned was dubbed Third Stream by the composer himself.
Schuller also arranged the three “Variants on a Theme of John Lewis (Django)” and four “Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (Criss-Cross),” all of which feature, among others, Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans, and Eric Dolphy on flute and bass clarinet!
Listening to these jarring, dissonant, avant-garde tableaus, I couldn’t help but surmise that my man Frank Zappa was an avid student of this LP, and indeed it seems the two men became friendly later in life.
Last, but not least, there is Hall’s aptly called “Piece for Guitar & Strings,” which finds him weaving in and around an intricate string sextet, and I just realized that the engineer on these sessions was none other than a young, pre-Billy Joel Phil Ramone.
In sum: while I can’t even remember who recommended me Jazz Abstractions (I certainly didn’t discover it on my own), I do know that I found this well-preserved copy at New York City’s stalwart Jazz Record Center, and that I’m now totally down with the Third Stream!
More Jazz: Cannonball Adderley’s Somethin’ Else, Bola Sete’s Tour de Force, Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, Nat ‘King’ Cole’s Penthouse Serenade, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, Miles Davis’ ‘Round About Midnight, Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch!, George Duke’s The Aura Will Prevail, Duke Ellington’s Ellington Uptown, Coleman Hawkins’ The Hawk Flies High, Julius Hemphill’s Dogon A.D., Andrew Hill’s Point of Departure, Dave Holland’s Conference of the Birds, Billie Holiday’s Lady in Satin, Les McCann’s Swiss Movement, Charles Mingus’ Mingus Ah Um, Thelonious Monk’s Brilliant Corners, Lee Morgan’s The Sidewinder, Duke Pearson’s Sweet Honey Bee, Sonny Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus, Nina Simone’s Nina at the Village Gate, Sun Ra’s Angels and Demons at Play, Various Artists’ Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records.
Ella Fitzgerald - These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)
Ella Fitzgerald - These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You). July 23, 1957. Oscar Peterson (p); Herb Ellis (g); Ray Brown (b); Louis Bellson (d). Ultimate version.
so, what are the chances that Sing, Sing, Sing was written by the actual Devil? because it’s consuming mah soul
(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FItu9x58Ro8)