Don Cherry: Down Beat Feature 1963

LeRoi Jones' (Amiri Baraka) feature on Don Cherry (b. Nov 18, 1936) from the November 21, 1963 issue of Down Beat Magazine. Click on image to view full article as PDF. Here are more vintage magazine articles.

New Links Page Added

I have added a new page of Jazz Links featuring radio stations, research journals, magazine, blogs, podcasts and discographies. The link will live in the "Pages" tab at the top of the left sidebar. I plan to keep adding to the page as I find sites of interest. Let me know if you hit broken links.

Recent Listening: Late Sept-Early Oct

Solomon Ilori and his Afro-Drum Ensemble: African High Life (Blue Note). I was on the lookout for Art Blakey's The African Beat when I came across this recording from 1964.

Evan Parker & Han Bennink: The Grass Is Greener (PSI). Although this album has its moments, I haven't really been able to get into it just yet. That won't stop me to returning to it though.

Charlie Parker: The Complete Live Performances on Savoy (Savoy). Mostly I've been listening to the 1947 Carnegie Hall tracks with Dizzy, John Lewis (pretty well off-mic), Al McKibbon and Joe Harris. Bird's tone is nicely captured, and Dizzy has plenty of fire. Bird's break on "Groovin' High" always gives me a kick.

Mike Nock: Talisman (Enja). A lovely late-70s solo piano outing from Nock that I picked up earlier this year. This one was accompanying me as I waited to get a couple of Mike's more recent albums (more on them to come later).

Various: The Birth of the Third Stream (Columbia). This one had been on my list for a while and I've been playing tracks from it over the last few weeks (in fact, it's playing as I write this post). It's a little annoying that they weren't able to squeeze two of the tracks from Music for Brass onto the CD. Worth checking out if you haven't (particularly for arrangers/composers).

Mike Nock Interview: Cadence July 1992

As a youngster just getting into jazz, Mike Nock (b. Sept 27, 1940) was the first New Zealand jazz musician I was aware of who had "made it." As I await the arrival of his latest album (Two-Out - a duo with Roger Manins released on Mike's label FWM Records) I've been listening to his 1978 solo recording Talisman and right now I'm downloading Kindred from Bandcamp. Earlier in the week he was interviewed by Eva Radich on Radio New Zealand's Upbeat program (you can download the audio here). While we are at it, here's an interview with Mike from the July 1992 issue of Cadence Magazine (click on image to open the full interview as a PDF).

More magazine articles can be found here. Happy Birthday Mike!

Coltrane on Coltrane - Down Beat September 1960

The preparation of this post was accompanied by Coltrane's "classic quartet" performance of "Out of this World" at the Showboat in Philadelphia in 1963 - someone had posted it to Facebook (via Youtube) and it seemed like the right choice as I got his birthday post together. In this article from the September 29, 1960 issue of Down Beat, John Coltrane (along with Don DeMicheal) speaks of the influence of Lester Young, Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie and Earl Bostic; his tenure with Thelonious Monk before returning to Miles Davis (as Miles started working with modality) as well as some of his harmonic concepts. Coltrane mentions he recently purchased a soprano saxophone but that he is not satisfied with his tone just yet - we all know that feeling!

Here's a list of links to previous vintage articles.

Straight Horning: Only Monk - More Monk

Over the last few weeks a couple of Soul Note releases from Steve Lacy - Only Monk and More Monk (from 1985 & 1989 respectively) - have been getting plenty of airtime around the apartment. I've been working on a few of Monk's melodies and aside of Thelonious' recordings (including Brilliant Corners, Monk Alone, Monk's Dream, and selected Blue Note tracks) my next point of call were these two solo albums from Lacy (followed by a few others such as We See and Reflections).

Anyone interested in Monk's music needs to check out Lacy's truly personal approach to this music. For me, Lacy boils things down to the essentials. Not that his playing is minimalist, but there is a stripped-back quality to Lacy's music that appeals to me. Notes never go to waste as he dives deep into the tune. He never seems in a hurry and the improvisations unfold in surprising ways, yet naturally - not forced. For those not familiar with his own compositions, this may be more evident when he plays Monk tunes (perhaps even more so on these solo recordings).

It's hard to play favourites with these two equally solid albums. If you can only go for one, just pick the album with the tunes you prefer.

I would love to hear Eronel from 1979, which I think is Lacy's first solo album to feature an all-Monk playlist. My fingers are crossed for a re-issue to appear.

Cannonball Adderley feature in Down Beat 1959

This feature on Cannonball Adderley (b. Sept 15, 1928) was Barbara Gardner's first column for Down Beat. According to John Gennari's Blowing Hot and Cool she was the first African American woman on a national jazz magazine. Click image to view full article as PDF. More vintage magazine articles can be found here.