CiTR -- The Jazz Show

The gist of tonight's Jazz Feature is not only to present one of the greatest and most influential bands in Jazz history but to present rare and previously unissued performances. The Quintet was of course Miles Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, William "Red" Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. When Miles formed this permanent band in September o...

This is a very special edition of The Miles Davis Quintet. After the departure of pianist Bill Evans and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Miles Davis performed with John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) and Jimmy Cobb (drums)....a quintet. John Coltrane decided to leave the group as he was about to form his own band and Miles Davis needed another saxophone player. Davis' first cho...

This album was only issued this year but was actually recorded in March of 1959 by a great edition of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. It was forgotten and never issued because not long after this date Blakey got a 2 week gig at Birdland, then New York's leading Jazz club and it was decided to record there rendering this session moot. The session was forgotten. The live date at Birdland produced 2 fi...

Secondo "Conte" Candoli was one of the foremost trumpeters in Jazz. An able studio musician and bandsman and a striking soloist who combined the concepts of Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis into his own style.. Conte was born in Indiana but migrated to Los Angeles and made his mark basically in that city and was the epitome of an all-round musician. We lost him in December of 2001 at age 74. Tonigh...

Harold Land was one of the leading tenor saxophonists in Jazz but he is often overlooked as he wasn't based in New York City. His sound is very distinctive with a dry unsentimental quality yet there is warmth and intensity too. This album is a series of broadcasts with three different ensembles led by Harold Land done at what was Seattle's leading Jazz club: The Penthouse. The first group is Harol...

Herbie's album done in March of 1965 has proven to be one of his most famous albums and now listed in journals as one of the 100 essential Jazz albums in anyone's collection. Herbie Hancock picked his quintet members with great discretion. On trumpet is the mighty Freddie Hubbard and on tenor saxophone is one of the great living masters, George Coleman. On bass is another living master, Ron Carter...

Guitar master Ralph Towner plays the 6 string and the 12 string acoustic guitar here and a little piano on this masterful album called "Batik". Towner's music is impressionistic, spacey, energetic and meditative and his 5 compositions here reflect his open concept. Towner has made scads of albums for ECM but this is one of his best. He is accompanied by two great musical masters in the persons of...

This pivotal album was really the first of Coltrane's great recordings and the beginning of his ascent. This recording done in August of 1957 while Coltrane was part of Thelonious Monk's great quartet show his immense improvement over his recordings in 1956. Coltrane had settled his demons (alcohol and drugs) and had been inspired by Monk to practice and improve what he started out to be. Coltrane...

This gem from the thousands of recording that Ellington made is rather special. It was made during the time when the Ellington Orchestra was signed to Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records. All of the band's recordings during this period offered fresh new material and in this case and this album, music with a more exotic flavor. The title "Afro-Bossa" is a bit misleading as it is not strictly a bossa-no...

This album is one of the most impressive recording debuts in Jazz history. Walt Dickerson emerged from total obscurity with this wonderful document. He was a totally individual voice of the vibraphone unbeholden to either Milt Jackson or Lionel Hampton. This was the first of an impressive four discs for the Prestige/New Jazz label and later there were more for other companies. Dickerson appears he...

One of the world's finest trombonists was the late Frank Rosolino. He was a mainstay in Stan Kenton's best bands of the 1950's and later became in integral part of the Los Angeles Jazz scene. Our Jazz Feature album was Rosolino's favorite but although recorded in Dec. 1958, for a variety of unknown reasons never came out until 1986. Many years after Rosolino's death in 1978.Frank picked the great...

Drummer Max Roach's quartet was recorded at The legendary Jazz Workshop in San Francisco in October of 1962. Two long selections are heard on this album which was Roach's last before he was boycotted for three years by all the record companies for his militant stance and the politics of his music. He resumed recording in 1965 with Atlantic Records. Mr. Roach leads a power quartet here with the gre...

This was the final album of saxophonist John Handy's contract with Columbia Records and it's a gem. Recorded by his new band called "The John Handy Concert Ensemble" in April of 1968. The music is varied, innovative and dramatic. Handy plays his alto saxophone and the saxello (a soprano saxophone variant) and the flute here with the late Michael White on violin, Mike Nock on piano, Bruce Cale on b...

Don Patterson was one of the most distinctive of the many Hammond organists that came onto the Jazz scene in the late 50s and 60s in the wake of the pioneering efforts of Jimmy Smith, who took the Hammond into the modern Jazz area. Patterson had his own style and was closer to the hard bop tradition. He played lines on the organ like Bud Powell. Patterson signed with Prestige Records in 1963 and r...

Paul Chambers was one of the most recorded and prolific bassists of the mid-50s and 60s. He was still in his teens when he moved from Detroit to New York in 1954 and in 1955 became part of Miles Davis "first great quintet". Chambers was with Davis from 1955 through 1963. He made about half dozen albums under his own name as well as hundreds of sideman appearances. He made 3 for Blue Note and tonig...

Don Cherry of course is associated with Ornette Coleman but this album shows us by 1965, he was his own man on the trumpet and as a composer. This wonderful album done for Blue Note Records who by the mid-60s had opened it's doors to some of the more adventurous Jazz players like Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman and of course Don Cherry. Cherry put together a great quartet w...

This amazing album could be considered a bit of a comeback for Miles Davis. It was recorded in October of 1966. 1965 was a bad year for Miles. It began just fine but a bad car accident broke Miles hip and then came a severe liver infection with a 3 month hospital stay plus a heavy divorce and a tiff with Columbia records and virtually no playing. The band which was called his "second great quintet...

The great soulful voice of the tenor saxophone Gene Ammons made a number of jam session type albums for Prestige, all of them good solid Jazz. Ammons was flown in from his home city of Chicago and recorded this series of informal Jazz recordings with some often profound results. Tonight's Jazz Feature and the last one for 2019 is called "The Happy Blues". It features Gene with alto saxophonist Jac...

The Jazz Show continues with our annual Christmas tradition as we've done for many years as we present this legendary Christmas Eve (1954) recording session with the Miles Davis All-Stars. The music here is not Christmas music per se but as always it carries the Christmas spirit. Perhaps because the session was held on Christmas Eve or it was just the incandescent sound of Miles Davis' horn or the...

Betty Carter was one of the most individual and adventurous of Jazz singers. No less than Carmen McRae said that "there is only one Jazz singer.....only one and that's Betty Carter". A strong citation indeed. This live set recorded at San Francisco's "Great American Music Hall" is one of her very best. She feeds off the audience and the audience is enraptured with her. Her magnificent trio is comp...

Hampton Hawes is a major piano stylist who rarely gets mentioned when piano giants come up in conversation. Hawes was widely admired by many including Oscar Peterson, Horace Silver, Andre Previn and others. Perhaps because Hawes was based for most part in his hometown of Los Angeles that maybe kept him out of the spotlight. Hawes was a major stylist with a very developed approach to the instrument...

This wonderful album is a prelude to the more famous "The Blues and The Abstract Truth" by Oliver Nelson. This album recorded 10 months before "The Blues...." is definitive Nelson and very nearly captures the brilliance of the more famous album. "Screamin' The Blues" features six great compositions by Nelson and features the leader on tenor and alto saxophones. Like all Nelson dates, this band ass...

This album signals a new era for Mingus with the addition of two new and talented saxophonists to the ranks of his "Jazz Workshop". John Handy on alto saxophone and Booker Ervin on tenor blend beautifully and of course are fine musicians and original stylists. Their presence signals a new beginning for Mingus' music and a great productive period. This album is part of a concert performed at the No...

Tonight's Jazz feature isn't a classic but simply a fine record of a tight little band playing straight forward warm-blooded bluesy Jazz. This is the 3rd Jazz Feature of an album that was initially slagged and low-rated but upon investigation turned out much better than the initial review. Sadly in the case of Fred Jackson it turned out to be the end of his recording career for Blue Note Records....

This is the second album in our November series of recordings that were slagged and low rated when they first were reviewed. This one was especially undeserving of a 2 star (out of 5) review. It contains some of the best playing by all concerned in this fabulous quintet. The date comprises of four long tunes so there is plenty of blowing room by the soloists. There is a cohesion and a unity of pur...