Recorded four years later, Hub-Tones was Hubbard’s fifth Blue Note album. Indianapolis-bred Hubbard set the New York jazz scene on fire with his virtuosic trumpet playing when he moved there aged 20 in 1958. But undoubtedly, the album’s most arresting cut is “The African Queen,” a loping atmospheric piece characterized by an infectious descending horn melody, a mind-blowing Joe Henderson solo and Roger Humphries’ turbulent drum fills.Ĭlick to load video 44. The music ranges from vibrant uptempo material (the title track and pulsating “Nutville”) to mellow mid-tempo grooves (“Pretty Eyes”). The pianist fronts a quintet featuring rising Philadelphia trumpet star Woody Shaw, and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, who are augmented on three tracks by trombonist J.J. Silver’s family originated in Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking island off north-west Africa, and this, his 13th Blue Note album, paid homage to his ancestral roots. One of hard bop’s chief architects, Connecticut-born pianist-composer Horace Silver was also a co-founder member of The Jazz Messengers and helped to establish the two-horn frontline (trumpet and saxophone) as the norm in small-group jazz.
The musical alchemy they summon is spellbinding.Ĭlick to load video 46. Cherry and his cohorts improvise – both as individuals and collectively – on several different musical themes that flow into one another in a free and organic way. Featuring Argentine saxophonist Gato Barbieri, bassist Henry Grimes, and drummer Ed Blackwell, the album consists of two extended suites. Having appeared in the late 50s and early 60s on significant envelope-pushing LPs by jazz iconoclasts Ornette Coltrane, John Coltrane, and Albert Ayler, Cherry presented his unique personal musical manifesto on Complete Communion, his debut as a leader. Oklahoma-born trumpeter Cherry was 29 when he recorded this groundbreaking album, the first of three long-players for Blue Note. Let us know in the comments, below, which ones you think we may have missed. This list of 50 albums is a mere fraction of the LPs that Blue Note has put over the years. It is a mission that he never wavered from, nor have the Blue Note albums that have followed in his illustrious footsteps. But when Alfred Lion started the label in 1939 with a recording of boogie-woogie pianists Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons, his intention was simple: To release music that he felt was important. Blue Note is unquestionably the most iconic jazz label there’s ever been.
0 kommentar(er)
