JAZZ IS LIKE HEROIN TO ME ! ! ! ~~~~ ILM POST-1945 JAZZ ALBUMS POLL - THE RESULTS COUNTDOWN (now counting top 25!)

This one is pretty bad. But i only paid 99p for it like a decade ago

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KwgwN_ZyU6k/S96PE1yyZCI/AAAAAAAAACM/wdEwTMch3rE/s1600/05-feets-dont-fail-me-now-1979%5B1%5D.jpg

hehe

Review

by Richard S. Ginell

Herbie Hancock's electric records up until this point were marked by intelligence and adventure, even at their most earthy. But no, this one doesn't have an ounce of either. Herbie falls hook, line and sinker for the disco fad and submerges his personality underneath the plastic vocals and four-on-the-floor disco beat. Hancock's own gauzy vocals through a Sennheiser vocoder are embarrassing, and even his synthesizer work sounds coarse and gimmicky. This time, even the purists were right; this is of no interest to jazz listeners and it isn't even good disco.

Some of Secrets is quite good however.

That was a review for Feets Dont Fail Me Now bbtw

Secrets is

Having long since established his funk credentials, Herbie Hancock continues the direction of Head Hunters and its U.S. successors here, welding himself to the groove on electric keyboards while Bennie Maupin again shines sardonic beams of light on a variety of reeds. In "Doin' It," the most successful track, Hancock makes a more overt bid for the dancefloor, for the tune is basically one long irresistible groove with a very commercial-sounding bridge. Again Hancock chooses to recompose one of his standards; "Cantelope [sic] Island" is almost unrecognizable converted into a sauntering, swaggering thing. A streamlining process has set in -- the drumming has been simplified, some of the old high-voltage drive has been muted -- yet there are still enough enjoyable, intelligently musical things happening here to hold a Hancock admirer's attention.

I love Herbie's pop-funk period! Not quite as much as I love the Mwandishi albums, but probably more than I like Headhunters.

you're nuts tho ;)

Feets Don't Fail Me Now is not bad if you listen to it as a disco record and forget Herbie's jazz past. There's some pretty good disco grooves on it, especially "Tell Everybody" and "Honey from a Jar". And Secrets is one of Herbie's best funk records, I love the repetitive, hypnotic jamming on it.

For me, the biggest dud by an established jazz player that I've ever heard is this one:

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/3906/cover_211162022010.jpg

Not any good grooves, just pointless fusion noodling, ugly 80s soft rock sounds, Miles is backed by mediocre players, and his own soloing is hardly memorable either.

otoh its a dope cover

havent heard that album actually

Inspired by this thread, I today borrowed from the library "Headhunters", Coltrane's "Bahia", Dexter Gordon's "Go" and Jimmy Smith's "Midnight Special". What do people think of the latter three?

The Jimmy Smith is great!

Seconded. Also, just learned today that he played a B3 MIDI solo on Michael Jackson's "Bad." I don't recall that song having a solo of any kind, but wow.

Had no idea about that either

Neil what did you think of them?

I have today borrowed #63 and #21 from the library. I have compiled a list of about 20 records in the top 100 alone to check out.

to save anyone having to scroll through a million posts in this thread to see what he got i'll link you to the full list Full list of ILM post-1945 JAZZ ALBUM RESULTS + post your ballots

Btw I would like to recommend this guy http://allmusic.com/artist/tina-brooks-p6181/discography

Should have mentioned him in the noms thread but too late now. The great news is you can listen to all his output here http://open.spotify.com/artist/4JgvfZeCWGzEPGR6yVaXuX

Tina Brooks had a short-lived career during the heyday of hard bop and didn't record for the last 12 years of his life. Nonetheless, his own records and his sessions with Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Freddie Redd, Jimmy Smith, and Kenny Burrell leave the impression that he was on his way to becoming a tenor giant when he was overcome by health problems due to drug addiction. Brooks did session work with both Amos Milburn and Lionel Hampton, but the key to his own artistry is on the Blue Note label. He led only four sessions as a leader for Blue Note from 1958 through 1961 -- during his lifetime. The first two, Minor Move and True Blue, define the weighty edge in Brooks' playing and his plethora of improvisational ideas that extended the blues framework he operated out of beyond what most players were doing at the time. His reliance on minor-key signatures and open-ended harmonic figures were much-envied trademarks among his peers. Also on Blue Note is his work with McLean and Redd, both of whom played on his recordings. Perhaps Brooks' most seminal moment as an improviser, though, was on Redd's score for Jack Gelber's Beat play The Connection, performed by the Living Theater, where the musicians played themselves as characters and drug addicts, which was close to, if not spot on, the actual truth. Here he and McLean turned the hard bop blues into an aggressive, deeply emotional wail of truth and beauty winding around each other in short bursts and long lines as Redd turned the intervals inside out for the pair to blow. Brooks work on McLean's Street Singer and Jackie's Bag in 1959 and 1960 as well as Shades of Redd are stunning also.

Ok so in HMV I got a boxset that seemingly has everything the Miles Davis Quintet* did on Columbia between 65-68 for only £14.99? But it doesn't look like its sorted into albums and then takes but by date of recording? Plus box is stupidly annoying and doesn't quite fit all 6 discs in and out without breaking the plastic. Still, should be fun as hell.

*Wayne Shorter, Herbie, Ron Carter, Tony Williams

confusing

the miles davis live thing has been posted today by amazon so hopefully will come tomorrow

Anyone got it yet?

to answer your q upthread, ASR: Jimmy Smith is good but not up to that live album of his; Dexter Gordon I need to listen to more. Headhunters is the best thing I've heard in a very long time, and I'm sorry I didn't listen to it a long time ago!

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6730111/a/Miles+Davis+Quintet,+1965-68%3A+The+Complete+Columbia+Studio.htm is what i picked up today. weird hearing esp, the only record i own off of it, out of order but its still slammin'

Britishers: even more than usual of these charters (i.e. not just the Blue Note stuff) on CD @ £3 each in Fopp right now.

that is v tempting. Payday jazz binge I reckon!

buy this then! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Miles-Davis/dp/B002EOF7U8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317238983&sr=8-2

holy shit i am in love with a man and that mans name is tony williams. the drums on miles smiles has made me gay.

Wait'll you hear him on the live stuff.

omg this is the best drumming i've ever heard

Have spent soooo much money on jazz this past month thanks to this poll. Favourite purchases so far have been:

Joe Henderson - Page One
Andrew Hill - Compulsion
Jackie McLean - Destination Out
Sam Rivers - Dimensions & Extensions
McCoy Tyner - Enlightenment
Alice Coltrane - Transfiguration

what do you think of the Rivers?

It's great, I probably prefer it to the only other Rivers I've heard (Fuschia Swing Song). Pretty hard-driving stuff with some quite free playing around some tight sounding tunes.

holy shit i am in love with a man and that mans name is tony williams. the drums on miles smiles has made me gay.

Is this your 1st exposure to TW?! Such an amazing player. Don't miss Out to Lunch!

he is the drummer on out to lunch? i love that record!

basically i need to pay more attention to band members as opposed to band leaders

Yep, that's Williams, at the ripe old age of 18.

I have a question about We Insist! Freedom Now Suite: I just bought this new reissue of it, but the sound quality is quite bad. There's a lot of crackles and some distortion too, it sounds like it was ripped from a vinyl. I searched the web for some information on it, and apparently the previous CD reissue by Candid (the label that released the original album) has the same problem. Does anyone own the Candid CD, can they confirm if this is true? If it is, I wonder why... I have a couple of other reissues of albums Candid released around the same time, and they certainly don't sound as bad as We Insist. Did they lose the master tapes, or where they damaged?

My copy sounds fine. It has the same artwork as Candid, but is a Japanese import. The notes on the cd say "Manufactured and distributed by Victor Entertainment Inc. Tokyo, Japan from a master recording owned by Max Roach, copyright 1997. Don't know why reissues would have poorer quality. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info, I'll try looking for that Japanese import.

I guess it's possible that Candid had lost or damaged their master tape, whereas the Japanese label managed to get hold of Roach's personal master, but the new reissue was made of the old inferior Candid master instead of the Japanese one.

miles davis live in europe just arrived!

just wanted to pipe in that this poll has probably had the most impact on my listening habits since these things have kicked off.

also Andrew Hill's "Spectrum" is an amazing tune wtf at me missing that record

yeah i thought it was a good and much needed poll myself. Glad others have enjoyed it as much.

Bought loads of £3.99 cds from this list. Filled in some gaps. Realised i had been relying on spotify so much for jazz esp blue note.

received some more cds last week, this time from ebay. Anyone else still buying stuff?

I haven't bought much (just the AMAZING new Miles live set), but am still revisiting things in my collection I hadn't listened to in a while. Gained a new appreciation for Joe Henderson, will likely be buying more Lee Morgan (only have The Sidewinder and Live At The Lighthouse).

i spent my monthly present to myself on a year of ring of honor tv. maybe next month.

still working through the Spotify list, need to make that visit to Fopp!

This poll is reminding me that there's a big hole in my collection in the area of "hard bop".

that's a big hole

did you start to fill it?

So anyone still checking out some jazz?

I've been looking into these lately; pretty much love everything I've heard so far:

bix beiderbecke
jack teagarden (not crazy about the singing, but the playing is amazing)
frankie trumbauer