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Share your favourite Jazz

Cousin Hepcat

Practically Family
Messages
781
Location
NC
topcat said:
Among others worth mentioning in the world of Jazz- Bobby Hackett.

No one delivered a smoother tone with the horn than that guy.

One of the coolest mellowest albums ever... cover says it all

698.jpg
 

topcat

Familiar Face
Messages
91
Location
Upstate NY
Not just whistlin' Dixie there, Cousin Hepcat. A particular vinyl of which I am a proud owner of a copy as well.

Herb Alpert? I myself prefer the jazz of Chuck Mangione and Maynard Ferguson as those who are similar to Herb Alpert.

Growing up in the seventies they used SO MUCH of Mangione's and Ferguson's work as background music for sports highlights,clips and programs,
its amazing what wonderful workout music it turns out to be, bringing back the memories of music you associated when you went out to play ball.

Herb Alpert doesn't/ didn't seem to have the same amount of heart,boldness,personality as a Mangione, Ferguson. He had the hit with Rise,which was half disco half jazz perfect for the time. His other hits were
like jazz for the ez listening crowd. Nice to hear the horn against the background of the ez listening strings but it doesn't really take you anywhere.

Another thread devoted to name your favorite lounge music should be started. To me lounge music is a blending of ez listening with jazz resulting in
the moodiest of music there could possibly be. Lounge IS different than PURE
ez listening, such as the orchestra of lush strings with NO personality truly meant for the dentists office or elevator.

There is/are plenty of jazz music that gets defined as lounge as well.The aforementioned Bobby Hackett's most popular work is in fact for Jackie Gleason's instrumental albums of the 50's.

ANYBODY and I mean ANYBODY here looking for music that 'll put you right into a movie from TCM, get a hold of and play some of Gleason's albums.THE
PERFECT SOUNDTRACK for that step back in time especially if cocktails are involved.

Herb Alpert seemed to want to try to continually go for the ezlistening crowd
with a little disco here, a little jazzy sound there, but did he ever leave squaresville and graduate with a cat's heploma? Not really. His latest recordings he tries blending in rap type of percussion behind his horn and well....ain't exactly topping the charts. Professional musician nonetheless.

If you do like Alpert try Mangione and Ferguson. Doubt you'll be dissappointed.
 

topcat

Familiar Face
Messages
91
Location
Upstate NY
Well, if you wish you could start out with a 2cd collection put out by Capitol
called "The Romantic Moods of Jackie Gleason" a collection of songs selected from almost all his albums, the majority of this 2cd set-good. There are more titles of his on CD out there, they come and go, just have to do an amazon search.

Individual albums ? I personally lean away from the ones he made from 1960 on where he began to lose the lounge touch and went more ezlistening however there still is a gem or too to find.So buy the album transfer the one or two tracks you like to cd and you've got some worth out of it.

I lean towards his albums made during the 50's. Opiate d'amour, Music,Martini's and Memories, Night Winds, The Torch with the Blue Flame,
Music for Lovers Only, Oooooo, Aphrodesia,Love Embers and Flame,(A 1960
one but a good one nontheless) Jackie Gleason plays Romantic Jazz,plenty others.

It was beyond 1960 actually but at some point he started doing covers of mid to late sixties ez listening songs that, yeah cheezy to say the least,"little green apples" and the like. THOSE I AVOID.

Glad to be of help Zach, TC at your service. Always willing to answer questions and or inquiries in the journey of all things vintage.


Amazon.com usually has listening samples of every cd you can listen to with Real player or Windows Media so might as well do that just to be safe.

I might add you'll probably like his take on "From Russia with Love"Theme ,number 8 song on the 2cd collection I mentioned,Mr Bond.
 

Cousin Hepcat

Practically Family
Messages
781
Location
NC
topcat said:
Well, if you wish you could start out with a 2cd collection put out by Capitol
called "The Romantic Moods of Jackie Gleason" a collection of songs selected from almost all his albums, the majority of this 2cd set-good. There are more titles of his on CD out there, they come and go, just have to do an amazon search.

If you're going down that road, must check out the "with strings" albums done by many great jazz artists. Can't explain, you have to hear it to get it - link below with clips. Unfortunately many greats were made in the 50s vinyl era but few ever issued on CD - here's one: (just talking the all-slow strings LPs, not the uptempo Charlie Parker / Dizzy Gillespie / etc)

B000006P6U.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


Clifford Brown with Strings
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000006P6U/qid=1140677187/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-1001971-6303861
 

topcat

Familiar Face
Messages
91
Location
Upstate NY
interestin observation there Katt

But did you ever take a dive and glide through the laidback and lush land of lounge music with the ladies?
 

"Doc" Devereux

One Too Many
Messages
1,206
Location
London
Might I offer for consideration the vocal talents of "Whispering" Jack Smith?

Another vocalist who never fails to make me smile is a man named Hubert Gregg. When I was but a tiny Doclet, I used to listen to the wireless at bedtime, and Mr Gregg had a programme named "Thanks for the memory," where he would reminisce about the old days and play records from the era. A Noel Coward recording, for example, would be introduced with a tale that began "Once, when Noel and I were in..." He knew everybody, sang with almost everybody, and was the writer of "Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner" and "I'm going to get lit up when the lights go up in London" (which got him into trouble with his CO, since he was in the RAF at the time and they considered the song to be promoting public drunkeness), and even found time to direct Agatha Christie's first theatre success "The Hollow". My love of the music, which in turn became a love of the era and a short but undistinguished crooning career can be traced to that wonderful fellow.

Noel Coward doesn't count as jazz, but I worship at his altar daily.

For the later stuff, I'm more for cool - Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and those boys from the West Coast.

(Note to self: must stop rambling on like this)
 

Cousin Hepcat

Practically Family
Messages
781
Location
NC
[QUOTE="Doc" Devereux]For the later stuff, I'm more for cool - Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and those boys from the West Coast.

(Note to self: must stop rambling on like this)[/QUOTE]

Ramble On, Doc, that's what this joint is for - yep, Fantasy's (still available?) vinyl LP reissue of Chet's Riverside LP of fantastic cool late-night ballads, "Chet" - great...


Yeah Topcat, Ben Webster... and Jackie Gleason's slow late-40s-feeling ballads with Bobby Hackett's trumpet, probably included on the CDs you mentioned... all great stuff

gleason.jpg
 

CharlieH.

One Too Many
Messages
1,169
Location
It used to be Detroit....
Going back to the original question...

It's hard for me to pick a specific band as my favourite as I've heard plenty. If done in categories, it goes like this:

Classic Jazz of the 1920's:
King Oliver's Dixie Stompers, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington's Cotton Club Band, The California Ramblers, Red Nichols and his Five Pennies, Harry Reser, Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra, Ben Pollack, The Coon-Sanders Nighthawks and Waring's Pennsylvanians.

Dance Bands:
Ray Noble, Paul Whiteman and Jack Hylton

Early swing:
The Casa Loma Orchestra, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson (again!), Chick Webb, Adrian Rollini and Ted Lewis.

Swing era bands:
Pretty much all of them.

Small groups:
The Raymond Scott Quintette, Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five, Mel Powell, Joe Venuti's Blue Four, Benny Goodman's Trio, Quartet and Sextet and Teddy Wilson.

Vocal Groups:
The Mills Brothers, The Andrews Sisters, The Rhythm Boys and the Boswell Sisters.

Wish I could attach some clips.
 

Rundquist

A-List Customer
Messages
431
Curtis Fuller's "Blues-ette" is one of the great jazz records that nobody knows about. Yusef Lateef's "Eastern Sounds" is a beautiful record.
 

topcat

Familiar Face
Messages
91
Location
Upstate NY
Pardon me for a moment Mr Rundquist, but with a thread about jazz and a followup post to Wildroot can't resist.

"You'd better get Wild Root Cream Oil Charlie,
it keeps your hair in trim.
you'll see its non-alcoholic Charlie,
It's made with soothing lanolin"

"You'd better get Wild Root Cream Oil Charlie
start usin' it today
you'll find that you'll, have a tough time Charlie,
keepin' all those gals away"

Nat King Cole Trio ON BLUE MOON LABEL CD Track No 18
WildRoot Charlie.

WR ,IF you HAVE NOT heard this by all means give a listen should be your theme song playing in your car as you go cruising here and there.
 

K by the bay

Familiar Face
Messages
63
Location
wilds north of Frisco
Anybody heard of Leighton Noble? I haven't ever heard him so can't recommend him. I have a friend who's mother was a bandsinger for him and it would be neat to hear some of his records if he made any.
 

Jazzman

New in Town
Messages
10
Hello everyone,

I just arrived. This looks like a great place to be. I love the “Golden Era”, from films to music and on into style. I’m really looking forward to being here.
 

Cousin Hepcat

Practically Family
Messages
781
Location
NC
K by the bay said:
Anybody heard of Leighton Noble? I haven't ever heard him so can't recommend him. I have a friend who's mother was a bandsinger for him and it would be neat to hear some of his records if he made any.

K,

I can't find any records by him, but he did play "the bandleader" in this 1943 musical movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035765/

It doesn't seem to be available on DVD, but it is on VHS, seems from just this one seller: (there's one copy "used" for the same price on amazon too)
http://www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/product.asp?sku=096022++

Swing High,
- Cousin Hepcat
 

Jazzman

New in Town
Messages
10
I’ve been reading some great comments from everyone here regarding the music. I wanted to let you know about two recent acquisitions to my library that I highly recommend.

Kenny Burrell’s “Soul Call” (Prestige)
Harold Land Sextet “West Coast Blues” (Fantasy-Dist.)

Both albums are a mix of ballads and up tempo pieces. Burrell’s album is a little more late night listening than Land’s album but both are prime examples of straight ahead jazz. You’ll find some beautiful playing here.
 

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