Tír Na HiFi

If you have the recordings with Le Faro and Motian - Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Waltz for Debby, Portrait in Jazz and Explorations - go for the following: Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Undercurrent, Moon Beams, How My Heart Sings, At Shelly's Manne Hole, Solo Sessions Vols. 1 and 2, Trio '64, California Here I Come, and At The Montreux Jazz Festival. It's true to say the the Evans/Le Faro/Motian band was Evans's greatest hour but he did many other fine things in his lifetime. Try Everybody Digs... from 1958 with Philly Joe Jones on fine form on drums (Evans seemed to thrive on good drummers who could challenge him and not just keep the beat) and Undercurrent (with Jim Hall on guitar proving to be a very effective foil for Evans's piano) to begin with.

Been listening to this CD made up of 3 pure gold tracks.




Jimmy Smith (organ);
Lou Donaldson, George Coleman (alto saxophone);
Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone);
Lee Morgan (trumpet);
Curtis Fuller (trombone);
Eddie McFadden, Kenny Burrell (guitar);
Donald Bailey, Art Blakey (drums).

mcq wrote:If you have the recordings with Le Faro and Motian - Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Waltz for Debby, Portrait in Jazz and Explorations - go for the following: Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Undercurrent, Moon Beams, How My Heart Sings, At Shelly's Manne Hole, Solo Sessions Vols. 1 and 2, Trio '64, California Here I Come, and At The Montreux Jazz Festival. It's true to say the the Evans/Le Faro/Motian band was Evans's greatest hour but he did many other fine things in his lifetime. Try Everybody Digs... from 1958 with Philly Joe Jones on fine form on drums (Evans seemed to thrive on good drummers who could challenge him and not just keep the beat) and Undercurrent (with Jim Hall on guitar proving to be a very effective foil for Evans's piano) to begin with.

Gussy Finknottle wrote:How about something daring from Bill Evens.
''Bill Evans International Quintet live in Poland 1999,
featuring Victor Bailey -Bass,David Gilmore-Guitar,Janusz Skouron,Krzyszof Zawadzki.

Thanks lads for your welcome recommendations on Bill. The 'Everybody Digs....' was actually going to be my first port of call!
No excuse now :-) As regards the 'Undercurrent' album with Jim Hall, I forgot I already have it!!

Can't believe Dave Gilmore plays on the Polish set!??!?

Derek wrote:Been listening to this CD made up of 3 pure gold tracks.




Jimmy Smith (organ);
Lou Donaldson, George Coleman (alto saxophone);
Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone);
Lee Morgan (trumpet);
Curtis Fuller (trombone);
Eddie McFadden, Kenny Burrell (guitar);
Donald Bailey, Art Blakey (drums).

Another album that continues to pass me by for some strange reason. But looking at the list of players -WOW!! As I said before, no excuse now :-) Thanks Derek...

Gussy Finknottle wrote:How about something daring from Bill Evens.
''Bill Evans International Quintet live in Poland 1999,
featuring Victor Bailey -Bass,David Gilmore-Guitar,Janusz Skouron,Krzyszof Zawadzki.

I believe that's Bill Evans the saxophonist who also played with Miles in the 1980s.

Derek wrote:Been listening to this CD made up of 3 pure gold tracks.




Jimmy Smith (organ);
Lou Donaldson, George Coleman (alto saxophone);
Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone);
Lee Morgan (trumpet);
Curtis Fuller (trombone);
Eddie McFadden, Kenny Burrell (guitar);
Donald Bailey, Art Blakey (drums).

If you like Jimmy Smith, it's worth listening out for the great Larry Young. In my opinion, he was responsible for some of the greatest jazz organ ever recorded. Among his finest achievements were three albums with guitarist Grant Green - Street of Dreams, I Want To Hold Your Hand and Talkin' About - Lifetime's first album, Emergency, and his solo masterpiece, Unity.

mcq wrote:

Derek wrote:Been listening to this CD made up of 3 pure gold tracks.




Jimmy Smith (organ);
Lou Donaldson, George Coleman (alto saxophone);
Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone);
Lee Morgan (trumpet);
Curtis Fuller (trombone);
Eddie McFadden, Kenny Burrell (guitar);
Donald Bailey, Art Blakey (drums).

If you like Jimmy Smith, it's worth listening out for the great Larry Young. In my opinion, he was responsible for some of the greatest jazz organ ever recorded. Among his finest achievements were three albums with guitarist Grant Green - Street of Dreams, I Want To Hold Your Hand and Talkin' About - Lifetime's first album, Emergency, and his solo masterpiece, Unity.

I have some Larry Young around here somewhere, I think it's "Mother Ship" I'll have to look harder.

mcq wrote:If you like Jimmy Smith, it's worth listening out for the great Larry Young. In my opinion, he was responsible for some of the greatest jazz organ ever recorded. Among his finest achievements were three albums with guitarist Grant Green - Street of Dreams, I Want To Hold Your Hand and Talkin' About - Lifetime's first album, Emergency, and his solo masterpiece, Unity.

Unity is one my favourite albums ever, and I'm not known for my love of jazz.

When Habitat had a shop in Dublin they has a 1 metre square block mounted copy of the album cover for sale. I thought €250 was a bit of a rip off but I'm sorry now I didn't buy it. I suppose most big photo shops could make me one for a fraction of that anyway.

If you like Unity, Ivor, try and hear the first album from The Tony Williams Lifetime, Emergency. Incredible drumming from Williams and some of John McLaughlin's greatest recorded guitar playing. And behind it all is Young working his magic. It's a pity that jazz-rock in the Seventies was rarely this interesting (in my opinion).

Here's a sample:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq3LEC0T3Fw

On the subject of Larry Young, one album I've always wanted to hear is Love Cry Want released right after he left Lifetime. There's a great story about the concerts that Young's band played in Washington DC in June 1972. During these concerts, Nixon ordered one of his aides to pull the plug on the concerts for fear that this "crazy" music would "levitate the White House". The story might be apocryphal but it's still funny. Sadly, the Love Cry Want album has been deleted on CD but I think the vinyl set is still available.