Artist - Tune - Album
Wes Montgomery - Snowfall - Wes’ Best/Wes Montgomery & His Brothers
Stevie Wonder - Jesus, Children of America - Innervisions
Lionel Hampton - How High The Moon - Big Bands Revisited
The Temptations - I Could Never Love Another After Loving You - Wish It Would Rain
Chick Corea - Sometime Ago–La Fiesta - Return To Forever
Dave Holland - The Watcher - Prism
George Duke - Watch Out Baby! - Reach For It
Billy Hart - Waiting Inside - Oshumare
Oscar Peterson - Land of the Misty Giants - Canadiana Suite
Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company - Summertime - Cheap Thrills
Clifford Brown & Max Roach - Jordu - Jordu
Ray Charles & Betty Carter - Baby, It’s Cold Outside - Essential Classics
The song that introduces Jazz Gumbo is “Music Evolution” by Branford Marsalis and Buckshot LeFonque.
You’ll find a complete record of all past Sets at jazzgumbo.blogspot.ca
This Set features the classic from the first Return to Forever album, “Sometime Ago – La Fiesta”. It is one of the great recordings, and one I never tire of. Forgive me for playing from such a scratchy, overworn album, but I trust that music didn’t lose it’s power despite that. Stanley Clarke is the standout here, with that amazing double bass solo. The things he does with those long fingers!
This Set was recorded just before Christmas and features a couple of winter songs, with a couple of performances I want to mention. The Wes Montgomery album features the Montgomery brothers, with Monk on bass and Buddy on vibes and piano. And what a great vibes solo Buddy delivers on “Snowfall”! As great and original a stylist as Betty Carter became, in her duet here with Ray Charles, she’s pretty ordinary. But Ray makes up for it with a very soulful delivery.
Getting back to the vibes, Lionel Hampton with his big band orchestrates a rousing “How High the Moon” with great solos by the leader and by the dueling saxes. I wish I could tell you who they are.
It’s a great jazz Set, and the pieces by the pop acts: Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin and the Temptations are pretty damn good, too!
Thrive!
Kirby
