After much traveling, both planned and unplanned, I am back! While I did obtain quite a lot of 'new' records during my travels, here's a favorite of mine that I got by traveling to the local record store in my own neck of the woods. The Music Tune: Samba de Orpheus Tune: Manha de Carnival [...]
If it's cool jazz, but comes from the East Coast, is it still cool jazz? The Modern Jazz Quartet sure played as cool and as relaxed as any West Coast group during the 1950's, but somehow avoided the scathing criticism that most West Coast groups endured. At any rate, Milt Jackson's cooking vibes and John [...]
Another album featuring music from the Newport Jazz Festival, this time from the year 1956, and another live album from the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Like most jazz records, particularly Brubeck's, this album has a mysterious backstory. The Music Tune: 'In Your Own Sweet Way' Recorded 6 July, 1956 at the Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, Rhode [...]
Live jazz is often the best kind of jazz, and live jazz albums are next best thing to actually experiencing live jazz. Live albums are like time machines, transporting you to the scene of the recording. The older the album is, the better the time travel experience. One place I'd love to travel back to [...]
This is the big one. The unicorn. The white whale. The record that woke the vinyl collector within me. The search for this record took years, but this year the vinyl gods smiled on me, and I am now the owner of this rare bootleg album. One of the reasons why I've been on the [...]
After a string of West Coast jazz musicians, I figured I should probably spotlight some of my other albums. Go east, young man! The Music Tune: 'The Way You Look Tonight' Recorded 1953 or 1954 in New York City Personnel: Lionel Hampton- Vibraharp Buddy DeFranco- Clarinet Oscar Peterson- Piano Ray Brown- Bass Buddy Rich- Drums [...]
After a brief hiatus due to finals and end-of-the-year projects and assignments, I am back! What, you thought the 'college' in 'College Jazz Collector' was for decoration? The Music Tune: 'Tangerine' Recorded live 5 March, 1958 in Copenhagen, Denmark Personnel Dave Brubeck: Piano Paul Desmond: Alto Sax Eugene Wright: Bass Joe Morello: Drums This album [...]
Update! After some correspondence with a reader, I opted to change the date for this recording. You can find the illuminating comments below this post in the comment section. To celebrate, I've included another track from the album. Enjoy! This is a big one. The search for this album (as well as another rare Brubeck [...]
In addition to being infatuated with Latin music, Cal Tjader was a tasty straight-ahead jazz musician and one of the more famous jazz musicians to come from the West Coast. A native of San Francisco, Cal's group was a frequent denizen of the jazz clubs in the Bay Area, and called one club in particular [...]
Rolling right along with the musical celebration of April, the first full month of spring, here's an interesting album from the late flutist Herbie Mann. Mann was a dedicated bebopper, but in the late 1950's and into the 1960's, he delved into world music, particularly Afro-Cuban and Latin music, and created some intriguing music in [...]
It's A Raggy Waltz 