Born on this day 98 years ago in 1920, David Warren Brubeck has the rare honor of truly having revolutionized jazz while at the same time writing part of jazz's songbook. Although Brubeck died a day shy of his birthday in 2012, his legacy will live forever. The ways he revolutionized and altered jazz -and [...]
Collecting jazz records, and collecting records in general, is an interesting hobby. I don't know any serious jazz vinyl fiends in real life, but I've read about them and know that the jazz record-collecting community seems to have an unpublished set of rules and codes on what is and isn't kosher. As a younger dude [...]
Here at Raggy Waltz, we're open about our rather biased approach to record collecting and listening. West Coast is the best the coast. Prestige and Blue Note albums are constantly pontificated on amongst most jazz record collectors, so why continue the trend here if you can read it elsewhere? Long live Fantasy, Pacific Jazz, and [...]
Born on this day in 1924, today is Desmond's 94th birthday. For this year's Desmond birthday post, I decided to focus on one of Desmond's hobbies instead of music, which I did last year. The hobby? Photography. In addition to being a first-rate jazz musician, erudite linguist and undercover comedian, Paul was a photographer. In [...]
Look out world. After having written a post about an original Blue Note album, here comes my first post about an original Prestige album. Mama I made it. The Music The Tune: "Airegin" Recorded: 29 June, 1954 in Hackensack, NJ Personnel: Miles Davis- Trumpet Sonny Rollins- Tenor Sax Horace Silver- Piano Percy Heath- Bass Kenny [...]
This edition of 'Desmond's Quotes' is rather unique. How so? This one features Paul Desmond quoting from none other than himself! As always, there's a backstory that's worth exploring so let's get to it! It's 1964, and the Dave Brubeck Quartet is in London, England. They're in the TV studios of the BBC to film [...]
Born 101 years ago on this day in October, Thelonious Monk's birthday is a great excuse to put a record or two of his on the turntable. My record of choice? The Music The Tune: "Straight, No Chaser" Recorded: 1966-67 Personnel: Charlie Rouse: Tenor Sax Thelonious Monk: Piano Larry Gales: Bass Ben Riley: Drums Considering [...]
Speaking of "Summertime"... The Music The Tune: "Samba With Some Barbecue" Recorded: 20 November, 1968 at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ Personnel: (deep breath...) Paul Desmond- Alto Sax Paul Faulise, Bill Watrous, and Kai Winding- Trombone John Eckert, Joe Shepley, and Marvin Stamm- Trumpet/Flugelhorn Ray Alonge and Tony Miranda- French Horn Joe Beck- Guitar [...]
Summertime, and the living was somewhat easy. I'm not sure if the fish were jumping, but here in Alabama the cotton is indeed high (acres of land alongside the roads around town are full of fields of cotton. Yep, this is ALABAMA Alabama). The calendar says it's now officially Fall, but nobody told the weather [...]
It's another soggy grey day here in north Alabama, and as such, out comes the reflective music. Here's a record I found during my cross-country tour this summer. To the music! The Music The Tune: "Festive Minor" Recorded: 15 January, 1959 in New York City Personnel: Gerry Mulligan- Baritone Sax Art Farmer- Trumpet Bill Crow- [...]
