Taking a break from grails and expensive records, I want to get back to the main reason why I started writing about records in the first place- my love for the albums that I don't see talked about much, the underappreciated or plain ignored jazz records and artists that deserve another listen. Like George Shearing. [...]
If 1953 was a banner year for the Brubeck quartet, 1954 was a year seismic proportions. Having left the independent record label Fantasy for industry-giant Columbia Records at the beginning of the year, Brubeck was ready for big leagues. In November of 1954, America met the Dave Brubeck Quartet after Time Magazine featured Brubeck on [...]
In the jazz record collecting circle, there are records that everyone wants, there are records that are rare, and there's records that are expensive. Then there's holy grails. Ask a record collector what a grail is, and they'll probably rattle off a few Blue Note albums, like Lee Morgan's 'Vol. 3' (which I accidentally grabbed [...]
I've given up on trying to do series and themes. Whenever I try, I get into an artist or a type of music and that's that. So from now on, I'm just writing about whatever I happen to be feeling at the time, and right now I'm feeling piano trios. Specifically, I've been digging Billy [...]
1953 was a banner year for the Brubeck Quartet. Their popularity on college campuses exploded and Brubeck and Desmond were quickly becoming jazz stars. The group recorded two of the best live albums in their voluminous discography. 1953 also saw another personnel change in the band with the exit of bassist Wyatt Ruther and the [...]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet's continued to make waves in the jazz community in 1952, winning the first of numerous awards from jazz publications and appearing in serious discussions in those same publications. Fantasy continued to record and release music from the group. Dave Brubeck live, with Wyatt Ruther on bass, Herb Barman on drums, & [...]
This post is merely an explanation and an alert for the post I just published and for future posts. For almost a year, I've been working on a project near and dear to my heart, and that is the creation of a discography of the music of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. It's still a work [...]
In the summer of 1951, Dave Brubeck formed his first quartet. With Paul Desmond as a constant on alto sax and Herb Barman holding down the drum chair, bass players came and went. Two bassists that stayed long enough to get recorded with the group include Fred Dutton (who also doubled on bassoon) and Wyatt [...]
Happy Cal Tjader Day! Naturally, for Cal's birthday I had to come out of hibernation and do something for the great Californian jazz musician. Lately, I've been spinning a Tjader record that I grabbed during my last trip to California, fittingly enough. It's got groovy music and cover art to match. Here comes Cal, and [...]
Today marks the official beginning of the summer season, and what a beautiful, sunny day it is here in north Alabama. To celebrate the start of summer, I thought it'd be fun to spotlight some of my favorite records with a summer vibe. Since I kinda really hate the song "Summertime" (sorry not sorry Gershwin), [...]
