{"id":1756,"date":"2011-11-11T16:16:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T15:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?page_id=1756"},"modified":"2021-11-13T21:52:05","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T20:52:05","slug":"music-lists","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?page_id=1756","title":{"rendered":"Music lists"},"content":{"rendered":"

5 Best Jazz records 1954 to 1964<\/span><\/p>\n

So obviously this is going to be a very small selection. I should preface this by saying that my own taste is for the small groups rather than the full on orchestras, and for the more soul-inflected releases rather than full on hard bebop. All the following are available for about a fiver on CD or as part of budget compilations (the Avid ‘4 Classic Albums’ are particularly good) – it\u2019s a golden age for buying jazz, usually remastered and sounding terrific:<\/p>\n

Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet<\/em>, Prestige.\u00a0 I could fill up all my choices just with Miles Davis records as I\u2019m a huge fan – choosing this rather than the more obvious Kind Of Blue <\/em>(which\u00a0 is of course sublime) This was the first of the 5 Miles Davis Prestige album with the Coltrane quintet like Cookin\u2019, Relaxin\u2019, Workin\u2019 , which are available in various budget compilation packages<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ll play it and tell you what it is later,\u201d as Miles memorably begins one session with the group (Prestige were too mean to afford any rehearsal time so it was straight in with every recording, and perhaps all the better for it).<\/p>\n

Cannonball Adderley\u2019s Something Else<\/em> \u2013 which sneaks in more Miles Davis as he plays on the session and is a fabulous feelgood album.<\/p>\n

As is Kenny Burrell\u2019s Midnight Blue<\/em>, more available than his also very good All Night Long <\/em>and finger tapping, finger popping music.<\/p>\n

Well I would like<\/a> Charles Mingus\u2019s Tijuana Moods<\/em> which is wild and out there and a lot of fun – with a fab cover of a Mexican girl showing a bit of stocking by a jukebox. And of course his Ah Um<\/em>, his first for prestigious Columbia so he was trying even harder. I only understood the title<\/a> 30 years after I started listening to it.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Smith\u2019s Back At The Chicken Shack<\/em>, a great record to drive to.\u00a0 Move on to<\/a> Midnight Special, The Sermon<\/em> and Crazy! Baby<\/em> if it’s a long journey…<\/p>\n

Honourable mentions<\/strong> to Horace Silver\u2019s Songs For My Father,<\/em> Miles Davis\u2019s \u00a0Someday My Prince Will Come<\/em>, Know What I Mean?<\/em>\u00a0 – another good outing for Cannonball – and Coltrane\u2019s A Love Supreme <\/em>(though I admire the last one more than I listen to it). And Illinois Jacquet for his raw honking style.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5 favourite Bob Dylan albums<\/span><\/p>\n

OK no Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks<\/em>, or the early 60s stuff \u2013 all of which of course I respect \u2013 but these are the albums I listen to.\u00a0 Note that most recorded after Bob fell off his motorcycle, went to Nashville etc…:<\/p>\n

Highway 61 Revisited<\/em><\/p>\n

John Wesley Harding<\/em><\/p>\n

The Basement Tapes <\/em>(as originally released, not the original versions later issued as one of the Bootleg compilations)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Oh Mercy<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Time Out Of Mind<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>With honourable mentions<\/strong>\u00a0to<\/span> Nashville Skyline<\/em>, and also to the excellent Modern Times<\/em> and Together Through Life<\/em> from his late period. <\/em>Best of the Bootleg series <\/em>are Another Self Portrait <\/i>and\u00a0Tell Tale Signs<\/i>, along with ‘Live 1966′ <\/em><\/i>(see 5 best live albums below).
\n<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

5 best covers<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Wonderwall, \u00a0<\/em>Ryan Adams\u00a0 [Original \u2013 Oasis]<\/p>\n

\u00a0Powderfinger,<\/em> Cowboy Junkies [Original \u2013 Neil Young]<\/p>\n

Wild is the Wind<\/em>, David Bowie [Original \u2013 Johnny Mathis \/Nina Simone]<\/p>\n

\u00a0My Funny Valentine<\/em>, \u00a0\u00a0Miles Davis, in Cookin’<\/em> [Original – Rodgers\u00a0& \u00a0Hart]<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jealous Guy<\/em>, Bryan Ferry [Original \u2013 John Lennon]<\/p>\n

Honourable mention<\/strong>\u00a0to Nouvelle Vague for\u00a0Guns of Brixton <\/em>and indeed their whole album of unexpected covers.\u00a0 Also Chrissie Hynde does some mean versions of Dylan, as does Emma Swift.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

5 Best live albums<\/span><\/p>\n

The following are in my view not just the best live albums by each artist, they are \u2013 with the exception of Dylan \u2013 the best albums by each artist. The Leonard Cohen in particular manages finally to get the balance absolutely right between the asperity of his voice and the lushness of his arrangements, a balance that The Ladies\u2019 Man has veered all over the place in the studio to achieve.\u00a0 Neil Young lets loose, as does Van; neither has ever been better.\u00a0 You can hear the microphone swinging around Daltrey\u2019s head at \u2018Leeds\u2019 (actually some songs recorded elsewhere), dispelling all those dismal later concept albums like Tommy and Quadrophenia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Live in London,<\/em> Leonard Cohen<\/p>\n

Ragged Glory, <\/em>Neil Young<\/p>\n

Too Late to Stop Now<\/em>, Van Morrison (NB the original double album – there is an extended version for completists)<\/p>\n

Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert [The Bootleg Series Vol.4], <\/em>Bob Dylan\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Live at Leeds<\/em>, The Who<\/p>\n

Honourable mentions<\/strong> to Bob Marley Live At The Roxy<\/span><\/em> (rather than the more famous Lyceum outing) and <\/span>James Brown’s incredible <\/span>Love, Power, Peace: Live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5 best Jazz vocalists.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah Vaughan<\/em> (with Clifford Brown), from 1954 and with a just wonderful version of \u2018Lullaby Of Birdland\u2019 <\/em>to kick off \u00a0proceedings is best paired with the Swing Easy <\/em>album she did (the compilation \u2018Four Classic Albums<\/a>\u2019<\/em> includes them both, along with a live outing in Chicago). For my money, Sarah has the best scat phrasing and the most fun with any jazz song possible.\u00a0 Shulie-A-Bop<\/a> the night away\u2026<\/p>\n

Although she obviously faces opposition from Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Ella and Louis<\/em> (which you can and should easily buy with the sequel, the arguably even more uninhibited Ella And Louis Again,<\/em> as a double package<\/a>) pairs the two up against each other in some great recordings. Satch sounds even more agreeably growly when heard against Ella\u2019s soaraway vocals. Like so many of the best jazz records, there was no time to rehearse.<\/p>\n

Nina Simone at The Village Gate<\/em>.\u00a0 There are a lot of Nina Simone live albums, for good reason as she brought a wonderful intensity to performance. I like this early one because it has the feel of a small jazz club – you can almost hear the waitresses taking the orders.<\/p>\n

Frank Sinatra Songs for Swingin\u2019 Lovers<\/em>.\u00a0 Of course there are many Frank albums to choose from \u2013 but this one always comes to the top of my pile \u2013 fabulous Nelson Riddle arrangements, and Frank\u2019s phrasing makes it sound so effortless.\u00a0 The sequel, A Swingin\u2019 Affair,<\/em> is also sublime. For Frank making a rare recording with a small jazz group, not an orchestra, try Live in Australia with Red Norvo <\/em>of 1959, if you can find a copy.<\/p>\n

Billie Holliday.\u00a0 Live at Monterrey 1958<\/em>. This is almost her last recording, made after the Lady in Satin<\/em> LP. As critics at the time noted (like the churlish Leonard Feather), it is technically inferior to many she made in her prime, both in her vocal range and in the recording (at one point a plane roars overhead!). But that is more than made up for by the emotion that comes through \u00a0\u2013 hard to think of a singer who had lived and loved and lost so much until Amy Winehouse came along. Despite the song she sings here, Billie was never someone \u2018Travellin Light\u2019. Hard to listen to without feeling the emotion. And Gerry Mulligan and others offer fine support.<\/p>\n

Honourable mentions<\/strong> to Aretha Franklin who is not normally thought of as a jazz vocalist but showed on Hey Now Hey <\/em>that she could do it beautifully, and to Dinah Washington, whose Dinah Jam<\/em>s \u2013 again with Clifford Brown who clearly had an empathy for the ladies \u2013 is \u00a0an intoxicating live album where she really lets rip. And to Dinah also for the funniest jazz song of all, \u2018TV is The Thing This Year\u2019<\/a>, collected on her excellent The Best In Blues<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5 Best Jazz records 1954 to 1964 So obviously this is going to be a very small selection. I should preface this by saying that my own taste is for the small groups rather than the full on orchestras, and for the more soul-inflected releases rather than full on hard bebop. All the following are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":71,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-without-sidebar.php","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1756","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3781,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1756\/revisions\/3781"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}