Hat Tips to Miles

Miles Davis is one of the most influential Jazz musicians of all time. He was gifted with the ability to reinvent his music every decade or so and shape the history of Jazz by so doing. A seminal, pivotal figure in Cool Jazz, Hard Bop, Modal Jazz, and Jazz-Rock Fusion, he was, simply put, way ahead of the pack.

He began as a bebopper in the 1940's, and established himself as a peer of the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. At the end of that decade he made his first major sortie on the annals, with the nonet recordings later known as The Birth of the Cool. These are particularly beautiful, exciting, and colorful Jazz recordings that added sophisticated, delicate arrangements and lighter textures to the relatively stark Bebop from which it emerged, and gave birth* to the dominant Cool Jazz sound of the West Coast for over a decade, a gentler, pastel hued counterpoint to the East Coast's Hard Bop. The Birth of the Cool recordings are also considered seminal of so-called Third Stream music, a fusion of Jazz and Classical styles. Give them a listen!

Twenty years later, a session was recorded in LA and released with the subtitle Birth of the New Cool. The leader of the session was Sonny Criss, the album Sonny's Dream. It is a gorgeous, well-recorded tribute that moves far beyond the recorded subjects of its admiration, while retaining their color and elegance (and also reprising their original instrumentation). Criss' saxophone playing is indeed a dream, and this Jazz record is another one for music lovers of all stripes. I note that Sonny's dream band includes musicians previously referenced by this blog, Pete Christlieb and (indirectly) Tommy Flanagan.

The music of Sonny's Dream was composed, arranged, and conducted by a man who was to become a major figure in West Coast Jazz for decades - Horace Tapscott. Tapscott never became exactly a household name in Jazz circles, partly because the West Coast was not a major center of Jazz throughout his career, and partly because much of his music is quite uncompromising (though very much worth seeking out by adventurous listeners). He was particularly active as a pianist and leader for LA's excellent, underground Nimbus West record label. Dissent or Descent (which features the superb bassist Fred Hopkins) is an evocative, original, and strikingly beautiful piano trio record.

Discography (with sound samples):

Birth of the Cool - Miles Davis

Sonny's Dream - Sonny Criss

Dissent or Descent - Horace Tapscott

LA's Unsung - Nimbus West Compilation

* OK, there were other players and leaders who also were significant progenitors of the Cool sound: Lester Young; John Kirby; Claude Thornhill; Tadd Dameron; and Lennie Tristano to name a few.

Kind of blue? Perhaps you need a new Jazz album..

Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus is aptly named - Rollins assumed the mantle during the 1950's of pre-eminent saxophonist in Jazz, and this album shows why. The leader's tenor is not the only marvel on display here, since we are treated also to a tremendous display of Max Roach's god-like talent on drums.


The 1950's was a stabilising period in Jazz. The thrusting, determined modernity of Bebop became integrated into a more lyrical, accessible conception (although hot, tough music persisted in the hard-bop style, the jam session phenomenon, etc.), and Saxophone Colossus is a key work in that development. Jazz history aside, it is quite simply an amazing album of music.

First up is St Thomas, a calypso which Rollins turns into a swaggering display of rhythmic mastery and easy-going improvisational invention. Next, You Don't Know what Love is is a superb ballad showcase - Rollins plays a magnificently querulous extended solo that never runs out of great ideas. Moritat (a.k.a. Mack the Knife) is warm and lyrical (perhaps a tribute to Louis Armstrong, who revived the tune in 1954?). Blue Seven is a brilliant extended track on which Rollins and Roach both shine.

Superlatives don't do this one justice. Every music-lover deserves it.

Cuban Music So Good It'll Send Shivers Down Your Spine

Don’t let the butt-ugly cover-design put you off. Eliades Ochoa's "The Lion is Loose!" is amongst the richest, most powerful recordings of Son Cubano, the style with which the Buena Vista Social Club swept the world off its feet. Ochoa leads a crack traditional group in this worthy updating of the Son, his guitar solos impressive showcases for his feel for this music and his technique, his rich, husky vocals very fine indeed. Ochoa is in fact guitarist for the Buena Vista group and this was recorded several years earlier than the famous BVSC release. This would be an excellent follow-up purchase. In fact, I’d very much recommend it first!


Next up, Duo Los Compadres! This group is one of the immortal ones, and these early 50’s recordings of Cuban Son capture a kind of perfection, a sound that feels as if it could be no other way. The disc features the two principals (Lorenzo Hierrezuelo, and Francisco Repilado) singing and playing mostly their own now-classic (and often achingly beautiful) compositions, always accompanied by two or three other musicians on bass and percussion. At some point you'll hear them exhorting each other towards greater musical heights: "Olé, Compay Primo!", "Olé, Compay Segundo..!" - YES, Francisco Repilado is none other than that much-loved musical ambassador who became a global phenomenon 40 years later!
This is _very much not_ a CD only for the historically inclined, but it is interesting to compare a few of these original versions with more recent recordings (e.g. Ochoa’s – see above) of the same songs.