2015 Update:I discovered Lee Morgan’s music back in 2013. When I wrote the following post I discovered that I hand already heard his magnificent trumpet on many albums! Here is my original post……
Last night while I was listening to some music, various instruments and my favorite musicians who play those instruments. It’s not the first time I thought about that and I’ve even thought of starting a series of posts along that topic. The first instrument that popped into my head wad the trumpet. While the trumpet is not my favorite instrument I guess it made its appearance first in my ADD brain because I had listened to Marquis Hill the other day. Over the last few months I’ve listened to several younger trumpet players like Jeremy Pelt, Terrence Blanchard and Roy Hargrove and they have joined my musical library beside Miles, Chet Baker, and Freddie Hubbard. One player Blue Mitchell I know more from the two albums that he recorded with John Mayall in the early 70s than his earlier recording career. I have on occasion dipped into his earlier recordings and enjoyed his playing!! (oh and there are two other trumpet players in my 45 library Al Hirt and Louis Armstrong!!)
Talk about an eclectic musical morning I checked out two albums from seemingly opposite ends of the musical spectrum. First I reviewed the New Releases and saw that Herb Alpert has a new album out titled Steppin’ Out
So the other day MOG by way of their Just for You section introduced me to the music of Omar Sosa, and I’m glad they did!! Sosa is a Cuban born composer, bandleader, and jazz pianist. His newest band Afreecanos, combines Afro Pop, jazz, and a variety of European instruments. The band, which includes musicians from Africa, Cuba, Brazil, and France, released a CD in 2009 and went on a world tour in early 2010.
The first jazz artist that caught my eye when I reviewed the birthday list this morning at All About Jazz was Cindy Blackman and the reason was simple she is a drummer!! I do believe that there are not that many of them around!! What I didn’t know at the time, aside from who the hell she is, was that in the spring of 2010 Cindy sat in with Carlos Santana when the band’s drummer Dennis Chambers had a previous commitment. Cindy and Carlos had first met several years earlier at a festival in Europe when Cindy was touring with Lenny Kravitz. .By July of 2010 Carlos proposed to Cindy and the two were married in December! So who besides Mrs Carlos Santana is this Cindy Blackman. A stop at Wikipedia was in order……
=&0=& (born November 18, 1959), sometimes known as =&1=&,[1] is a virtuoso drummer whose artistry spans the realms of jazz and rock. Blackman is best known for recording and touring with Lenny Kravitz. Full Biography
and at her website I read……..
As a bandleader and as a musician, Cindy is a sound innovator with a passion for pushing creative boundaries and exploring movement and change. She is as known for the nuances and colors she brings to her beats and fills as she is for the sheer power of her soulful playing. “Some drummers act, some react. Some keep time, others create it. Cindy Blackman Santana is among the few who can,” writes Mike Zwerin for the International Herald Tribune. More Bio
So the other day when I was visiting All About Jazz to check on jazz birthdays I noticed an interesting name in the showcase sidebar – Marquis Hill and his new album The Poet. Since I didn’t recognize the name I thought I’d take a little trip to MOG to check it out. MOG only had two out of Marquis’ three albums – New Gospel and Sounds of the City. I decided that I’d check outSounds of the City first. It’s a great album at times sounding a little avant-garde and at other times it sounds like classic jazz. On the third track “The Wrath of the Lark” my ears perked up when I heard some great vibes! That sent me racing to see who the player was I found out the artist’s name is Justin “Justefan” Thomas. I continued my search and discovered that Justin has just released an EP titled The Prelude. I found that album on Spotify, gave it a listen and it’s certainly an EP that will join the other vibes music in my library. But now back to Marquis and his music. From Marquis’ website:
Ok so to honor Russell Malone on his birthday today, I said I would listen to his 2010 release Triple Play. But when I went to MOG, there was a 2013 release listed at the top of his discography, so I downloaded that and listened to it! It was great! I came home tonight and discovered that, the album I listened to was Playground which was actually released in 2004! I don’t know why it’s listed as 2013 unless it has been re-released??? The last song on Playground is Carol King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” a song that won both James Taylor and Carol Grammys! Now hearing Malone’s guitari instrumental version of the song was great, but earlier in the day I had watch portions of a video of a performance of the song with Russell playing guitar and Dianne Reeves providing the vocals. Now I didn’t know anything about Ms. Reeves, but I certainly want to find out more about her! What a wonderful voice, so rich, so soulful. Well I’ll just let you decide for yourselves as we go “into the morning” with the guitar of Russell Malone and the voice and soul of Dianne Reeves and the equally wonderful songwriting of Carole King (her Tapestry album is in my vinyl collection and millions of other people’s collections throughout the world )
The first time I really heard the guitar of Russell Malone was one night a while back when I stumbled upon this video of Malone, Christian McBride and Benn Green performing Wes Montgomery;s “Jingles” and I was blown away by his talent!! (and McBride and Green’s talent too!!)
