So yesterday I was browsing around for new releases and came across bassist Christian McBride’s latest from his Christian McBride Trio, Out Here. I gave it a listen and I now have a new jazz artist’s music to explore, because the album is great. The trio consists of McBride on bass (duh), Christian Sands on piano, and Ulysses Owens, Jr. on drums. Here’s what it says about the album at Mack Avenue Records about the album:
So this morning I was in beautiful Newark NJ. Last night we went to a fund-raiser for Team Willpower, a night of bowling. It was the first time I bowled in many years. It took several throws to even be respectable, and for me the 110 I bowled was not even that! But it was for a good cause and we had a good time!
One of the artists that I’ve been listening to over the last few days has been Lawson Rollins I listened to his fine guitar playing a while ago as part of the duo Young and Rollins,.and really liked their sound. This week I’ve been listening to Lawson’s latest album Full Circle. On his website, Lawson says this about the album:
According to About.com/Oldies Music, on this date in 1967, the jazz world lost a legendary figure when John Coltrane died from liver cancer at the age of forty. (The actual date of his death is July 17th) Coltrane was and still is one of the most influential jazz musician, ever. I have never been a big fan of the sax, most of my jazz listening revolves around guitar, organ and vibes, but every time I hear Coltrane’s music I love it. From Wikipedia:
So tonight I turned the sound down on the Phillies game and turned up the stereo and spent a jazzy Saturday night listening to albums from Blue Mitchell, Wynton Kelly, and Hank Mobley. Of the three Hank Mobley is the musician I know the least about, but his album Soul Station was my favorite of the evening. The link between the three albums is the piano artistry of Wynton Kelly.
So not that long ago I lied, and said that the focus of my musical listening was going to be jazz and New Age, since then I don’t think I’ve really written about either genre! That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been listening to artists in those genres because I have, I just haven’t written about them yet. One of the albums that I’ve been listening to is the début album of Freddie Hubbard Open Sesame which was released way back in 1960, when Freddie was 22 years old. I listened to this album because it was on a list of essential albums. It’s not like I haven’t listened to and enjoyed Freddie’s trumpet before, because I have, music from when he was a teenager and was playing with the Montgomery Brothers in and around Indianapolis, Echoes of Indiana Avenue.
So on Monday while I was exploring new jazz artists, I read a forum thread about flutists and someone included Jane Bunnett among their favorites. I knew nothing about Jane, but here’s what I found about this accomplished musician at her website :
I first heard Peter Kater’s piano coupled with R Carlos Nakai’s Native American flute on the album Honorable Sky and the album quickly became a favorite.
Several years later I picked up the album Karuna by Tibetan artist Nawang Khechog, which I admit to not listening to as often as I should, hum, does that sound familiar! From his website:
