Special Offers & Sales
VOICES Notes and news on Special Offers & Sales releases
Sonny & Co. Go To Work
25 MAR 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
A business-like quartet session, Sonny Rollins recorded Worktime in December 1955 with pianist Ray Bryant, bassist George Morrow, and Max Roach (Rollins' most recent employer, in the Max Roach/Clifford Brown quintet) on drums.
I have found it tough to wrap my mind around the genius of Rollins because there's so much genius to wrap my mind around. He worked the same fertile ground that gave us Miles' murderously cool, muted ballad style, 'Trane's sheets of bedrock sound and Monk's conceptual three-ring musical circuses. Yet it seems to offer no corresponding "hook" -- no singular "thing" -- for Sonny, because he played everything and played everything well. "There's No Business Like Show Business" swings to the point of rampage. Which one seems harder to believe -- the unquenchable torrent of ideas that bursts from Rollins' brain or that his fingers and breath manage to keep up with them?
Drummer Roach, a concussive combination of tap dancer and pugilist, rips off solo breaks in "Show Business" and "Rain Check" that blast through Bryant's chords like unheeded stop signs and swaps staccato phrases through exhilarating drum-saxophone duet sections in Rollins' "Paradox."
Worktime heralded a year of unprecedented growth and success for Rollins that came immediately hereafter. In '56, he released several landmark titles, including Saxophone Colossus and Tenor Madness, among several Prestige sessions worth rediscovering as part of the label's 60th anniversary celebration.
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There's No Business Like Show Business
Sonny Rollins, from Worktime [Rudy Van ...
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Rockin' Chair
Ray Bryant, from Alone With The Blues
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You Stepped Out Of A Dream
Max Roach, from Deeds, Not Words
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Theme Of No Repeat
Clifford Brown, from Memorial
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Oleo
Miles Davis, from Bags' Groove [Rudy Van ...
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I Love You
John Coltrane, from Lush Life [Rudy Van ...
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Bemsha Swing
Thelonious Monk, from Brilliant Corners ...
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You Don't Know What Love Is
Sonny Rollins, from Saxophone Colossus ...
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My Reverie
Sonny Rollins Quartet, from Tenor Madness ...
in this playlist.
Anniversary Of Excellence
11 MAR 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
The Very Best of Prestige Records (Prestige 60th Anniversary) inaugurates 2009's celebration of the label's six decades of history by compiling the best and best-known instrumental tracks laid down for the label by some of the most "prestige"-ious musicians of the modern jazz era.
Bob Weinstock's label is most famous as one of the few companies to contemporarily record four men who became retrospectively known as "the Mount Rushmore of Jazz" -- John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Sonny Rollins -- all of whom are represented with trademark classics on this Anniversary release.
But this 2-disc set also spreads plenty of jam from other sections of the Prestige roster, from artists whose influence proved more widespread than their popularity, including saxophone aces Dexter Gordon and funky "Jug" Gene Ammons and neo-jazz/classicists The Modern Jazz Quartet.
Anniversary hits digital and physical shelves later this month. You can also relive the original artwork from these and other Prestige titles in the forthcoming book Prestige Records: The Collected Album Cover Art, coming soon to the Concord website.
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Lover, Come Back To Me
John Coltrane, from Black Pearls
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Vierd Blues
Miles Davis, from Collectors' Items
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These Foolish Things
Thelonious Monk, from The Complete ...
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Strode Rode
Sonny Rollins, from Saxophone Colossus ...
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Misty
Dexter Gordon, from XXL: Live At The ...
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Stompin' At The Savoy
Gene Ammons, from Boss Tenor [Rudy Van ...
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Delaunay's Dilemma
The Modern Jazz Quartet, from Django ...
in this playlist.
Stax History Month
18 FEB 09 DAVID VIENNA
This Black History Month, celebrate with some good ol', down and dirty soul. For a limited time, you can get some of the best releases from the legendary Stax label at a special price.
And when I say "the best," I mean it. Literally. You'll find The Very Best Of collections from Albert King, William Bell, The Staple Singers, the venerated Stax house band Booker T. & the MGs and more.
There are other gems, too. I will try to refrain from quoting Issac Hayes' "Theme From Shaft" when I mention that the soundtrack to that exploitation classic is among the available titles... I'm just talkin' 'bout Shaft... Sorry. Speaking of Hayes, the upcoming re-issues of his Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak) and Black Moses [Deluxe Edition] await your stereo. Black Moses is especially cool because the packaging recreates the stunning fold-out vinyl sleeve from the original release.
If you're new to Stax and maybe feeling a bit overwhelmed, might I suggest the flawless Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration, which spans the label's turbulent rise and fall (and rise again and fall again), offering hit after hit. Seriously, drop this one on at a party and just leave the thing going.
Releases from recent Stax artists are also available. Lalah Hathaway's Self Portrait and Angie Stone's The Art Of Love & War represent some of the new guard, keeping the soul tradition going. And check out DVDs like Dreams To Remember: The Legacy Of Otis Redding or Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story for in-depth looks at the label and artists that continue to make history.
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I Forgot To Be Your Lover
William Bell, from The Very Best Of ...
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I'll Take You There
The Staple Singers, from The Very Best Of ...
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Time Is Tight
Booker T. & The MGs, from The Very Best ...
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Theme From Shaft
Isaac Hayes, from Shaft
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Man's Temptation
Isaac Hayes, from Black Moses
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What A Man
Various Artists, from Stax 50th ...
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What Goes Around
Lalah Hathaway, from Self Portrait
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These Are The Reasons
Angie Stone, from The Art of Love & War
in this playlist.
Playing For Peanuts
21 OCT 08 JONATHAN WIDRAN
Peanuts creator Charles Schulz once said, "I think one of the best things that ever happened for our shows was that we had Vince Guaraldi's music, and then we were blessed again to have David Benoit pick up the baton and keep it alive." Eight years after Schulz's death, the legacy endures, and groovingly so, on Benoit's Jazz For Peanuts - A Retrospective of the Charlie Brown Television Themes.
Celebrating Guaraldi's impact on several generations of jazz musicians, the collection features six dynamic new and swinging Benoit tracks -- four lesser heard Guaraldi compositions and two originals Benoit wrote for later TV specials -- as well as classic performances by Wynton Marsalis ("The Buggy Ride"), Dave Brubeck ("Benjamin") and Kenny G (his Grammy-winning turn with Dave Grusin's "Breadline Blues").
Several tracks also shine a spotlight on Christian Scott and Taylor Eigsti, Concord Family artists and two of jazz's most acclaimed young lions. "You're In Love, Charlie Brown" and "Rollerblading" provide incredible showcases for Scott's virtuosic trumpet soloing, while "Wild Kids" was fashioned as a colorful piano duet by Benoit and Eigsti. The 24-year-old Eigsti's relationship with Benoit extends back to 1992, when the eight year old prodigy opened for the pianist at Sunset Gardens in Menlo Park, California. Benoit, a major advocate for music education, has been an enthusiastic supporter of Eigsti's development ever since.
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