Thursday, June 20, 2024
Toshiaki Yokota
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Walter Bishop Jr. - Part 3
Hey there. Back again to finish up our look into NYC keyboardist, Walter Bishop Jr.
First for today we have the album that was originally recommended to me: Cubicle. A mostly soul jazz/jazz-funk affair, joining Walter on the 1978 release, we have: Rene McClean and Pepper Adams on sax, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Randy Brecker on trumpet and flugelhorn, Joe Caro on guitar, Bob Cranshaw and Mark Egan on electric bass, Ray Mantilla on percussion with the legend Billy Hart on drums. We also have Carmen Lundy on vocals on the opening tune, "Valley Land." I've included an instrumental for this one.
Not really a weakness on this one, but "Valley Land", "Those Who Chant" and another rendition of "Summertime" are my favorites here. We get to hear Bishop heavily on the Rhodes on this one which is always welcomed.
The following year, in 1979, Bishop returned to a more straight-ahead sound on Hot House. This time around we have Junior Cook on tenor, Bill Hardman on trumpet, Sam Jones on bass with Al Foster on drums. Nothing wrong with this record but as I've mentioned before, just not my first choice in sound.
Lastly, we have another straight-ahead album. This time from 1993, Speak Low Again features Paul Brown on bass and Al Harewood on drums. Bishop plays quite a few of his staple tunes on this one. Again, nothing but good stuff here - I just prefer the soul-jazz and jazz-funk/fusion sound WBJ employed on a few of the other albums we covered.
Friday, June 14, 2024
Walter Bishop Jr. - Part 2
Thursday, June 13, 2024
Walter Bishop Jr.
Walter Bishop Jr was a NYC-born keyboardist who worked with a wide variety of household names in jazz. Someone recommended an album of his to me at some point and I was pleasantly surprised. Turns out I've heard Walter play plenty of times on various Charlie Parker and Miles Davis albums. Other big names you'll find in his credits are Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, and a host of others. I do not have a full discography here but we do have quite a few to look into.
The first album I have here was originally released in 1961 which lately is a little out of my wheelhouse. Lending support to Walter on Speak Low, we have Jimmy Garrison on bass and G.T. Hogan on drums. All covers here, but a nice little straight-ahead trio album, nonetheless. This copy is the 2008 reissue which includes 3 additional tunes. Favorites here are "Milestones" and the title track, "Speak Low."
Next up comes the album titled 1965, named after the year it was recorded, or so I thought. Other versions have sessions in 1962 and 1963 listed. Either way, not released on Prestige until 1970, we have another acoustic, trio album. This time on bass we have Butch Warren and on drums we have Jimmy Cobb. There are some discrepancies regarding personnel, as well. But I'm sticking to what I found initially.
Sixteen mostly brief tunes on this one, and more of the same sound as we heard on Speak Low. Favorites here would be "Theme For A Legend" and "Love For Sale." We also here Walter's first rendition of "Summertime." A recurring tune throughout Walter's catalog.
The following year, in 1971, Bishop released Coral Keys on the Black Jazz Records label. This time, we have Reggie Johnson on bass, Harold Vick on flute, bass clarinet, tenor and soprano saxes, Woody Shaw on trumpet, Idris Muhammad (side A) and Allan Schwartzberg (side B) on drums.
This one is listed as all originals from Bishop, but I haven't dug in to see if that's accurate or not. All good stuff here for the most part. A little more pizazz than we heard on the first two albums, mostly thanks to Shaw and Vick. "Track Down" is a good one here and I also dig "Soul Turn Around." "Freedom Suite" closes this one and is a bit "free" as the title suggests.
I have a handful of more albums to cover, and in my opinion, they get more interesting as we go. Stay tuned.
Friday, June 7, 2024
Bennie Maupin - Penumbra (2006)
Hey there. Been travelling a lot this week so I haven't had time to knock out a post. Today we're going to take a quick peek at another album from reeds-savant Bennie Maupin. We took a deeper at Bennies' albums during our time looking into Herbie Hancock.
Released on Cryptogramophone in 2006 as the Bennie Maupin Ensemble, Penumbra features Polish bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz, percussionist Munyungo Jackson and drummer Michael Stephans. As usual, Bennie employs the bass clarinet, tenor and soprano saxes and the bass flute. According to discogs he also plays a little piano here on the closing tune "Equal Justice." 14 tracks on this one and mostly calm vibes throughout. Some tunes are very short and some are solo Bennie tunes too.
Favorites here would be "Message To Prez", "See The Positive" and "The 12th Day", despite being a pretty short tune. Overall a pretty solid album albeit with some noodling here and there. I have a few things planned for upcoming posts so stay tuned.
Enjoy!