One of the many attractive qualities of jazz, more than any other musical genre, is how the same song can be interpreted in many different ways. Whether this is Bill Evans and Yusef Lateef offering their personal takes on a classic soundtrack, or Ahmad Jamal and Bobby Hutcherson reworking a Herbie Hancock original, the musical freedom that underpins jazz allows its musicians to constantly reinvent and offer fresh perspectives on popular classics. In his last post, Dan wrote on guitarist Grant Green’s version of the ballad ‘Lazy Afternoon’. Whilst Green’s version is excellent, the definitive version in my opinion of this well known standard is found on drummer Pete La Roca’s album Basra, released in 1965 on Blue Note.
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Pharoah Sanders – Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)
To mark the recent passing of pianist McCoy Tyner, the subject of our last post, the track for today is ‘Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)’ from the live album Elevation by tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, released in 1974 on Impulse! records.
Continue reading “Pharoah Sanders – Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)”Duke Ellington – Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)
The last post looked at Duke Ellington’s album Money Jungle, a meeting of three of the greatest minds in jazz. We continue our journey with Ellington, this time looking at how he turned to the East for inspiration for his 1967 album, Far East Suite.
Continue reading “Duke Ellington – Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)”John Coltrane – Impressions
It only seems fitting that the first step on our musical journey begins with a track closely connected to the name of our blog – ‘Impressions’ by the great John Coltrane.
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