Jazz Music Club

Bud Shank should be at least familiar in name to passing jazz aficionados. I can’t readily explain why, but if I’ve heard a name before, you have as well. Regardless of that fact, Shank’s progression over time points to an endless fascination with the medium, if not always falling into the most listenable jazz caveats. Beginning as a West Coaster, after his time in school in North Carolina, Shank worked with all the cool jazzbos that white dudes now decry. Recording with everyone from Stan Kenton and Chet Baker to Sergio Mendes, Shank solidified his talents in the studio during the ‘60s. And as ‘cool’ as a style slowly disintegrated, Shank kept moving. While he was able to move past some of those trappings, Shank’s playing always bore its markings. Read more

It might just be a snippet, but you get the idea.

Being forever associated with guitarist Eddie Lang isn’t a bad lot to get stuck with. As Lang and Joe Venuti recorded countless duets during the formative years of jazz, when it was still an occult, vagabond scene with only a modicum of respect coming from the expanses of the American populace, the pair can easily be thought of as the immediate antecedent of Django Rheinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. During the time that Lang and Venuti performed together, the recorded life of music wasn’t too old, deep or spread about too well. But as they continued to cut sides and perform with various dance bands or big band jazz groups, the pair’s ability to play off of one another served to introduce the idea of improvising into any composed piece of music. Read more

This is what I think of when I think about Klaus Doldinger...ridiculous

dafsdThe pianist Jack Wilson has had some problems keeping his life separate from the Jack Wilson who traversed jazz territories in England. So, in any reading of the Chicago born, bop key player, there seems to be some misguided reference to that other gentleman from oh so far away. This fact alone points to the manner in which Wilson’s catalog has been ignored. None of these words will rectify the situation, but that can’t diminish the hard soul jazz that the pianist was able to crank out on the few dates as a leader. They each deserve a great deal more attention and a proper march towards re-mastering. If that’ll happen can’t be known, but the inclusion of a young Roy Ayers on vibes for a few of those outings can’t hurt the cause. Read more

Hysterical MotherhoodThe name Klaus Doldinger isn’t a name that carries too much heft in the States unless you’ve watched Das Boot a few too many times and can recall seeing his name on screen as the composer of the score for that flick. Otherwise, it would seem that while a pretty enormous star in Deutschland, Doldinger hasn’t broken through to American audiences in the same way as in Europe. But if you take a look at some of his work during the ’60s or ‘70s he really should have been embraced by not just jazzbos, but psych foragers as well. Read more

At very best Barney Kessel is a tangential figure in the history of jazz. Apart from not being too well known outside of some inner, nerdy circle of jazz fetishists, Kessel didn’t spur on the evolution of the music. And it could even be said that he lagged behind some of those changes, not noticing or caring too much about them even to incorporate a modicum of forwardness in his playing. All of that said, he’s still a pretty decent player. No one would mistake his performance for that of Grant Green or Wes Montgomery – although the tone of that latter player would make for a good bookmark of Kessel’s style. This lesser known guitarist, though, apparently went through a period of critical acclaim during the mid to late fifties. And even if that was a fleeting moment over half a century ago, a few albums of his to lend an air of staid sophistication that jazz might have lacked at the time. Read more

TCThe legacy that Ted Curson has amassed is based mostly on brushing up upon greatness. That's not a slight, but an apt observation considering the time that the trumpeter put in alongside some greats in addition to the well wishing (Miles Davis...) that others would give him. Curson, though, won't be recalled for anything beyond an aptitude for supporting other artists. And although he's recorded as a leader, beginning in the early '60s, even these efforts work as places for snobby jazz hacks to discover dates with some of their favorite players as side men. The 1961 disc Plenty of Horn is not different. Read more

BAOEGrowing up in post World War II England allowed a young Brian Auger to take in the sounds of jazz as a result of an American military force in the area. So thanks to Armed Forces Radio, the occasional brilliance of Auger's keyboards were birthed. And while the world would probably be roughly the same with or without his musical contributions to jazz, Auger and his newly constituted Oblivian Express unloose some pretty heavy content on their first, self titled recording from 1971. Having said that, though, only about half of the songs here are of any consequence. Read more

Freddie and the FunkThe career of Freddie Robinson (who changed his name to Abu Talib towards the end of the '70s) is defined through his inability to pick a genre and stick to it. Initially coming to prominence with blues players like Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter, Robinson worked as much with jazzbos. Read more