Listening Room – Expansions
From "Expansions" : 1968 : Blue Note BST 84338
A classic (but out-of-print) session from a post-Coltrane McCoy Tyner. With a group of all-star players - including Wayne Shorter, Woody Shaw, Gary Bartz and Ron Carter - this album deserves a wider audience. The album opens with Vision which fully showcases the soloing skills of all the players, with Carter's cello and Shaw's trumpet playing really standing out. Smitty's Place has a great enthusiastic feeling as the group bounces and swings with each other. Overall the record is a nice blend of the hard-bop and post-bop styles, with just the right amount of free-jazz and avant-garde elements to make the record a nice summation of Tyner's career up to this point and where it would soon be heading in just a few years with his outstanding albums of the 1970's.
Players:
McCoy Tyner - Piano
Woody Shaw - Trumpet
Gary Bartz - Alto Sax, Wooden Flute
Wayne Shorter - Tenor Sax, Clarinet
Ron Carter - Cello
Herbie Lewis - Bass
Freddie Waits - Drums
Listening Room – “Another Earth”
From "Another Earth" : 1968 : Milestone M-9018
This 1968 Milestone album finds Gary Bartz fronting a great band that included Pharoah Sanders, Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell. The music is adventurous without being unfocused. The title track is a suite of sorts and took up all of Side One on the original LP and clocks in at an impressive 24 minutes. [Note: This album can be found on CD as a two-fer with Bartz's "Libra" album.]
Players:
Gary Bartz - Alto & Soprano Sax
Charles Tolliver - Trumpet
Pharoah Sanders - Tenor Sax
Stanley Cowell - Piano
Reggie Workman - Bass
Freddie Waits - Drums
Listening Room – “Blackstone Legacy
Woody Shaw - Blackstone Legacy
Woody Shaw - Boo Ann's Grand
From "Blackstone Legacy" : 1970 : Contemporary 7627/8
Originally issued as a double LP, this 1970 record was trumpeter Woody Shaw's debut as a leader and was ambitious to say the least. The music on "Blackstone Legacy" is not easy to classify, and a look at the lineup that Shaw assembled for the session gives a hint at the exciting music within. Bennie Maupin and Gary Bartz on the saxophones, two bassists: Ron Carter & Clint Houston and Lenny White on the drums were all players that had experience with the progressive jazz Shaw was looking to put down on wax. A landmark recording in the realm of modern music, any fan of creative music should give it a listen.
Players:
Woody Shaw - Trumpet
Bennie Maupin - Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet, Flute
Gary Bartz - Alto & Soprano Sax
George Cables - Electric Piano
Ron Carter - Bass
Clint Houston - Bass
Lenny White - Drums
Look Around
Top 5
- Listening Room - "Blues-ette"
- Herbie Hancock Trio - "Toys"
- Listening Room - "The Lounge Lizards"
- Listening Room - "Coltrane Playlist #2"
- Listening Room - "Sonny Rollins Plus 4"
Recent Posts
- Listening Room – “Blues-ette”
- Listening Room – “Life Time”
- R.I.P. Herman Leonard
- Listening Room – “Upon This Rock”
- Listening Room – “The Jaki Byard Experience”
- Listening Room – “Inside Straight”
- Listening Room – “Coltrane Playlist #2″
- Listening Room – “Hank & Frank” (R.I.P. Hank Jones)
- Listening Room – “Roots & Herbs”
- Listening Room – “Sounds of Africa”
Recent Comments
- RPS: Cool fire indeed. Perfect music to go along with some work I’m doing at the moment. Thanks.
- Straight No Chaser: A true favorite of mine – thanks for passing it on to the world
- Jazz Sermon: I have only ever seen the “kirkbam” listed in 2 spots: this album and the double LP...
- RPS: Thanks for this. A terrific group of musicians, and a ‘fist fight’ indeed, but what a fantastic...
- Jazz Sermon: I did forget to add that they were brothers, but I didn’t realize that they were also twins....
Jazz Related Sites
- All Music Guide
- Dusty Groove
- emusic
- Jazz Discography Project
- My Favourite Sound
- My Jazz World
- Never Enough Rhodes
- The CTI Never Sleeps
Other Hip Sites
