ONE LP

ONE LP PORTRAITS: COMPILATION

 

 

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  • “I can’t remember which one it was!!I like Louis Prima - I had the pleasure of working with him in New York a few years ago on Ed Sullivan’s show. We got chatting and I enjoyed his company - I enjoyed his playing and his singing is excellent - good jazzer!”Acker Bilk: Lyceum Theatre, Crewe, 14th November 2010Louis Prima: Strictly Prima - released 1959Acker BilkInterview
  • “Double Six - when I was in college in my first year I had formed a singing group patterned along the lines of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross - and Double Six.Double Six changed my life - I listened to them instead of going to class - I think they almost sent me home!Very important music to me, I became friends with Michel Legrand - his sister sang in the group then and Mimi Perrin - thank you Mimi! we’ll all see you soon.So Double Six - very important, lots of people important - but a special place for them.”Al Jarreau: Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 26th July 2011Les Double Six - released 1962Al Jarreau
  • {quote}She was my hero, she was my mentor, she was my idol.I got to know her very very well and I was very proud that I did, because she was a real buddy of mine.I think there's a whole life in this voice for her to sing the songs that she sings - I mean you could cry listening to her and I just think she was like a beautiful ebony statue.Great songs.{quote}Annie Ross: At home, New York City, May 2013Billie Holiday: Lady in Satin 1958Annie Ross
  • “It had to be Michael Jackson – then I had a tough time picking which record - but this has my favourite song – ‘Man in the Mirror’ – I love it so much.I narrowed it down from Off the Wall, Bad and Thriller - it was difficult to narrow it down even that far.This record means so much to me.”Becca Stevens: The Bay Horse, Manchester, March 2013Michael Jackson: BadBecca Stevens
  • “I choose a Clifford Brown album called The Beginning and the End it chronicles this guys experience from the beginning of his musical career until a recording the day before he actually died.It’s strange because when I first got the record I didn’t really know what the record was about or why they put it together I just remember hearing this amazing this amazing trumpeter and trying to mimic his version of {quote}Donna Lee{quote}, and I can remember at the end of the song hear him speak to the audience – and even as a little kid feeling that this guy had a lot of heart and was compassionate – through his voice – you know what I mean?He sort of says a farewell to the world and I had no idea that’s what actually was happening you know. So when I got a little bit older and I realised what was going on it made me want go back and re investigate it when I was a much better trumpeter and I realised he was playing some pretty impossible things on the instrument when in essence he was a baby - this guy passed away in his early twenties. There’s stuff that this guy did with the instrument that many fifty year old trumpet players would never attempt and this guy did it sixty years ago.It’s scary to think about it.The thing I love so much about Clifford Brown - in addition to his trumpet playing being so refined and so perfect, you could just always tell he was playing with sincerity and love in his heart, that’s a model that I’ve tried to keep going.Lots of guys - they look at some of my song titles and titles of the albums, some of the music is about social issues and things of that nature and they’re kind of charged sometimes – they say ‘oh well this guy’s angry’ - but if they only knew I actually was playing the music from a stance of love. I don’t want this (social issues) to affect my kids - I’m just trying to take that model and apply it to the time period that I inherited.”Christian Scott: Band on the Wall, Manchester, November 2010Clifford Brown : The Beginning and the End- released 1973Christian Scott
  • {quote}Normally most people wouldn't pick an album that they are on, but this is not because I'm on it - but because it was such a surprise to me.I was asked to go to England for an album with Joni Mitchell and I always thought that Joni Mitchell was in more of a folk bag -I wasn't sure what I was even gonna do.I get into the booth and there's big orchestra there and everything and we start playing and she starts singing the first tune we did - it's not necessarily on the record was 'You've Changed', and she sings straight ahead beautiful stuff and I could not believe what I was hearing in my ears - she gave me chills up my spine man.To this day I put this on for people that have never heard it and they can't tell me who's singing because they've never heard her sing like this.The arrangements are absolutely incredible – by Vince Mendoza.So this is a real important album to me - to pick out my favourite album of all time - that's almost impossible.I go way back listening to many things - Miles Davis and all those things that turned me on.This one shocked me because it was so good!{quote}Chuck Berghofer: Hollywood, CA, May 2013Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now 2000Chuck Berghofer
  • “I discovered the vinyl album “Free for All” (Speciality SP2161) in 1990 whilst visiting New York City and recognised its rarity immediately, even though it had only been released 4 years earlier, (1986). Speciality Records was not your usual run-of-the-mill jazz label, so a short run was more than likely what had happened. The liner notes confirmed my suspicions as the recording had been long-forgotten, even by the man who produced it, David Axelrod. I was immediately hooked with his style and finesse but especially taken with his tone. So much so that I now have 94 LPs/CDs, either under his own leadership or otherwise featured with different bands, large or small. In a “blindfold test” of his recordings I’m certain I could pick him out without hesitation, regardless of the number of trombonists put before me.It remained un-released for 10 years after Rosolino’s untimely death, in spite of his many promptings to the company after completion. He believed it was the best album he’d ever made and I wouldn’t dispute that for a moment!”Bill Birch: Midland Hotel, Manchester 10th June 2012Frank Rosolino: Free For All 1959Bill Birch - Keeper of The Flame - Modern Jazz in Manchester, 1946 - 1972
  • {quote}I think probably because it's a nostalgic thing for me. It was obviously being played from my earliest years - my very earliest years. The album cover appealed in the way it would to a child - Monk sitting in the trolley. The musicians on the album, the feel, everything - as I've grown up and matured with music it's turned out to be one of the best albums - it still appeals to me.{quote}Clark Tracey: Wigan Cricket Club, July 2010Thelonious Monk: Monk's Music, 1957Clark Tracey
  • {quote}My One LP is by Don Ellis - it's a live album by the Don Ellis Orchestra called Tears of Joy.When I was 16 the Orchestra came to my home town of 
Norfolk Nebraska. I had never seen live big band jazz before and this was a really big band!They had a string quartet, lower brass, tuba - lots of cool stuff stuff.
A pianist named Milcho Leviev had just come from Bulgaria a drummer named Ralph Humphrey who went on to perform with Manhattan Transfer and record on most of their albums.As time went on I had the great occasion of hiring Ralph to play in my band when I lived in Los Angeles
.I appeared with Milcho's quartet in Los Angeles and became very very close friends with Milcho as time went on.
I was just riveted by this music when I was 16 years old
 - very intricate very wonderful jazz.
Don Ellis was a innovative trumpeter who had a 4 valve trumpet instead of 3. In performance they were all dressed outlandishly - 
Don had boots up over his knees, riding pants and a long black coat when he played the trumpet.When he sat down he was at a set of drums - this made 3 drummers and a percussionist - and they would do drum solos !Songs in 9 13 and 33/8 - oh wow - whacky stuff going on all the time fantastic.It is still one of my favorites albums – I bought it in the early seventies, I play it on my radio show still - wonderful music.{quote}David Basse: Aladdin Hotel, Kansas City MO. May 2013David BasseDon Ellis: Tears of Joy
  • {quote}This is called 'One on One' - it's Shelly with Russ Freeman - he was a very good jazz pianist - unique.He left the jazz world and composed for movies and tv - made a lot of money but stopped playing jazz!This is one of the last things Shelly did - it's just the two of them playing off each other - it's very original. They played together alot at one time - every once in a while Shelly would try to get him to come out and play - {quote}just come out and play Russ!{quote} Russ was a perfectionist and he didn't feel he could do it as well he used to so he just wouldn't play anymore, so it was kind of too bad.{quote}Flip Manne: Sun Valley CA. May 2013Russ Freeman and Shelly Manne: One on One 1982Los Angeles Jazz Society
  • “Right, Miles Ahead, I first heard that in the 70’s actually, completely new way of writing.Gil Evans with Miles Davis. Miles is great on it, very cool playing, fantastic LP at the time.I don’t think anyone else has caught up with Gil Evans since then - the way he was writing.Dexter Gordon - Well it’s the sound really - there’s no other sound like it.If I could get a sound like that I’d be over the moon - but then, I’m me really - so I have to put up with me!Dexter I love - specially the Go! album and Doin’ Allright which I got in the 60’s - that’s about it really.”Don Weller: The Clifton Hotel, Southport, 6th February 2011Miles Davis: Miles Ahead, 1957Miles DavisDexter Gordon Plays Hot and CoolDexter GordonDon Weller
  • {quote}My One LP is Pyramid - first because Mllt Jackson is the quintessential vibraphonist - he plays the most unbelievably beautiful version of Django I've ever heard. When I first heard that record I fell in love with his playing - it was of my first records where I ever heard Bags play.
I immediately fell in love with it and I immediately tried to emulate his playing, that's when I was beginning to play vibes and I said {quote}I'm going to learn every note this man's playing.{quote} 
Still to this day I haven't done it because every note that he plays is so carefully crafted and it's hard to recapture that - it's a pyramid – a pinnacle and I think it really represents the Modern Jazz Quartet.{quote}Greg Carroll, Aladdin Hotel, Kansas City MO. May 2013Greg CarrollModern Jazz Quartet: Pyramid 1959 - 1960American Jazz Museum
  • “The ‘Donny Hathaway Live’ album is so special because it captures - with full concentration the thing that’s special in live performance. That communication, that exchange of audience and artist.There’s back and forth conversation, the women and the men in the audience are screaming things back to Donny and Donny’s of course responding musically - and responding incredibly musically.You can feel the emotion in the room as soon as the needle hits the record.That communication - it’s not just jazz, it’s not just soul, it’s human to human.That exchange between humanity is just beautiful to see. It happens on Donny Hathaway LIve.”Gregory Porter: Band on the Wall, Manchester, 13th June 2012Donny Hathaway: Live - released 1972Gregory Porter
  • {quote}It's called L'ascension by Olivier Messiaen who was a French composer I have loved for most of my life. Why I love his composiitions is he shows that music has always existed. Humans only stole it. We borrowed it - but it's in nature, It holds the universe together, ask any skylark or ask any blackbird they'll tell you.{quote}Jack Bruce: Band on the Wall, Manchester, 24th March, 2011L'ascension was composed in 1932-33Jack Bruce
  • {quote}I thought I'd select one of my more contemporary recent favourite albums.In terms of the jazz idiom this was a statement of intent really from Wynton at the point it dropped. I think as an example of all of them playing as young lions Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Kenny Kirkland, Charnet Moffat all playing really at the peak of their powers and of course Branford who's a massive influence on me.I think it's a really good example of not just the virtuosity of their playing and writing these great compositions - but also having a kind of political conciousness that's sadly bereft from alot of modern jazz - (that is) an attempt to make people think about what the thoughts are behind the music.{quote}Soweto Kinch: Hockley Circus, Birmingham, 5th August 2011Soweto KinchWynton Marsalis: Black Codes from the Undreground released 1985Wynton Marsalis
  • “My record of import is one I heard in 1962 when I heard the melody played by Yusef Lateef on oboe.I later found out the record he made on this disc was called ‘Going Home’ which is one of the movements from a Dvorak Symphony.So I went out and bought the disc – that would have to be done by Leonard Bernstein and The New York Philharmonic when they do the four movements of the Dvorak New World Symphony - and among these four movements is that melody called Going HomeThe story is that Antonin Dvorak came to the States - to New York, heard some blues people and went back to his hometown in Europe and wrote this melody – we call it ‘Gong Home’I’ve since recorded it on a record of mine called Orfeu with Bill Frisell on guitar, Houston Person on saxophone and my working quartet.It’s a great view of a classical melody interpreted by jazz musicians who are always, going home.”Ron Carter: At home New York City, 1st April 2014Antonin Dvorak: New World Symphony composed 1893Ron CarterLeonard Bernstein
  • “It's 'Raw Power' by Iggy and the Stooges it came out in 1973. I heard about it in 1978 I think when I was about fourteen – fifteen. A bunch of friends that I used to hang out with who were all guitar players at various levels, were a bit older than me, I used to play around at friends houses and one guy said I should check this out because it reminded him of the way I was playing at the time, so that intrigued me. This name Raw Power kept coming up again and again. So I got on the bus and went into town to buy it, which was a big deal because I was only a kid and I didn't really have that much money. 
When I actually pulled the sleeve out of the rack I just could not believe it – I mean - the power of that image hasn't diminished anyway. Just the sleeve alone promises quite a lot and I couldn’t really imagine what I was gonna be getting into. On the bus all the way home I was just kind of stunned by these images, these Mick Rock pictures. So I was already hooked before I'd even played it really because the sleeve alone - well for a start it does what the music does. It’s got the promise of some kind of shadowy other world - which if you live in the suburbs as a teenage kid looking for something interesting it's really quite alluring I think. I couldn't believe the music - I still absolutely love it and listen to it often.The thing about it is a lot of people assume that Iggy Pop particularly and the Stooges were just about ramshackle random attitude - there is plenty of attitude behind it but the amazing thing about it is that is very very deliberate, it's almost intellectual - that was something I didn't really understand at the time. I think a lot of people still don't realise that about Iggy Pop and James Williamson, who is the guitar player - and who is actually my favourite guitar player because of this record - that there's a real agenda. It's not just people putting their heads down and being messy – yeah it's got alot of attitude and it’s got a lot of raw noise manifesto in it but it's very deliberate and the words are pure street poetry I think - “Search and Destroy” particularly. 
”I Need Somebody”, “Penetration”. So it's about sex, it's about drugs and it's about an alternative subterranean world I think. Which are all amazing things particularly for a teenager or someone who’s looking for something outside of the culture but it doesn't really last unless the people making it actually live it.
You can have all those things sort of things hung around the iconography around the sleeve and the titles - this idea of sex and drugs and subterenea - but the thing is with these guys they were actually really living it.
I think it's very beautiful as well, tracks like “I Need Somebody” has this kind of burlesque bordello folk music aspect to it. Almost like 20's or 30's prohibition American folk that is about illicit things. It’s about sex really and it has that in the music and its matched perfectly by the vocal delivery - so again in Iggy Pop you've got a very young livewire poet who read Time magazine and Newsweek because he wanted to - as I understand – because he wanted to know what the enemy was doing and wrote his lyrics accordingly. He's not just someone who's trying to cop an attitude, he's someone who really understands that he's living in the shadows kind of thing and it’s just this kind of other worldly kind of promise he delivers. Aside from all of that its got killer rock 'n' roll riffs - really killing riffs. I'm often asked who's my biggest influence or who's my favourite guitar player and all that, and I've always been able to say James Williamson. 
I don't really play like him other than if I go back to where I started with this story. The start of this song on there called “Gimme Danger” is this very haunting arpeggio acoustic thing and that's where this friend of mine put the connection between me and this record together because it does like sound the way I was learning to play.
I think often with things that you connect with on an artistic level, so in my case records. There's two ways you can do it - one is that you admire something and that's fine - that you admire a record or you admire a painting - but often I think it's because the artist is capturing something that you understand - a feeling that you understand, so even if you’re looking at or listening to something abstract there’s a little lightning bolt of recognition in there.I think that’s what makes artists great because it’s an unquantifiable almost subconscious thing for many humans who dare to kind of peek around the regular third dimension. You might sitting on a bus or in your car or on the way to school or at the back of the classroom or wherever it may be. Perhaps when you go sleep at night and you have this thing in your consciousness or subconscious and we don’t really pay attention to them until they come out in a colour or a riff or they come out in a lyric I think music and painting does it better - particularly abstract painting does it better (than a lyric) because language immediately by definition quantifies things and what I’m talking about is this extrasensory aspect - and all the greatest music that hooked me as a kid did that - it’s like the promise of a different world that you weren’t living in but at the same time you recognised it - it was familiar.I can’t ever disassociate this record from all those things because it was so powerful to me. So even if I wasn’t in the mood to listen rock ‘n’ roll music I would always have that massive connection with this record because it really sums up a big period of my life that seemed to be constantly strewn in sodium light that was coming through the windows of my bedroom in my parents council house you know.I’d turn all the lights off and there was one of those big yellow street lights outside the window that would seep through the room from late September till spring really, so it seemed like an eternity as a 15 year old and I would just listen to that record and play along with it.I understood it without having to analyse it – “I’m a street walking cheater with a heart full of napalm” is the opening lyric.”Johnny Marr: Richard Goodall Gallery, Northern Quarter, Manchester, 23rd February 2011Raw Power released 1973 Iggy PopJohnny MarrJohnny Marr talks about his One LP Raw Power towards of the interview at the BBC in the FX section.
  • “Miles at his height in the 50's before jazz took another turn - this album, along with the other Miles' of this period was really at the height of the elegant era of jazz: Then it went somewhere else that was equally amazing.But I really love how the combination of soulfulness and intelligence that these guys played with - 'Trane and Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe, Cannonball and Miles - just an unbelievable group and this record is just - Philly Joe - Paul Chambers - they're just killin’ on this record.{quote}Marcus Miller: Band on the Wall, Manchester, November 2011Miles Davis: Milestones 1958Marcus Miller
  • {quote}When asked to pick an album that had the biggest impression on me, I found it difficult to choose from all the great jazz recordings that had inspired me. Instead I decided to pick an album from the classical world, one that has had a life time influence on my musical thinking. Of all the composers from the first half of the 20th century has long been Bela Bartok and I will never forget hearing for the first time his six String Quartets; long considered the greatest contribution to the genre since Beethoven. On first listening I couldn’t believe there was only a string quartet playing; it sounded like a full string orchestra, such was the power and richness of the writing. Bartok’s Quartets are full of exciting harmonies dissonances and wild almost jazz like rhythms. Later, on first seeing the scores, I began to understand how he achieved such dynamic and often” savage” power from only four instruments. However, it took me over thirty years of intensive study before I was able to figure out a way to incorporate some of his techniques into a jazz format. This long search eventually led to my Miles Music album “Janus”, featuring my jazz quartet plus a string quartet. The string writing in “Janus” is heavily influenced by Bartok and especially by the 4th String Quartet, arguably the greatest masterpiece of the six.{quote}Peter King: Theatr Brecheiniog, Brecon, 7th August 2010Béla Bartok: The Fine Arts Quartet: String Quartets No. 5 - 1934 No.6 - 1939Peter King
  • {quote}The reason this album is special to me is because the producer of the album - J Dilla is my favourite hip hop producer and I got the privilige to actually work with him before he passed away in 2006. To work with him - watch him make music - watch him in ‘the lab’ and see how he works.J Dilla is probably the only producer I know that changed the way musicians actually play their instruments. Normally a producer will just take from the musicians and do their thing - but J Dilla actually changed the way musicians play music.So this particular album Fantastic Volume 2 - when it came out, was to me the first time a record that made people start playing in that hip hop way behind the beat - kind of sloppy hip hop way - all that stuff started with Dilla - you know what I mean.This record has all of my favourite people on it - D'Angelo’s on there - Common - a lot of people on this record. It also means alot because of the time period it came out, and how it influenced the way I play doing my Trio and my Experiment band - just the way we feel the beat, his drum patterns, drum sounds, the way he samples piano and where he decides to put it - it's placement is what makes it just very very special. So I've kind of patterned alot of the stuff - especially when we play J Dilla beats we pattern alot of our stuff around his idea of where the beat is - so I think he was definitely ahead of his time and a genius of his time. So that's why I chose this record.”Robert Glasper: Hilton Garden Inn, Glasgow 28th June 2012Slum Village Fantastic, Vol. 2 - released 2000Robert Glasper
  • Sir John Betjeman reads his verse accompanied by the music of Jim Parker{quote}I’ve chosen one which is a happy marriage of words and music. There have not been many successful poetry and music albums, but one I think works well features John Betjeman, a unique eccentric and wonderful reader of his own verse.He was poet laureate as we know, and the music by Jim Parker, who lives round the corner from me in south west London, captures the period and mood of the poetry.{quote}Roger McGough: St. George's Hall Concert Room, Liverpool, April 2013Banana Blush 1974Sir John BetjemanRoger McGoughJim Parker
  • Ruth Price is Founder and Artistic Director of the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles.{quote}I think I respect this album more than any other, it's called Peggy Lee Mirrors - it was done a while back I don't know exactly when - not recently that's for sure!When you think of Leiber and Stoller you think of Yakety Yak - really famous songs, the only song on this album anyone would know would be Is That All There Is? - which sounds really Brechtian.These are trunk songs that nobody ever heard - they're wonderful. Johnny Mandel did the orchestration - it's the perfect marriage.If I had done this album I would consider my life well spent, I really do respect it - it's gorgeous. But I have a lot of singers I love - and a lot of musicians I love.{quote}Ruth Price: At home, Beverly Hills CA. April 2014Peggy Lee: Mirrors released 1975Ruth PriceThe Jazz Bakery
  • {quote}It's Miles Davis 'Four and More' and the reason why it's so special for me because I remember the first time I heard it as a kid. Listening to that live performance blew me way because you know I had been listening to a very different style of trumpet playing and improvisation. Those guys just kept me in a tail spin trying to figure out what they were doing, where they were going and I remember I was trying to get a handle on what jazz was so I would play each track - and this was back in the days of vinyl albums so you're trying to find that spot on the record with the needle! So I used to play 'em over and over and over again.I would play you know, like ‘Four’, I would listen to Miles play then I would only listen to Herbie, go back then only listen to Ron, go back, only listen to Tony. I kept doing' man until in my mind the whole album man, that album had such an impact on my life you know because it was so forward thinking in the realms of this music - and think about the date that it was recorded.To think that it still stands the test of time today speaks volumes about how important it is.{quote}Terence Blanchard: The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow 30th June 2011Miles Davis: Four & More - released 1966Terence Blanchard
  • {quote}I have had this particular album for around 54 years and I've never stopped playing it since the day I bought it.It's Ella and Louis with the Oscar Peterson Quartet and it's the finest bit of jazz singing I've heard - ever and they sing all the great songs by all the great writers - (released in 1957) Christ - all that time.{quote}Terry O'Neill: Scott's, Mayfair, London, July 2011Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong: Ella and Louis 1957Terry O'Neill
  • {quote}Hey, I chose Bo Diddley’s first album because Bo Diddley was one of the greatest guys that ever walked this planet. He was a great guitar player. He wrote great songs - he had such a great sense of rhythm, better than almost anybody that ever followed him.His records are so fabulous and simple. They’re deceptively simple. Nobody can do them like Bo Diddley.Bo Diddley was the man. He was the king. I miss him.{quote}Fred Patterson: ARChive of ContemporaryMusic, New York City, 19th September, 2014Bo Diddley: Bo Diddley released 1958Fred Patterson is Head Archivist at The ARChive of Contemporary Music , New York CityFred is it.
  • ‘It’s The sound of 65’ by the Graham Bond Organisation. It's part of my teenage years.As the title suggests it was recorded in 1965.I lived in a small mining village called Elsecar near Barnsley but five, six or sometimes seven nights a week I came into Sheffield to the legendary Esquire Club. I saw the legendary Graham Bond play there at least six or seven times.He played there a couple of all nighters.I fell asleep in the television room one night and when I woke up the morning after Ginger Baker was asleep on my shoulder.. So Ginger Baker was one of the Graham Bond Organisation with Jack Bruce and Dick Heckstall-Smith. It’s an album that’s seen a few wars - it’s in dreadful condition. I looked on ebay last night and there’s a copy of this for sale at £450 – no bids on it yet. So it’s achieved legendary status but mine’s in dreadful condition. I had it cleaned recently and it cost me a pound - it’s just about playable.‘Sound of 65’ Graham Bond Organisation reminds me of my teenage years at the Esquire Club in Sheffield.{quote}Trevor Neal: The Richard Goodall Gallery, Manchester, 7th October 2014The Graham Bond Organisation: The Sound of 65Trevor Neal
  • {quote}I really love this record. When I was growing up in London a few close friends and I discovered it back in our teens, and we used to listen to it together, talk about what the songs meant to us. Whenever I listen to it now it takes me back to that special time in my life and to those precious friendships….amazing how an album can do that isn't it? I find the stories here so rich and engaging in the way they are told through the playing, production and arrangements. The record has been a real source of inspiration to me over the years, and I still get something new from it even after all these years of listening…{quote}Oli Rockberger, Rockwood Music Hall, New York City, 2nd April 2014Sting: Mercury Falling released 1996Oli Rockberger
  • {quote}You know, when we were teenagers, the jazz guys seemed to us to be the real rebels. To me, folk singers and protest singers weren’t tagged to the streets like a black jazz artist whose very livelihood if not health was on the line. In New York, you lose your cabaret card, not work, you’re a junkie, you could sink even lower than you were. To me, there was kind of a heroism that fought against the racism of the general society and got expressed in a music that was as beautiful as it was spiky and ugly sometimes. So by the time Ornette Coleman comes around, he was following the bebop era which was ornate and elaborate. Ornette Coleman comes along and he’s taking jazz through modern, modal scales, back to an elemental feeling that you’d say is more connected to the blues. So, in a way, even though he’s a supreme modernist, he’s echoing something as early as Louis Armstrong in its simplicity. And also, he disposed of traditional harmony, as articulated bypianos and guitars, and let this horn float naked in front of just drums, bass and – in this case – trumpet, Don Cherry. It put a lot of heat on the soloist; your line had to flow, he had to keep an interest going that didn’t have to do with the harmonic undergirding and all that interchange harmonically that goes on. So it felt naked, it felt raw. And yet a melody like ‘Lonely Woman’ on this... The purists were probably shocked by it because of its kind of ugly beauty, its twisted grace. To me, it was... It had – what do they call it in philosophy – an objective correlative, it actually correlated to a human experience. If you listen to bebop, you hear a little anger and frustration but this was reeking of expression. And, to me, although this is the great dichotomy in jazz, the horn players wanna sound like the human voice, the alto sax being in the range of a female’s voice. And the funny thing is, a great jazz singer like Billie Holiday or Sarah Vaughan wanted to sound like the horns! So when they work together... I almost chose Sarah Vaughan’s No Count Sarah.(1958). It’s a record of hers without Count Basie but using his band, just swinging, and - as artistic as it is - just down and dirty, which finally is what attracted us as kids to jazz. It had this dignity of these underclass warriors who’d survived everything they’d faced. And yet it sounded like they were dedicated to something higher than just screaming through the horn. They found beauty in the jungle somewhere.{quote} David Was: Amoeba Music, Los Angeles, 10th April 2014Ornette Coleman: The Shape Of Jazz To Come released 1959David Was
  • This album is called ‘The Best of Muddy Waters’ and it’s the seminal Chicago blues album with contributions by most of the people of note and are actually from Mississippi who had made the journey to Chicago. So you have the pure Mississippi blues in electric form for the first time.Muddy Water on slide guitar and vocals, Otis Span on piano, Little Walter on harmonica and of course Willie Dixon on bass amongst many other fine musicians - but they are literally the best in their category in my opinion and it’s a splendid example of working together – in a way that is so relaxed and so natural absolutely disciplined in a way that no revival band has ever been able to approach in my opinion - sheer quality, and this has all the classic tracks.I played with Willie Dixon in Hollywood, I went there to represent Europe in the Little Walter Memorial Concert.All the surviving members of the great Muddy Waters and Little Walter bands were there – The Aces and The Dukes and quite a lot of other people like Lowell Fulson and Lee Oskar who was the harmonica player with War who invented a completely different form of harmonica playing and everybody connected with blues – the last remaining time and they’re all dead now apart from Lee Oscar, that was back in 1990.I went for two weeks and stayed for nearly a year.”Victor Brox: Richard Goodall Gallery, Manchester, 7th October 2010Muddy Waters: The Best of Muddy Waters released 1958Victor Brox
  • Full title - The Night Has A Thousand Eyes{quote}Well, it’s a recording of Ronnie and Sonny Stitt that was done in 1965 in the old place in Gerrard Street. And it was a spontaneous union. They were having quite an argument in the office at the back of the club prior to Sonny going onstage. It was a musical dispute. And it was time for Sonny to go on the stand, so he turned around to Ronnie and said, ‘You wanna take it on the bandstand?’ And Ronnie said, ‘Absolutely!’ And the two of them stormed onto the bandstand and what ensued after that was one of the most electrifying evenings that any of us had heard probably ever, because of course they were nuts mad at each other and they were trying to outdo the other and it was amazing. The whole evening was absolutely incredible. And the irony is none of us realised it was being recorded, we were so wrapped up in the music. And I remember saying to Ronnie afterwards, ‘If ever there was a night that should have been recorded, this was it! It’s an absolute sin that this...(laughs)...isn’t there for people to listen to. ‘ And we were lucky. It was recorded. And it was a memorable evening that I don’t think anyone who was there will ever forget. And the other extraordinary thing is that when this was released, actually after Ronnie had passed away, cos of course the 50 years thing had gone by... But Valerie Wilmer was there that night and she took the photograph that was...is...on the cover of the CD. It never was an LP cos it wasn’t released during the time when it would have been an LP. And the picture is completely remarkable because she captured Ronnie playing some quite exquisite changes and Sonny Stitt looking at his fingering and looking completely mystified and perturbed which was such a wonderful summary of what actually was happening that night.So that’s... It’s my favourite CD. Clearly, I was mesmerised when it came out and very grateful that it had been recorded.{quote}Mary Scott: Hotel Pennsylvania, New York Cit, 3rd April 2014Ronnie Scott and Sonny Stitt: The Night Has A Thousand Eyes recorded at Ronnie Scott's, Gerrard StreetReleased 1997 Mary Scott Global Music
  • {quote}In the seventies it was very popular among friends of ours to listen to American comedians.There were quite a number of them. There was Victor Borges and many others whose name I don't remember but we did spend lots of time listening to these records. Then I suddenly discovered Lenny Bruce .Lenny Bruce was more aggressive,was very political and very tough. He was really an anarchist in a way. I was very impressed by his work especially from a political point of view.At that time there was a need for that sort of aggression and criticism of society.Among the establishment he became terribly unpopular because of his criticism of society and (way of) life itself.To some degree it relates to the situation I came across in South Africa, but in general I saw it as a worldwide criticism of the establishment.{quote}Jürgen spoke later about what he considers to be his most important photographs - those he took of Nelson Mandela on his return to his cell on Robben Island where he had been held for seventeen years.{quote}As I watched (Mr.Mandela) and took a few frames I suddenly realised 'what goes through this man's brain now - seventeen years being stuck in this little place?' Looking out of that window, what does he see looking out of that window?And then I said 'thank you very much' and he turned around and he gave me a little smile, it wasn't his normal smile - it was his coming out of deep thought and contemplation of sorrow passed and so on.It was very personal.I think that was my most important two pictures, him looking out and turning around and having that little smile. That was a very different smile from his natural smile.{quote}Jürgen Schadeberg: Belgravia Gallery, London, 23rd June 2014Lenny Bruce: Busted! Live 1962Jürgen Schadeberg
  • {quote}It’s the best playing of Duke Ellington I ever heard in my life. It’s really beautiful. You can hear him humming on “Sophisticated Lady” in the background and it’s heart wrenching - it’s so beautiful. On something like “I’ve Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good” he starts off with some real slow playing of it in free time just by himself and then the band pulls it in after he plays the first verse and it feels like somebody’s just taking a romp through the park on a warm summer day. And then “Caravan”, which has that Latin beat to it, he just really grooves on it and leaves a couple of measures out and then comes back in. And those measures he leaves out are so important and so strong – he just did the right thing all the time – he was totally intuitive. He’s a real hero. You see, I don’t play that kind of music; I come from the slow blues of Jimmy Yancey . I accompanied Jimmy’s wife, Mama Yancey, after he died. I learned on the streets first and then I took a couple of degrees in music later. I love classical music but it kicks my ass in so badly when I try to play it so I memorise stuff. So I am more wired to play improvised music so this is the kind of stuff I play- but I don’t play like Monk but I just love what he plays. Most of the stuff I love is what I can’t do!{quote} [laughs].Erwin Helfer: Katerina's, Chicago, 14th May, 2013Thelonious Monk: Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington released 1955Erwin Helfer
  • The Mamas and The Papas:If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears“I designed and did all the graphics for album covers for Mamas and Papas and the Stones, The Doors and all that.There’s a Doors cover that’s really famous – this one here (shows ‘The Doors’ ) was the original Doors cover, that’s one of my most famous covers, it was nominated for a Grammy along with a Byrds cover that I did.You have to understand these covers are repops of the originals – they reproduced them later to make the graphics larger to sell them in the bins (racks) and things like that That Doors (The Doors) cover there – was very elegant when it first came out, And then later on the (print) runs got trashier and trashier, the colours were off, they could be off register even.William: Would you say that the albums you’ve mentioned represented a milestone in your career?Guy: The milestone of my career was the Mamas and The Papas in the bathtub.That put me on the map, I’d already become successful - but I wasn’t ‘a known’ photographer.That particular one - I loved the music, I was really close friends with the Mamas and the Papas until most of them died I was a major friend, and I still have one left Michelle is still a good friend she comes to visit, we do things together.So those are the ones (albums) I would say are monumental for my career, but after Mamas and the Papas, I travelled with them, they were my best friends, I never stopped working for 30 or 40 years, 50 years, busy every day. That is big!Dylan – I shot him but never stayed friends with him or anything like that.”Guy Webster: In his studio, Venice, Los Angeles, CA, 7th May 2013The Mamas and The Papas: If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears released 1966Guy Webster
  • Brad Stubbs: At home, West Hollywood CA, 12th May, 2013{quote}I chose Getz/Gilberto with Stan Getz and João Gilberto, which was my entry into jazz - I didn’t even know it was jazz - and I loved it so much and it’s just an album that I have just bought over and over and over again and I listen to it all the time. I listen to it when I’m kissing my wife, when I’m making love. Everything was built on this album, after I heard this, then I fell in love with Sting, I fell in love with Michael Franks, I fell in love with Sade. I’m a writer and I write stuff like that, that sort of same beautiful…it’s jazz, but it’s beautiful. And jazz isn’t always beautiful to some people when you listen to Coltrane or something when he’s gettin’ all crazy in the 60s, but this is beautiful, you know. And I loved it so much and anyway that’s why I picked this album. But I have so many copies of it and I just keep buying it. If I saw it today at [???] I’d probably pick it up again and I’d go, Oh wait a second, I already have this. I don’t care! So that’s my story on that. Stan Getz though, something interesting about him, he got a lot of flak for this album, you know, and it’s happened to a lot of artists since then. You know, that’s not real jazz, it’s beautiful but if you look at this album it’s still in the top ten of jazz songs. This, Miles Davis Kind of Blue, Take Five – those are the top ten songs. And I look at people like Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys, he got a lot of flak and it hurt him and it drove him crazy and he neglected his music. It happened to Sly Stone from Sly and the Family Stone. The black community gave him a hard time because he was writing these positive songs and Norah Jones, another one – I love Norah Jones – but she got a lot of flak for this music but you know what? Those are the records that are going to last and last and last and it was almost a tragedy that Stan Getz couldn’t embrace this, you know, for longer because you know his peers were judging him – it “wasn’t real jazz” but to me it was the best stuff that Stan Getz ever did. And of course Jobim, oh what a great writer! One of the greatest writers since Beethoven, in my mind. You know, he does such interesting things with music, that I can spend years just analysing his songs and the way he writes, because he’s otherworldly. And anyway, that’s why I love Getz/Gilberto.{quote} [laughs]Brad Stubbs: At home, West Hollywood CA, 12th May, 2013Stan Getz, Joåo Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto released 1964Featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrud GilbertoBrad Stubbs
  • {quote}It's Frank Sinatra's Greatest hits – Strangers in the Night is my favourite track and It Was a Very Good Year - I like that one and Thats Life -he was verylivelyon That's Life'.I like all of them Bill!He could sing seriously or go jazzy and swing a song.- he could sing any song, a ballad or a lively one and I love the way his tone blended with an orchestra.I like him all over, good entertainer ,everything about him, I thought he was lovely - lovely blue eyes O'l Blue Eyes! He was lovely.Really funny as well – good sense of humour.I just like to listen to him but I've seen a lot of his pictures - though he was a nice dancer too. I remember him with Gene Kelly and Grace Kelly, him and Bing - they were good together.I was in his fan club donkey's years ago, you had to pay a subscription of two shillings or two and six pence – something like that and used to get some information about him now and then – don’t know where all that went though!I liked the way he sat on a tall stool his hat just tipped at an angle when he sang.That's a lovely picture (of him) - he was the best.I loved him in other words!{quote}Mum: At home Woolston, Chehire, 7th December, 2013Frank Sinatra: Greatest Hits! released 1968
  • “Columbia Records made a fantastic anthology which was drawn together by Harry Smith way way back - am talking about the 1950’s - '50, ’51, ’52.It contained a small sample of something like four or five dozen folk singers - real folk singers - not like me - I’m a singer of folk songs - but they’re the real ones; from allover the United States. From way down in the bayous of Florida and from up in Minnesota and it had just a snapshot kind of of each one of them.And I still remember a lot of those (sings snippet) ‘He Got Better Things For You’ which was gospel. Then you had (sings snippet) 'Fishing Blues' - wonderful songs.So - Harry Smith - 'The Anthology of American Folk Music'.”Peggy Seeger: On stage, Band on the Wall, Manchester, 18th June 2015Peggy Seeger: The Anthology of Amercian Folk Music- released 1952Peggy Seeger
  • {quote}Elton John – for me – ran at his peak in the years I was at high school. Madman Across The Water came out around ’71, and he was the first person that I became a fan of and I would spend nights getting tickets. And everything about his craziness was sort of inside me cos I came from a very repressed background and there was just something I could experience. Busting loose, being crazy and creative... And Captain Fantastic was sort of my ‘American Graffiti’ summer. This came out in ’75 and it was a song everybody played. I was the editor of the yearbook and everybody talked about me being the crazy Elton John fan for four years and he’s finally leaving! (laughs) But it was. I was so absorbed and the song ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ always made me think, ‘You can get out.’ You can somehow be different from background that I don’t really want to go into too much, but I really thought I would be trapped in a certain kind of life. And this and getting out of my school and thinking, ‘This is the change in my life to being an adult,’ to making decisions that were gonna get me out of the little town I was in, and what I had to do to make sure I didn’t screw it up. And this is just four years of listening to his music, in particular, amongst others that I really loved, but this one was sort of my anthem. And that’s why when you mentioned an album, I really thought of this summer. 'Cos after this summer, everything was totally different to me, when I got to college and started to become my own person... I met David while I was still in college. And I went from being engaged to be married, to, a few months later, moving in with this character. And I reflected again on this song, ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’, and meeting David changed the whole course of my being able to be honest and be the person I was meant to be. So that’s why this album is important to me.{quote}Jolino Beserra: At home Silver Lake, Los Angeles, 13th April 2014Elton John: Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy released 1975Jolino Besarra
  • {quote}Well, I was a struggling graphic artist and I got this job for this new Stephen Sondheim musical, Follies. And I called up the ad agency that was handling the art and said, ‘This is David Byrd, I’m an artist, and could I present a sketch?’ And they said, ‘Oh no, we’ve paid all the sketch artists. We only have a budget for 14.’ And I said, ‘Well, how about if I do it for free?’ And they said, ‘Oh, well, we love free!’ So I did a sketch and oddly enough it was chosen, much to my total surprise. I just wanged it out and did it, you know? And it became kind of a legendary show that was very large. It had a cast of 48 and huge sets and it was about the end of an era, about the end of the Ziegfeld era, really. Those girls and those... They were plotless. They had vaudeville acts between... They had six-foot girls walking around in glamorous costumes. And, ironically, the show opened on the night of my 30th birthday - it’s an album I always revisit and I’ve done four different productions in different places. So I’ve done four different versions of this. I did a profile. You know, I’ve just done every possible idea I could get from that original idea of the Follies girl with the title being her head dress and the crack symbolising the end of an era. It’s a metaphor. So that’s kind of it.{quote}WE: Would you say that that album represents as much to you musically? Or would you say that there are any other bands or ensembles or records that musically really speak to you very deeply? DB: {quote}I like this show particularly because it’s a pastiche that’s extremely eclectic. So it represents every possible type of music pre-1940. And I was born before Pearl Harbour. So I know everything from Victoriana, Ragtime, Operetta, Big Band Jazz, little band jazz. And popular music, Gershwin. I mean, it’s all in this show.{quote}WE: So it gathers all the strands of your own taste in music, I guess.DB: Yes, and even though I did many rock posters, as I’ve grown older, I listen more to Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and Chris Connor and people like that than I do rock music. And I don’t know why that is. That’s just it. Though there are some new bands that I think are pretty sensational. And one of my favourite guys was Lou Reed who we just lost recently - and Leonard Cohen.{quote}David Edward Byrd at home Silver Lake, Los Angeles, 13th April 2014David Edward Byrd: At home Silver Lake City, Los Angeles, 13th April 2014Original Broadway Cast: FolliesDavid Edward Byrd
  • {quote}It's 'Elvis Live in Person Live at the International Hotel Las Vegas. It's a double album with 'Elvis Back in Memphis' as well!Is my favorite because because this album transformed him - it took him away from the movies which was a love hate relationship with his fans - and himself I think.It moved him forward from the Sun years, this for me vocally was probably the most interesting the most creative and interesting period of his career with alot of his best songs here.It's the blueprint for the future concerts.This was back in the day when there was no autotune, when your singer was a real singer - it was pure talent and that was it unquestionable.Alot of great songs are here - 'Suspicious Minds', 'Can't Stop Loving You' and 'In the Ghetto' which was - and still is a very significant song now, so beautifully sung and deeply felt.The other album of this double has a number of perhaps lesser known songs - 'From a Jack to a King', 'Do You Know Who I Am' - songs you wouldn't normally expect Elvis to sing but it just showed a different side of him, more intimate, another passion.{quote}Karen McBride: Night and Day, Manchester, April 2013Live in Person/ Back in Memphis 1969Karen McBride
  • “I pondered over many albums - I was going to bring Aladdin Sane for you by David Bowie ‘cos I wore it out when I was a kid.But it’s got to be Aretha ‘Lady Soul’ 'cos I bought it from Flint market, and I think it was like a quid or something and I’ve still got the original copy, and it’s just great.It’s got all the best songs that she recorded like Chain of Fools, Natural Women, Ain’t No Way - with her sister singing backing vocals.Aretha – Lady Soul.{quote}Ian Shaw: Cinnamon Club, Bowdon, 20th March 2015Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul released 1968Ian Shaw
  • {quote}Well it was the first time I'd heard big band that sounded orchestral - he seemed to cross all genres - it was jazz no doubt about it, but suddenly it was bigger!Apart from that of course - being a trumpeter and loving that instrument - Cootie Williams on there does that great piece 'El Gato' that Ellington wrote for him and I just used to listen to that over and over - sort of saying now that's how I want to sound on the trumpet.So it's one of those albums you grow up with and it's part of who you are musically.{quote}James Morrison: Wigan Jazz Festival, July 2012Duke Ellington: 70th Birthday Concert (Free Trade Hall Manchester, England) 1969James Morrison
  • Mr Bailey had to chose two - what can I say? I love these too.Return to Forever - Romantic WarriorWeather Report - Heavy Weather“The two favourite records I have are Heavy Weather by Weather Report and Romantic Warrior by Return to Forever, and I can’t pick one over the other. It’s not anything that complicated, those records spoke to who I really I am which is sort in between being a jazz guy and a funk guy.I love jazz but I love the groove too both those records have incredibly high level of musicianship but always nice feeling.The music after a while got real technical and a lot of guys who had a lot of technique but not the soul, the feeling and the groove.And those two bands had feeling and groove and soul. The compositions were good music – the difference between being heavy and (just) trying to be heavy.Those guys were heavy weight musicians if you look at a record like Heavy Weather none of those songs are complicated and none of them are technical - it’s just really great music.A lot of the Return to Forever music on Romantic Warrior was technically complicated but still good melodies, good music.And of course Stanley Clarke and Jaco were just phew - way beyond.I was already playing like that – playing melodically, playing solos - exploring possibilities on the instrument and Stanley and Jaco and Alphonso Johnson - who was my other favourite were doing exactly the same thing I was doing - but a thousand times better.So the combination of those guys playing bass and the great music and of course everybody else’s performances – Chick, Lenny White and Al Di Meola on the Return to Forever and then with Weather Report – Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Manolo, Alex Acuña on the drums – just great great music.I like the exploration that goes on in jazz - but still with the groove and with some feeling and some soul and those two records for me do it more than anything else – so that’s it!”Victor Bailey: Band on the Wall, Manchester, 4th November 2011Weather Report: Heavy Weather released 1977Return to Forever: Romantic Warrior released 1976Victor Bailey
  • {quote}Well, that record is the world-famous Kind of Blue album by Miles Davis, which was the most-sold jazz record in history. The reason it’s dear to my heart is because Miles Davis was staying at my parents’ house when he made that album. I was in high school and my stepfather was his doctor and I was playing trumpet and going to the conservatory and Miles gave my stepfather the test pressing – you know with no grooves on one side – and so I became enthralled with Miles Davis and then just the music on there is just so classic, you know, with Coltrane on it, you know, and Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb…Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans.Yeah, Bill Evans and Cannonball. It was just like the quintessential music of that era, almost of all time. I mean, it really changed the face of quote-unquote jazz music and really changed my life, because seeing him in person - and he took me to a gig when I was 17, 18 years. He stayed at the house. So that album and just that experience is dear to my heart, you know.WE: Beautiful. Beautiful. That is so special. Thank you.EH: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I could go on and on for hours.WE: I’ll bet. EH: But, you know, I think everybody... with that album and that music.WE: Your experience of Miles staying at your house is so unique.EH: Absolutely….and me playing the trumpet too. It made it ever so much more significant to me.WE: When you were very young at that time, did you talk to Miles about the trumpet, and did he talk to you?EH: Well, he wouldn’t just come by like a normal person and say this is this and this is that, it’s just by observation. In fact I may have played one of his records, you know, and he just smiled and said - 'you sound good but that’s me' [laughs] That was an eye-opener right there, you know.{quote}Eddie Henderson: Universal Rehearsal Studios, New York City, April 2013Miles Davis: Kind of Blue released 1959Eddie Henderson
  • {quote}Miles Ahead - the title says it all - Miles was ahead of everybody else! {quote}Blues for Pablo’ - there's depth in that you know. The treatment that Spain received from Franco is awful.So we can tell the story in that album and then tell whatever Miles did.Miles got into it himself - he said 'it sounds as if like I'm Spanish' you know. He's into it, he’s really into it.I told Judith that people are gonna think that those lyrics* wrote themselves - cos they come from nowhere, but they cover a whole lot.Me - {quote}Your current project with Pete Churchill based on Miles Ahead - so that record has inspired you both to discover and create your own response to the album.{quote}Jon - I like those things that open.Jon starts to sing, laughs and says -“Now after that you gotta have somethin’! You and me are gonna work! Soon as I find out how to write!!”Judith enters the room.Jon “What you got?”Judith - “I have some albums – the Miles Ahead, Freddie Freeloader, Evolution of the Blues Song, Thelonious Monk, the first Hendricks, Lambert and Ross, another Miles Davis Porgy and Bess then I have Basie from ’41 to ’51.”Me - “The cover (Miles Ahead) matches your jacket Jon!!”Judith – “Yes the colours are right!”Jon laughs – “Oh man!”After the photographs were taken Jon spoke warmly about two of his close friends Kurt Elling and Erroll Garner.How Kurt seized a great opportunity at one of Jon's vocal workshops when Jon asked for a volunteer to come onto the rehearsal room stage. Kurt sprang up and their friendship began. Jon thought about 'His brother' - Erroll Garner.“When Erroll Garner came back home from tour he would call me up to sing. When we met we'd embrace and say {quote}I love you man.{quote}'Concert by the Sea' is a great favourite of Jon's, he asked his Judith to play the recording - he was moved to mime Erroll playing an invisible piano, his heart was with his great friend.On the wall hangs the powerful poetic picture of another old friend. John Coltrane playing soprano sax signed by one of my favourite photographers - Roy DeCarava.It's a masterpiece in a moment. Jon talked about it how DeCarava seemed to have made the notes visible - they were {quote}flying from the horn.{quote}Jon Hendricks: At home, New York City, 26th March 2015Miles Davis: Miles Ahead released 1957Jon Hendricks*Jon Hendricks and Pete Churchill are working on a project based on Miles Ahead
  • {quote}Back in the 1970s there was a record store near my home. One day I saw a copy of the four-Lp box set The Fletcher Henderson Story – A Study In Frustration. I was so excited that I literally ran home to get the money to buy it. It has since been reissued as a three-CD set. It's 64 recordings, dating from 1923-38, feature the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra at its best. Nearly every major young African-American jazz musician of that era was part of the band at one time or another including Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins (he was with Henderson for ten years), Benny Carter, Red Allen, Roy Eldridge and countless others. The music - by what was really the first swing big band is quite exciting, especially the recordings from 1925-29, and this has long been a real favorite of mine.{quote}Scott Yanow: Kirk Douglas Theatre, Culver City CA. 28th March 2015Fletcher Henderson: A Study In Frustration recorded 1923 to 1938 released 1961Scott Yanow
  • WE “ Mr. Stanko you’ve chosen an album you love very much, I wonder if you can say what it is and why it’s so special for you please?TS “All life for me is ‘Kind of Blue’ - very simple. What is most important - beautiful sound and Miles - ‘Kind of Blue’.” Tomasz Stanko: Kirk Douglas Theatre, Culver City CA, 29th March 2015Miles Davis: Kind of Blue released 1959Tomasz Stanko
  • “First of all I’m a huge John Coltrane fan - obviously, as a saxophonist you can’t go around him you know.And then the fact that his technique really took him to - we could say to the limit of what’s possible on the saxophone.Arguably folks like Michael Brecker came along and expanded that but certainly John Coltrane raised the bar so very high in terms of technique.And then he got to a point it seems really he was searching for something else, something deeper and I think his music was very very spiritual.As a Christian I find that the soul is in his search,.In the meantime along the way he would stop and play these beautiful ballads and soo this John Coltrane - Johnny Hartman ballads record just speaks to me.All the technique that he was capable of showing off - he chose to just speak from his heart and that’s what makes that record special.”Kirk Whallum: The Cinnamon Club, Bowdon, 2nd July 2011John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman - released 1963Kirk Whallum
  • {quote}That’s an interesting question: why is so special to you? I suppose the thing is, you know, musical education , as a human being, especially with the culture that we have in England, is vital really and I suppose it sort of defines your character, the people you hang out with, the interests. You know, it is a sort of look into your psyche, if you like, and I don’t know whether it’s a good or bad point that the album I’ve picked is Nico The Marble Index. I think I have always been drawn to groups that are very, very difficult and Nico musically on her own when she worked with John Cale was always quite a difficult – what you’d term difficult to listen to or difficult to interpret musically.{quote}Peter Hook: Photographed at home, south Manchester,Nico: The Marble Index released 1968Peter Hook
  • {quote}It’s called ‘Unknown Pleasures’ by Joy Division.I first heard it when I was probably 15 or 16 and at the time they were New Order. Joy Division, as they were, had gone and I discovered them because I was getting into the music that was the precurser of the stuff I was listening to at the time. Looking back on it now I can say that when you’re a teenager you’re full of angst and that kind of thing and it’s a perfect sound track to that feeling I suppose.Joy division came out of the punk scene which seemed quite angry to me, and quite rightly I supopose – although I never really felt angry, even though it was Thatcher’s Britain. I felt depressed more than anything I think and a lot of the current music at the time talked about love whereas this was something different. It felt like it was coming from within. When you listened to music- obviously - you could hear it emanate from the speakers but this one felt like it was coming from inside of me.It’s hard to describe. I was listening to it on the way over here and it was a different sound. A little later I lived in Manchester so I can totally understand where that darkness came from – the weather and the industrial noises that are on the record.There’s a song called ‘She’s Lost Control’ and I used to know a little girl – it’s perfect for certain people. There are certain lines in it that album are just brilliant. In one song he sings “we’ll take a drink and step outside, an angry voice and one who cried” for instance. I think I can say that It was the first piece of music that I thought was art. I mean Classical music is the music that people refer to as art and then we have pop music and rock music but I hadn’t really thought of that kind of contemporary modern music as art but this is to me. Talk about ahead of it’s time!It still feels contemporary listening to it right now. When I was a kid I played football, I wanted to be a football player but I did art too – I drew as well. This allowed me to feel that art was very valid. It was a valid occupation, a valid practise. It made me think its ok to do art – it’s a good thing to do art – it’s got value. Before that I didn’t really feel that, other than make drawings and that’s it, but this moved me so much.{quote}David French: Culver City, March 2015Joy Division: Closer released 1980David French{quote}It’s called ‘Unknown Pleasures’ by Joy Division.I first heard it when I was probably 15 or 16 and at the time they were New Order. Joy Division, as they were, had gone and I discovered them because I was getting into the music that was the precurser of the stuff I was listening to at the time. Looking back on it now I can say that when you’re a teenager you’re full of angst and that kind of thing and it’s a perfect sound track to that feeling I suppose.Joy division came out of the punk scene which seemed quite angry to me, and quite rightly I suppose – although I never really felt angry, even though it was Thatcher’s Britain. I felt depressed more than anything I think and a lot of the current music at the time talked about love whereas this was something different. It felt like it was coming from within. When you listened to music- obvioulsy -you could hear it emanate from the speakers but this one felt like it was coming from inside of me.It’s hard to describe. I was listening to it on the way over here and it was a different sound. A little later I lived in Manchester so I can totally understand where that darkness came from – the weather and the industrial noises that are on the record.There’s a song called ‘She’s Lost Control’ and I used to know a little girl – it’s perfect for certain people. There are certain lines in it that album are just brilliant. In one song he sings “we’ll take a drink and step outside, an angry voice and one who cried” for instance. I think I can say that It was the first piece of music that I thought was art. I mean Classical music is the music that people refer to as art and then we have pop music and rock music but I hadn’t really thought of that kind of contemporary modern music as art but this is to me. Talk about ahead of it’s time!It still feels contemporary listening to it right now. When I was a kid I played football, I wanted to be a football player but I did art too – I drew as well. This allowed me to feel that art was very valid. It was a valid occupation, a valid practise. It made me think its ok to do art – it’s a good thing to do art – it’s got value. Before that I didn’t really feel that , other than make drawings and that’s it, but this moved me so much.{quote}David French: Culver City, March 2015Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures released 1979David French
  • “It’s not so much with a particular album - although there are things on certain albums – I mean I can choose from a whole bunch of things. Sue suggested I recommend the Samba Con Salsa album from The Bass Clef, it’s lively – yeah that’s good. But then what I think the contributions of Lennie (Tristano) and what Bird did – you know.Bird recorded with strings and it was unheard of in those days. That was the commercial guy saying ‘Look, lets put this guy with a string section’ - the album ‘Bird With Strings’ is just incredible. And a lot of musicians at the time thought ‘Aww …Birds copped out…..it’s commercial’. But his playing was so great on that you know. And what it did it enabled people to hear the melody - which was played by the strings – and hear what Bird did with it , you know. Then It was like a new thing that hadn’t happened before.Created a wider awareness, I think so. But the point is, at the time when it came out, jazz was at a peak and the following was quite huge in America you know. So that as jazz musicians we were inclined to see the rock scene as kind of ‘Oh did it matter – it didn’t really count’. All that’s gone and now it’s like ‘Oh jazz – what is that’? ( laughs )So again if I am successful, as a writer or an influence, to get people to reappraise the music - because yeah you can have in the Classical world you can have the Strauss Waltz’s and all that, which is lovely music, or Tchaikovsky which is even greater – but there’s also Bach, Mozart, Beethoven. Out of those three Beethoven seemed the least creative to me – to my ears – but maybe it’s because it’s straightforward harmony. I mean Bach, who was before any of them was so melodic and so incredibly aware of music and how it could be described.WE And it is so rhythmic as well isn’t it PI that’s right yeah.. yeahSo, if I could have an influence in helping people to realise the truth, that underlying, they’d get out of this commercial vein. Not to eliminate but to say ‘Hang on, there’s more to it than that’ you know. So that’s what I … one of the things I’m working on you know. The other thing, which is aside from that is the book I’ve just written. It ostensibly has a jazz context but it came out of the influence of the Parliamentary Jazz committee, cos the Labour and Tories they love the music – so they’re all on the stair together and if only they could apply to politics (laughs) it would be wonderful you know.So where do we go? But the arts, the music and especially jazz has a hope to it and that’s what drives me on you know. So here I am at 86 and what do I do next. (laughs)The recent book I’ve written is ‘I am, therefore I think’. And it’s about where science has avoided the truth. And the science that is lauded is, in the main, that boosts the world economy. And there were scientists who added so much to knowledge whose work has been ignored. I wrote one book about it – about the scientist Wilhelm Reich – you know about this man?WE No I don’t.I’ll leave one with you before I go. And really it was when I was in New York – Reich had been a student of Freud the early part of the twentieth century and he was very perceptive and he understood the psychology beyond Freud. And out of that he showed how it’s not just psychology – it’s to do with biological energy and it’s the underlying biological energy that forms our opinions. So his research was into that. Eventually he realised that this energy is everywhere, things that a lot of cultures have known – always known – but which the West ignored you know. Bio energies – well it’s just within us.”Peter Ind: Photographed at home, Shepperton, 19th May 2015Mr. Ind is holding his album 'Looking Out' released in 1961. This was my suggestion.Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker with Strings recorded 1949 and 1950Peter IndLennie Tristano
  • {quote}Well, what happened with me was I’d had a nervous breakdown in the RAF. You get a medical - the psychiatrist’s word is Law - I don’t know if it still is – that is the RAF psychiatrist. I was medicalled out and sent back home to Glasgow.In the meantime I used to do these little jazz sessions at the military band bit with a trumpet player called Ken Wilkinson. The next thing, I got a ticket sent through to say - ‘I’ve got you a gig at Slough Palais three nights a week, here’s your railway ticket – get on the train, forget about everything else’ - because I was frightened to go out of the house almost at that point. So I went and it was great and it started bringing me out of myself a bit. But the main thing was I was still in a bit of a depression, so I felt bloody awful one time - and I didn’t seem to be making any kind of fluent headway. Well how do you do this?– how does it all work and everything else? So I was at the point of really considering not bothering living anymore and he came in, Ken, because I was staying with him and his wife in a room, and he said ‘Hey, listen to this’. He put on Clifford Brown and I went ‘Ah’ - it was almost as if Clifford Brown was saying ‘Come on, come on, fuck all that, this is it, this is what it’s all about – get your head down and get on with it’It only happened twice in my life. The other time was in France, when I was over in France and I was feeling the same way again (laughs) and this guy put the juke box on in a little French café and the next thing was Bird playing ‘Just Friends’.(BW sings)Almost again like him saying’ Oi, enough of that shit, this is what’s happening now. Let’s get on with it.’But I mean, it’s a bit of fantasising I understood that. But Clifford Brown …all time favourite ‘Blue and Brown’ …that track was it.When I saw this headline that he’d been – 25 years old – this crash.. I was absolutely heart broken. I couldn’t believe it. I’d thought ‘when he comes over here I’m going to not only go and see him but I’m going to talk to him’ and it never happened. But he’s always been the one. I absolutely adore him. His playing is fantastic; still is to this day.Love it.{quote}Bobby Wellins: The Cinnamon Cliub, Bowdon, 9th May 2015Mr. Wellins is holding the definitive publication on the subject. Keeper of the Flame - Modern Jazz in Manchester 1946 - 1972 by Bill Birch.Clifford Brown: Blue and BrownBobby Wellins
  • “The album is Nefertiti by The Miles Davis Quintet - special for so many reasons – it changed my life.The musicians are Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Miles Davis.There’s so much interaction and interplay between the musicians and you really get the feeling there’s some kind of wonderful science experiment going on and the musicians are even surprised by what’s happening.I understand when they recorded this album they walked into the recording studio and Miles had the tunes on music stands waiting for them, there was no rehearsal - in fact the rehearsals were the first takes and (the album) was mostly the first takes.You come to find some of the later CD releases of the album they have some of the second and third takes and it’s always the first takes that were the more interesting – and it’s really a genius record.”Jeff Gauthier: Kirk Douglas Theatre, Culver City CA, 29th March 2015Miles Davis: Nefertiti released 1968Jeff Gauthier
  • “I was a student at Cambridge and I ran into a friend of mine Peter Silwood-Cope who was a jazz fanatic and I never really sort of listened to jazz very much before then - he was a trumpet player and loved the saxophone too.And so one way and another he introduced me to all the bebop generation of jazz musicians and John Coltrane was the one I sort of connected to the most and particularly this album ‘Love Supreme’ was the one that just sort of hooked me right away - it’s been with me ever since – I just can’t get it out of my head.”Philip Vaughan: Culver City CA, March 2015John Coltrane: A Love Supreme released 1965Philip Vaughan
  • “When I heard it I said ‘wow- this is great’. It’s just a great album that Charlie did - the way he wrote for the strings and then Mitch Miller played oboe on it. It just got to me, even today it’s like I’m playing it for the first time. It’s just great - Charlie Parker was something special.My other album that I liked - because I was a big fan of Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie - an album called ‘For Musicians Only’*Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt and Dizzy Gillespie. It’s just a tremendous album; they played tempos so fast. Stan said ‘I kept up with those guys’ Stan Getz said that!!Even today when you listen it says something special.”Gene Cipriano: The Blue Whale, Little Tokyo, LA, 30th March 2015Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker with Strings recorded 1949 and 1950Gene 'Cip' Cipriano* For Musicians Only- released 1958. With John Lewis, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Stan Levey.
  • “It’s a compilation album of Northern Soul music and it’s less this particular album and more that it was these kinds of sets that made a huge difference to me. I can remember a day when I found the 100 club and walked in. I heard this soul music – this was about 1979/80. To this day I go and dance to Northern soul maybe once a month. So, even in California, it’s had that long an effect, that long a relationship.So in all of the albums that I've been close to in one way or another it’s this style of music that’s kept me actually interested. So, I’m 52 and still dancing!{quote}Max Presneill: Culver City CA, March 2015A Complete Introduction To Northern Soul released 2008Max Presneill
  • “The one I’ve chosen is Sonny Rollins in Japan. I’m a big Sonny Rollins fan but this particular album was the one that kind of opened the door for me into modern jazz.I was at college as a first year student at Leeds and I knew bit about older styles of jazz because my dad had introduced me to Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, but I was finding it hard to get my head round more modern styles.So I was sitting in the college library listening to various great jazz players and then I put on this Sonny Rollins album and it was kind of like a window opening and the sun coming in and I just got it then.Some players you find you admire them for the technical ability and you can see what they’re doing and they’re astounding technicians. And some people speak directly to you and I’ve always found Sonny Rollins to be that player for me so I’m very happy to pick one of his albums for the project.”Alison Diamond: The Cinnamon Club, Bowdon, 25th June 2015Sonny Rollins: Sonny Rollins in Japan released 1973Alison Diamond
  • {quote}The album I brought is one of my most treasured possessions: the actual 3-LP set ‘The Last Waltz’ by The Band that I got when it was originally released — Probably around 1978 or ’79, I think.'’The Last Waltz' was also released as a film, directed by Martin Scorsese. So it must have been around my 10th birthday when my mum took me and a group of good friends to see this movie at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. It was, of course, truly amazing. Loud, epic, and unbelievable to witness on that huge screen.I had already listened to some of the albums that my mum had in her collection by ‘The Band’, and a lot of the people who appeared in the movie were favourites of mine already, like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Dr. John, Neil Young, and Ringo, all of these people. So we piled into the car and went to see this movie and I was completely blown away by the music, by the performances, by the songs. We all were.I just loved everything about it. I got the album and just played it to death. I know it by heart.To me, this album still embodies a lot of what I find the most essential in music. All the performances are filled with so much commitment, so much power, and so much presence. Just listen to The Band play ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ here and you’ll know exactly what I mean. It’s astonishing.These are artists who, at that time, were at the peak of their artistry. To see Joni Mitchell; The Staples Singers; the basically one-camera close-up of Muddy Waters singing ‘Mannish Boy.’ To experience the great orchestral arrangements by Allen Toussaint and the huge recorded sound on vinyl or any format. This album is just a beast! I didn’t think of it this way when I was a kid but now, looking back, I can see that the kind of music that The Band played, that Joni Mitchell played, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, it was a mixture of all of the roots of American music, expressed so beautifully. There was blues, there was jazz and often a kind of ragtime feel that I really love, there was country music and gospel; all kinds of folk forms existing together in an organic way, and just great, great songs and great songwriting. And even in a kind of jam session-like, super amped-up party atmosphere, all the performers demonstrated a great sense of focus in bringing the best out of each song they played.All of that resonates with me more and more as I focus on increasing my ability to render songs themselves as vividly and specifically as possible. And in making my own music, I find it crucial to stay connected to all the things that are root musical sources for me. ’The Last Waltz' serves as a kind of model for me in doing that. I don’t only love jazz. I love a huge range of music, and ‘The Last Waltz’ is surely one of the most important and enduring records for me in the way it encompasses all that I started out loving, and continue to love, about music.{quote}Anthony Wilson: On stage, Cody's Viva Cantina, Burbank CA. 31st March 2015My birthday - what a night...! Anthony was the featured player at the legendary John Pisano's Guitar NightThe Band: The Last Waltz released 1978Anthony Wilson
  • {quote}This album was recorded in 2009 ‘Live at Birdland’.It’s a quartet of Lee Konitz, the great alto player, with marvellous pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Charlie Haden, drummer Paul Motian. This album is very special to me for a variety of reasons. It’s one of the last recordings of Charlie Haden, my former teacher, mentor and friend and an inspiration to me. Also probably the last recording of Paul Motian – who passed away shortly afterwards. The way the musicians play together on this concert is just amazing. The level of conversation, the high level of improvisation, the way they communicate and improvise together is just outstanding. It’s an incredibly high level of jazz improvisation, something to aspire to for all us musicians. Having Lee playing so beautifully, you know, and everybod else… rhythm section Charlie Haden, Paul Motian - it’s one of the greatest rhythm sections in the History of jazz. They could move earth you know just by swinging together.Brad Mehldau, who I know very well because I’ve played with him a lot - I think this is one of his finest works. Playing with this group of musicians he’s so inspired. The way Brad and Lee converse, the way they conduct a dialogue, the way they listen to each other and respond its incredible. It’s a great, great band, a great chemistry and a really great feast of improvisation. This is a fairly new album, 2009. I have a bunch of favourite albums, albums that I would take on a desert island. The usual suspects like ‘A Love Supreme’ by John Coltrane or ‘Kind of Blue’ by Miles and a bunch of others but this one feels special to me because of Charlie Haden’s passing last year and Paul Motian a few years ago. It’s just this great moment – the last chance to hear these people play together so beautifully. Most of them are of an advanced age but still maintain their level of musicianship and wisdom, this musical wisdom. Brad being the youngest but he’s such an incredible genius. Obviously so inspired by working with Lee Konitz and Charlie Haden and Paul Motian.{quote}Darek Oles: Hollywood CA. 2nd April 2015Lee Konitz Quartet - 'Live At Birdland' released 2011Darek Oles
  • “The album I choose was a concert by the Miles Davis Quintet.Which was Herbie Hancock, George Coleman on saxophone, Ron Carter and Tony Williams on bass and drums.The concert as I understand it, took place at Carnegie Hall, produced two complete LPs, and they kind of put the fast tunes on one recording which is called ‘Four And More'- Four being the name of a famous Miles Davis tune.The other one is the one that I’ve brought called My Funny Valentine which contains the more low key numbers – the ballads.And when I was in high school, I was in 9th maybe 10th grade – I got this record and was so completely hypnotised by it - it was so gorgeous in the sense that it took on an importance for me – couple of tracks in particualr - Stella by Starlight for one.It was far more than five guys jamming on a song, it had ups, and downs – it almost had a symphonic quality to it.I would take you all these emotional places and of course everything being improvised it was just a tribute to the genius of these five musicians.Something I really learned from this record – the value of not playing – that space is one of the best elements you can exercise in music, and I spoke to Herbie Hancock about this later, we’re friends, and I told him how much this record meant to me and I said it was amazing the way Tony Williams would lay out for a while but then when he comes in ‘de ding ding ding ding de ding ding ding ding – it’s like Holy God it’s just so unbelievable.And he said ‘you know part of that was due to the fact that we couldn’t hear each other very well so Tony just decided to just lay out and listen.’ (Much laughter)But whatever the reasons this turned out to be, in my book one of the supreme jazz recordings of all time, and I used to get up, I’d wake up - I had one of the early phonographs that had a headphone out jack output – it was Koss I think, I had this thing and I would set my alarm for half an hour early before school – like 6.30 or whatever it was and I’d have my headphones on just put on Stella by Starlight and I did that almost every morning for months! (laughs) - it was just that meaningful for me.Since of course I’ve transcribed some of the (album) – I could play all of George Coleman’s tenor sax solo and some of Herbie’s stuff.It’s just that good – it’s just spectacular genius jazz playing.”Tom Scott: Hollywood CA, 9th April 2014Miles Davis: My Funny Valentine - Miles Davis in Concert released 1965Tom Scott
  • “This is the Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert from 1938. And to give you an idea of what this album means to me – my father brought it home when I was in the 7th grade.Here I am, neck deep in the Hollywood renaissance of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Doors, The Mothers of Invention and here’s this album that my dad puts on and there’e something very compelling about it.I can’t turn away from it. I’m listening to this over and over and over again. And what this album was for me was a long hallway with a series of doors each door was special, each door had something interesting for me to investigate.It’s my first serious encounter with swing music, it’s my first encounter with Benny Goodman’s playing and getting to know this prolific improvisor.My first encounter with the music of Lester Young.Lester Young sits in on the Honeysuckle Rose jam session where the band is playing in the key of G but his solo is in Ab.It’s hearing the Ellington soloists for the first time, Johnny Hodges, Ben ‘Cootie’ Williams and Harry Carney and starting to understand how special those individual voices are.And then there’s the Goodman band itself- If not the best white swing band in the country – maybe Glen Gray and his Casa Loma band can give them a run for the money – I don’t now, but probably the best white jazz orchestra in the country.I’m hearing Harry James for the first time - but I’m not hearing the Harry James that the larger American public would come to know – the syrupy populariser – I’m hearing Harry James the jazz player.Not too long out of Denton Texas, still enthralled to his Louis Armstrong roots.I’m hearing Gene Krupa - very good solid rudimentary swing drummer.And then of course you’ve got Sing Sing Sing with those wonderful Stravinsky-like trumpet voicings and the other-worldly impressionist Jess Stacy piano solo.All this stuff – it took me years to assimilate, to masticate but I did it because it kept pulling me back.And it was as I say a hallway with a series of doors and I went through every one of them and they all led me to my present predicament as a jazz journalist.”Kirk Silsbee: Hollywood CA. 10th April 2014Benny Goodman: The Famous 1938 Carnigie Hall Jazz Concert released 1950Kirk Silsbee
  • “I’m from the generation like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles who grew up in the 50’s. Our first influences were early Elvis, very early Elvis from '55 onwards until he went into the army in 1958. As John Lennon said - ‘That’s when Elvis died, when he went in the army’. After that there was all the films and that stuff.When I first heard Elvis I listened to great tracks - Blue Moon of Kentucky, That’s all Right Mama, My Baby Left Me - all these great songs. As young people in Sheffield - very young just leaving school, we didn’t know where these songs were from. - we actually thought they were Elvis songs. When you’re young you think the guy who’s singing them wrote them. So the fact that I’ve delved back - along with a lot of my colleagues at the time - like Joe Cocker here in Sheffield and people like that. We went back to see where these songs came from.This is where I discovered Arthur {quote}Big Boy{quote} Crudup who wrote That’s All Rght Mama and My Baby Left Me, songs that Elvis recorded.Unfortunately I never saw {quote}Big Boy{quote} Crudup perform anywhere. That’s really the reason I’ve chosen this album. I still have the original that I bought way back.. My Baby Left Me is on here, That’s All Right Mama isn’t on here but you get the gist, the feeling. It’s all down home stuff.T-Bone Walker was down as Treasury of Jazz as well. Another one of my heroes from that time was Chuck Berry. I’d read from the limited music papers of the time - probably Melody Maker as dad used to take Melody Maker every Friday, so I would be reading the jazzy columns.When rock and roll came in T-Bone Walker was mentioned as an influence with Chuck Berry - especially with his theatricals and his guitar playing. That’s how I discovered T-Bone Walker by reading it in a jazz magazine. Then in 1962 I was bold enough to go The Free Trade Hall in Manchester to see Memphis Slim, T Bone Walker Sonny Terry, Victoria Spivey and Brownie McGhee all on the same show - and John Lee Hooker. That again was one of my very early influences, more leaning towards the jazz side because of my upbringing. I always tended to swing towards the jazzy people. My father was a jazz drummer, only semi professional but that’s where I got my first interest in music. It’s only years afterwards that you realise the influences that your parents had on you but I just accepted it. There was a drum kit and my first instrument was playing drums - much to the annoyance of the neighbours. That was my first influence - jazz and I’ve gone back to it as the years have gone on. I didn’t want to know in the 60’s but as the years have progressed you again go back to your roots - very much as in life I think. You start thinking about your roots more than you do when you’re 26 or 27; you don’t care then do you? All the women are around aren’t they!”Dave Berry: Photographed at home, near Sheffield, 2nd March 2015Dave BerryArthur Crudup : Treasury of Jazz released 1962
  • “It’s ‘Electronic’ by Electronic. I was a big fan of New Order and The Smiths and it just seemed so exciting the idea of various sections, Johnny from the Smiths and Bernard from New Order, coming together as they were in the 70’s and 80’s, that sort of super group. They obviously put out the single in 89 and it’s as perfect a pop record as you’ll ever hear, with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe from The Pet Shop boys. The album came out two years later and I was just taking my GCSE’s that summer, believe it or not. I can even remember the week it came out; it was the week of the European Cup Final. Marseille and Red Star Belgrade that Chris Waddle was playing in, who I got to know quite well when he was manager of Burnley. It was an exciting time. Summertime, exams and a record from two absolute idols of mine.If you look at the pair of thems careers you’ll probably pick out stronger records than that but for me its absolutely spell binding from beginning to end really. It’s a good record.”Chris Boden: Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, 13th February 2015Electronic: Electronic released 1991Chris Boden
  • {quote}It’s Horace Silver ‘Song for my Father’. My brother had this record and I was a kid. He had a ton of jazz records. This one stood out to me because my father and I had such a great relationship. Then, when he played the record for me, the whole record hit me in a way that I really got jazz. I was too young at the time to really get jazz because I wasn’t a musician yet. Then, when I became a musician, I really thought about the impact that it had on me as a kid. It became one of my favourites because we ended up playing those songs and songs from the record and playing that record quite a bit. Horace Silver became one of my favourite piano players because of his arrangements and his way of creating melodic and harmonic instances that were beautiful. He’s always been one of my favourite pianists.{quote}Amp Fiddler: Band on the Wall, Manchester, 2nd November 2014Horace Silver: Song For My Father released 1965Amp Fiddler
  • {quote}My name is Tad Hershorn, I’m an archivist at the Institute of Jazz studies at Rutgers University. Probably the most influential jazz record for me was the recording ‘Dina Jams’ - Dina Washington – it was a spontaneous jam session. You had great people in town, a quick overnight on arrangements, opening the door to everybody’s friends and Dina Washington - always in command. I mean, you had a trumpet section of Clifford Brown and Clark Terry and Maynard Ferguson. Saxophones, Harold Land.Great pianist.(Junior Mance, Richie Powell)The audience - which is pretty raucous, is just as great as the music itself. When those records - like that, turn your ear as decisively as that one did towards - in my case, jazz music you treasure it and never get tired of listening to it.I’m sure you’ve heard that story – before?WE - No that’s a new one on me – noTH - Well, I mean just in terms of enthusiasts who hear something and it really does change their lives.So, anyway, sooner or later maybe I’ll get you to take my picture with that. Ok? You take care.{quote}Tad Hershorn: ARChive of Contemporary Music, New York City, 20th September 2014Dina Washington: Dinah Jams released 1954Tad HershornNorman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice by Tad Hershorn. Foreward by Oscar PetersonReviewed by Sebastan Scotney: London Jazz NewsUniversity of California Press - Publisher
  • {quote}Live/Dead changed my perception of music when it came out in 1969.There was more jamming than I'd heard before & I loved the interplay between guitar, bass & drums. The Grateful Dead could be tight too & they seemed to have the mindset that less was more which appealed to me. Less egos - more listening. I'd never heard jazz at this point having grown up in a provincial non musical family. There was only a radio & I knew all about the pop & rock of the sixties. So this album helped me to appreciate improvisation & musicianship & was a huge stepping stone for me towards jazz. The first 3 sides of this double album (over 50 minutes) are 4 songs with different feels & grooves (one in 11/8) segued together. The last side has a 10 minute free track. And a slow moody blues. Jerry Garcia & Phil Lesh were an inspiration to me.{quote}Roger Beaujolais: Richard Goodall Gallery, Manchester, April 2014The Grateful Dead: Live/Dead released 1969Roger Beaujolais
  • Kerry Dorf: ARChive of Contemporary Music, New York, 18th September 2014The Who: Quadrophenia released 1973
  • Peter Fish: The ARChive of Contemporary Music, 19th September 2014John Coltrane: The Classic Quartet Complete released 1998
  • Gustavo Bernal: ARChive of Contemporary Music, New York, 18th September 2014Peter Gabrial: So released 1986
  • Dean Mellis: off White Steet, Tribeca, New York, 20th September 2014George Harrison: All Things Must Pass released 1970
  • Clara-Julia Péru: ARChive of Contemporary Music, New York, 20th September 2014Lou Reed: Berlin released 1973
  • {quote}Actually all that matters about Walter is the huge influence he had on all harmonica players that followed him, including me.There are other important harmonica players in that era of Chicago Blues, notably the other Walter, Big Walter Horton and Sonny Boy Williamson. There are lots of others as well – James Cotton, Junior Wells. I love them all but Walter is the one who exerts the most influence. He’s the person who really broke modern harmonica through from how it had been before. He was, in a sense, the Charlie Parker of harmonica. Not because he took it into bebop, he didn’t understand the bebop changes and all that sort of stuff. But what I mean by it is that before him it was completely different from how it was after him. We all play the way we do, and are all able to experiment in the way we experiment, because of the changes that he made in playing modern electric blues harmonica.The other thing about Walter is he’s a very underrated singer. Interestingly in an interview once, John Lee Hooker was asked who his favourite Blues singer was - apart from himself and he said Little Walter. When he sings a song you really know what the song is about. Now that ought to be the case with everybody but it’s not. A lot of time you know what the singers about, what his life is about, what his attitude to women is or what his attitude to this or that political or social situation is. (with) Walter - you know what that song is about, he gets inside the song. He sounds really sincere and when he sings ‘Last Night’, as he does on this album ‘I lost the best friend I ever had’ you can almost hear the heartbreak in his voice. It’s beautiful.{quote}Paul Jone: The Cinnamon Club, Bowdon, 26th September 2014Little Walter: Best of Little Walter released 1958Paul Jones
  • Zack O'Farrill{quote}My name is Zack O’Farrill and the record I picked is Carla Bley's ‘I Hate To Sing’.This is a special album for me because it’s an album that my dad used to play for us when we were kids and that I rediscovered later as a teenager. It’s still hilarious but I realised how musically intense and heavy it is too. It’s also fun because my dad is on this and he sings on this.It was amazing to come back to it and see that it’s a record with such a sense of humour but it’s still got a lot of music in there - there’s a lot of music. I think jazz in general has really lost its sense of humour these days - I love this record because it’s very funny!{quote}Carla Bley: I Hate To Sing released 1984Arturo O'FarrillAdam O'Farrill{quote}It’s an album by Henry Threadgill and his band Zooid. It’s called ‘This Brings Us To Volume 1’.It’s an album I only started checking out kind of recently and it’s really special to me because it’s just a really interesting album.It’s an album that’s really a lot about life and decisions. A lot of music becomes kind of self-indulgent - the sole purpose, the sole drive behind it is music - only music related things. This music and the band they kind of contrast, it’s a very organic, communicative, really personal style of music and the way they play together - they kind of navigate intricate music but know how to be flexible within it and not adhere to, not strictly adhere to, guidelines and rules while having a clear foundation of them.{quote}Henry Threadgill: This Brings Us To Vol 1 released 2009The O'Farrill Brothers
  • {quote}This is ‘Buddy Holly’, his first album as Buddy Holly.. He’d released a record with his band The Crickets called ‘The ‘Chirpin’ Crickets’ prior to that but this is his first solo album. I think what’s so special about this place (Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village) is in late 58 early 59, Buddy lived about a block away from here. His real name is Charles Hardin Holley. I’m sure Buddy came past this statue of a guy named Alexander Holley and I wonder if he ever stood in front of it. I grew up in Blackburn Lancashire in the 50s and early 60s. It was a grey sort of place and Buddy’s music was so light and bouncy and happy … it was wonderful. Stuff like ‘Peggy Sue’, ‘Rave On’; they were just magnificent. He had some tender songs as well, such as ‘Words of Love’, which is absolutely beautiful.I followed Buddy for a long time and for the last few years I’ve written about Buddy and I’ve travelled to various parts of the States. I’ve been to Lubbock, his home town; Clovis where he recorded; Clear Lake, Iowa, where he died in the plane crash. I’ve been to Duluth where the young Bob Dylan saw him. I’ve been across to Los Angeles to see his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next to The Beatles and here, on the East Coast in New York, where he recorded in his apartment some great songs such as ‘Crying, Waiting and Hoping’.Buddy for me is great and this album is very significant because when I was in Lubbock I was interviewed by his best friend from those days at KDAV Radio. I was interviewed live and he asked ‘What song do you want me to play?’ I said ‘I’m a gonna love you too’, which kicked of the album - very bright and breezy.So that’s me and Buddy Holly. Great, great guy.{quote}David Leaver: Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, New York City, 19th September 2014Buddy Holly: Buddy Holly released 1958David Leaver
  • “Well, I would have to say Miles Davis ‘Round About Midnight’. I grew up listening to this recording as a kid and the poetic expression - the ensemble playing between John Coltrane and Miles Davis, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones just captured my attention from an early age. And of course their solos within each tune were just so masterful you know. But yet, as a quintet, there was a real ensemble sound that gave me a lot of direction through the years.”Joe Lovano: Birdland, New York City, 21st September 2014Miles Davis: 'Round About Midnight released 1957Joe Lovano
  • {quote}It's Miles Davis 'Four and More' and the reason why it's so special for me because I remember the first time I heard it as a kid. Listening to that live performance blew me way because you know I had been listening to a very different style of trumpet playing and improvisation. Those guys just kept me in a tail spin trying to figure out what they were doing, where they were going and I remember I was trying to get a handle on what jazz was so I would play each track - and this was back in the days of albums so you're trying to find that spot on the record with the needle! So I used to play 'em over and over and over again.I would play you know, like ‘Four’, I would listen to Miles play then I would only listen to Herbie, go back then only listen to Ron, go back, only listen to Tony. I kept doing man until in my mind - the whole album man, that album had such an impact on my life - you know because it was so forward thinking in the realms of this music - and think about the date that it was recorded.To think that it still stands the test of time today speaks volumes about how important it is.{quote} Terence Blanchard: Old Fruit Market, Glasgow, 30th June 2011Miles Davis: Four & More released 1966 (recorded 1964)Terence Blanchard
  • {quote}I picked The Ramones debut record. I stumbled upon it later in my life - maybe around 30 - as opposed to so many people who come across punk rock and rock 'n' roll so much earlier. That album to me just summed it all up and I thought it so applicable to any other genres in terms of integrity - I find it so interesting how many people in other genres go to that album - and that band as a definition of individuality, personality - groundbreaking.I just think that any great movement or genre has someone who has a different voice that they remain true to.{quote}Marco Olivari: Blue Note, New York, 10th February, 2014The Ramones: Ramones released 1976Blue Note: New York
  • {quote}It’s an album called The Brandeis Jazz Festival. It’s really not recorded live, it’s studio recordings. But they’re all birth of the third stream. There’s a piece by Milton Babbitt, Harold Shapiro, Charles Mingus, and there’s an extended suite by George Russell. In the middle of it, Bill Evans takes this breathtaking solo. For those who kind of poo-poo Evans for being this romantic narcissist, or whatever... I love Bill, so that’s not my view of him. But when you speak to a lot of people who are interested in a different style of piano playing, they don’t get Bill. For those who don’t get Bill and think of him as only playing in this meditative, quiet way and every so often he gets into uptempo stuff, they should hear this solo that he does on ‘All About Rosie’. It’ll just blow you away. Russell gives him a long, long solo. The sound of the band and their approach... They’re just in your face all the time. And you just sit there and say ‘this is marvellous’. It’s one of those things.A lot of jazz is good but it’s not marvellous. Of course it’s all a matter of personal taste. But you hear that and you’re sitting there and you’re wondering, ‘Jeez, how’s this thing gonna get any better than this?’ and then it gets better. So, since we live in the moment, that’ll be my choice. Now, do I have it? That’s a whole different story...{quote} (Laughs)Fred Cohen: New York Jazz Record Center: February, 2014Gunther Schuller - George Russell: Modern Jazz Concert - Birth of The Third StreamJazz Record Centre, New York City
  • “This is the first jazz recording I ever heard, it’s not even bebop! It’s a rebopper! ‘Charlie Parker’s Reboppers.'There’s a whole story behind this record.Charlie Parker alto, Miles Davis, trumpet, Curley Russell bass and - who’s on piano? Hen Gates that was Dizzy – he couldn’t give his real name – and Max Roach on drums.So it was Curly (Russell), oh my God – can you believe that?So on the other side is {quote}Bille’s Bounce{quote}, same personnel.I always sang as a little kid, I never knew what kind of music I wanted to sing and then after I moved back to Detroit to be with my mother and go to high school, there was a jukebox downstairs from my school.I was always playing music there, you know, putting nickels in.So I knew most of the artists and their songs that made them famous – not that I was tired of hearing – but I was looking for something else and I saw this. I saw this and I said ‘Oh – Charlie Parker and His ReBoppers, I wonder what that is?’So I put my nickel in – four or five notes and I thought – and oh my God, this is the music I’ll dedicate my life to.Whether I sing it, teach it, support it – whatever, it doesn’t matter, I’ll just dedicate my life to that music.I’d finally found the music that I wanted to do where I felt I could get into and really mean it.And I’ll tell you, I got goose bumps when I first heard the first four notes, I was like whoa – it was almost like being elevated you know.That was ‘Now’s The Time’.And the funny thing about this record that’s so beautifully framed now is I was doing a concert maybe two summers ago and there was a wonderful poet on before us, his name is Billy Collins.He recited his poetry and afterwards it was going to be me and Cameron Brown the bass player, that’s a duo I have.I’ve been doing bass and voice since the fifties.I’m the originator of bass and voice – not to brag – but to say hey to singers and bass players ‘you know can do music this way too. And there are people doing it now – which is great.This was an outdoor concert and so we were in this big house where we got dressed, got ready and relaxed until we went on.It was just Billy Collins reciting his poetry and me and Cam.So my friend, (Peter) - this drummer and a wonderful artist, he knows I’m a Bird freak - and he draws birds – all kinds of birds he’s done - they’re beautiful he sends them to me or gives them to me.It was Peter, I said ‘Peter it’s good to see you man’He said ‘ Yeah I have a present for you – I said really? I said ‘what is it?’ He said ‘yeah open it up’And so I opened it up – it was this, all framed beautifully.I got so emotional and I thought oh my God - I don’t think I can go up there and sing right now!But I waited a few minutes, I hugged him and kissed him and thanked him.I said ‘Oh my God this is the most wonderful gift I’ve ever been given - except of course the music and my daughter (laughs).So that’s the story of that record!”Sheila Jordan: At home, New York City, 11th February 2014Charlie Parkers Reboppers - The Koko Sessions by Devon {quote}Doc{quote} WendellSheila Jordan
  • Kenny Burrell: Distinguished Professor Of Ethnomusicology, Director of Jazz Studies, UCLA{quote}The record the maestro recorded in Paris in 1963 there are many great things on this recording.It starts off with Rockin'n Rhythm which we all know has gotten it's own wings after Ellington.Written in 1929 - hello! - Zawinul and those guys were do it later.Star Crossed Lovers from the Suite,the Theme from the Asphalt Jungle movie,couple of pieces featuring Cootie Williams, Concerto for Cootie, Tutti For Cootie and The Suite Thursday another suite by Ellington and Strayhorn.One that I particularly like - well I have to say it's one of favourite pieces in all of Ellingtonia - and all music is Tone Parrallel To Harlem known as Harlem Suite.This was commissioned in 1950 by Arturo Toscanini of The NBC Symphony Orchestra of New York. Ellington at that point was pretty popular and also gaining recognition as a serious composer so that's why he got the commission - at the time he was fifty one.That piece has been recorded in many formats including symphony orchestras both here and in Europe and on various occasions by Ellington himself with his band - this happens to be one of my favourite versions of it.First of all I love the composition, I think it's one of the most outstanding musical compositions ever written, certainly (ever written) by Ellington.It's a through composed piece of material - and it is jazz, not a lot of improvisation in this piece because it's through composed.But the main thing about this - it is a great extended composition of jazz music - that only Ellington could do.I would encourage anyone to listen this, it happens to be my favourite version of it - and this a live performance in Paris in 1963.One of the things you should listen to this piece of music is the huge variety of time changes - the huge variety of harmonic changes - the huge variety of tonal colour - of shifting around.It's amazing how he could get such variety with fifteen musicians - it's unbelievable, but he managed to do that and that's why he's considered many the greatest - not only the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century but the greatest composer of the twentieth century and this is coming from some serious classical musicians who feel that way - let alone jazz musicians who feel that way.The classical people are starting to say this is some new - material done in a highly sophisticated way that has never been done before - so that's why I wanted to talk about this record!It's like all great art - the more you listen, the more you look - the more you hear, the more you see - I never tire of hearing this.Listen closely and something else reveals itself.{quote}Kenny Burrell: University of California, Los Angeles, 7th May, 2013Duke Ellington: The Great Paris Concert released 1973Kenny Burrell
  • {quote}Kind of Blue has obviously captured a lot of people hearts, it's a huge success in terms of getting out there and people hearing the music - and for good reason.It just has an amazing an balance of a lot of space and a lot information too. Man - 'Trane and Cannonball play their asses off on it!And of course Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly are both on the record - and Jimmy Cobb - I love getting the chance to play with him - and actually this whole band - this particular band (Four Generations of Miles) with Sonny Fortune and Buster Williams – who are phenomenal musicians and really great people too. And of course Jimmy.Buster was telling me when Paul Chambers died he was called to play in the Wynton Kelly Trio with Jimmy, and then when Kelly died three months later....I hear a lot of stories now with this band - there's a whole bunch of history these cats run down.But this record just really knocked me out, it's really hard to pick your favourite record - there a million of 'em, and I don't really have a favourite but this is certainly one of the greatest records ever I think and for obvious reasons.And Miles of course just played his heart out all the time - he just played from the heart and everybody on that record did. So they gave amazing performances, amazing amazing beautiful record.{quote}Mike Stern: Photographed at Band on the Wall, Manchester, March 2011 Interviewed at Birdland, New York, February 2014Miles Davis: Kind of Blue released 1959Mike Stern
  • “It's a vinyl lp of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks which i've had since i was a teenager. As a young man I was very into jazz - inspired by my mother, and listened to a lot of trad jazz recordings.But some friends of mine where into Dylan and we used go round to a friend's house Hugo at lunch time and listen to Blood on the Tracks.It was this that really got me started on quite a long period of enjoying Bob Dylan's singing and song-writing which inspired me not only musically, but also politically really and gave me some sense of the possibility of using the visual arts as a media for bringing about social change and campaigning for the things which we feel are right and important.So it was an eye opening, ear opening and heart opening experience really, listening to Blood on the Tracks.It lead on to me buying a number of his other records and I still enjoy them and listen to them today.”Revd Ralph Williamson: The Great Hall, Christ Church, Oxford, 18th February, 2014Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks released 1975Revd Ralph J. WilliamsonRalph uses his skills as a photographer to help the college and cathedral to support an inspiring educational project for slum children in Delhi called 'Saakshar which he established with Edwin Simpson and John Briggs respectively.Saakshar School Appeal
  • {quote}I guess I heard it when I was really young when it came out in the ‘80s. I just kind of couldn’t stop listening to it really and both my brother and I got really into it and I think it’s just one of those albums which has stood the test of time for me. I still listen to it a lot and I reckon I probably know pretty much all the words to all the tunes on the album - it’s just a great feeling to it. As a percussionist, you know, there’s all the rhythms and the drums and percussion side of it that are really great and all those great South African guitar lines and that kind of mixture of the South African township music.WE: It was startling when it came out because nobody had heard anything like that before, in the mainstream.JH: Absolutely. It was a really important album politically as well. I remember seeing the African concert video of when he did it. He did the concert, it was just outside Cape Town in South Africa, and it was the first time that there had been a massive concert where it was open to black and white people and you had Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela and people who hadn’t been allowed to play in South Africa for years up until that point because of their political beliefs. So it was really important with those guys there with the kind of the jazz – Hugh Masekela’s jazz influence – and the Ladysmith Black Mambazo choir. There were so many elements that went into it and actually my dad ran a male voice choice and he did “Homeland” which is the choir song with his choir so it was kind of … I don’t know, we were all just sort of enchanted with it really, I guess, and it kind of got me into Paul Simon as well. I love all his albums and, you know, I think a lot of jazz musicians actually have… He is one of the more popular music guys – a bit like Joni Mitchell, I guess – that has a lot of respect for jazz musicians and work with people like Phil Woods and Michael Brecker and Steve Gadd. So, yeah, that’s it really.{quote}Jim Hart: The Spa, Scarborough, 26th September, 2010Paul Simon: Graceland released 1986Jim Hart
  • {quote}I've gone for David Sylvian's {quote}Gone To Earth{quote} from 1986. I was an early '80s kid, growing up with all the pop music around then; Michael Jackson, Level 42, The Police, Adam Ant. But the jazz thing was happening for me at that time as well. I was starting out with my drumming and listening to Billy Cobham, Weather Report. I think this album came out when I was 14 or 15. I heard the single 'Taking The Veil' and it struck me immediately as something I needed to check out. I knew Japan, David Sylvian's band from the early '80s, and I was a fan of them. But this was a whole new thing. It had a big jazz element to it. Kenny Wheeler plays a lot of solos, John Taylor on piano, another ECM guy. Harry Beckett. And also the great Robert Fripp appears a lot. And it just led me into a lot of investigations. When I delved deeper, the things Sylvian was singing about could be related to boy/girl relationships – there was a 'pop' element to them, but, as I've subsequently found out, you could look at them in a completely different way and they could be spiritual in nature, about 'the other' in general. Religious ideas, spiritual ideas. And that has really grown to fascinate me as I've got older. Also, side two is completely instrumental. And there are some very spooky, environmental, ambient pieces. On 'The Healing Place', Joseph Beuys, the German artist, speaks about his vision of art. And there's another track featuring Robert Graves' poetry. So it's got all these things happening on there, it's a very wide-ranging album. As I said, I was a pop kid growing up, and back then pop music embraced jazz. Kate Bush was using jazz musicians, Talk Talk, Stevie Winwood, Peter Gabriel even. Pop and jazz were bedfellows that were very accessible, unlike now, where it seems like the two worlds have absolutely diverged. I think Sylvian uses those elements really nicely. And of course the other thing about him is his melodies are so fresh. I think of his voice as an instrument. A lot of people find him a bit doomy and depressing but I'm always inspired by his melodies. And I think he's a great musician as well. Very underrated, understated. Plays piano, a lot of keyboards and guitar. I think disc two is basically him alone. The story goes that Virgin didn't want to fund the second side. You can imagine, can't you? They said, 'This pop singer's trying to an album of instrumentals? What's going on?', even though Bowie had done it ten years before. I heard that he had to finance those tracks himself. I'm glad he did. About a year later he did a brilliant gig at the Hammersmith Odeon with Mark Isham on trumpet and David Torn on guitar, amazing band. It was a time when pop music seemed to have a bit more mystique. You didn't have the internet in those days where you can find out everything about an artist. I would scan The Face magazine and The Wire, just to see if I could find out any snippets of information. Gone To Earth is one of those albums where every time you listen to it, you get something new. It's such a layered, beautiful piece of music.{quote}Matt Phillips: Frith Street, Soho, London, 24th November 2014David Sylvian: Gone To Earth released 1986Matt Phillips MusicMusic 2
  • The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold As Love released 1967
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