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Re: The Miles Davis sounding stuff is what I am looking for......

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Yes, you'd probably like 50's/early 60's Trane, during his intermittent associations with Miles. This period was the height of his "inside" or hard bop development, and only slightly pre-dates "My Fav Things," which is near the beginning of his more "free" experimentations.

During the 50s/early 60s, Trane recorded quite a bit on Prestige (reissued on the Original Jazz Classics label) and on Atlantic. There absolutely no recordings from this period that are less than fantastic, and most are recorded well. His sound is centered and full (this is before he screwed up some mouthpieces), and his playing is "inside" the chord changes---albeit often in his "sheets of sound" approach. Some of the best of these have been recently reissued on SACD (so says the email flyer i got last week from tower records; I myself can't tell you which ones are available on SACD).

This period also gave us some exquisite albums in which Trane collaborated with other jazz legends, especially Milt Jackson ("Bags & Trane"), Monk ("Thelonious Monk meets John Coltrane"), and Kenny Burrell ("Freight Trane"). These are all must-haves.

Once Trane migrated to the Impulse label, things got more experimental; "Favorite Things" is a long-form, modal excursion. ("Modal" jazz is a general term to describe when the musicians base longer improvisational phrases on a single scale and/or its derivatives. Miles' "Kind of Blue" was the first really popular modal jazz record. Don't get too hung up on such labels though, as most jazz musicians approach music modally in some way or another, as every chord has a scale or mode that relates directly to it, with lots of derived substitutions available.)

Personally, my taste in Trane is that I love everything he did up through and including his classic quartet. "Crescent" is my all time fav; it's a bit more complicated than "Fav Things" but I'd be surprised if you didn't love it. It's a wonderfully complex work, full of mathematical harmony, yet one of the most soulful albums ever recorded.

Trane's early Impulse period also gave us three albums in which the experimentations were reigned in significantly, with delightful results. "Ballads," "with Johnny Hartman," and "meets Duke Ellington" are delectable anachronisms and easily listenable, even if your chick is around.

Finally, I forget which Impulse album it's from (maybe "Chim Chim Cheree"), but it's on several compilations such as "The Gentle Side"(also a must have); my personal all-time favorite tune, Mal Waldron's "Soul Eyes," a heartbreakingly beautiful, soulful ballad.

Hope this helps.


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  • Re: The Miles Davis sounding stuff is what I am looking for...... - Teelio 11:48:48 12/02/02 (0)


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