Jazz Gumbo

Artist - Tune - Album
Freddie Hubbard - Red Clay - Red Clay
King Pleasure - I’m In The Mood For Love - Mr. Jazz
Hugh Masekela - Goin’ Back To New Orleans - Union of South Africa
Tania Maria - Eruption - Taurus
The Modern Jazz Quartet - Django - The Last Concert
Lonnie Smith - Mama Wailer - Mama Wailer
Billie Holiday - Lover Man - The Billie Holiday Story
Bennie Maupin - Just Give It Some Time - Moonscapes
Tony Williams - Extreme Measures - Native Heart
Moe Kaufman - Neptune - Solar Explorations
Cassandra Wilson - Love And Hate - Point Of View
Lenny White, Chick Corea - Why Wait - The Griffith Park Collection
Freddie Hubbared, Joe Henderson, Stanley Clarke
Anita O’Day - The Man I Love - An Evening With Anita O’Day
Charles Mingus - Sophisticated Lady - The Great Concert

You’ll find a complete record of all past Sets at jazzgumbo.blogspot.ca


This is another all vinyl Set. And though none of the music is new, most of the cuts are new to Jazz Gumbo. And they are Amazing! And I’m going to let the music speak for itself.

But a couple of these numbers really cling to me these last days. You know how it can be with music: a tune is played; somehow, it burrows down into you; and it faintly colors your mood and thoughts and feelings, lends a different perspective, enlivens your sense of being.

Well that’s how it was this week with Cassandra Wilson’s “Love and Hate”, and with Lady Day’s “Lover Man”. The latter carried me even further, to re-reading the many fascinating anecdotes from Holiday’s autobiography, “Lady Sings the Blues” that are contained in the liner notes. A small nugget of her life is shared in relation to each tune, how it came about or what it meant to her. I’ve added that book to my must-read list.

I hope you’ll love the Set!


Thrive!
Kirby

Artist - Tune - Album
Chet Baker - Star Eyes - The Touch of Your Lips
Jay Hoggard - West End Dancer - Days Like These
Harry Connick, Jr. - Stompin’ At The Savoy - “When Harry Met Sally…” soundtrack
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers - Night In Tunisia - A Night In Tunisia
Joan Armatrading - Spend A Little Time - Whatever’s For Us
Ted Curson - Searchin’ For The Blues - Flip Top
Gerry Niewood - Timeless - Gerry Niewood & Timepiece
Krystall Klear & the Buells featuring Cecil Taylor - P. O. - Ready for the 90’s
Steve Eliovson & Collin Walcott - Africa - Dawn Dance
Erroll Garner - Just One Of Those Things - Dreamstreet
Luis Gasca - Visions - Collage
The Manhattan Transfer - Another Night In Tunisia - Vocalese
featuring Bobby McFerrin & Jon Hendricks
Chuck Mangione - Bellavia - Bellavia
Keith Jarrett - Kuum - Back Hand
Sonny Greenwich - Day is Night to Some - Evol-ution, Love’s Reverse

The song that introduces Jazz Gumbo is “Music Evolution” by Branford Marsalis and Buckshot LeFonque.

You’ll find a complete record of all past Sets at jazzgumbo.blogspot.ca


A New Year begins.

It was a great, fun year with Jazz Gumbo. I got in 35 new shows last year and re-posted three old ones. A few new listeners have signed on, and it’s gratifying to see more and more downloads from all over the world - 46 countries. I love travelling, but I haven’t seen nearly as much of the world as I’d like to. I feel connected by the notion that this music is meaningful to people in so many places.

Wherever you are, I hope that there is peace and freedom in your personal world. As much as there is to be saddened by on this shared planet, I’m inspired by the humility and kindness I encounter everywhere, and I trust that Love will prevail over Fear. Toronto is a particularly blessed place in that it is made up of peoples of the entire world. There is much sharing of what life looks and feels like, from behind skin other than our own. And there’s potential for much more.

Thrive!
Kirby

Artist - Tune - Album
Wes Montgomery - Snowfall - Wes’ Best/Wes Montgomery & His Brothers
Stevie Wonder - Jesus, Children of America - Innervisions
Lionel Hampton - How High The Moon - Big Bands Revisited
The Temptations - I Could Never Love Another After Loving You - Wish It Would Rain
Chick Corea - Sometime Ago–La Fiesta - Return To Forever
Dave Holland - The Watcher - Prism
George Duke - Watch Out Baby! - Reach For It
Billy Hart - Waiting Inside - Oshumare
Oscar Peterson - Land of the Misty Giants - Canadiana Suite
Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company - Summertime - Cheap Thrills
Clifford Brown & Max Roach - Jordu - Jordu
Ray Charles & Betty Carter - Baby, It’s Cold Outside - Essential Classics

The song that introduces Jazz Gumbo is “Music Evolution” by Branford Marsalis and Buckshot LeFonque.

You’ll find a complete record of all past Sets at jazzgumbo.blogspot.ca


This Set features the classic from the first Return to Forever album, “Sometime Ago – La Fiesta”. It is one of the great recordings, and one I never tire of. Forgive me for playing from such a scratchy, overworn album, but I trust that music didn’t lose it’s power despite that. Stanley Clarke is the standout here, with that amazing double bass solo. The things he does with those long fingers!

This Set was recorded just before Christmas and features a couple of winter songs, with a couple of performances I want to mention. The Wes Montgomery album features the Montgomery brothers, with Monk on bass and Buddy on vibes and piano. And what a great vibes solo Buddy delivers on “Snowfall”! As great and original a stylist as Betty Carter became, in her duet here with Ray Charles, she’s pretty ordinary. But Ray makes up for it with a very soulful delivery.

Getting back to the vibes, Lionel Hampton with his big band orchestrates a rousing “How High the Moon” with great solos by the leader and by the dueling saxes. I wish I could tell you who they are.

It’s a great jazz Set, and the pieces by the pop acts: Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin and the Temptations are pretty damn good, too!


Thrive!
Kirby

Artist - Tune - Album
Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus - Pithecanthropus Erectus
Ralph Towner - Special Delivery - Old Friends, New Friends
GoGo Penguin - Protest - Man Made Object
Pharoah Sanders - The Golden Lamp - Wisdom Through Music
The Dells - Love Can Make It Easier - Give Your Baby A Standing Ovation
Cab Calloway - Jumpin’ Jive - “Stormy Weather” soundtrack
Leon Redbone - Ain’t Misbehavin’ - On The Track
Bobby Darin - Mack The Knife - The Bobby Darin Story
Charles Lloyd - Sombrero Sam - Dream Weaver
Chet Baker - Un Poco Loco - You Can’t Go Home Again
Brian Auger & Julie Driscoll - Tramp - Open
Joni Mitchell - Paprika Plains - Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter

The song that introduces Jazz Gumbo is “Music Evolution” by Branford Marsalis and Buckshot LeFonque.

You’ll find a complete record of all past Sets at jazzgumbo.blogspot.ca


After many years of being a Mingus fan, I recently got hold of his “Pithecanthropus” lp, and I’m excited to feature the great title track here. I’d never heard this music before. Though I started buying vinyl lps almost 50 years ago, I’m not a true collector. While I cherish my roughly 2,000 albums, and the artists they represent, I’ve never been methodical or obsessive about them. I don’t have the complete works of any artists, except perhaps the Uruguayan jazz fusion group Opa, who only ever issued two albums.

There are so many holes in my collection. I could easily produce a Greatest Albums list of classics that I don’t have. And it would feature all of my favorite artists, including, Coltrane, Miles, Sarah Vaughan, Corea, Hancock and Joni Mitchell. Sure, I’d love to have all those albums I don’t have. But I’m not rolling in money, and from the beginning, a huge percentage of my lps have come from second hand stores, where buying choices are very much constrained by opportunity. In recent years, many albums have come from yard sales, the odd few from thrift stores, and I’d estimate that a good 20% of my music came to me by way of friends and acquaintances giving me the collections that were growing mold in their basements.

A few albums were given new, as gifts, like my very first albums by Dianne Reeves, B. B. King and Bob Moses. I won my first Pat Martino album from a Boston area jazz station, by answering the question, “What was the original name of the Crusaders?” (answer: the Jazz Crusaders). I won one of my Stevie Wonder albums in an amusement park arcade. And let me not forget the early Miles, Trane and Dinah Washington albums I lifted from my parents’ collection when I went away to school.

Just last year, I bought 38 albums at $5. a pop from local radio station Jazz FM, after they converted all their music into digital files. And among them was the Heath Brothers’ “Passing Thru”, which I’d added to my wish list about 35 years ago and just never got around to buying. That was a time I might have bought the album at the concert where I heard the Heaths perform. I probably didn’t have the funds. But this week's featured Chet Baker album was bought at a similar concert, an all-night affair in a church – and no, Baker wasn’t there to perform.

Adding albums to my collection has very often been a matter of exploration or gut feeling. The very best is when I buy an album because it’s by a sideman from another album I like, or features tunes or instrumentation I like, or because the album art appeals. Then taking it home, playing it and discovering a gem. And let me not forget the great many discoveries that have come by way of hearing something played on the radio, in a friend’s home, on a film soundtrack, or by word of mouth.

Getting back to the Mingus album this essay started with: I think that Mingus is one of those artists that simply never issued a bad album. There’s always feeling in his work, which when coupled with artistry equals “can’t lose”. So I’m always on the lookout to add more of his work. And one of the great benefits of collecting music on vinyl as haphazardly as I do, is that there’s always more out there to find. Always another Mingus album still to discover, or an album by some phenom whose name I don’t even know.

Thrive & Enjoy!
Kirby

Artist - Tune - Album
Buckshot Lefonque - Music Evolution - Music Evolution
Jamaaladeen Tacuma - Show Stopper - Show Stopper
The Manhattan Transfer - Shaker Song - Extensions
Horace Silver - New York Lament - Silver ‘N Voices
Airto Moreira - Parana - Fingers
Louis Armstrong - What Did I Do To Be So Black And Blue - Giants of Jazz Series
Bobby McFerrin - Good Lovin’ - Simple Pleasures
McCoy Tyner - For Tomorrow - Inner Voices
Fats Waller - You’re Not the Only Oyster in the Stew - Giants of Jazz Series
Urszula Dudziak - Crazy Kid - Fusion III (M.Urbaniak)
Urszula Dudziak - Prehistoric Bird - Fusion III (M.Urbaniak)
Ella Fitzgerald - Mack the Knife - Essential Ella
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat - The Return of the 5,000 lb. Man
Sekoya - Heavenly City - Sekoya
Dexter Gordon & Eddie Jefferson - It’s Only A Paper Moon - Great Encounters
Flora Purim - Summer Night - Butterfly Dreams
John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - Lush Life - John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman
K’naan - Hoobaale - The Dusty Foot Philosopher
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - Everyday - Sing A Song Of Basie
Sarah Vaughan - Lullaby Of Birdland - Sarah Vaughan’s Golden Hits
Sweet Honey In The Rock - Wade In The Water - Live at Carnegie Hall

The opening theme for Jazz Gumbo is "Music Evolution" by Branford Marsalis and his group Buckshot LeFonque.

For playlists of all past Sets go to jazzgumbo.blogspot.ca


This Set was posted in recognition of the fact that probably 80% of the music featured on Jazz Gumbo is instrumental. And while doing it, I was surprised at how many great vocalists and uses of vocals that I didn't even get to.

Every piece in this Set contains a vocal element. There are a few straight ahead numbers with a single vocalist fronting a group in a traditional style. Other numbers make use of vocalese (the art of adding words to previously instrumental compositions and using voices in place of the melodic instruments), scat (wordless vocal improvisation) or some other innovative technique. And some numbers feature a cappella or choral, or interesting background singing.

My hosting here is pretty sad from an informational point of view. I introduce the Manhattan Transfer with a statement of how they re-popularized vocalese, then play a selection that isn't vocalese at all. Then I discuss how Satchmo invented scat singing, and play a cut on which he doesn't scat. But hey, all the music is brilliant!

Enjoy and Thrive!
Kirby

Artist - Tune - Album
John Coltrane - Welcome - Kulu Sé Mama
Sonny Greenwich - Prelune - Evol-ution, Love’s Reverse
Jazzmeia Horn - Tight - A Social Call
John Mayall - Country Road - Jazz Blues Fusion
Abdullah Ibrahim - Tintiyana, Second Part - African Space Program
Christian Scott - An Unending Repentance - Yesterday You Said Tomorrow
Ornette Coleman - Law Years - Science Fiction
Gary Thomas - Traf - Code Violations
Jowee Omicil - Something Clear - Let’s Bash!
Herbie Hancock - You’ll Know When You Get There - Mwandishi
Anthony Braxton - BOR----N-K64... - Five Pieces 1975
John Coltrane - Vigil - Kulu Sé Mama

The opening theme for Jazz Gumbo is “Music Evolution” by Buckshot Lefonque.

Complete Playlists of all past Sets are available at jazzgumbo.blogspot.ca


On balance, this Set is a bit Freer than most. That is, a lot of the music strays beyond the conventions of the mainstream. And this freer music comes in lots of variations.

The earliest selections are the opening and closing numbers from Coltrane. The “Kulu Sé Mama” album was recorded in ’65 but not released until two years later. It is a bridge between ‘Trane’s earlier work, which stuck to mainstreams structures, to later work which is far more abstract than anything in this Set. They are perfect numbers for introducing the avant garde, “Welcome” especially so, based as it is on the birthday song we all know, but transformed into something far richer and emotive.

The Sonny Greenwich and Jazzmeia Horn numbers are quite accessible, also. The melody and chord structures are there, but relaxed a bit, leaving more room for stretching. One way to look at free jazz (and this is only one way), is to think of improvisation as not just happening within the structure of a melody; instead, the structure itself becomes improvised. Hancock’s tune takes this a little further.

The Christian Scott piece is free in a different way, doing so much with tone and atmosphere, and Gary Thomas does something similar. One of the pieces I really love is Braxton’s offering. I freely admit that a lot of Braxton’s music is beyond me – I can’t enjoy it. But there are others, like this one, that floor me! This piece is so dynamic, so driving and insistent, that it just barges beyond any analytics my mind wants to throw up and gets to my core. And I keep listening to Braxton for the occasional number that will get to me in a similar way.

In a real sense, I think that gets to the heart of it: music that carries me somewhere emotionally or viscerally, whether I “understand” it or not. So much of the music of Miles Davis (who isn’t represented here, but should be) has been like this for me. From the time I first listened to him, in the late sixties, I could never really catch up to him. “Spanish Key” was the number that pulled me into “Bitches Brew”. But by the time I ‘got’ it, and went out and bought his next thing – “Live/Evil” in this case – he was into a whole other sound, and I had 'deconstruct" what I expected of him before I could ‘get’ that. And it was like that right to the end in my experience of listening to Miles.

I hope there’s plenty in this Set for you to love, to be tantalized by, to open up to. Next Set, we’ll slip back into a lower Earth orbit.

Thrive!
Kirby Obsidian

Artist - Tune - Album
Ramsey Lewis - Les Fleur - Maiden Voyage
Marion Brown - Maimoun - Vista
Chuck Mangione with Esther Satterfield - Soft - Chase the Clouds Away
Ralph Towner & Gary Burton - Drifting Petals - Match Book
Art Ensemble of Chicago - Joro - The Paris Session
Dianne Schuur - Cry Me A River - Talkin ‘Bout You
Clarence Wheeler & The Enforcers - The Heebie Jeebie Dance - The Love I’ve Been Looking For
Charlie Haden with Keith Jarrett - Ellen David - Closeness Duets
Rufus featuring Chaka Khan - Your Smile - Rufusized
Horace Silver - Sanctimonious Sam - Sterling Silver
Stanley Jordan - ‘Round Midnight - Magic Touch
Dionne Warwick - Checkout Time - Very Dionne
McCoy Tyner - For Tomorrow - Inner Voices
Jay Hoggard - Ruby, My Dear - Overview
Alice Coltrane - Journey to Satchidananda - Journey to Satchidananda
Joe Bonner - Angel Eyes - Angel Eyes
John McLaughlin - My Foolish Heart - Electric Guitarist
Fats Waller - Sweet And Slow - Giants of Jazz - Fats Waller
Stevie Wonder - Superwoman - Music Of My Mind

For playlists from all past Sets, please visit jazzgumbo.blogspot.ca


The time I spent in the studio recording and live streaming this set was a sweet and slow evening for sure. I’m grateful that I forgot the iPod at home and had to stick entirely to vinyl. It happens that I’d carried in a few more albums than usual that night, and played from almost all of them. Forgive me that some of the tracks are pretty scratchy. I’ve had some of these albums for decades, and the scratches are almost like the scratches on me – markers of a passage through life, time and perspective, and all that they’ve encompassed.

The scratchiest of these tunes, the first and last, the Ramsey Lewis and the Stevie Wonder, are from probably the first twenty or so albums I ever bought, years before I started taking care of them. I also think that these are among the best tunes in the set.

Ramsey Lewis has never gotten his due, so far as I’m concerned. He’s a masterful pianist, with a style that can be funky, churchy and bluesy. And the composition, “Les Fleur” or “The Flowers” by another over-looked artist, Charles Stepney, casts a hauntingly beautiful mood.

“Music of My Mind” was an extraordinary offering from Stevie Wonder, following closely on the heels of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” – two early 70’s albums that broke new ground as expressions of individual, musical visions. Not only did Wonder write and produce the entire album. He also – with the exception of two solos – plays all of the instruments.

Other Set standouts include McLaughlin’s take on “My Foolish Heart” and the magnificent “For Tomorrow” from McCoy Tyner. Then, there’s Dionne Warwick with the lush and orchestral Bacharach/David tune “Check Out Time”.

And if I were to pick out five more favorites, they’d be just great as these five!

Thrive!
Kirby Obsidian

Artist - Tune - Album
Keith Jarrett - In Front - Facing You
Dianne Reeves - Better Days - Dianne Reeves
Weather Report - Teen Town - Heavy Weather
Ramsey Lewis - Ode - Maiden Voyage
War - All Day Music - All Day Music
Gato Barbieri & Abdullah Ibrahim - 81st Street - Confluence
Airto Moreira - Parana - Fingers
Flora Purim - Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly - Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly
Miles Davis - Pharoah’s Dance - Bitches Brew
King Crimson - Sailor’s Tale - Islands
Joni Mitchell - Chair In The Sky - Mingus


This set of Jazz Gumbo goes out in memory of a dear friend, Mary Christine Lechner Ajzenman, 1 April 1951 – 13 November 2015. She changed my life and my world for the better. And I will miss her.

Here is some of the music we enjoyed together. I think of evenings playing backgammon, drinking tea and listening to music.

Wonderful times.

Thank You, Chris.
Love to All of you who Loved Chris.

Thrive!

Artist - Tune - Album
Buckshot Lefonque - Music Evolution - Music Evolution
Aretha Franklin - Precious Lord - Aretha Gospel
Aretha Franklin - Spirit In The Dark - 30 Greatest Hits
Dinah Washington & Brook Benton - Baby, You Got What It Takes
- Dinah Washington - This Is My Story: Vol. Two
Ray Charles - I Got A Woman - The Greatest
James Brown - Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag - Solid Gold 30 Golden Hits
John Coltrane - My Favorite Things - My Favorite Things
Audrey Kirby aka Druid Chase - Take Me In Your Garden - CBS 45-UK Production
Sam & Dave - Soul Man - The Essentials: Sam & Dave
Ramsey Lewis - Soul Man - Up Pops Ramsey
Les McCann & Eddie Harris - Compared To What - Swiss Movement
Miles Davis - Spanish Key - Bitches Brew
Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man - Head Hunters
Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Pieces Of A Man
Stevie Wonder - Living For The City - Innervisions
Funkadelic - If You Don’t Like The Effect, Don’t Produce The Cause
- America Eats Its Young
Tony Williams - Coming Back Home - The Joy Of Flying


What a joy it was to produce this very personal show! And I want to thank Radio Regent’s program manager, Amil Delic, for the suggestion to do a show in commemoration of Black History Month. Without his nudging, this would not have come about.

It was difficult coming to this concept: to simply do a show that traced my life-long love affair with music. But the wonderful thing about history is that it reminds us of those treasures that have enriched our lives, that have brought us to our present graces. I was blessed with parents who introduced me to music as to a mother’s milk and a father’s guiding hand. Music was in my home and my heart from the start, from as far back as I can remember.

This is a journey through my first twenty years of life, my first twenty years of music. I did a lot of talking during this broadcast, so I won’t bother to repeat myself here. Only the last number, by Tony Williams, comes from a bit later in my life –when I was 25. Who knows, perhaps I’ll do a Musical, Autobiographical Journey, Part II.

I hope that you will enjoy this at least a fraction of how much I did.

Thrive!
Kirby Obsidian

p.s. Forgive the scratches and skips, especially on the Coltrane. I really do have to buy another copy. I think it will be my fourth.