Thought Patterns
by Emanuel
June 27, 2009 at 14:34
filed under rant, Vancouver
Tagged Jazz, music, Vancouver
50 years ago was an incredible year for jazz music. Many of my favorite albums are from 1959, which is considered as a pivotal year for jazz music, yet it was only recently brought to my attention that another of my favorite records, released in 1960, was actually recorded in 1959 as well. Add another one on the great 1959 vintage.
During Vancouver’s upcoming Jazz Festival, I will have the thrill to attend ‘Remembering the Miles Davis Classic: Kind of Blue @ 50′ headed by legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb, the only surviving member from the original recording. I’m really looking forward to hearing the five classics featured on this groundbreaking album, as well as the other classics that will be played by Cobb and his So What Band.
“Kind of Blue” has a unique and ongoing place in jazz. It is almost certainly the biggest selling jazz album of all time with sales of over 20 million (though no-one in the industry seems to have been keeping an accurate count). Nearly fifty years after its original release it is still selling at a rate of about 5,000 per week. “Kind of Blue” is widely held to be the first album based on modal jazz, establishing a basis for much of the jazz of the 60s and 70s, the jazz revival of the 90s and signposting the free jazz movement. In bringing modal forms to a wide audience, it has also been influential in the development of rock and world music. This reputation is large and deserved. “Kind of Blue” is simply one of those epoch making albums that continues to grow in stature.
Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ was released in 1960 but was actually recorded in 1959, merely a few weeks after Coltrane recorded ‘Kind of Blue’ with Miles..
Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’ might be one of jazz music’s most recognizable singles, and it sure was in 1959 as this track became the first jazz single to sell a million copies.
My favorite track on this Mingus album, ‘Pedal Point Blues’, was not actually on the original release but was later added on a reissue. Here’s the story behind the original name of the album:
The title of Mingus Ah Um is derived from a Latin study form. It is common for Latin students to memorize Latin adjectives of the first and second declensions by first saying the masculine nominative singular form (usually ending in “-us”), then the feminine nominative singular ending (“-a”), and finally the neuter nominative singular ending (“-um”). Thus the adjective “magnus” (big, great) is memorized as “magnus”, “-a”, “-um”; this would be pronounced like “magnus ah um”.
‘Free Jazz’ was launched by this Ornette Coleman record with a self-explanatory title of what he thought about the direction of jazz.
Of course this is not an extensive list but simply some of the often played jazz records in my collection. If you haven’t heard some of these, go check them out. If you are already familiar with them, keep enjoying them as they are well worth it.
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