David Murray - Home

David Murray might not be among the best known jazz musicians out there but everyone who know about him seems to love him. Murray has his roots in free jazz but overall I wouldn't categorize him in one single sub-genre of jazz because he tends to experiment a lot with personnel and style. He often switches between octets, big bands, quartets etc. so there is always something interesting and new with each record.

Home is a particular favorite of mine from what I have heard of his work so far. The album was released back in 1981 with an octet. The recording is a loveable mix of swing, bebop and free jazz and it starts wonderfully with a blues piece aptly named Home as it invokes a very nostalgic feeling. It's melodic and it's soothing but as the album progresses from song to song it just gets wilder and wilder. The chains break free but not fully as there is always a stable rhythm section that back the whole thing up. There are coherent choruses and riffs but the solos and some chords are often dissonant and aggressive. Often you will find places in this album where a rhythm section plays this modern type of swing, the saxophones play two different (but intertwined) solos while the piano blasts some strange dissonant chords. It all comes together beautifully and daring. It's as if you got together a really old swing group that's just tired of playing the same songs over and over so they just go wild.


Absolutely love this album. Check it out!

Get it.

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - The Heavy Hitter

Dem saxophones; I just can't get enough of them so here's another heavy hitting bebop album from 1979 which is pretty late in the game. And it's kinda weird that he returned to this sound when before this he released a bunch of albums that were organ fueled jazz (ones you hear in 70s porn). Kinda like what Grant Green did (also porn music).

So is it any good? Well of course it is, from start to finish this is some mighty fine bebop. It opens up with a killer bass line and then it just strolls on and on into wonderful saxophone riffing. The downside of this album for me is the lack of any original tunes. All of them are standards or famous tunes boggled up into jazz. That shouldn't be a bad thing but I would kinda want to hear some of his original things. Despite that it's still a highly enjoyable little jazz adventure. Have fun.

Download.

Charlie Parker - Now's The Time/Back Up

It's funny how your mind sometimes just clicks when you hear an artist and right there on the spot you find your new favorite musician. Pretty much this happened to me when I first heard Charlie Parker. Strangely enough I found about him through, out of all places/people, Morita Douji. I really liked her most popular song "Bokutachi no Shippai" so I decided to hunt down the lyrics to read what's it actually about. It was, not surprisingly, a love song which contained this one segment:

"I found myself all alone.
I found the Charlie Parker record you loved so,
in the room
You've probably forgotten me."

"So who was this Charlie Parker?" I asked myself and decided that I'll nab something off the torrents from him. Through my whole life up until then the jazz I listened was exclusively from the 30s and 40s and the rest more "wankery" stuff I had not much interest in. Then I stumbled upon this guy and he refurnished my interpretation of jazz. I greatly enjoyed what I heard and from there on my love for jazz flourished in new directions.

Will it reshape your thinking of jazz? I really hope it will but it really depends on your taste. Charlie Parker is widely known for popularizing bebop and forming the modern jazz and there's really not much to say that hasn't been said in hundreds of documentaries, stories, studies, interviews etc. so I thought a little more personal story would be more fitting.

In any case this is a great introductory to his work. There are quite a few of his trademark songs here like Confirmation, Now's The Time, Leap Frog, Bloomdido etc. and there's some standards that he completely reworks as well. The recordings vary from 1949 to 1953 and at that time he was really blossoming as player. So yeah, there really is no reason not to download this if you like Charlie Parker or would like to start with him.

Enjoy.

Download.

McCoy Tyner - Sahara

McCoy Tyner was perhaps most known for his collaboration with John Coltrane. He played on many of his records (I guess most famous "session" would be My Favorite Things) but he also had a really vast and diverse career of his own.

Sahara was recorded in 1972 during his second period (after he left his bebop roots and started to explore what Coltrane popularized). It was also the first album he did for Milestones after he left Blue Note and it never hurts to mention this is his best selling album plus it was nominated for a Grammy. So yeah, aside from the hype this really is some great jazz which is pretty much essential stuff in my book.

Aside from playing the piano, Tyner also plays koto and percussion on this album which gives it an oriental/middle east feel that Coltrane would always strive for during his late period. Although being a multi-instrumentalist he shines the most on his main instrument which is the piano. I especially enjoy the solo second track, A Prayer For My Family, that features only him doing what he does best. As the album goes it sort of goes more free and free but it does not divulge into free jazz wankery all that much, it stays in the boundaries of post-bob melodies and solos. The album ends with an exceptional +20 minute track called Sahara that starts practically formless but as it develops it gradually gets its epic form and structure featuring solos from practically every instrument that's present on the track (dat bass solo in the middle rips my face off every time I hear it).

All in all, this is really great stuff. If you like jazz I warmly recommend it.

Download.

Jackie McLean - 4, 5 And 6

Jackie McLean was perhaps the most talented Charlie Parker follower. He followed him since from his teen years (around those years Parker was very much the most popular guy in jazz) and sometimes he was even placed to play at Parkers concerts until Parker arrives.

Aside from being a very good Parker apprentice he devised a style and sound of his own. 4, 5 and 6 is probably my favorite album of his. The opening track is probably the best. A 10 minute work based on Sentimental Journey is a reason good enough to get this but other tunes on this record are exceptional as well. I can't really say anything more. It's bebop and it's good.

Download.

Cowboy Bebop - OST, No Disc, Blue and Vitaminless

Sometimes I think, oh yes, I’d move to
Where all the shooting stars are gone
With all of our wishes
How could they bear, oh no, to carry
Around the stupid human hopes
So I’m gonna help, I will!

Give me a key to lock
The door to the secret paradise
There are so many queuing up
And I won’t let them in
Look at them
They are cheeky
They are never worthy to be saved

Sometimes I feel, oh yes, I could do
Almost everything I wanted
And it makes me cry

Lay your heart, lay your soul
upon my magic carpet
now we are flying
to Venus just to kill some time for tea, OK?
Remember, surrender
There’s nothing you can do ‘cause
Love’s such a joke
Like a little Jack-in-the-box, you know
A little Jack-in-the box

The lyrics above are from a song called Flying Teapot and this blog was named after this song.

The anime Cowboy Bebop is set in year 2071. Life on Earth has been demolished due to the fact the fucking Moon blew up! xD Because of that huge amounts of rocks are falling down on Earth (among other disasters that occurred because of this) making life on Earth almost impossible. Thus humans emigrated primeraly to Mars but also to other planets to and space stations. Most people now live on Mars in huge craters that are shilded by huge domes around it and the enviroment in these huge dome like buildings are shaped to look like life on Earth. That's the setting of the story, at least one bit. The story follows a group of bounty hunters who are on a ship called Bebop. The crew consists of 4 humans and one dog. Each character fills the weakness of another character so in whole they make an perfect team (non of them are able to get food it seems haha). I won't spoil much of the plot but just so you know the anime is episodic but the main plot follows here and there giving you just small bits untill the last few episodes where everything starts to unfold. Along with the series there's also an movie, two mangas, two video games (they weren't released outside Japan me thinks) and some questionable live action adaptations.

This happens to be my favorite anime of all times (seriously it is, there's no other except maybe Angel's Egg but that one is more for the soul) so I managed to collect most of the soundtracks and bootleg soundtracks that got out one way or another. I'll be posting 4 here and in the future I'll post some other ones (like the 5 cd limited boxed edition but that will have a post of its own because it deserves it!).

The anime has numerous refereces to jazz and most episodes are named after Jazz songs and similar. Naturally the soundtrack is like that as well. All soundtracks are made by a band called The Seatbelts led by the all popular Yoko Kanno who writes the music (she also did music for several other animes like Wolf's Rain). The music is quite diverse to say at least. For example the opening song is an wild and hectic jazz while the ending is an mid paced rocky ballad. While the main areas of music in the soundtrack is jazz and rock they aren't afraid to venture into other genres which gives this soundtrack an high replay value.

For now I uploaded 4 sountracks which are:

Cowboy Bebop Original Soundtrack

Tracklist:

01. Tank (3:31)
02. Rush (3:35)
03. Spokey Dokey (4:06)
04. Bad Dog No Biscuits (4:12)
05. Cat Blues (2:37)
06. Cosmos (1:37)
07. Space Lion (7:13)
08. Waltz For Zizi (3:32)
09. TPiano Black (2:49)
10. Pot City (2:15)
11. Too Good Too Bad (2:36)
12. Car24 (2:51)
13. The Egg And I (2:44)
14. Felt Tip Pen (2:41)
15. Rain (3:24)
16. Digging My Potato (2:22)
17. Memory (1:30)

Download.

No Disc

Tracklist:

01. American Money (1:08)
02. Fantasie Sign (5:20)
03. Don't Bother None (3:41)
04. Vitamin A (0:11)
05. Live In Baghdad (3:23)
06. Cats On Mars (2:47)
07. Want It All Back (4:02)
08. Bindy (2:19)
09. You Make Me Cool (3:11)
10. Vitamin B (0:11)
11. Green Bird (1:55)
12. Elm (5:05)
13. Vitamin C (0:07)
14. Gateway (2:58)
15. The Singing Sea (4:40)
16. The Egg And You (3:45)
17. Forever Broke (3:34)
18. Power Of Kung Food Remix (Tank Remix) (5:30)

Download.

Blue

01. Blue (5:05)
02. Words That We Couldn't Say (3:30)
03. Autumn In Ganymede (3:55)
04. Mushroom Hunting (3:19)
05. Go Go Cactus Man (2:38)
06. Chicken Bone (4:57)
07. The Real Man (4:01)
08. N. Y. Rush (5:05)
09. Adieu (5:40)
10. Call Me Call Me (4:43)
11. Ave Maria (5:50)
12. Stella By Moor (1:09)
13. Flying Teapot (3:33)
14. Wo Qui Non Coin (3:44)
15. Road To The West (2:56)
16. Farewell Blues (5:32)
17. The Real Folk Blues (5:56)

Download.

Vitaminless

Tracklist:

01. The Real Folk Blues (6:17)
02. Odd Ones (3:11)
03. Doggy Dog (3:17)
04. Cats On Mars (2:44)
05. Spy (2:04)
06. Fantasie Sign (5:01)
07. Piano Bar I (3:20)
08. Black Coffee (3:15)

No link available.
Just so you know apparently there's a new live action series in the make. Info here.