Some Jazz albums you might want to hear

A Love Supreme - John Coltrane

This album completely changed the jazz world in 1965 and even today its effects can be found in many musical styles. Coltrane evolves from the extremely complex and dense harmonic language he had mastered with Miles Davis and Monk and just plays with pure, raw passion. The four songs on this album are simultaneously filled emotions of anger, joy, sadness, ecstasy, tragedy and triumph. This album also marked the beginning of a revolution in Coltrane's playing as he ventured into a freer world less based on dense harmonic language.

 

Time Out - The Dave Brubeck Quartet

This was the first instrumental jazz album to sell over a million copies. 'Take Five' was even a number one hit on Billboard's charts which is a serious feat for any jazz song (and any song in 5/4!). Brubeck used the rhythmic influences from Eastern Europe to create a very fresh sound previously unfound in jazz. The complex rhythms he uses sound very natural and are easy to listen to, probably the reason for his success. This one is guaranteed to please and intrigue its listeners.

Bitches Brew - Miles Davis

Pretty much everything about this album was controversial. Before 1970, no major record label had ever used the word "Bitches" on a release by a major artist. The recording has some very long songs and consists mostly of free spontaneous electric improvisation. Also for the first time, the recording tape was sliced and diced a bit in studio post-production to make certain snippets repeat and to add effects which was unheard of on a jazz record. Yet even with all that... or maybe because of all that... it is Miles' second best selling album of all time behind Kind of Blue. Be warned... this album is pretty "out there" and could take a few listens to understand what Miles was able to achieve.

                                                       Head Hunters - Herbie Hancock

When I first heard this album I felt I had finally found that perfect "sound" I had been searching for my whole life. Herbie had come very well known in Miles Davis second quintet and now was doing his own thing applying those concepts to funk. His experimentation on a multitude of analog synths has tremendously influenced what I do on synthesizers in my band, Gentlemen Hall. As well as numerous other groups ever since. Some critics and pure acoustic jazz-heads said this album is not jazz, but I beg to differ cause it is full of jazz improvisation and concepts. This album was so popular that it quickly sold over a million copies after its release in 1973. It's simple, funky, extremely enjoyable, and AMAZING! Listen to it over and over for maximum satisfaction.

Blue Train (Remastered) - John Coltrane (Yes, again)

Recorded in 1957, this album was Coltrane's first album as a leader. It's very interesting to hear how Coltrane was playing before he started heading to the freer, passionate playing that he evolved to in the mid 60's. Did you know that ten years earlier, Coltrane was considered just a mediocre player? He studied with others and performed SO MUCH with Miles that he became an icon of discipline. He was known to constantly practice after gigs late into the night to become the player he was on this album... and he still continued to improved after this recording! I love this album because it has such a solid, quintessential jazz sound.

Gimme Five: Great thrash albums not by Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer or Anthrax

As I’ve been blasting the new song from Testament for the last few days, I’ve been thinking about a few of the other thrash acts that never quite grabbed the glory of those guys that you know.

Pretty much everyone, metal fan or not, is familiar with the “Big Four” of 1980s thrash Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. They’ve all had a bit of a resurgence of late thanks in part to the few Big Four shows they’ve done at festivals around the world, and in the case of Metallica, they’ve gone from scaring parents to being classic rock staples.
But thrash was a wide genre, and there are great, pioneering bands like Overkill and Exodus that rarely get recognition in the wider music world.
You’ll note that I’m leaving Pantera out of this, too, though I consider Cowboys from Hell a thrash classic, because they were huge in their own right with the groove metal thing. And, sorry to my German brethren because their big thrash bands like Kreator and Sodom missed the cut, but my tastes have always run toward the American form. And, finally, for any fellow metalheads reading this and saying these are all familiar albums and I should have gone more obscure, the list isn’t for you. Sorry.
So, without further ado, here are five great thrash albums not by those guys …

No. 5–
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM – DRIFT (1995)

No. 4–
SUICIDAL TENDENCES – LIGHTS … CAMERA … REVOLUTION! (1990)

No. 3–
OVERKILL – IRONBOUND (2010)

No. 2–
TESTAMENT – THE NEW ORDER (1988)

No. 1–
ANNIHILATOR – ALICE IN HELL (1989)
(SUPER DUBER AWESOME)

Sparks Fly On E Street: Bruce Springsteen, “Wreck On The Highway” (1980)

Mortality and the very, very thin line between life and death, those ideas quietly rumble just beneath the surface on most of The River‘s more serious tracks. “Wreck On The Highway” brings that all into focus, with a man realizing just how fragile life can be.

Looking back, this song feels like a bridge over to Nebraska. Of course, back in 1980, we had absolutely no idea of the turn Bruce’s music was about to take. I sure didn’t.

Next Up: Nebraska

Matt Garrison, “The Madness Within” (2012)

Saxophone sage Matt Garrison (not to be confused with bassist Matthew Garrison) recently made his second album, Blood Songs, and for truly talented musicians on an upward trajectory, that sophomore effort is often where the big growth occurs. Already accomplished at tenor, baritone and soprano saxes, we’re more likely to find any progression from Garrison as a composer and bandleader, and those are things where I can spot the maturation when I hear Blood Songs‘s kickoff track “The Madness Within.”

A fundamentally sound post-bop disciple to the core, Garrison nonetheless constructed a thoroughly modern tune with “The Madness Within.” He found a compelling, lilting sequence of chords worth repeating time and again, but his arrangement makes it ever better. Bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Ulysses Owen, Jr. craft a metropolitan, deceptively shifting groove. Augmenting Douglas, Owens, Garrison and pianist Roy Assaf are guitarist Dave Kain and trombonist/producer Michael Dease, and they play important roles, too. Dease and Garrison join for a sweet sax/trombone harmony that I always dug about the Crusaders and they glide right over that groove like an Olympic ice skater. Everyone in front of Douglas and Owens turns in succinct but sharp solos; the contrast between Dease’s cool elegance and Garrison’s soulful funk that quickly follows make up the high point.

Dethklok Performs Aboard USS Midway Battleship At San Diego Comic-Con (Video)

DETHKLOK, the animated band from Adult Swim's "Metalocalypse", performed this past Friday night (July 13) on the USS Midway battleship in San Diego, California. The group made its first live appearance of 2012 as "Metalocalypse" came to life at the San Diego Comic-Con convention. Those attending the free concert enjoyed new animation and new songs from DETHKLOK's upcoming album.

A 15-minute fan-filmed video report on the concert can be seen below.

The current DETHKLOK touring lineup consists of Brendon Small, Gene Hoglan (STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, TESTAMENT, DEATH, DARK ANGEL), Mike Keneally (FRANK ZAPPA) and Bryan Beller (STEVE VAI).

Created by Brendon Small ("Home Movies") and Tommy Blacha ("Da Ali G Show"), the "Metalocalypse" TV series launched in 2006 and kicked off its fourth season at the end of April on Adult Swim. One of the most popular series on the cable network, "Metalocalypse" portrays DETHKLOK as a death metal band with enough popularity to be the world's seventh-largest economy. In reality, DETHKLOK is the highest-selling band in death metal, exploding onto The Billboard 200 with "The Dethalbum", debuting at No. 21 in 2007 and "Dethalbum II" at No. 15 in 2009. Both albums contain full-length versions of songs partially heard on the show.

Alfred Music Publishing last year partnered with Cartoon Network Enterprises, the licensing and merchandising arm of Adult Swim, to present the first authentic bass TAB transcriptions of songs by DETHKLOK.

 

Deep Beatles: “Anytime At All” (1964)

BOOM!: Ringo Starr’s forceful drumbeat provides an abrupt, attention-grabbing introduction for “Any Time at All,” a Hard Day’s Night track that was never released as a single, but stands as an extraordinary example of the Beatles’ gift for creating sophisticated yet catchy songs.

“Any Time at All” originates from June 2, 1964, when principal writer John Lennon brought the rough draft into Abbey Road Studios. That afternoon, The Beatles first recorded seven takes of the rhythm track, then Lennon’s lead vocal. After breaking to record two more songs, they returned to the song in the evening. They recorded four more takes, overdubbing piano, guitar, and vocals. According to the Beatles Bible website, the track was mixed for mono on June 4; this mix was discarded, and new stereo and mono mixes were completed on June 22.

As is typical of many Lennon/McCartney compositions, Lennon and Paul McCartney did not sit side by side, writing the music and lyrics. Instead, Lennon wrote the song on his own. In his 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon explained that the tune was “an effort at writing ‘It Won’t Be Long’ — same ilk: C to A minor, C to A minor with me shouting.” By this time, Beatlemania was in full swing, which meant that their manager Brian Epstein, and their label wanted to fully exploit their (erroneously) presumed fleeting fame. Therefore, in between shooting A Hard Day’s Night scenes, the foursome would quickly pen songs and record in the studio late into the evening. This tight time limitation led to “Any Time at All” being released in a relatively unfinished state. When Lennon presented the song to the group, he lacked lyrics for the middle eight. McCartney suggested a series of piano chords, with the intention of writing additional lyrics over them. As the deadline loomed, however, the band and producer George Martin abandoned this plan and left in just the piano-infused middle eight.

New Freddie Mercury documentary to include rare footage, unreleased demo tracks

A new documentary focusing on the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury will include a snippet of the unreleased Michael Jackson collaboration “There Must be More to Life Than This” and a demo with Rod Stewart singing the previously unreleased “Take Another Piece of My Heart,” along with a never-before-seen appearance with the Royal Ballet in 1979.

The Great Pretender, due September 25, 2012, also features rare footage from the band’s initial TV appearance, Mercury’s earliest filmed interview, and newly filmed talks from fellow Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor. The documentary was produced and directed by Rhys Thomas, who worked again with the group that created the recent BBC documentary Queen: Days of Our Lives.
Thomas found film of Queen’s initial television appearance among the belongings of the late comedian Dick Emery, and unearthed the 1976 interview with Mercury in Australia. He also found a rare talk with NBC, also filmed in 1976, as well as film from Mercury’s 39th Black and White birthday party in Munich in 1985 — footage made for the video for “Living On My Own,” and promptly banned by his record company because of its cross-dressing theme. There are also interesting video outtakes from “I Want To Break Free,” “One Vision,” “Days of Our Lives,” “I Want It All,” “A Kind Of Magic,” “Princes of the Universe,” “Living on My Own,” Born To Love You,” “Great Pretender,” “Made In Heaven,” and “Who Wants to Live Forever.”
Among the others interviewed for the documentary: soprano Montserrat Caballé, composers David Arnold and Mike Moran, lyricist Tim Rice, and comedian and lifelong fan Matt Lucas, among others. The Great Pretender, presented in high definition, will be available in DVD and Blu-ray.