George Benson - ...and on guitar (1971)

George Washington Benson was born on March 22, 1943, and as a child prodigy he first played the ukulele in a corner drug store, for which he was paid a few dollars, then at the age of eight he was playing guitar in an unlicensed nightclub on Friday and Saturday nights, before the police closed the club down. At the age of nine he cut his first recordings, and of the four sides he recorded, two were released as the 1954 'She Makes Me Mad'/'It Should Have Been Me' single on RCA Victor in New York. He first came to prominence in the early 1960's, starting his professional career at age 19 by playing soul jazz with Jack McDuff, and at the age of 21 he recorded his first album as leader, with 'The New Boss Guitar' featuring McDuff on organ. He followed this with more albums as leader of The George Benson Quartet, with 'It's Uptown' in 1966 and 'The George Benson Cookbook' the following year. At the same time as having his own band, he was also playing in other groups, with such jazz luminaries as Hank Mobley, Jimmy Smith, Larry Young, and Stanley Turrentine, and he was even employed by Miles Davis to add guitar on 'Paraphernalia' from Davis' 1968 Columbia release 'Miles In The Sky'. Benson then signed with Creed Taylor's jazz label CTI Records, where he recorded several albums with some jazz heavyweights guesting on them, and his solo career really began to take off, culminating in him signing to Warner Brothers Records for his Grammy Award-winning breakthrough album 'Breezin''. This collection showcases some of his best work from the early 60's to early 70's on other artist's albums, and fans of his later smooth-jazz output might be astounded to hear what an excellent straight jazz guitarist he was in the early part of his career. It's a double disc set, as some of these tracks are quite lengthy, but I just couldn't bear to edit them down, so we end up with an hour and a half of superb mid-60's jazz.  

Track listing

Disc One
01 This Can't Be Love (from 'Cookin' Together' by Red Holloway 1964)
02 It Ain't Necessarily So (from 'Live!' by Brother Jack McDuff 1963)
03 Alligator Bogaloo (from 'Alligator Bogaloo' by Lou Donaldson 1967)
04 Sideman (from 'Finger-Lickin' Good' by Lonnie Smith 1967)
05 Music To Watch Girls By (from 'Jaki Byard With Strings!' by Jaki Byard 1968)
06 Paraphernalia (from 'Miles In The Sky' by Miles Davis 1968)
07 Up, Over, And Out (from 'Reach Out' by Hank Mobley 1968)
08 Some Of My Best Friends Are Blues (from 'The Boss' by Jimmy Smith 1968)

Disc Two
01 The Infant (from 'Heaven On Earth' by Larry Young 1969)
02 Mellow Blues (from 'Mellow Blues' by Willis Jackson 1970)
03 How Long Will It Be (from 'Crying Song' by Hubert Laws 1970) 
04 Sunshine Alley (from 'Sugar' by Stanley Turrentine 1970)
05 Straight Life (from 'Straight Life' by Freddie Hubbard 1971) 

Have A Swinging Christmas 2020

We need some cheering up after one of the worst years we've ever lived through, so as an alternative to the usual Christmas songs that we're inundated with, here's a selection of Christmas tunes from my favourite jazz artists. I've tried to go for the less obvious song choices, so no 'Jingle Bells' or 'Silent Night', although I have topped and tailed it with two different approaches to 'White Christmas'. Even if you're not that much into jazz then do give it a try as you'll probably find a few tracks that will appeal, and you never know, it might turn you on to a new genre of music that you hadn't appreciated before. The artists that I've chosen are among my all-time favourite jazz musicians, and although I'd loved to have included something by Thelonious Monk, he never recorded a Christmas tune, although he did write a couple, so Benny Green's version of his 'Christmas Wonderland' is a fine replacement.

Merry Christmas  

Track listing

01 White Christmas - Charlie Parker Quintet 
02 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Duke Pearson
03 The Christmas Song - Dexter Gordon Quartet
04 Winter Wonderland - Bobby Timmons
05 We Free Kings - Roland Kirk
06 Snowfall - Ahmad Jamal
07 Blue Christmas - Miles Davis
08 Christmas Blues - Ramsey Lewis Trio
09 Christmas Wonderland (Monk) - Benny Green
10 Winter Wonderland - Chet Baker
11 Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Bill Evans
12 Greensleeves - John Coltrane
13 Skating - Vince Guaraldi
14 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Jimmy Smith
15 White Christmas - Kenny Burrell

Miles Davis - The Black Album (2003)

I love a bit of jazz now and then, with my favourite period being the early 50's through to around 1963, but if there's one artist that I've followed throughout his whole career it's Miles Davis, from 'Birth Of The Cool' right through to 'Bitches Brew' and beyond. In 2001 Warner Brothers were working on a boxed set that was to include everything Davis had recorded in the studio during his time with the company (1985-1991) including many previously unreleased studio outtakes and some particularly noteworthy live material from the same era. The box was to be called 'The Last Word', and was initially earmarked for release on Rhino Records in September 2001, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Miles’s death. However, this date was missed and it was rescheduled for August 2002, before Rhino pulled 'The Last Word' from rotation stating: “We deeply regret the fact that we will not be releasing the Miles Davis box set on August 20. Our commitment has always been to offer consumers the best possible audio and video products for the best possible value. Due to developing circumstances beyond our control, we felt that this box set would not, in its finished form, meet our standards, or the standards our customers expect from our products'. 
Gradually the 6-CD set shriveled to just 4 CDs, including very little previously unreleased material, which had been kind of the main point of the set. There must still have been a real belief in getting it out, because under huge time pressure Bill Milkowski completed new liner notes in just four days, and some CD-R review copies were sent out, without art work. Then some time in 2002 the release was quietly abandoned altogether. Officially no reasons were given. In the meantime, the Japanese Legendary Collection Series released 'The Black Album', a two-CD compilation featuring some of the unreleased tracks from the aborted 'The Last Word' album, plus other unreleased tracks. On October 18 2010, Warner released the two-CD compilation 'Perfect Way: The Warner Bros Years', which included three previously unreleased live tracks - 'Portia', 'Carnival' and 'Human Nature' - from the 1986 Nice Jazz Festival, and two unreleased studio tracks - 'Digg That' and 'Rubberband' - from the much talked-about 'Rubberband' sessions, recorded just after Davis signed to Warners in 1985, and featuring keyboardist Adam Holzman, Vince Wilburn Jr on drums and Steve Reid on percussion. 
When these tracks appeared on official releases, the main source of this bootleg deleted them from their download, so I thought that I'd piece the album back together so that you can hear the full 2xCD release as it first appeared in 2003. I've done a little editing to the second CD so that it sounds like one complete gig, even though the recordings are from different periods, but unfortunately the final track was incomplete so has to fade early. There's only a poor quality scan of the cover available online, so I've recreated it based on the original, but I've left the online copy of the back cover in the file.

Track listing

Disc 1
01 Maze (Record Plant Studio, New York City, USA, September 23, 1985)
02 Rubberband (Unknown Studio, Los Angeles, USA, October 17, 1985)
03 See I See (Ameraycan Studio, Hollywood, USA, January 1986)
04 Digg That (Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, USA, December 21, 1987)
05 Street Smart (Unknown Studio, Los Angeles, USA, October 1986)
06 Time Square (Unknown Studio, Los Angeles, USA, October 1986)
07 Punchy’s Theme (Unknown Studio, Los Angeles, USA, October 1986)
08 It Gets Better (Record Plant Studio, New York City, USA, January 5, 1983)
09 Red Riding Hood (Capitol Recording Studio, Los Angeles, USA, May 1, 1986)

Disc 2
10 One Phone Call / Street Scenes / Speak (Live at Jardin des Arenes de Cimiez, Nice July 20, 1986)
11 Time After Time (Live at Jardin des Arenes de Cimiez, Nice July 20, 1986)
12 Portia (Live at The Casino, Montreux, Switzerland, July 17, 1986)
13 Tutu (Live at Chelsea Studios, New York City October 18, 1989)
14 Mr Pastorius (Live at Chelsea Studios, New York City October 18, 1989)
15 Hannibal (Live at Chelsea Studios, New York City October 18, 1989)
16 Come And Get It (Live at Jones Beach Theatre, New York City August 28, 1982)
17 U ‘n’ I (Live at Jones Beach Theatre, New York City August 28, 1982)