I've read with envy Ken's review of the John Coltrane box set he picked up. Though, at just over $40 on Amazon for six CDs from one of jazz's great sax players, that's a pretty good value. I've recently picked up several new CDs, three by Miles Davis (Relaxin', Workin', and Cookin') and one by Greg Osby (Public). All are excellent.
As we have probably mentioned before, Miles Davis always ends up on a list of Greatest Jazz Musicians Ever, with is album Kind of Blue produced by Columbia Records normally landing on the list. However, Relaxin', Workin', and Cookin' were recorded with Prestige by the quintet in the early 1950s have a different sound from Kind of Blue. Kind of Blue, in the parlance of the genre, is an example of "post-bop" jazz that assimilates the influences of hard bop, modal jazz, avant-garde, and swing, turning out an album that is beautiful and deeply poignant. For my money, Kind of Blue and John Coltrane's A Love Supreme are the two best albums in jazz. I've also been eyeing this box set that collects all of the music for Columbia by Miles and John Coltrane together. Another excellent collaboration between Cannonball Adderley and Davis, Somethin' Else, is also something you should hear.
Osby's quartet is magnificent, featuring Nicholas Payton on trumpet, Megumi Tonezawa on piano, Robert Hurst on bass, Rodney Green on drums, and Joan Osborne doing vocals. I've heard Osby described as the Art Blakey of this generation, and I think that's a fitting label given Osby's transformational nature. Osby has an art for finding outstanding jazz musicians, and a generous willingness to incorporate them into his band. Recorded live at New York's Jazz Standard, Public contains three covers and three intense originals. The original performances on Public are built primarily on improvisation rather than composition. In earlier styles of jazz like bebop, although the solos were improvised, they still centered around a template of chords and melody that the "free jazz" performers frequently ignore. Although I still lean towards the sound of bebop and hard bop, his music, which essentially deconstructs those two genres, is certainly worth listening to, with his hard, angular rhythms meshing with the flowing swing of bebop.
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