My friend Ken Laster, DJ at In The Groove: Jazz and Beyond, turned me on to emusic, a site where you can download tons of classic jazz for about 35 cents a song. For ten bucks a month you get 30 mp3 downloads.
Today I download Chet, by the trumpet player Chet Baker. I chose the collection mostly because it was listed as an example of piano player Bill Evans as a "sublime sideman". Evans was my first love among jazzmen, when my old English teacher, Mead Harwell, played him for me along with Italian wine; I was barely twenty. But the album also includes an all star list of jazzmen. Pepper Adams plays baritone sax; Philly Joe Jones, a Miles Davis favorite, plays drums along with Connie Kay. Herbie Mann plays flute on one track. One of my favorite jazz guitar players, Kenny Burrell is included.
With that kind of all star band, you expect a jam session, with each hero hogging his own space. What you get instead is a series of penetrating ballads, with everyone acting as if the music is more important than their own egos.
At 35 cents a song, Chet is diamonds on the cheap.
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