13. Machito - Kenya [1957]
More jazz, did people not listen to anything else in the late 50s?
More Afro-Cuban jazz which I've only just listened to with the Sabu album. I guess this stuff must have been popular back then.
Obviously the Sabu album is my direct reference point here given that it's basically all I have to reference this against. While I think that album had more excitement and was more distinctive and grabbed you immediately, this album doesn't do that so much. That's not to say it doesn't, the opening track 'Wild Jungle' does that wonderfully well at making a statement about what this album is about. The following track 'Congo Mulence' keeps going in that direction but then when you get the the third track, the title track of the album 'Kenya' you get a better idea of what this album is about. This is more of a fusion with trad western jazz than the Sabu album. The bongos and the congas are still in abundance but more restrained. They are given a chance to shine in tracks such as 'Cannonology' and 'Frenzy'. 'Frenzy' is particular is just that, a frenzy of hyperactive bongo playing.
The thing this album has going for it is it's layers and it's musicianship. It seems much more polished and thought out than the Sabu album, this is kind of it's sensible brother. It's kind of strange really how I think this album is the better of the two and yet I think when it comes down to individual songs I'm more likely to listen to ones off the Sabu album. Weird.
A good album, well played with some great musicianship, I just don't see myself revisiting it too often.
Rating 3 / 5
12. Miles Davis – Birth Of The Cool [1957]
I was a little apprehensive about doing this album. I have heard this album before (7 years ago, Thank you Last FM) and I remember not being too impressed by it. In fact I don't remember Kind Of Blue doing much for me either. If I wanted something by Miles Davis I would go for something later in his career like Bitches Brew or On The Corner. Let's see if time has mellowed my opinion.
This compilation was recorded over 3 sessions between 1949 & 1950 and finally put out by Capitol Records as one collection in 1957. It obviously became a landmark recording even if it didn't sell too well at the time. And here's where the problem lies.
Even though it is a landmark recording for the time it's not that time now, it's 65 years later. It's difficult to appreciate things as being revolutionary or influential when they sound like things that are commonplace. I can appreciate things that were new 20 or 30 years ago that sound commonplace now mainly because I was there at the time to hear how revolutionary and original they were. But an album as old as this? Forget it.
Of the songs on the album I enjoyed the more uptempo ones like 'Move', 'Jeru' & 'Boplicity'. 'Israel' was a pretty cool song too. I don't know why you would write a song called 'Rocker' that doesn't really rock at all. I guess it did rock back in 1949/50. The final song 'Darn That Dream' is the only song with vocals. I nearly caught myself why you would add a single song with vocals to an album, but then quickly remembered that this is in actual fact a compilation.
Didn't really hate it or find myself having a massive change of heart about this album. It's middle range all the way.
Rating 2.5 / 5
11. Sabu - Polo Congo [1957]
If I've not heard a lot of the albums on this list I can at least say I'm aware of them or the artists that recorded them. I regularly read or watch things on various different types of music I don't even listen to simply in the hope that I may understand them and get into them one day.
Having said that, this album came out of the blue to me, this is the first time I have ever heard of this album.
After reading a little I find out that the 'Sabu' is Louis 'Sabu' Martinez, a talented percussionist and conga player who had done the rounds in various jazz bands with some big names and that this album is Afro / Cuban jazz with influences from Spain, Western Africa, Cuba & Caribbean influences.
Cool, but do I really want to listen to someone banging on the congas for 40 minutes?
We shall see
The opening track 'El Cumbanchero' is kind of interesting because to me it sounds like a modern dance song just with the beats taken out. Add some beats and I could easily see this on one of those modern day cheesy dance compilations probably called something like 'Latin Dance 2014' or 'Havana After Dark' with a cartoon drawing of some half naked olive skinned woman peering out of the cover. The second track 'Billumba-Palo Congo' is even better. It's just a guy hammering the shit out of his bongos while some guy yells his head off. It's fucking fantastic. It sounds like some small African Country is about to declare war on it's neighbour.
'Choferito-Plena' is where the spanish element comes in with the bongos taking the back seat and the guitars taking centre stage for this kind of ballad. 'Asabache' is a 4 minute 25 minute bongo solo and it at this point that the album begins to lose it's novelty value. 'Simba' tries to emulate 'Billumba-Palo Congo' but doesn't quite have the energy or fun of that song. 'Rhapsodia Del Maravilloso' picks things back up again. There's something rather erratic and dissonant about this song, almost like it could have been made up on the spot. It's kind of interesting that to me it sounds a lot of a latin version of Can. 'Aggo Elegua
' continues the percussion & chanting theme which to be honest is starting to wear a little thin at this point.
The album finishes with the Spanish guitar flavoured 'Tribilin Cantore' which while charming enough could easily lose a couple of minutes in length.
On the whole I enjoyed listening to this, when you knew what you weren't going to get next it was fun finding out. Shame it only lasts till halfway through, although it does pick up again towards the end again.
Would I listen to this album the whole way through again?
Probably not
Would I listen to the occasional song off this album just to throw in something random into a playlist?
Most definitely.
Rating 3.5 / 5
10. Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners [1957]
It's almost a kind of a shame that I have so many of these classic jazz albums coming thick and fast because I feel as though that trying to listen to so many of them in such a short amount of time and with my jazz ignorance it's probably fair to say I'm not really giving these albums the fair crack of the whip that they truly deserve.
I was actually looking forward to this album, I'd heard a little bit of Thelonius Monk (A very little) and heard it spoken about in hushed reverential tones, but what's it actually like?
The first song on the album (And the title track) is fantastic. I'm not entirely sure what 'Hard Bop' actually is (Like bop but harder?) but if it's all like this then I'm going to love albums with that label. There was lots going on, people are soloing away it's like you can't take your ears off it for fear of missing out on something, I'm beginning to see why this is considered such a classic.
And then the rest of the album happens.
The first three of the albums tracks clock in at just under 28 minutes altogether with the second track 'Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are' taking up 13 of those minutes. This is where things go off the boil it just meanders along as a steady tempo and has none of the invention of the title track, even the solos seem half assed.
With the third song of the trio 'Pannonica' things grind even more to a halt and you begin to wonder if this album will ever end.
Thankfully things pick up for the final two tracks of the album, 'I Surrender, Dear' is a lovely piano piece that gives the album that change of direction it really needs by now, followed by Bemsha Swing which is a nice uptempo way to finish the album much in the same way it started.
For the most part I enjoyed this album, it just fell flat a little in the middle.
Rating 3 / 5
