Cubanology Media Blog

I hope you enjoy this long but balanced mash of Deep Groovy Jazz, Smooth Samba, Sexy Afro-Cuban Jazz and Solid Hard Bop Jazz. I tried my best to mix all these sounds to create a tolerable podcast.

Note to all new readers of the Cubanology MediaBlog: All the podcasts are located in the beginning and end of the post. I suggest opening up the podcast by clicking on “Play in new window” so you can scroll through the post itself and visit the links and/or go on with your business and listen in the background. Thank you and enjoy!

Podcast: Play in new window

1. “Moods in Mambo” from the “Epitaph” CD Album:

Charles Mingus was a giant in the world of Jazz. His unrivaled ability to play the Bass was actually considered to be, may I say, weak, when compared to his genius ability to compose music. I personally love his music but it gets complicated, you see, hundreds of Jazz music listening hours are involved to fully understand how special his music was and will always be. He raised the bar in the world of Jazz for all future fellow musicians. I am going to place my introductory podcast ahead of all the valuable information on this “Historical Masterpiece of Jazz” and on Mingus himself…….Learn More

2. “Exuberante” from the “Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods” CD Album

3. “Cold Turkey” 4. “Red Clay” (Live) from the “Red Clay” CD Album

On Jan. 27, 1970, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, playing at the peak of his powers after a string of seven brilliant Blue Note albums and three for the Atlantic label, went into the studio to cut his first for Creed Taylor’s CTI label. With Taylor producing, a stellar cast was assembled at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., for three consecutive days of recording. They emerged with Red Clay, an album that would not only define Hubbard’s direction over the next decade while setting the template for all future CTI recordings, but would also have a dramatic impact on a generation of trumpet players coming up in the ’70s.

It was a transitional period in the jazz; the tectonic shift beginning with Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way, recorded the previous year. Hubbard’s entry into this crossover territory on Red Clay was characterized by the slyly syncopated beats of drummer Lenny White on the funky 12-minute title track, an infectious groover that was soon covered by budding crossover groups all over America. Essentially an inventive line set to the chord changes of “Sunny,” Bobby Hebb’s hit song from 1966, “Red Clay” would become Hubbard’s signature tune throughout his career. As trumpeter, friend and benefactor David Weiss, who is credited with bringing Hubbard out of self-imposed retirement in the late ’90s, explains, “Later in life Freddie would always announce it as ‘the tune that’s been keeping me alive for the last 30 years.’ We played ‘Red Clay’ every night and he would quote ‘Sunny’ over it every night.”…..Read More

5. “Tereza my Love”  6. “Sabia” from the “Stone Flower” CD Album:

Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (1927-1994) was, by far, the most important composer born in Brazil in the Twentieth Century. He was Brazil’s most prolific composer too, as well as the main composer of the bossa nova era. But his immense work transcended the bossa nova boundaries, influencing jazz and classical artists.

Jobim started his career in the late Forties, working as a piano player in Rio de Janeiro’s nightclubs. In 1952, he got a job as arranger for the Continental label, also beginning to write songs with another talented pianist, Newton Mendonça. Jobim’s main works in the Fifties were “Sinfonia do Rio Janeiro” (an extended symphonic piece in honor of his native city, in 1954), the score for the stage play “Orfeu da Conceição” in 1956, and the soundtrack – along with songs by Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Maria – for the movie “Black Orpheus” in 1959, a huge success all over the world. One year before, in 1958, Jobim wrote all the songs and the arrangements for an album by songstress Elizeth Cardoso, “Cançao do Amor Demais”, which featured João Gilberto’s uncredited guitar on two tracks. One of them, “Chega de Saudade”, became a legendary recording, considered officially as the first bossa nova recording. The following year, with the release of João Gilberto’s debut solo album, also titled “Chega de Saudade” and also arranged by Jobim, the bossa nova craze was born.

After the famous Bossa Nova Concert in Carnegie Hall, in 1962, Jobim’s impact in the jazz world increased. His song “Desafinado”, was already a No. 1 Pop Hit in the Billboard charts, recorded by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd in their landmark album “Jazz Samba”, produced by Creed Taylor, then the A&R for Verve Records. Creed attended the Carnegie Hall concert and soon started to develop an auspicious collaboration with Jobim. Firstly, Creed hired Jobim to play as sideman in the Stan Getz/Luiz Bonfá album, “Jazz Samba Encore!”, in February 1983. It was followed by the stunning Stan Getz/João Gilberto collaboration on “Getz/Gilberto”, recorded in March 1963 with Jobim on the piano. Released one year later, this million-selling album won four Grammy Awards (plus three other nominations), remaining 96 weeks on Billboard’s pop charts, reaching No. 2. Its main track, “The Girl from Ipanema”, a Jobim song, became an instant hit, launching the careers of singers João and Astrud Gilberto….Learn More

7. “Deve Ser Amor” from the CD Album “Recorded Live in Rio De Janeiro”

8. “Close your Eyes” 9. “All the things you are” from the “Live from the Black Hawk” CD Album

10. “All or nothing at all” from the “Open Sesame” CD Album

11. “Celia” from the “Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus” CD Album

12. “Lover Man” from the” Sonny Meets HawK!” CD Album

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