Cubanology Media Blog

Here’s a podcast which is really a two part Jazz special. The First part is classic Cannonball, Oliver Nelson and Joe Henderson with a dash of Mingus, along with a finishing touch of Art Blackey and his famous Jazz Messengers. The second part begins with the soft but powerful voice of Tony Bennett and breaks into 4 live Concert tunes by Frank Sinatra and the Count Basie Orchestra. Finally, after Sinatra leaves the stage, the podcast finishes off with a great version of “Yesterday, when I was young” by Mel Torme. Here are the songs in order:

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. “Sack O’ Woe” The Cannonball Adderley Quintet “Live at the Lighthouse” CD ALBUM

2. “One For Bob” Oliver Nelson “More Blues and the Abstract Blues” CD Album

3. “Short Story” Joe Henderson “In N’ Out” CD ALBUM

4. “East Coasting” and 5. “West Coast Ghost” Charles Mingus “East Coasting” CD Album

Recorded in New York, New York in August 1957. Includes liner notes by Nat Hentoff and Joseph F. Laredo.

Digitally remastered by Tom Moulton, Rich Essig and Greg Vaughan (Frankford Wayne Mastering Labs, New York, New York).

EAST COASTING is a Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop recording that’s a departure from the volatile PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS that precedes it. The music is more lyrical than many of his more renowned works, perhaps due in part to the line-up of musicians on this recording, including pianist Bill Evans.

The set begins with the standard “Memories of You,” which gets the Mingus treatment, and ends with “Fifty-First Street Blues,” which changes in a way the blues usually don’t. “Conversation” begins as a ballad and later launches into a blues featuring a fine Bill Evans solo. While EAST COASTING may not be as fervent as either the aforementioned PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS, or as colorful as TIJUANA MOODS, it splendidly displays Mingus’ full range as a composer whose music is so fueled by emotion that even a ballad has its explosive moments.

Complete original album ‘East Coasting’ released in 1957 on Bethlehem plus 5 bonus tracks. 2 alternate take tracks (East Coasting & Memories of You), the song “Revelations” (the only other collabration that Mingus & Evans ever made), plus 2 long standards from Oct. ’57 session by Mingus’ Jazz Workshop “Woody’n You” and “Billie’s Bounce”. 11 tracks

Personnel: Charles Mingus (bass); Shafi Hadi (alto & tenor saxophones); Clarence Shaw (trumpet); Jimmy Knepper (trombone); Bill Evans (piano); Dannie Richmond (drums)…..Learn More

7. “On Green Dolphin Street”  8. “Solitude” 9. “Street of Dreams” and 10. “Close Your Eyes” Tony Bennett “Jazz” CD Album

11. “Come Fly With Me” 12.”I’ve Got You Under My Skin” 13. “You Make Me Feel So Young” 14. “The September Of My Years” Frank Sinatra and The Count Basie Orchestra “Frank Sinatra at the Sands” CD Album

The 1998 re-issue of SINATRA AT THE SANDS includes a previously unreleased version of “Luck Be A Lady” that was left off the original LP release due to time restrictions.

This live recording from Las Vegas finds Sinatra fully in his element. An artist of his caliber certainly needs no contextualizing element in order to come across, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better medium for Sinatra’s message. Vegas in the ’60s was a center of unabashed showmanship, slightly crass elegance and a bourbon-drinking, dice-rolling, pre-boomer-generation sensibility–a perfect setting to bring Sinatra’s music out of the abstract and into the realm of flesh and blood. At the Sands, the center of Vegas nightlife, Sinatra is the unchallenged king, and on this album he wears the crown with grace. And, naturally, he swings……Read More

Finale: 15. “Yesterday When I Was Young” Mel Torme “A Time For Us” CD Album

Here’s the podcast (You can open ” Play on a New Window” and listen while reading the post or even surf the web) Enjoy!

Podcast: Play in new window