The Bebop Rabbit Hole
Oct 24, 2019
I've worked in my current studio for coming up on two years now, and it's a fabulous space, but right on a major street in East Austin, so I had to basically board up the windows in my room to mitigate the traffic sounds outside. You can still hear the occasional rumble of passing traffic in my Youtube lessons, as trucks delivering kegs of Old Repulsive Small Batch IPA roll by on a mission to slake the thirst of artisinal-brisket-eating hipsters and tourists alike.
So on days when the lack of vitamin D gets to me, I retreat to the back deck with an improving book, which for the past week or two has been Ira Gitler's The Masters of Bebop: A Listener's Guide. And yesterday, in reaction to the chapter on arranger-composer-pianist Tadd Dameron, I found myself once again down the bebop rabbit hole, Spotifying my way through a dozen or more LPs by artists I'd read about for ages but never really given a close listen to.
At the moment I'm spinning Introducing Johnny Griffin, an album I've only known of till now, however ridiculously, from eyeballing its cover in Graham Marsh's coffee table paperback Blue Note: The Album Cover Art. There was a time when records like this just felt like a lot of yelling to me, and I would skip over anything uptempo to get to the one or two blues-based tunes on the album. But as my ears catch up, however slowly, to the sounds of this idiom and era, the faster tunes now sound less like yelling and more like musical caffeine, a groovy triple shot of daredevil espresso, right from the opening rhythm changes of "Mil Dew."
So if you're looking for some listening recommendations, here's what I've cued up to check out over the next few days:
Tadd Dameron – The Compositions of Tadd Dameron
Various artists, including Griffin, Bill Evans and Bobby Timmons, doing Dameron's tunes.
Howard McGhee – Dusty Blue
Bebop-era trumpeter who I didn't realize continued to make records through the late 1970s. This one includes a gorgeous version of Benny Golson's "Park Avenue Petit," which you can also hear on trumpeter Blue Mitchell's 1959 Blue Soul and guitarist Pat Martino's East!
Ike Quebec – The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions
I was really hoping this would include "Blue Harlem," the classic slow blues with Tiny Grimes on guitar. It doesn't, but it's worth it for the relaxed shuffle of the opening track, "A Light Reprieve," with a guitarist who's news to me, Clifton "Skeeter" Best. According to Uncle Wikipedia, Best also played guitar on the Ray Charles / Milt Jackson collaboration Soul Brothers.
Ray Charles / Milt Jackson – Soul Brothers
What the heck, this one's great too, and includes a slow blues with the absurdly excellent title "The Genius After Hours."
Johnny Griffin – Introducing Johnny Griffin
As mentioned above. Soulful bebop to blow your hair back, and possibly more off-mic "yeearrrrhh"s than any other jazz LP in my stash.
You can find a Spotify playlist with selected tracks from these albums on the new Playlists page of my web site:
https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/playlists
More soon,
David
