Buddy Rich (Wikipedia) got started playing drums on Vaudeville when he was 18 months old. They called him “Traps the Drum Wonder”. Buddy Rich was an amazing drummer. To this day many drummers of all genres cite to Buddy as one of their primary influences. Buddy was, first and foremost, a drummer.

Buddy was also hot-tempered. He’d go on rants against his band that became legendary when one of his musicians started recording them. I knew that they existed but never actually heard them until the Internet became a thing. You can listen to them here but be warned, they are very explicit. Jerry Seinfeld enjoyed the tapes so much that he took several lines and added them verbatim to Seinfeld scripts. There are a lot of former Buddy Rich band members that defend Buddy, explaining while he was prone to throw a tantrum, he could also be generous. 

Setting all of that aside, long after big band jazz went out of vogue, there was Buddy Rich. He had one of the best touring big bands up until right before his death in 1987. His band played like a barely contained explosion. They could play a note together in a way that would make you feel like you just got slammed against a wall. It was glorious.

The best Buddy Rich big band song (in my opinion) was The Channel One Suite. This may be the apex of big band jazz music. The only way to get the song in iTunes is to buy an entire album, but in fairness it is a pretty great album. You can also just watch it on YouTube.

While I’ll admit I have a particular affection for jazz artists from the bebop and cool jazz movements, there are also some contemporary artists I really enjoy. This week is the first time I’m featuring someone (slightly) younger than me. Joshua Redman (Wikipedia) is one of the best contemporary jazz saxophonists playing today. He is smart (Harvard educated!) and plays the sax with a technical expertise that makes my head spin. However, what makes him Jazz Friday-worthy is his artistry. Joshua puts himself out there when he plays and I find it almost impossible to play his music in the background because I always fall into it. There are several great albums. Two of my favorites are his Timeless Tales (for Changing Times) album, which features his take on several jazz standards and the more recent Trios Live album. The live recording shows off his talent. If you are going to just pick one track, I’d recommend Never Let Me Go from the Trios Live album.

There are very few live recordings of the bebop jazz titans in the early days. That’s why the May 1953 Massey Hall concert is especially loved by jazz fans. The band included Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. It was the only time these five played together and it is the last recording of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie together. (Charlie Parker shows up in some liner notes as “Charlie Chan”, because he was contractually prohibited from recording on the label.)

A further bit of interesting backstory was that this event was never planned to be the epic recording it became. The event was planned as a fundraiser for the Toronto Jazz Society but there was a prize fight the same night and the turnout was much lower than expected. The musician’s checks bounced and they decided to release a recording so they could get paid.

Nevertheless, we end up wbith this great little time capsule of bebop and it is a great listen. I’d recommend buying the entire album but the best track is Salt Peanuts. It starts out with Charlie Parker introducing the song by his “worthy constituent”, Dizzy Gillespie. Then, once the song gets rolling and Bird (Charlie Parker) starts playing his solo, Dizzy Gillespie started throwing handfuls of peanuts at the audience while screaming “SALT PEANUTS”. Finally, Max Roach delivers a stellar drum solo at the end. It all comes out on the recording and makes me smile every time I listen to it. When my kids were young, we used to drive around listening to this track screaming “SALT PEANUTS” at the top of our lungs. I bet I could still get my kids to do it.

iTunes only sells it as a full album but the remastered version sounds pretty good. If you just want to listen to Salt Peanuts, it is on YouTube.

John Coltrane is one of the most well-regarded saxophonists ever to pick up the instrument. He was a vital band member with Miles Davis and a force of his own as a solo artist. I used his Ballads album to serenade my children when they were babies and I still find myself playing it when I need a bit of serenity.

John was also quite spiritual. He recorded several albums that were spiritually inspired. In one of his seminal works, A Love Supreme, he wrote a Psalm and then, in the studio, put the words on his music stand and played them I first heard about this when I was 15 and playing the sax several hours a day. I couldn’t fathom someone playing words instead of music. However, I did read John’s Psalm and listen to the music and I did hear it.

Just a few weeks ago, Dan Colman made a video at OpenCulture, that shows you John’s original words overlaid with the music. I found it mesmerizing to watch as I could put myself in the head of this musical genius and look at the words float by as the notes come out.

My thanks to David in Cincinnati for pointing me at the OpenCulture post.

Don Cheadle is doing an Indiegogo campaign to fund a movie about Miles Davis. Miles has both the brilliance and flaws required to make an interesting movie. I grew up obsessed with his older music and not so interested in his then-modern fusion stuff, which I’d argue really hasn’t held up over the years the way his early stuff does. I finally got a chance to see him live and he spent the entire set playing his red trumpet and facing the drummer. Only Miles.

The movie’s campaign description says they’ll be focussing on a “very specific point in his life”, which seems to be the way people do bio movies these days. I actually prefer this. They can go a lot deeper with the characters when focussing on a short period than the usual “… and then he/she did this” biopic. I hope this gets made and portrays Miles honestly, red trumpet and all.

Thelonious Monk composed Ruby, My Dear for his first love, Rubie Richardson. I first heard the song when I about twelve. At that point I was listening to jazz, but nothing like this. Monk’s complex chords and melodies floored me. This song was where I discovered Monk. There are a lot of recordings of Ruby, My Dear but my favorite is this one, with Monk and John Coltrane together. Coltrane’s forceful melody with Monk’s introspective chords are sublime.

If you’d like to hear me play Ruby, My Dear, today’s your lucky day. I recorded this in Garage Band with my Yamaha MIDI keyboard. I didn’t get cute and fix any notes. I just pressed the red button and started playing. It’s not particularly good but was played with a lot of love for this song and Monk.

Cannonball Adderley (Wikipedia) is one of best alto saxophonists from the hard bop era. As a sideman, he played with Miles Davis including the Kind of Blue album. After he left Miles Davis, Cannonball started his own successful quintet. Cannonball viewed himself as a jazz educator, always trying to teach people about jazz and bringing younger players in his band.

One of those young players was Joe Zawinul (Wikipedia), who later headed one of the greatest fusion bands ever, Weather Report. While in Cannonball’s band, Joe wrote Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.

The song is more cross-over than traditional bebop but it sure is a fun listen. My favorite recording is the live one on Cannonball’s aptly named album, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, Live at “The Club“. In it, Cannonball gives this fantastic introduction that makes me smile every time I listen to it, especially when faced adversity for which I am not prepared. Finally, I can’t introduce you to this song without at least pointing to my second favorite recording of it, done by the Buddy Rich Big Band in 1968.

I was working in the garden a few days ago listening to Clifford Brown’s Joy Spring which seems appropriate for this time of year. Clifford Brown isn’t as well known as some of the other jazz legends of the bebop era because he died so young. “Brownie” had a great sound and was an accomplished composer. Joy Spring is one of my favorite jazz tunes.

In 1955, Clifford Brown and Max Roach combined for this album, considered one of the iconic albums of the hard bop movement. The band included Clifford, co-leader and drummer Max Roach, Harold Land on tenor sax, Richie Powell (the younger brother of Bud Powell) and bassist George Morrow. If you are just going to buy one track, get Joy Spring, but you can get the entire album for $6.

Clifford was a straight-living trumpeter during a period when so many jazz players were heroin addicts. Unfortunately he died at just 25 years old in a car accident. Tragic. (Wikipedia) For years afterward, jazz musicians paid tribute to Clifford Brown including Benny Golson’s I Remember Clifford which, coincidentally, is not one of my favorite jazz tunes.

Ballads is one of my favorite jazz albums. I’ve had a lifelong relationship with this album. While John Coltrane is best known for his more frantic stuff, this album proves just how sweetly he could play ballads. No matter how much I twist myself up, the opening riff of Say It (track 1) always unwinds me, immediately. When my daughters were babies, this is the music I used to put them to sleep.

Remarkably, all but one of the songs were recorded in one take. Crazy. I’ve bought it in vinyl, CD, and digital. Best of all, it’s now only six bucks on iTunes. So worth it.

In 1960, Mack the Knife was a relatively new song and people loved it. So on a whim, Ella added it to a performance she was doing in Berlin. The trouble was that she didn’t know the words very well and about halfway through had a lyrics train wreck. If this were any other singer in the world, this would be ugly. However, when Ella forgets lyrics, songs actually get better. Don’t believe me. Check this out.