Weekend Track Review Roundup – Jazz.com

August 07, 2008 · 1 comment

Weekend Track Review Roundup

Someday The New York Times or The New Yorker will report on this scrappy little web site that aims to review all of the great (and many of the not-so-great) jazz tracks recorded since the beginning of time.

But they haven’t yet, so we need to blow our own horn. Get ready, here it comes . . . TOOT!!! TOOT!!! TOOT!!

Was that loud enough for you?

No, we haven’t reviewed all of the hot tracks . . . not yet, at any rate. But we do have more than 2,800 track reviews on the jazz.com site, prepared by our crack team of 40-plus critics (that's their headcount not their media age), as well as various guest reviewers of renown. (Coming here soon: Jason Moran reviewing 12 essential Muhal Richard Abrams tracks.)

The total scope of this enterprise is a bit scary, at least to those of us who are building it one brick at a time. Just the reviews already available on the site amount to more than a half million words (every one of them selected with care, and nary a split infinitive or dangling participle to be found). That’s enough to fill a stack of print books -- remember those? -- and keep that Intel® Quad-core XEON® Processor 7300 Series unit (conveniently located right next to my bed) buzzing round the clock. When combined with jazz.com’s on-line Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians -- a work-in-progress -- this hyper-linked resource amounts to one of the largest jazz reference works anywhere, in print or on the web.

Don’t just take my word for it. Search for you favorite tracks here. Or just glance below, where we present links to a sampling of jazz.com reviews published since our last roundup. Five times each week, we also highlight a Song of the Day drawn from the best of the current releases. In addition, we offer a daily retrospective glance at a jazz masterpiece, as part of our A Classic Revisited feature.

All reviews come with fair and judicious appraisals worthy of inclusion in the Harvard Law Review, and a ranking based on our proprietary 100 point scale. We also include, whenever possible, links for fast (and legal) downloading. And site visitors can add their personal amicus curiae briefs at the bottom of each review.

Steve Reich (with Pat Metheny): Electric Counterpoint
Bill Evans: Very Early
Chick Corea & Gary Burton: Señor Mouse
André Previn: I Feel Pretty
Miles Davis: Selim
Tony Scott: Is Not All One?
Paco De Lucia: Convite (Rhumba)
Ornette Coleman: First Take
Diana Krall: How Insensitive
Wes Montgomery: West Coast Blues
Philip Glass: Koyaanisqatsi
Eric Dolphy: Straight Up and Down
John Tchicai: One Way Ticket
Sonny Rollins: Change Partners
Charlie Barnet: Over the Rainbow
Anthony Davis: Wayang No. 5
György Ligeti: Lux Aeterna
Paradox: Subwayer
Billy Cobham: On the Inside Track
Dexter Gordon: Fried Bananas
Dave Brubeck: Perdido
Ella Fitzgerald: Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me
Herbie Hancock & John McLaughlin: It’s About That Time
Dave Brubeck (with Paul Desmond): Blue Moon
Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis: Basin Street Blues
Carmen McRae: Still We Dream
Steve Lacy & Mal Waldron: House Party Starting
Duke Ellington & Ray Brown: Things Ain’t What They Used to Be
Dizzy Gillespie: Dizzier and Dizzier
Paul Desmond: Wendy
Ron Carter: Tamalpais
Modern Jazz Quartet: Lonely Woman
Miles Davis: Teo
Richard Twardzik: I’ll Remember April
Sauter-Finegan Orchestra: Nina Never Knew
Miles Davis: Catembe
Harry Allen: I Didn’t Know What Time It Was
Ted Heath: Lady bird
Gary Burton & Stéphane Grappelli: Blue in Green
Teddi King: How Long Has This Been Going On?
Benny Carter: Blue Star
Italian Instabile Orchestra: Il Maestro Muratore
Frank Strozier: Runnin’
Paul Motian: Light Blue
David Murray & Mal Waldron: I Should Care
Esbjörn Svensson: Dodge the Dodo
Stan Kenton: An Esthete on Clark Street
Oscar Pettiford: Nica’s Tempo
Brand X: Nightmare Patrol
Grace Kelly: Just Friends
Gary Burton: Blue Comedy
Herbie Nichols: Love, Gloom, Cash, Love
Joe Lovano & Hank Jones: Alone Together
Philip Catherine: Lendas Brasileiras
Marcin Wasilewski: Diamonds and Pearls
Larry Coryell: The Dragon Gate
Pat Martino: Exit
John McLaughlin: Devotion
Nobu Stowe: Trio I
Harold Asbhy: Stampash
The Herbie Nichols Project: Dr. Cyclops’ Dream
Jan Hammer & Jerry Goodman: I Remember Me
John Abercrombie: The Cat’s Back

This blog entry posted by Ted Gioia

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