-
“Saxophone Colossus” by Sonny Rollins is a jazz classic that lives up to its mighty name. Released in 1956, it’s a showcase of Rollins’ bold, inventive tenor sax playing and features a killer band, including Max Roach on drums. The album blends swinging energy with deep, soulful moments—especially on the standout track “St. Thomas,” a…
-
Counting down the top 50 albums of 2000, part 1 of 3. The year 2000 doesn’t seem that far away, but it is, a whole 25 years have passed! In the year 2000, 1975 seemed a lifetime away, time is just weird.
-
1970 contained a load of albums that we now consider classics and, from a list of 150, we have come up with the top 25. Not everybody will agree and some may have very strong opinions on how we have this all wrong! Available now at Podbean, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, as well as other…
-
The Birth Of Cool and Kind of Blue were already both taken, but it matters not as this 1957 release is right up there. It wasn’t universally well recieved when initially released with one reviewer suggesting it was just a contractual obligation album and the The Penguin Guide to Jazz said that “the material is…
-
We have created our own Discord*, which is free to anybody to join and discuss many of the topics we discuss here and anything else. It’s new, so sparsely populated right now, but we can build a community of like-minded individuals who love to discuss all things music. You can join using this invitation link.…
-
This is the first release on LP by Ray Charles. It was originally released in 1957 on Atlantic Records, and it was also known as “Hallelujah I Love Her So” as it was re-released under this title in 1962. A number of the tracks had already been hit singles for Charles in the preceding years,…
-
Blue Train was John Coltrane’s only recording for Blue Note. It was the first album where he chose the musicians he wanted to record with, and it is the album in which he gets closest to hard bop, which is a category that I don’t really understand. There are sub-categories in Jazz, and if you…
-
There have been a wealth of bands coming out of Scotland over the years, many of whom we didn’t realise originated from there. Here, we count down what we think are the best 10 bands ever to emerge from Scotland, and there are some amazing artists included, and some left out! Join us as we…
-
Billie Holiday – Lady Sings The BluesReleased: 1956Label: Clef Records Here we are with an album I actually own, although my copy is a nice re-issue, with a different cover, that I bought in Portugal while I was on holiday a few years ago. By the time of this release in 1956 Holiday’s voice had noticeably…
-
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – Ella & LouisReleased: 1956Label: His Master’s Voice Ella and Louis were accompanied by the Oscar Peterson Quartet for this 1956 release, and it is primarily a vocal album, and a charming one. Having previously collaborated in the late 1940s for the Decca label, this was the first of three…