Ebay Listing Of The JAZZ Vinyl Discovered Collection The JAZZ VINYL Discovered Collection - BRAND NEW RELEASE 3 VINYL ALBUMS Featuring 6 LEGENDS Back To Back on 3 UNIQUE ALBUMS

 

THE JAZZ VINYL COLLECTION

JAZZ DISCOVERED

Introduces you to six of the most iconic JAZZ artists of all time; Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington.

Released on the AA Vinyl Label, each of the six A-Sides features a selection of the artist's most influential music and finest work that helped establish them as true greats.

There are no fillers, only A-Sides with timeless music from these six legendary JAZZ artists.

With detailed sleeve notes inside there is even more to enjoy besides the warm and rich sound of vinyl. Discover and experience the musical journey of JAZZ DISCOVERED.

JAZZ

Jazz has a reputation as a difficult genre, one that requires work from its audience. It is characterized by improvisation and offbeat accents (syncopations) but is notoriously hard to define. As Louis Armstrong once famously said: “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.”  Adding to the genre’s mystique is the origin of the term. There is very little consensus as to the origins of the term ‘jazz’.

But what most music historians agree on is that this most enduring of musical genres emerged from African Americans in the red light district of Storyville in New Orleans towards the end of the 19th century. Marching bands were popular in America at this time and black musicians began to add jazz signatures and flourishes, improvising around melodies. This is the sound of Traditional New Orleans – or ‘Trad’ – jazz.

Jazz spread across America and by the 1920s, Chicago was its new centre and the country entered what came to be known as ‘the Jazz Age’. The Chicago sound had bigger bands with bandleaders acting as both musical arrangers and soloists.

In spite of its popularity – or perhaps because of it – jazz became a subject of deep cultural anxiety and this was not confined to America. Fear of jazz and its influence was a key cultural concern across Europe and in the Soviet Union. Henry Ford was so appalled by couples jazz dancing that he invested huge sums of money into country music and barn dances, as they were seen to be more wholesome pursuits.  In 1921, Ann Shaw Faulkner, president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, launched a national anti-jazz crusade saying, “Jazz was originally the accompaniment of the voodoo dance, stimulating half-crazed barbarians to the vilest of deeds.”

In spite of the early jazz panic, from the 1930s and throughout the 40s, jazz reached new heights of popularity with the Big Band sound. It became the dominant jazz form with Duke Ellington as its most shining example.

From the fifties onwards jazz became more experimental. By this time jazz musicians, tired of playing the old standards and stifled by the limitations mass appeal placed upon the art form, started to innovate.  It was precisely because it was seen as an art form that musicians embraced experimentation and avant-garde thinking.

This gave rise to such forms as Be-bop. It was fast and featured wildly individualistic solo improvisations and complex musical harmonies. Cool jazz, modal jazz, and jazz-rock fusion followed developing in the mid-fiftiesdescribes and peaking in the late sixties, largely lead by innovator, Miles Davis.

How jazz music was performed changed too. In its beginnings, it was a collective affair, enjoyed at social gatherings and played to entertain audiences. As the genre progressed over the decades this changed to a more performance-driven approach, moving from an emphasis on collective improvisation to highly individuated solos.

Jazz composer and musician, Wynton Marsalis describes beautifully what jazz means to America and why it is so important:

“Jazz music is America’s past and its potential, summed up and sanctified and accessible to anybody who learns to listen to, feel, and understand it. The music can connect us to our earlier selves and to our better selves to come. It can remind us of where we fit on the time line of human achievement, an ultimate value of art.”

VINYL ALBUM ONE - TRACK AND ARTIST LISTING

LP 1 Side 1 Miles Davis Track Artist Title 1 Miles Davis & John Coltrane Bye Bye Blackbird 2 Miles Davis Milestones 3 Miles Davis Blue In Green 4 Miles Davis So What LP 1 Side 2 Charles Mingus Track Artist Title 1 Charles Mingus Better Git It In Your Soul 2 Charles Mingus Goodbye Pork Pie Hat 3 Charles Mingus Moanin'

Miles Davis (b: 25 May 1926; d: 28 September 1991)

Born in Illinois, Miles Dewey Davis III is one of the most influential jazz musicians of the modern era. Influenced by Clark Terry, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, his break came when he was invited on stage with Parker and Gillespie to fill in for a sick member of the band. He joined the Charlie Parker Quintet in 1945 before leading his own band, the Miles Davis Sextet in 1946.

Davis wanted to exceed the notes available in the jazz orthodoxy and constantly changed musical direction throughout his career taking the genre in new, dynamic directions, moving from improve to a more stripped back approach. While this approach was much criticized by traditional jazz fans, Davis said: “I never thought jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.”

In 1954, after kicking heroin, Davis formed the Miles Davis Quintet. It consisted of Philly Joe Jones, John Coltrane, Red Garland and Paul Chambers.

Davis, an unapologetic innovator, is not only a pivotal figure in the development of jazz, he is also credited with being important in the development of funk, hip hop, trance, electro and dub step. Among those who have felt his considerable influence are Damon Albarn, John Legend and Kanye West.

 

John Coltrane (b: 23 September 1926; d: 17 July 1967)

North Carolina-born John Coltrane is one of the most influential and spiritual of jazz musicians. Saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, Coltrane helped pioneer modal jazz with Miles Davis.

A member of the Miles Davis quintet, he was kicked out because of his drug addiction. Coltrane quit drugs and alcohol cold turkey and claims to have had a spiritual encounter which would from that point influence the direction and meaning of his work. He said: “My goal is to live a truly religious life, and express it in my music…my music is the spiritual expression of what I am, my faith, my knowledge, my being.”

Even after his death Coltrane is kept alive in spirit through his canonization as a saint in the African Orthodox Church – he is St John William Coltrane.

Coltrane was a musical explorer, admiring Indian music (especially Ravi Shankar) as well as African music, particularly the drummer Olatunji.

Coltrane has influenced many popular artists including David Bowie, Gil Scott-Heron, and MC Rakim.

VINYL ALBUM TWO - TRACK AND ARTIST LISTING

LP 2 Side 1 John Coltrane Track Artist Title 1 John Coltrane with the Miles Davis Quintet Round Midnight 2 John Coltrane My Favourite Things 3 John Coltrane Giant Steps LP 2 Side 2 Oscar Peterson Track Artist Title 1 Oscar Peterson Let's Call The Whole Thing Off 2 Oscar Peterson It Ain't Necessarily So 3 Oscar Peterson Take The "A" Train 4 Oscar Peterson Stormy Weather 5 Oscar Peterson I Got It Bad & That Ain't Good

 

Charles Mingus (b: 22 April 1922; d: 5 January 1979)

Charles Mingus was a volatile jazz genius. Born in Arizona, Mingus’ music was full of tonal color and passion making it quite unique. He was considered by many in the jazz world to be the heir apparent of Duke Ellington.

Mingus is noted for his love of collective improvisation evoking the New Orleans jazz parades from the birth of the genre. The individual in a collective capacity fascinated Mingus and this led to him selecting musicians not just for their musical skills and abilities but also for their personality traits.

Mingus was a force of nature with an explosive temper, which gave rise to his nickname, The Angry Man of Jazz.

Oscar Peterson (b: 15 August 1925; d: 23 December 2007)

Canadian born Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a technically brilliant jazz pianist, often described as the Liszt of Jazz. Peterson was influenced by Art Tatum, Nat King Cole and Teddy Wilson and was self-deprecating about his technique, saying: Technique is something you use to make your ideas listenable.”

But he wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Miles Davis hated him, but then Davis hated most people and things.

Peterson was discovered by Verve impresario, Norman Granz and is famous for his work with the Oscar Peterson Trio with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis.

Peterson also performed duets with artists like Herbie Hancock, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie as well as accompanying stars like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

Peterson was considered the master of swing and to Duke Ellington he was quite simply, the Maharaja of the keyboard.

VINYL ALBUM THREE - TRACK AND ARTIST LISTING

LP 3 Side 1 Thelonious Monk Track Artist Title 1 Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser 2 Thelonious Monk Brilliant Corners 3 Thelonious Monk Crepescule With Nellie LP 3 Side 2 Duke Ellington Track Artist Title 1 Duke Ellington It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) 2 Duke Ellington Anatomy Of A Murder 3 Duke Ellington Mood Indigo

 

Thelonious Monk (b: 10 October 1917; d: 27 February 1982)

Jazz pianist Thelonious Junior Monk was born in North Carolina. His influences included Duke Ellington and James P Johnson.

With his distinctive style of berets and sunglasses, he also wrote some of the most challenging music an artist could possibly play. His unorthodox piano techniques coupled with the idiosyncratic themes he composed made Monk unique among jazz artists. Miles Davis found it frustrating when he worked with Monk asking him not to accompany him, as he was too difficult to improvise over. Legend has it that the two jazz giants nearly came to blows.

Monk’s behavior at times was noted as odd, often erratic and this has been attributed to mental illness that went undiagnosed.

Monk was a key influence for Tom Waits and Amy Winehouse.

Duke Ellington (b: 29 April 1899; d: 24 May 1974)

Arguably the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of all time, Edwards Kennedy Ellington or ‘The Duke’ was a true showman, elegant of dress and cocksure.

He was sometimes described as the Black Beethoven. But Ellington resisted this insisting: “To attempt to elevate the status of the jazz musician by forcing the level of his best work into comparison with classical music is to deny him his rightful share of originality.”

The most prolific jazz composer, Ellington was also the ultimate bandleader and used them as a kind of musical laboratory, hot-housing innovative and unique musicians.

He came to national recognition through his residency as bandleader at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem in the late 1920s. He went on to compose film soundtracks, musicals, several jazz standards and pop orientated music.

He has been cited as a major influence in the work of Wynton Marsalis and B.B King. Lady Gaga also claims to be obsessed with him.

The Duke’s last words are fitting and turned out to be true. He said: “Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered.”