As I mentioned at the end of my Miles Davis review, I hope to discover some jazz I can enjoy with the help of people here. To that end, in this section I’ll be taking suggestions from people, most of which have appeared in my “Breaking news!” thread already, as well as any others you might wish to suggest here, like
Surell and
Frownland have done. Essentially I’ll listen to the YouTube or take a track from the album if no YT was posted, and let you know what my feelings, good or bad, are on it. This probably won't be a place for reviewing albums, just single tracks, though if it impresses me enough I may later get the album and give it the full Trollheart treatment.
The first to offer anything other than more Miles, which I will get to in due course, was
Driveyourcardowntothesea, who recommended this little gem:
Take five --- Dave Brubeck
He says anyone who doesn’t like it is, quote, borderline insane. So let’s see if I qualify for early release. I know of Dave Brubeck, and indeed “Take five”, purely from the old advertisements that would appear on the inside covers of LPs back when I was young, one of which was for this very album. At the time I thought the guy looked boring, square, unfashionable, call it what you will: it looked to me like he played music for parents and schoolteachers. Now what do I know of him? Well, little else to be honest. I’m tempted to go a-Wiki’ing, but I’m gonna resist that urge for now as I want to approach this completely fresh and without any preconceptions.
Starts with a nice soft percussion then some smooth bass before we get sax taking the tune. Nice indeed, bit like what I heard on Miles’s record. Smooth and cool without being boring and certainly no mad improvisation, so far at least. Really nice piano part coming in now as the horn fades out and the drums get a little more intense and loud, then back out to allow the bass to partner with the drums for a bit before they take over with some hard rolls and crashes.
I’m not crazy about drums solos at the best of times, but this is not ostentatious or overdone, and certainly no showmanship in the style of, say, Carl Palmer. Won’t find this guy lighting his drumsticks on fire, I would think! Horn is back now to presumably take the tune to its conclusion.
So what did I think? Good overall. Probably not the sort of wow-factor that would have me searching for his albums, but I’m not sorry I listened to it and were I to hear more of his stuff I don’t think I’d hate it. Let me now check up on this Brubeck fellow:
Dave Brubeck (1920- 2012)
Okay, well there he is with the sax player who dominated that piece, Paul Desmond. Surprised to see that Brubeck only passed away two years ago. His instrument of choice was the piano, so interestingly on this, one of his most classic and loved pieces, he’s a little to the background as I heard piano certainly but it was more really a rhythm instrument than a lead. Even the drums, when the sax was not going, seemed more to the front, but I guess that’s the way he did things.
Okay then, what about a rating? Yes I’m doing ratings. One saxophone for something that I hated or just did not get into, up to five for something that I feel is top class and was something I really enjoyed and would listen to more of. Obviously, as with all ratings systems these are subjective and based on my own personal tastes, so please, nobody get your knickers in a twist if I rate something lower than you think I should. It’s all down to how the experience affected me, so I’m not saying others would not enjoy it if I didn’t.
I’ll be reserving five-sax ratings for the likes of Miles albums, something that really grabs me so don’t expect to see all that many of them. A three is a good solid listen and anything below is kind of meh, whereas a four indicates something that surprised me or exceeded my expectations, if I had any. This gets a solid
(And yes, I know you recommended more than one track for me, Drive, but I'm going to be doing them one per post so I'll get to Coltrane next).