Monday, May 9, 2016

1001+ Albums: 60s Block 3

1001+ Albums:
60s Block 3

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
   Artist: Charles Mingus
   Year: 1963

       This is making me want to go back and listen to those earlier jazz albums in the 1001 again, because I think I'm starting to get it now. This however, is nothing like what I'd before on those records. This is avant-garde, noisy, furious, chaotic jazz, with all kinds of sounds I didn't expect to hear. Incredibly expressive, and one of my favorites in the jazz genre so far. Sounds ahead of its time.

   Rating: B+

Live at the Apollo
   Artist: James Brown
   Year: 1963

       Pretty good, but not as affecting as Sam Cooke's live album the same year. Really like the cover art though. You can tell the difference in location by the way the crowds react in each album. In Cooke's, they are more involved, more raucous and lively. Here there are screams during the songs (and to be fair, enough throughout some of them to be quite alive, especially when Brown asks for it), but lacks the groove and exact there-ness of the other superior album.

   Rating: B-

A Christmas Gift for You
   Artist: Phil Spector
   Year: 1963

       I used to think I hated Christmas music. No, that isn't true. I fucking despise it. There's nothing else to say.

   Rating: D-





Live at the Harlem Square
   Artist: Sam Cooke
   Year: 1963

       A powerful and textured voice with nice tunes and good live atmosphere. Live albums tend to be a gamble, but this one pulls it off and you feel like part of the crowd, whom Cooke interacts with to a good extent without overdoing it. He gets everyone involved, including listeners fifty years later.

   Rating: B



Getz/Gilberto
   Artist: Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto
   Year: 1963

       A more chilled out version of Jazz Samba, also by Stan Getz, with vocals accompanying the other instruments. The vocals by Joao in particular are seductive and gently, quietly enrapturing, creating an elusively gorgeous companion to the background soft jazz and bossa nova.

   Rating: B

2 comments:

  1. Yeah - that Christmas in May thing was pretty wretched. I do love your evolving opinion of jazz. I learned to love it in college. I'd listen to some Mingus with you!

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