DIZZY GILLESPIE Y MACHITO — Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods (1976-1990) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Here we have a summit meeting late in the careers of the pioneering titans of Afro-Cuban jazz: Dizzy Gillespie fronting the Machito orchestra on trumpet, with Mario Bauza as music director, alto saxophonist/clarinetist, and organizing force, and Chico O'Farrill contributing the compositions and arrangements. This could have been just a nostalgic retro gathering 25 years after the fact, but instead, these guys put forth an ambitious effort to push the boundaries of the idiom. The centerpiece is a 15-minute trumpet concerto for Gillespie called "Oro, Incienso y Mirra," where O'Farrill melts dissonant clusters, electric piano comping, and synthesizer decorations together with hot Afro-Cuban rhythms into a coherent, multi-sectioned tour de force. Gillespie, who had apparently never been in the same room with synthesizers before, is magnificent as he peels off one patented bebop run after another over Machito's band and in the gaps between. There is also an equally sophisticated suite of O'Farrill pieces grouped under the title "Three Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods," which mixes rock elements into the rhythms. Parts of "Pensativo" sound as if O'Farrill had been carefully listening to Santana, the teacher learning from the student, as it were. It adds up to a paltry 32 minutes of music, yet one can forgive the short length, this being all there is of a historic recording session. Richard S. Ginell         Tracklist + Credits :

CHARLIE PARKER – 1947-1949 | The Chronogical Classics – 1113 (2000) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Between December 1947 and November 1949, Charlie Parker realized an incredibly diverse body of work that makes this third installment in the Classics Charlie Parker chronology a serious candidate for "most excellent all-around sampler of Charlie Parker's music." Here's Bird sitting in with a big band arranged by Neal Hefti. Here's Bird in a more intimate setting with Hank Jones, Ray Brown, and Shelly Manne. Here's Charlie Parker's All Stars, the band that played the Royal Roost during the autumn of 1948: Miles Davis, John Lewis, Curly Russell, and Max Roach. The session of September 18, 1948, was unusually fruitful. Each selection is strangely beautiful. "Parker's Mood" is Charlie Parker's ultimate statement on the blues, and should be used whenever someone needs a sample of this man's artistry. (See also Eddie Jefferson's vocal adaptation on James Moody's superb album Flute 'n the Blues.) The harmonically adventurous "Constellation" would reappear years later as Joseph Jarman's wonderfully liberating "Old Time South Side Street Dance." In December of 1948 (just days after Miles Davis quit the band) and January 1949, Charlie Parker sat in with Afro-Cuban mambo maestro Machito & His Orchestra. Two sessions from the spring of 1949 feature trumpeter Kenny Dorham and pianist Al Haig. This outstanding compilation closes with the first of the gorgeous and majestic Charlie Parker with Strings recordings. This is chamber music. "Just Friends" is best of all. If you listen to any of Bird's sessions with strings, let it be this one. arwulf arwulf    Tracklist :

STAN KENTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA - 1947, Vol. 2 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1039 (1998) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Like its immediate predecessor, volume five in the Classics Stan Kenton chronology contains a substantial amount of material composed and/or arranged by Sicilian-American Pete Rugolo, a student of Darius Milhaud and Kenton's right-hand man during the mid- to late '40s. It was Rugolo who assisted Kenton during his experiments with modernized, "progressive" big band jazz. (Speaking of modern jazz, note the return of alto saxophonist Art Pepper on the session of October 22, 1947, which opened with Rugolo's "Unison Riff.") Following the example of Dizzy Gillespie, Kenton was now incorporating more Latin percussion and Caribbean rhythms than ever into his music, and even hired Cuban bandleader Machito to play maracas on the sessions which took place during the latter part of December 1947. Smug, contentious and successful, Kenton attracted controversy like a lightning rod. Part of the reason for this was the unusual and at times startling nature of his brand of musical futurism.
A more unsavory aspect of Kenton's reputation was his annoying habit of making what appeared to be arrogantly racist statements. The most famous example of this regrettable tendency was remembered by several eyewitnesses who claimed that Kenton, after participating in a "battle of the bands" at the Savoy Ballroom, got drunk and staggered up to Dizzy Gillespie saying "We can play your music better than you can." Diz -- to his credit -- simply shrugged, said "yeah" and walked away. Walter Gilbert Fuller adds: "He was juiced. But he was saying while he was juiced what he really meant." Here's how Gillespie assessed the overall situation: "Stan Kenton was the copyist. Stan Kenton went out and got a conga drummer after he saw me with one. He hired Carlos Vidal, lured him away from Machito, and put him along with another Latin drummer, Jack Costanzo, in his band. But Stan didn't know what to do with it. He just left it there and they made up their own minds what to play. All this happened after he came up to the Savoy and heard us while Chano Pozo was in the band. Now, I don't just take what they do and leave it there. I don't pass myself off as an expert on Latin music, but the guys who play it respect me for knowing how to take what they do, put it in with my music, and make it right. I never take nothing from nobody without delivering something in return. I think when people figured we might make a lot of money -- that started the controversy about who would get credit for creating modern jazz. My viewpoint was always that the credit should go to the ones who developed and played it best."
Interestingly, Dizzy Gillespie is heard on this disc alongside Buddy DeFranco, Bill Harris and Flip Phillips as members of the Metronome All Stars in combination with Stan Kenton & His Orchestra (a total of 28 players!) on Pete Rugolo's "Metronome Riff," which was recorded on December 21, 1947. Gillespie even toured with Kenton, sometimes leading the band. Later in life, Gillespie bluntly asserted that Kenton "left out the fundamentals," unlike Miles Davis whose music, said Diz, "is based on rhythm and also the blues." Whether or not you agree with that assessment, and while many of Kenton's recordings, including some of the examples heard on this compilation, had plenty of artistic merit, music does not exist in a social vacuum. As a member of the dominant social group, Kenton could and should have shown more respect and gratitude to the African-American artists from whom he borrowed (or swiped) ideas, textures, rhythms and inspiration. That would have been honorable. arwulf arwulf
Tracklist :

MACHITO - El Padrino (2001) 2CD / FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Machito led one of the two or three finest mambo orchestras during the classic period (the late '40s and early '50s), and his innovations only continued during the '50s and '60s, when he recorded the sides heard on this Fania compilation. Almost perfectly divided between music from the late '50s and the '60s, El Padrino may lack all of his early mambos (the heart of his legend), but nonetheless, it includes plenty of great material, none better than his torrid 1965 number “Tanga,” which leads off this compilation, and while it's been collected numerous times in numerous contexts, it doesn't drag at all. Machito's exploration of all manner of Afro-Cuban rhythms and forms during these years is best heard on his classic (and focused) Latin LPs like Asia Minor and Kenya, but for the listener who wants all of it now, El Padrino is the place to find the most. by John Bush
Tracklist :
1     Tanga 3:35
Mario Bauzá
2     Wild Jungle 2:46
Mario Bauzá / René Hernández
3     Bimbi Si 2:36
Eduardo Davidson
Featuring [With] – Graciela   
4     Guantanamera 3:25
Ramon Espigul
Featuring [With] – Graciela
5     El Abanico 2:26
Baserva Soler
6     Ebony 2:25
Mario Bauzá
7     Oyeme Mamá 3:07
Facundo Rivera
Featuring [With] – Graciela
8     Carabunta 3:45
Herbie Mann
9     Volcán 3:32
Charles Abreu
Featuring [With] – Graciela
10     Barbarabae 2:54
Justi Barreto
11     Beeree Bee Cum Bee 3:10
Antar Daly
Featuring [With] – Graciela
12     Quimbombo 2:47
Luis Martinez Griñan
13     Tennessee Waltz 2:53
Pee Wee King / Redd Stewart
14     El Guaria con el Tolete 3:04
Remberto Becker
15     Cannonology 2:30
A.K. Salim
16     Azulito 4:11
Ray Santos
17     El Santo en Nueva York 3:21
Justi Barreto
18     Cooking Cooking 3:18
Ray Santos
19     No Down Payment 2:49
M. Discant
20     How Deep Is the Ocean How High Is the Sky 3:36
Irving Berlin
21     Relax and Mambo 3:10
Mario Bauzá / Frank Grillo / René Hernández
22     Ay José 3:13
Rafael Blanco Suazo
Featuring [With] – Graciela
23     Au Revoir 2:59
Mario Bauzá / Frank Grillo / Mario Grillo
Tracklist 2 :
1     Ahora Sí 4:59
Joey Pastrana
Featuring [With] – Graciela
2     Latin Cornbread 2:30
Mario Bauzá
3     Doug's Room 4:43
Mario Bauzá
4     Brazilian Soft Shoe 2:22
Herbie Mann
5     Sí-Sí, No-No 3:31
Rafael Blanco Suazo
Featuring [With] – Graciela
6     Lloriqueando 2:28
Elias Randall
7     Song of Lisbon 3:18
Aníbal Nazaré / Carlos Rocha
8     Remember Me [Recordare Tu Boca] 3:07
Tania Castellanos
9     Coisa Nova 2:13
Mario Bauzá
10     Cuba 2:43
Irving Berlin
11     Yo Soy la Rumba 3:36
Marcelino Guerra
12     Rumba Ace 2:47
Silvestre Méndez
13     Mambo a la Savoy 2:54
Gil Fuller / Machito
14     El Bejuco 2:53
Luciano "Chano" Pozo
15     In Havana [Pa'lla Pa'ca] 2:32
Mario Bauzá
16     I Care 3:32
Sarney Norman Simmons
17     Bananas 2:51
B. Benjamin
Featuring [With] – Graciela
18     Love Chant 3:14
Herbie Mann
19     Congo Mulence 3:00
A.K. Salim
20     One Note Samba 3:15
Antônio Carlos Jobim / Newton Mendonça
21     Jammin' with Machito 5:16
Mario Bauzá / Frank Grillo