Hard Bop

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Cool jazz's reign as the prevalent jazz style after bop's demise was short lived as many jazz players, especially on the east coast, wanted to return to a style of jazz that had a little more grit and aggression. Hard bop was a return to some of the ascetics of bop, but also offered some new differences. Hard bop brought back the faster tempos of the bop era, but in hard bop the harmonic changes did not come in such rapid fire succession and musicians found themselves stretching out on longer modal style solos. The new emphasis on albums rather than singles also led to longer songs. Hard bop players also began to bring more influences from the church, blues and RnB into jazz which foreshadowed the coming of soul jazz. Despite an influx of avant-garde jazz in the 60s, hard bop remained the prevalent jazz style until the emergence of fusion in the late 60s. Hard bop has enjoyed many revivals over the years and remains one of the most enduring and popular styles in jazz. Miles Davis is considered an early innovator in the field of hard bop, but Art Blakey and the many musicians who played in his Jazz Messengers are considered to be the epitome of the style.

hard bop top albums

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JOHN COLTRANE Blue Train Album Cover Blue Train
JOHN COLTRANE
4.74 | 69 ratings
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WES MONTGOMERY
4.87 | 14 ratings
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4.82 | 18 ratings
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JOHN COLTRANE
4.73 | 59 ratings
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4.72 | 47 ratings
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4.64 | 23 ratings
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hard bop Music Reviews

JIMBO ROSS Jazz Passion & Satin Latin

Album · 2024 · Hard Bop
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js
Although Jimbo Ross has spent the last couple decades establishing himself as a top blues playing violist, he didn’t start out that way. Jimbo was originally a jazz guy who appeared on the famous Don Ellis recording, “Live at Montreux”, as well as many other jazz recordings over the years. After spending much of the 2000s playing blues, RnB and Zydeco, Jimbo has finally come full circle and returned to his jazz roots with his latest offering, “Jazz Passion and Satin Latin”. Notice that Jimbo plays the viola, not the more common violin or even ‘fiddle’. Viola players are rare in the jazz world, with LeRoy Jenkins and Jimbo being two of the few that are well known. Ross has added an extra treble string to his viola so that he can reach high violin notes as well as the viola’s usual deeper range.

The music on “Jazz Passion and Satin Latin” is a mix of bluesy hard bop, Latin jazz, some beautifully melodic contemporary tunes and a few ballads. The ensemble that Ross has gathered here does not go for flashy technique or gratuitous displays of practice room high speed scales. No, instead the solos are soulful and melodic and quite often steeped in the blues. You can tell Jimbo and his gang have been playing a lot of blues and RnB because their approach to jazz is not way different, which is kind of refreshing in a way. This is great outdoorsy party music, perfect for a backyard barbeque or visit to a favorite swimming spot. In the famous words of Lou Reed, ‘they play good times music’.

Although most of the songs on here are lesser known standards, one original by guitarist Joe Gaeta, “Don the Working Man”, has a gorgeous melody and nice chord changes. Hopefully we will hear more Gaeta originals on the next outing. Another nice melody comes with, “The Night has a Thousand Eyes”, a tenor sax version of this one was a big radio hit back in the late 70s, but it has since kind of disappeared, its nice Ross has brought this tune back. You get some up tempo bebop with “The Breeze & I” and “Indian Summer” and some energetic Latin jazz with “Delilah” and “Know it All”. Bluesy hard bop comes your way via Wes Montgomery’s “Jingles” and Gerry Mulligan’s “East Lag”.

MILES DAVIS Miles Davis All-Stars, Volume 2 (aka Miles Davis Blows)

Album · 1955 · Hard Bop
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js
Back in the mid 50s when Miles recorded “Miles Davis All Stars Vol 2”, the little ten inch LPs were still the norm and didn’t contain much more music than today’s Eps, therefore you get just two songs, Monk’s “Bemsha Swing” on one side, and the well known standard, “The Man I Love” on the other. This music was recorded during a famous session at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio on Christmas Eve 1954 that provided a lot of music for various albums and re-issues over the coming years. It’s an all-star group that Miles has assembled here, but most importantly is Thelonious Monk on piano. Miles and Monk, despite their admiration for each other’s skills, had a difficult relationship and this was famously captured on the opening part of “The Man I Love” in which they have a brief terse exchange followed by Miles telling Rudy to leave this exchange on the record.

Enough of the soap opera, how is the music, quite good actually and very interesting given Monk and Miles very different directions at this point. “Bemsha” opens up sounding very much like the Monk composition that it is, but when Miles enters with a flowing solo it takes a totally different direction. At this point in his career, Miles had left behind his bop roots and was developing the ‘cool’ style that would serve him well until about the mid-60s when things started getting heated again. The real star on both tracks though is Monk. His ability to bend and reshape phrases and rhythms is absolutely uncanny. Some 70 years later, there is still no one that can pull off what he could, his solos are attention grabbing and infinitely fascinating.

“The Man I Love” works well for everyone, but it does sound like vibraphonist Milt Jackson was a little agitated with Monk interrupting his opening as Milt plays a very busy and intense solo that pushes relentlessly at the beat. Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke do a fine job filling out the rhythm section, but they are both mixed a little low. You probably won’t find this little album at a reasonable price anymore, but these tracks show up on various comps, including “Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Giants”. These two tunes are well worth checking out, first for Monk’s brilliant solos and secondly for Miles introducing a whole new approach to playing jazz.

PAUL CARLON Blues For Vita

Album · 2024 · Hard Bop
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js
“Blues for Vita” is saxophonist Paul Carlon’s sixth album as a leader and finds him mining similar material as his previous albums, that is a mix of Latin jazz and hard bop with some modern tendencies toward the abstract. This is very much NYC music and it strikes a nice balance between tradition and modern sounds. Paul cites trumpeter Woody Shaw as a major influence, as well as the soul jazz meets bebop saxophone work of Gene Ammons. Joining Paul on this album is a crew of New York heavyweights with similar backgrounds in Latin music and jazz, probably the most recognizable name in the bunch is bassist and co-producer Harvie S, who seems to be about everywhere these days. Most of these songs are fairly concise as far as jazz goes, its nice that every song does not feature a solo by everyone in the group, a practice that can bog things down. The solos stretch out just enough, but not so much that the songs lose their drive.

Lots of good tracks on here, “Dee Dot” which kicks things off is a high energy post bop scorcher with just the right amount of “Latin tinge”. “Colored Paper” is Latin soul jazz that would sound right at home on a Eddie Harris album, and sometimes sounds like the second coming of “Wade in the Water”. The album’s title track is gritty New York jazz blues, and the ‘Vita” in the song title is actually Lavita, Paul’s wife and also the beautiful woman featured on the cover of the album. Carlon’s interest in Woody Shaw styled energetic modernisms show up on “Isabel the Liberator” and “Unmute”.

JOHNNY GRIFFIN Night Lady

Album · 1964 · Hard Bop
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js
When it comes to discussing the top jazz saxophonists, Coltrane and Parker are givens, often followed closely by Rollins and Dolphy, but who is next in line. One name that doesn’t get mentioned often enough is Johnny Griffin. Early in his career, Griffin was often billed as “the world’s fastest saxophone”, but for some reason, the passing of time has eased Johnny more into the background. Possibly it is because Griffin was never particularly controversial, no publicized problems with drugs and alcohol or an early death to help immortalize him, Johnny was just a damn good saxophone player, maybe that’s not enough to hold the public’s wandering attention.

Griffin’s “Night Lady” was released in 1964 and finds the tenor man in fine form. This was recorded after Johnny had moved to Europe and was working with the big band led by Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland, as well as working with other artists too. To assemble the quartet for this recording, Clarke on drums and Bolan on piano were obvious choices, with Ellington sideman Jimmy Woode taking on the bass. This is a talented band with the extroverted Clarke playing all over the set in a style similar to today’s post bop drummers. Much like Griffin himself, Francy is also an under rated talent. Although Danish by birth, Francy’s playing has a lot of funky gospel and blues to it. A favorite technique of his is to grab a gospel riff and then insistently repeat it with slight variations as he hammers his point across. Every member of this band plays with a sense of contagious enthusiasm and smart-assed wit.

Apparently Griffin’s playing style had mellowed some since moving to Europe, but that might have been more about changing musical styles as laid back bluesy hard bop and soul jazz replaced the more frantic bebop of Johnny’s youth. A lengthy jam on “Night Lady” opens the album and finds the band swingin the blues, this style also covers much of side two as well. Of the standards herein, Griffin plays endless variations on the melody of “All the Things You Are” and manages to get some fire going on the usually tired sounding “Summertime”. “Little Man You’ve had a Busy Day” is one of Johnny’s favorite ballades and features an elegant solo from Francy. This is a great album for those who like pure jazz with no unnecessary additives or phony flavor enhancers.

GRANT GREEN Street of Dreams

Album · 1967 · Hard Bop
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Steve Wyzard
RAINY DAY MASTERPIECE

Taking into account that all Grant Green albums are unfairly marginalized in the shadow of the previously recorded Idle Moments, let's take a look at some of the myths and assumptions that have arisen regarding his 1967 release, Street of Dreams:

1) "It's quiet and dreamy": Don't take the title too seriously. Loaded with that intangible quality known as "atmosphere", Larry Young's brooding organ chords push this album far closer to noir than to "dreaminess". All of the players are motivated, and absolutely no one is sleep-walking through this session.

2) "It's far too simple and laid back": Street of Dreams can be described as low-key, contemplative, or even nostalgic, but any "easy listening" accusations can be immediately dispelled with the first track, the Latin-flavored "I Wish You Love". Grant's fluid picking/soloing is downright inspired, and not just on this track but throughout the entire album. Then Larry Young's intense performance on the title track will help you understand why he has sometimes been called the "Coltrane of the organ".

3) "Is that really Elvin Jones on drums?": Yes, it's really him on drums, but don't expect the fireworks he contributed to the John Coltrane Quartet. Elvin shows himself to be a master of restraint on this album, with just the right percussion for each and every track. His famous polyrhythms do make an appearance on the title track.

4) "Bobby Hutcherson is relegated to the background": While Bobby had led a few sessions by the time this album was recorded, none had yet been released to the music-listening public. But to call him a "supporting" player here is just wrong. He is given extensive solos on 3 of the 4 tracks, and he even doubles the melody line with Grant to open and close "Somewhere in the Night".

Recorded in November 1964, Street of Dreams does have to answer to one accusation made against it that costs it half-a-star. At 33:37, this album, as good as it is, is over far too soon. Nor have any alternative takes or extra tracks ever turned up on CD/boxset re-releases. It would have been exquisite if this session had lasted just a little bit longer, and yet the flawless performances do not indicate someone was hurrying to finish and catch the next train to who-knows-where. It's best to think of this album as a passing cloudburst that briefly drops everything it has before quickly moving on. And while nothing will stop you from enjoying this little masterpiece at noon on the brightest day of the year, it seems to become that much more magical on days and times when it's anything but.

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JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

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Blue Train Hard Bop
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My Favorite Things Hard Bop
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