Liner Notes
Short takes on single records. One album, a few hundred words, no filler. Singles for quick listens, Long Plays for when you can sit with a record.
The most interesting reissue story in vinyl right now. Three Blind Mice, Midnight Sugar, Blow Up, Funky Stuff, and five records that tell you whether you're in or out.
Ron Carter's two note bass, Tony Williams's shimmering ride, and one suspended Hancock chord. The best opening on any 1960s jazz record, and I'll fight on this.
My commute is 40 minutes and the album is 42, close enough. Shorter, Hubbard, Hancock, Carter, and Elvin Jones, cut in one day on Christmas Eve 1964.
A slow minor blues that meets you where you already are. Cut in 1960 with the early classic quartet, shelved until 1964, and the best first record of a morning.
Miles Davis barely played sideman after 1955. He did it once for Cannonball Adderley, March 9, 1958, in Hackensack. Cannonball's only Blue Note album, and the bridge to Kind of Blue.
Bill Evans cut it on June 25, 1961, with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. Ten days later LaFaro was dead. The record that turned the bass into a front-line voice.
Jimmy Smith on the Hammond B-3, one guy doing three jobs at once. Cut in a day in 1960, held back until 1963, and the best thing in your headphones midweek.
The bass vamp Horace Silver wrote in 1964, the one Steely Dan later borrowed. A loaded quintet with Joe Henderson, and a groove that does the work for you.
Sonny Rollins walked into Van Gelder's studio on June 22, 1956, and cut one of the best jazz records ever made. One day, four players, five tracks.
Lee Morgan, a boogaloo groove, and the song that pulled Blue Note out of a hole in 1964. Ten and a half minutes built to carry a crowded train.