Hasta La Gadget!

I love big band, but I also get that it can be lame. Like really really lame. But Thad Jones and Mel Lewis aren’t like that. They and their band actually groove and are generally badasses, and their 1969 album Central Park North is a classic. "Tow Away Zone" is the first track and it’s one of my favorites. Composed and arranged by Thad Jones (who plays flugelhorn), the chart has soul influences, but also conveys the urgency of a city like New York. Drummer Mel Lewis gives driving tempos to keep things moving without being overbearing. I think my favorite part of "Tow Away Zone" is the sort of shout chorus that happens at 2:38. It’s a little different from how charts were usually set up in the 40s and 50s because there are moving lines rather than emphasizing unison, but that’s what makes it fun. [Amazon, iTunes, Spotify]

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I saw Lou Donaldson play the other night. Which is crazy, because Lou Donaldson is 86. But he’s still the man. He was joking around and calling out charts. And though his range is kind of impaired at this point, he was using the limitations to be more creative with what he did have. And at the end of the set he busted out some low range that he had been saving.

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This is gonna be a classy Friday night. You don’t have to groove to Duke Ellington all the time, but when you do you should turn on Jack The Bear. This chart showcases Jimmy Blanton (Jack the bear…get it?), a bassist who at 22 brought the band to a new level in the early 1940s. Even if you hate 32-bar form and blues choruses, or you think pretentious nonsense is happening right now, listen to the end of the track for the bass solo. That’s what it sounds like when someone nails it. [Amazon, iTunes, Spotify]

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Yeah, we get it. This is the iPod generation, and you won’t listen to anything smarter than a Top 40 song by Shakira or whoever the hell is popular right now, but there’s a lot of classic jazz that you should really learn more about—if only to impress future dates. More »