Saxophone Colossus is the sixth studio album by Sonny Rollins. Perhaps Rollins’ best-known album, it is often considered his breakthrough record. It was recorded on June 22, 1956, with producers Bob Weinstock and Rudy Van […]
Month: August 2020
1001 Other Albums – 14 – Miles Davis – ‘Round About Midnight
The Birth Of Cool and Kind of Blue were already both taken, but it matters not as this 1957 release is right up there. It wasn’t universally well recieved when initially released with one reviewer […]
1001 Other Albums – 13 – Ray Charles – By Ray Charles
This is the first release on LP by Ray Charles. It was originally released in 1957 on Atlantic Records but it was also know as “Hallelujah I Love Her So” as it was re-released under […]
1001 Other Albums – 12 -John Coltrane – Blue Train
Blue Train was John Coltrane’s only recording for Blue Note. It was the first album where he chosef the musicians he wanted to record with and it is the album in which he gets closest […]
1001 Other Albums – 11 – Billie Holiday – Lady Sings The Blues
Here we are with an album I actually own, although my copy is a nice re-issue, with a different cover, that I bought in Portugal while I was on holiday a few years ago. By […]
1001 Other Albums – 10 – Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – Ella & Louis
Ella and Louis were accompanied by the Oscar Peterson Quartet for this 1956 release and it is primarily a vocal album, and a charming one. Having previously collaborated in the late 1940s for the Decca […]
1001 Other Albums – 9 – The Charlie Mingus Jazz Workshop – Pithecanthropus Erectus
This early Atlantic session in 1955 was one of the first of the bassist-composer’s workshop styled programmes. He felt that written music could not convey the true music of the composer as musicians would put […]
1001 Other Albums – 8 – Otto Luening / Vladimir Ussachevsky – Tape Recorder Music
I only discovered this album recently and I am simply astounded that it was recorded as far back as 1955. I love strange cut ups such as those one might hear from Prefuse 73 and […]
1001 Other Albums – 7 – Bill Haley & His Comets – Rock Around The Clock
I had originally discounted this album as I wrongly assumed it was included in the 1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die book. I’ve no idea why it wasn’t really, although the 50’s isn’t well […]
Return to work
After 4 months working from home I returned to work for a day on Thursday for the first time. My office was empty and it was a peaceful and productive work day. While there I […]
1001 Other Albums – 6 – Sarah Vaughan – Sara Vaughan
This album from Sarah Vaughan is one of those albums where everything is just right, nothing seems out of place and it feels effortlessly crafted. Enhanced by the excellent trumpet playing of Clifford Brown each […]
1001 Other Songs – 5 -Moondog – MoonDog And His Friends
Welcome to the oddness of Alt-folk and the world of Moondog. Louis Thomas Hardin, also known as Moondog, was an American musician, composer, theoretician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. He was blind from […]
1001 Other Albums – 4 – Peggy Lee – Black Coffee
It may seem odd to say it, but Black Coffee by Peggy Lee is a collection of songs that sound exactly as you would expect them to sound, which is exactly as they should sound. […]
1001 Other Albums – 3 – Various Artists – Anthology Of American Folk Music
The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records comprising eighty-four American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued from 1926 to 1933. Experimental film […]
1001 OTHER ALBUMS – 2 – Les Baxter – Ritual Of The Savage
Ritual of the Savage is an album by American composer Les Baxter, released in 1951 often cited as one of the most important exotica albums. The album features lush orchestral arrangements along with tribal rhythms […]
1001 Other Albums – 1 – Yma Sumac – Voice of the Xtabay
So this is probabaly a rather leftfield choice and a difficult album to kick proceedings off with as parts of it sound rather odd 70 years after it’s release, but odd in a rather brilliant […]
