Of Cores and Crowns

Knowing very little about jazz music it's rather difficult to know where to start. One of the leading reference works is The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings; a rather heavy volume which I managed to find in the reference section of our local library. Even then, it's difficult to know where to begin as there are literally thousands of reviews. However, the authors of the guide have provided a handy little scheme for the novice. Those recording which they (reasonably) objectively regard as being essential to a jazz collection are marked as being a "Core". Those CDs which are personal favourites they mark as a "Crown". Now, assuming that the authors know what they are talking about, and they do seem pretty knowledgeable, I have been picking out my latest Amazon purchases on the basis of interesting sounding CDs which are both Cores and Crowns. The results are interesting...

The first disk to arrive through the post was The Sidewinder by trumpeter Lee Morgan. I have to say that I had never heard of him and was more intrigued by the title of the album. It doesn't refer to the snake but is a term used to describe a kind of wide-boy. It's described as Hard Bop, although I'm still struggling to get to grips with all the jazz sub-genres, and I can only describe it as absolutely brilliant. It starts of with the jauntily funky title track and carries on at much the same pace from there. This was a great start, as was the second disk: Art Blakey's A Night at Birdland Vol. 1, a live recording from 1954 of the drummer's band. This is not a million miles away from the Sidewinder album in style and there isn't a duff track on it either - although the introduction is a little weird. There are, apparently, a Vol. 2 & 3 and I may go for them on the basis of this.

The next disk was A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. This often appears in lists of "Greatest Albums of All Time" which I'm always a little suspicious of. It's not that the albums which feature highly are no good it's just that, often, I don't even rate them as the best albums of those artists. For example: The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street, and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. All good albums but I'd personally go for Revolver, Let It Bleed and Wish You Were Here. Anyway, I gave A Love Supreme a listen and I liked it. I couldn't say it was the best Coltrane as I haven't heard them all but I liked it. I then listen to it again and I could really start to see what the fuss was all about. It's not just four tunes, it works as a whole and this is what has inspired the "Greatest" tags. It's a work of art in it's entirety - even down to the poetry in the sleeve lining.

The forth CD was one I was really looking forward to: Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters. Actually, I was a little disappointed with this at first; not with the music, which is wonderful, but by the fact that I had a couple of the tracks on a compilation CD. It doesn't really matter as the whole thing is worth having and the opening track, Chameleon, is very much extended from the version on the Best Of album. The other nice thing about this CD is that it marries up my new found liking for jazz with my long-standing passion for electronic music. It's surprising how innovative much of this was and it's not a million miles away from experiments that the keyboardist Vangelis was doing at the same time.

The last CD was another shot in the dark: Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch. I had heard of him as he had played with Charles Mingus and given the Crown and Core backing it seemed to be worth a shot. I have seen this described as either Free Jazz or Avant-Garde Jazz. After my first listening I described it as "What the Hell was that?" It's rather "Out There" - in fact I discovered that he had previously recorded an album with that title so I should have been forewarned. One Amazon review stated that "If you only buy one Free Jazz album, it will be this one." I took that as a recommendation, not a warning. I don't give up that easily and I gave this another couple of listens; I think I can get what he is doing. Every track paints a picture and it's worth finding out what they were trying to achieve as this is intellectually fulfilling stuff - but it certainly isn't music for pleasure. I suppose I listen to some fairly weird stuff in the classical world - John Cage and György Ligeti, for example. But, whilst I can appreciate the intellectual achievements of Cage, I listen to Ligeti because I enjoy it.

Overall, I think the Cores and Crowns idea works well although I am finding that there are certain sub-genres that I like more than others. I'll have to wait for another Amazon voucher to show up although I've noticed that their recommendations seem to think I have a thing about jazz.