Delmark

[montg]

I've lived in Illinois for a number of years so this label is kind of in my backyard. Yet, I'm really not too familiar with the Chicago jazz scene. I'd be interested in hearing people's favorites from this label. I think the only thing I have from Delmark is a George Lewis (New Orleans George) session, I'm interested in branching out some.

[.:.impossible]

I know you will get some great recommendations! What is your taste in music? Delmark has covered a broad range of musicians in its time.

[sal]

Oh boy, montg, you are about to open quite the can of worms. I hope your wallet is ready!

[Larry Kart]

Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound," if you don't have it. It's one of the Great Recordings of the 20th Century.

[jlhoots]

Coleman Hawkins: Rainbow Mist

[kh1958]

Roy Campbell--New Kingdom and La Tierra del Fuego

Malachi Thompson--Blue Jazz

[brownie]

Yes, yes, yes to Roscoe Mitchell's 'Sound', a must have album.

Other favorites include:

Joseph Jarman's 'Song For' and 'As If It Were the Seasons',

Sun Ra's 'Sound of Joy'

Richard Abrams' 'Levels and Degrees of Light'

Kalaparusha's 'Humility in the Light of the Creator'

and there are plenty more...

[Brad]

Check out Jimmy Forrest's All the Gin is Gone. It's Grant's first session I believe.

[Alexander Hawkins]

Yes, yes, yes to Roscoe Mitchell's 'Sound', a must have album.

Other favorites include:

Joseph Jarman's 'Song For' and 'As If It Were the Seasons',

Sun Ra's 'Sound of Joy'

Richard Abrams' 'Levels and Degrees of Light'

Kalaparusha's 'Humility in the Light of the Creator'

and there are plenty more...

These were my exact thought, with the addition of:

Kalaparusha's 'Forces and Feelings'

Muhal's 'Young at Heart/Wise in Time' and 'Things to Come from Those Now Gone'

and of course, the two great, GREAT Braxtons: 'For Alto' and 'Three Compositions of New Jazz'.

I know it's somewhat frustrating when asking for recommendations, and people list all the albums they can think of (and some besides) fitting the rough bill...but I honestly love all of the above!

[Hot Ptah]

Art Ensemble of Chicago-Live (DE 432)

Zane Massey-Brass Knuckles (DD 464)

Ira Sullivan--Blue Stroll (DE 402)

[montg]

I know you will get some great recommendations! What is your taste in music? Delmark has covered a broad range of musicians in its time.

I'm open to a wide range of approaches. What piqued my interest was a friend of mine who was speaking very highly of Ari Brown and Corey Wilkes. I'm embarrassed to admit I hadn't heard of either, so I looked up some info and found they've both been recorded by Delmark. That made me wonder what else I've missed on this label.

Thank you to all for the recs.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Check out Jimmy Forrest's All the Gin is Gone. It's Grant's first session I believe.

It's the first of his sessions that's been released. He made some tracks for Vee-Jay in 1956 with the Tommy Dean band, which have never come out.

There are two albums from that Forrest session; the other is "Black Forrest". Some of the tracks on that one are true knockouts.

I think my favourite Delmarks are

George Freeman - Birth sign

Junior Wells - Hoodoo man blues

Jimmy Dawkins - Fastfingers

Jimmy Dawkins - All for business

Jimmy Dawkins - Blisterstring

The Deep Blue Organ Trio - Deep blue bruise

The Deep Blue Organ Trio - Goin' to town

Delmark has also done a fine bunch of reissues from the United/States and Apollo catalogues.

MG

[kh1958]

Delmark has also issued many outstanding blues recordings (see Jimmy Dawkins recordings above), and also:

Junior Wells--Hoodoo Man Blues

Magic Sam--West Side Soul

Otis Rush--So Many Roads

Robert Ward--New Role Soul

[J.A.W.]

Yes, yes, yes to Roscoe Mitchell's 'Sound', a must have album.

There's one track that spoils this otherwise excellent album for me: "The Little Suite", with its annoying harmonica sounds...

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Otis Rush--So Many Roads

Yes - I forgot about that one. And also his "Cold day in hell". They've issued a new live one of Rush last year, which I haven't got around to yet. Bet tht's a good 'un, too.

MG

[.:.impossible]

All great recommendations. I'll just recommend a recent recording, and one that is only a few months old to me:

Josh Abrams Cipher

Josh Abrams, Jeff Parker, Axel Dorner, Guillermo Gregorio

No funny stuff. Straight up ensemble play. Every moment is equally informed by the quartet, rather than carried by the soloist, and supported by the band.

Here's a review from One Final Note. By the length of the review, I'd say One Final 64 bar chorus, but whatever. Easy to cut to the meat. I like this one and don't recall seeing any discussion of it here.

Another recent disc that Larry Kart recommended is Several Lights under Keefe Jackson's name. I've been enjoying it as well.

Don't miss the Sun Ra's either. Excellent.

[clifford_thornton]

I buy anything I see on Delmark - AACM, mainstream jazz, blues... I am still looking for a vinyl copy of the J. B. Hutto date with Kalaparusha, Hawk Squat.

Really an excellent label.

[kh1958]

Otis Rush--So Many Roads

Yes - I forgot about that one. And also his "Cold day in hell". They've issued a new live one of Rush last year, which I haven't got around to yet. Bet tht's a good 'un, too.

MG

Others seemed to like the newly issued Otis Rush more than I did--the recording has that cassette recording sound.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Otis Rush--So Many Roads

Yes - I forgot about that one. And also his "Cold day in hell". They've issued a new live one of Rush last year, which I haven't got around to yet. Bet tht's a good 'un, too.

MG

Others seemed to like the newly issued Otis Rush more than I did--the recording has that cassette recording sound.

Oh, well I've got hundreds of African cassettes, so that would make no odds to me.

MG

[paul secor]

Some of my favorite Delmarks that I don't thing have been mentioned:

The Legend of Sleepy John Estes

Sleepy John Estes: Brownsville Blues

Curtis Jones: Lonesome Bedroom Blues

The Blues World of Little Walter

Magic Sam: Live

The Magic Sam Legacy

Memphis Slim U.S.A.

Robert Nighthawk: Bricks in My Pillow

Arthur "Big Boy" Spires/Morris Pejoe: Wrapped in My Baby

Yank Rachell: Mandolin Blues

Roosevelt Sykes: Raining in My Heart

Junior Wells: Blues Hit Big Town - classic '53/'54 sides w. Elmore James, Muddy, The Aces, Otis Spann - not to be missed!

Otis Spann, Sunnyland Slim, Little Brother Montgomery ... : Blues Piano Orgy

Eddie Clearwater, Morris Pejoe, Harmonica George ... : Chicago Ain't Nothing But a Blues Band

Babs Gonsalez, Artie Simms, The Four Blues ... : East Coast Jive

Dennis "Long Man" Binder, Eddie Ware, Ernest Cotton ... : Long Man Blues

Magic Sam, Eddie Shaw, Louis Myers ... : Sweet Home Chicago

Jimmy Coe, Doc Sausage, Cozy Eggleston, Eddie Chamblee, Charlie Ferguson, King Curtis, TJ Fowler ... : Honkers & Bar Walkers Vols. 1, 2, &3

Lin Halliday: Airegin

Bud Powell: Bouncing with Bud

[Adam]

I buy anything I see on Delmark - AACM, mainstream jazz, blues... I am still looking for a vinyl copy of the J. B. Hutto date with Kalaparusha, Hawk Squat.

Really an excellent label.

Funny, I'm looking for that album as well...

[zen archer]

what about Tab Smith i'm not that familiar with him and i have seen 3 of his delmarks one

with a lot of unreleased stuff. any thoughts, recommendations ?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

what about Tab Smith i'm not that familiar with him and i have seen 3 of his delmarks one

with a lot of unreleased stuff. any thoughts, recommendations ?

I've got all four of the Delmark Tab Smiths and I like them a lot. But I have a particular regard for the late '40s/early '50s semi R&B/semi Soul Jazz sax players and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who wasn't into that kind of stuff already.

If you're already into people like Jacquet, Gator Tail, Forrest, Cobb, Coe, Williams, McNeely, Moore - well, go for it.

MG

[kenny weir]

Yesterday I went out and bought an album that was a soundtrack to my early teens - and it's blowing me away all over again.

Magic Sam - Black Magic.

Perhaps not as well known as West Side Soul, but much the greater album for me.

And having listened to a lot of jazz in the past couple of decades only makes it sound greater.

Great band - drummer Odie Payne Jr, pianist Lafayette Leake and rhythm guitarist Mighty Joe Young are fabulous - giving perfect form to Sam's magic modern blues, a sort of sophisticated yet biting soul-blues.

Here's Eugene Chadbourne's allmusic review (the bold type was made bold by me):

This album's color cover photo is an action shot, showing Magic Sam in the process of choking and bending his strings, a good hike up the fretboard. It isn't clear exactly what he is playing from the picture, although that certainly didn't stop dozens of pimply hippie guitar players from trying to figure it out. In the meantime, the record goes on and the first soloist out of the gate is Eddie Shaw, playing tenor sax. He is blowing over the top of an R&B riff that, although not out of the syntax of Chicago blues, would also have been quite fitting on a Wilson Pickett record. It is unfortunate that Magic Sam's recording career came to such an abrupt end, as he was one of the best artists working in the musical area between the urban blues tradition and newly developing soul music forms. This fusion was on the minds of many blues artists during the late '60s, and not just because it was aesthetically conceivable. It was also a matter of commerce, as audiences — particularly black audiences — didn't want to hear any blues that sounded too much like something their parents might have listened to. The harmonica player Junior Wells was another one who decided to get a bit of James Brown into his act, not always with great results. What listeners have here, on the other hand, is frankly delicious, the results of the surplus of talent Magic Sam possessed, a triple threat as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Yet with all this talent, the label should also get some credit. This period of the Delmark discography set a high standard for blues recordings, the sound quality and tight interplay among the musicians every bit the equal of the classic jazz recordings on labels such as Blue Note and Prestige. There is nothing fancy about the production, and no gimmicks. It is just a great band, allowed to play the music exactly the way it wanted to. The musicians have obviously worked together a great deal and either had these arrangements down cold from live gigs or had plenty of time to get things tight. This doesn't mean that the music doesn't breathe, as there are plenty of little touches such as drum fills and turnarounds that show the presence of musicians thinking on their feet.

Edited April 19, 2007 by kenny weir

[Kyo]

How's the Eric Alexander stuff on Delmark? I like his Milestone albums quite a bit...