happy birthday to Kenny Burrell and Hank Jones

[CJ Shearn]

Kenny turns 76 today and Hank 89 I think!

[Chuck Nessa]

Consummate musicians.

Neither offered a note to offend.

I don't mean that as a compliment.

[CJ Shearn]

oops double post

[Quasimado]

These are all fine musicians - they don't deserve this.

Q

[clifford_thornton]

They're both fine musicians, not always to my taste but who/what is?

Much respect to both, and glad that they are both still with us.

[Larry Kart]

Always liked (as in "found hallucinatory") Hank's "pools of mercury" solo on "Autumn Leaves" from "Something Else" but suspect that at least a third of its virtues are RVG's doing.

[Guest donald petersen]

"sky street" from 1974? 1975?...some very underrated stuff on there by mr. burrell with kirk lightsey, stan gilbert, jerome richardson? and um someone on drums. one or two v nice tracks.

[Guest donald petersen]

yes listening to 3000 miles from home off of sky street right now...what nice smooth jazz funk.

but yes both of these guys are kind of tame and boring though burrell has contributed to some good albums. i mean jones has too, but burrell has caught my ear a number of times.

flanaga also v boring.

[Lazaro Vega]

Donald Byrd's "Long Green" on Savoy with Frank Foster, Hank Jones, P.C. and Kenny Clarke is a favorite date, not just for sentimental reasons. Jones's Teddy Wilson in bebop approach is a contrast to the heated solos, but it is more as an ensemble contributor, intros, comping, that he significantly adds to the sound. Take him out and it is not the same record.

Hawk's "Disorder at the Border" (Called "Hawk's Tune") from the 1950 JATP concert at Carnegie Hall...Hank's in fast company. Hawk eats everyone alive because Roy's not there to put up a fight.

The Frank Wess/Hank Jones thing, with the Basie overtones -- I'll listen to that for Gus Johnson, the writing by Thad. Too organized to be earth shattering but not exactly bland. Frank Wess.

Here in the twilight of Hanks Jones and Billy Taylor...Brubeck...

Edited August 1, 2007 by Lazaro Vega

[Shawn]

Kenny & Hank are class personified. You CANNOT discount their careers or question their love of the music. Just because they didn't stretch boundaries doesn't mean they are any less the masters that they are.

Put that in your corn cob and smoke the fucker.

Happy Birthday to Kenny & Hank.

[Daniel A]

I wish them both a happy birthday! I'll spin "Here's Love" (Argo, 1963) with Hank, Kenny, Milt Hinton and Elvin right now!

For that matter, there's much more under Hank's polished surface than many seem to think.

[T.D.]

Hey, I'm a big KB fan. So freakin' shoot me...

Re. Hank, haven't heard as much, prefer his playing as accompanist to that as leader, but not qualified to pass judgement.

[Noj]

Stretching boundaries is overrated.

Love 'em both. Happy Birthdays!

[JSngry]

Damned if you can get pork chops out of a cow, but oh well about all that now.

[Dan Gould]

What Shawn and Noj said.

"kind of tame and boring"?

FUCK THAT.

[Free For All]

Very well said, Mark.

[Chas]

Consummate musicians.

Neither offered a note to offend.

I don't mean that as a compliment.

To dismiss Hank Jones as a conservative or to damn him for never offering a note to offend seems incredibly misguided to me...

....Never offered a note to offend? What, exactly, is that supposed to mean and how is it relevant to his art? Yes, Hank’s music is defined by its suppleness and grace, and if those are values you don’t respond to, well, ok. Tomato, tomahto and all that. But I wonder about this line of reasoning. Who deliberately offered notes to offend. Tatum didn’t. Ellington didn’t. Bird didn’t. Mingus didn’t. Monk didn’t. Trane didn’t. Ornette didn’t. Of course, many people were offended by their playing because it was new, unusual and represented a challenge to the status quo, and they stuck to their guns in the face of enormous criticism. I can certainly accept that many innovators are driven by the need or desire to challenge the conventions of their time, but at least as important, perhaps the fundamental force, is their search for their own personal language of expression, a desire to play what to their own ears is beautiful or, if you prefer, expressive. Out of this comes a willingness to offend, but it’s a byproduct.

On the face of it , Chuck's and Clem's comments do seem misguided as you say Mark , though atavistic might be a more apt description since they seem the product of a romantic , utopian aestheticism that exalts often self-consciously 'transgressive' artists and their 'transformative' art . Then again , perhaps their comments are just their way of expressing a Dionysian dissatisfaction with the affective character or lack thereof , of these musicians' playing . Alternatively , perhaps C & C are just stirring the pot as is their wont . I do wonder though how a Jamal fancier like Clem can find Jones and Flanagan too polite or mannered .

[JSngry]

What if you bug somebody by not trying to bug them? Does that count?

[JSngry]

Who deliberately offered notes to offend...Mingus didn’t...

That might be stretching it just a little...

[sal]

But I will say that I can understand affection for Ahmad Jamal while still finding Jones and Flanagan too polite (or something). Ahmad is the wolf in sheep's clothing. Beneath the surface gentility he's a conceptualist and a subversive in his absence of melody, replacing the linear melodic improvising that defines the mainstream with an aesthetic based entirely on dynamics, dramatic silence, theatrical surprise, texture, contrast, riffs and, his idee fixe: the play of tension and release. Basically, you know what's going to happen in Jamal's music; you just never know when it's going to happen.

MS

[king ubu]

no need to argue, clem, I can hear where you're coming from, but maybe if you ever feel like trying some more Hank, get his "Upon Reflection", a fine trio set composed of Thad J. tunes (which makes them special, of course... lots more love and interest for/in Thad here than in Hank...)

anyway, KB was sort of my favourite guitar player back when I got into jazz, but I find today I rarely listen to him any longer... I don't listen to that much guitar anyway, but if so, I'd rather go with Grant Green or René Thomas, to just name two.

[king ubu]

re. Budd Johnson: his soaring soprano on Randy Weston's great album "Tanjah"! hellyeah!

I don't know much about Budd, but hold him in highest esteem if only for the few things I know he did late in his career - very impressive!

[Daniel A]

Hank Jones recommendations thread started during the first week of the Organissimo forum:

Hank Jones

[king ubu]

Hank Jones recommendations thread started during the first week of the Organissimo forum:

Hank Jones

Interesting... The Talented Touch I loved back then but have only played it again two or three times... the Concord twofer is still standing exactly where I put it after a first listen (in the living room, next to some other "easy on the ears" stuff that I might put on when we have musically undemanding guests...)

Still "Upon Reflection" would be my choice for one Hank Jones disc.

[Mark Stryker]

Clem:

Re: Jamal. I'm glad we could find common ground on something.

Re: Cabinetmaker. No need for a home visit. I'm cool with the website.

Re: Jones. My point is that there is a lot more happening in Hank's music than mere craft, and while the level of craft is certainly remarkable, perhaps its very polish makes it too easy to dismiss/overlook the unique depth of expression, substance and originality in his improvising. Hank is no radical, but the voice is unimistakable and deep. Is radicalism the only standard for greatness? It is true that Hank spent a lot of time in the studios and he came of age in an era in which performing as a "professional musician" was not always the same thing as as a "professional jazz musician." But peak achievement is not nothing, and if by flatline environment you mean bebop and standards, well, that's a big chunk of modern jazz you appear to be damning as aesthetically irrelevant. When Hank assimilated bebop in the '40s, that style was on the cutting edge.

MS

Edited August 2, 2007 by Mark Stryker