Ring dem doorbells!

[Jazz Kat]

Mr. Burton has got some of the least votes?

[Jim R]

Mr. Burton has got some of the least votes? 

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As Lon (I think it was Lon ) pointed out, the poll only reflects people's first choices. I thnk Burton probably would get a lot of 2nd's and 3rd's (or at least fairly high rankings) from quite a few people here.

So... anybody heard that Kenny Barron / Joe Locke? Tell me it's terrible- please!

[mrjazzman]

this is a nobrainer, milt jackson because of the blues.....................

[neveronfriday]

Tell me it's terrible- please! 

←

It sucks.

There. That wasn't so difficult.

[Jim R]

But seriously, can anybody comment on this?:

[Shawn]

I had to go with Hutcherson as well. I've seen him live and it was one of the most beautiful shows ever.

My second choice would be Lytle.

[Peter Friedman]

The Joe Locke- Kenny Barron CD on Steeplechase is a real beauty. I can't say anything except if you like these players you NEED this one!!!!!!!!

Milt Jackson is by far my favorite vibes player. In fact, I consider him one of the alltime great jazz musicians regardless of instrument. He recorded a huge number of times during his career and it is hard to find more than a tiny number that are not damn fine.

I would probably select Dave Pike as my second choice. Pike recorded three albums during the 60's that are very very good.

IT'S TIME FOR PIKE - Riverside (w. Barry Harris, Reggie Workman, Billy Higgins)

PIKE'S PEAK - already mentioned more than once

JAZZ VERSION OF OLIVER - Moodsville (w. Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Raney, George Tucker, Walter Perkins)

Unfortunately, the JAZZ VERSION OF OLIVER session has not been re-issued on CD.

Pike in the late 60's and 70's went on to play a more rock oriented type of jazz that I did not care for at all

However, in the late 80's he returned to playing straight ahead Hard Bop.

Pike recorded PIKE"S GROOVE with the Cedar Walton Trio for Criss Cross in 1986, and with Charles McPherson and a Dutch rhythm section - BLUEBIRD - on Timeless in 1988. Just a few years ago a very good Dave Pike CD was issued on the Ubiquity label titled BOPHEAD. Teddy Edwards and Anthony Wilson are also on this CD.

I like some of Bobby Hutcherson's playing, but at times he leaves me cold.

Gary Burton is frequently too "sterile" sounding for my taste.

Most of what I have heard from Cal Tjader strikes me as rather "lightweight". Tjader does not seem to dig into the music with the depth I hear from Bags (or Pike).

Johnny Lytle has been a disappointment. I have owned a few of his recordings and ultimately disposed of them. I found them basically uninteresting.

Eddie Costa, Victor Feldman and Buddy Montgomery are three piano/ vibes players whose work on vibes I prefer to many on the list.

[marcello]

Joe Locke is a old and dear friend.

In this millenium, he's the Master.

Here's his website: Joe Locke

[mikeweil]

Most of what I have heard from Cal Tjader strikes me as rather "lightweight". Tjader does not seem to dig into the music with the depth I hear from Bags (or Pike).

What Tjader have you heard? There are some that are real good, but some of the best Verve LPs - e.g. the Live at the Blackhawk - are oop. Tjader dug in as deep, but not with as many embellishments as others. But to play a melody as distinctively as he did - that's hard to do. With Bags I think sometimes the melody is almost obscured by his embellishments.

[mikeweil]

Eddie Costa, Victor Feldman and Buddy Montgomery are three piano/ vibes players whose work on vibes I prefer to many on the list.

The problem is, you have but ten choices available for a poll - I dig all of these just as well. I would have liked to list all of them .....

[Shawn]

A few vibes albums I really enjoy:

The vibes player on Something Blue is Emil Richards...who I don't really know much about, but he cooks on this record.

[mikeweil]

The vibes player on Something Blue is Emil Richards...who I don't really know much about, but he cooks on this record.

http://www.emilrichards.com/

[BruceH]

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Hutcherson perform live, and I have to say, that man rules. If I could vote over again, I'd change my vote to good old "Booby."

[CJ Shearn]

well I really enjoy Hutch, gotta get some of his albums, his phrasing is unbelievable, and that tone. I vote for Milt Jackson simply because he is the first vibraphonist I ever heard, when I was little (even saw him with the MJQ when I was 6!) and all the albums I have of his are wonderfully consistent. Note I mostly have the Pablo stuff, I really like "Montreux '77" a whole lot!

[Jazz Kat]

Jackson. Actually, I don't really like Bobby Hutcherson's albums that much. I guess I don't really like avant garde vibes. But I believe he does have some straight ahead stuff out there. Roy Ayers is good, but his music is horrible. Tjader is another favorite.

[Free For All]

I don't really like Bobby Hutcherson's albums that much. I guess I don't really like avant garde vibes.

I wouldn't refer to Booby as "avant garde". He's considered to be part of the hard bop style, like most of the Blue Note guys.

[Jim R]

The Joe Locke- Kenny Barron CD on Steeplechase is a real beauty. I can't say anything except if you like these players you NEED this one!!!!!!!!

Thanks Peter. I had a feeling I should have bought it when I saw it here locally. Apparently not too many people here have heard it, which surprises me a bit given the stature of those two players. I haven't heard a great deal of Locke, but what I've heard has generally been to my liking. I'm pretty well familiar with Barron, of course.

[Guest akanalog]

Jackson. Actually, I don't really like Bobby Hutcherson's albums that much. I guess I don't really like avant garde vibes. But I believe he does have some straight ahead stuff out there. Roy Ayers is good, but his music is horrible. Tjader is another favorite.

yeah most hutcherson is not avante at all. he has like one or two more out albums and even then it is just bits and pieces.

and when you say ayers music is horrible, how much have you heard to make that statement? i would daresay you might enjoy the recent mighty quinn release and if you heard something like virgo vibes with herbie hancock and joe henderson and charles tolliver and buster williams among others you might take back your blanket statement.

[ep1str0phy]

I don't really like Bobby Hutcherson's albums that much. I guess I don't really like avant garde vibes.

I wouldn't refer to Booby as "avant garde". He's considered to be part of the hard bop style, like most of the Blue Note guys.

Although... he always was a phenomenally effective progressive vibist. I'd argue that Bobby was the post-bop vibist nonpareil among the mainstream 60's crowd, at least in the proper, more challenging contexts (although it may be argued that BH just got lucky with sessionography, it takes skills to comp for "Out to Lunch."). Somewhere in the 80's, though, Bobby's avant tendencies just atrophied (I cite the neo-BN Newton/Williams/Carter/Hutcherson version of "Hat and Beard"), as if the hungry, youthful vigor of the salad days got codified (perfected?) into oblivion. His note choice and sense of color are still remarkably advanced, but I get the sense that Hutcherson has lost a lot of the "abandon" that made his 60's dates--especially his supporting work--so refreshing. Contrast this with Dickerson or Khan Jamal, both of whom are still kickin' it free... I guess it just wasn't Bobby's thing.

Edited March 13, 2006 by ep1str0phy

[.:.impossible]

You've heard Walt Dickerson recently?

[ep1str0phy]

You've heard Walt Dickerson recently?

No, sorry. Guess I should've qualified that with 'putatively' (and Walt was still playing in a 'freer' mode far later than Bobby generally was, anyhow).

[Peter Friedman]

I do like Cal Tjader's - Live At The Blackhawk - album and wish it was available on CD. I also like his session with Getz. Other than those two, Cal never impressed me much. He also made some commercially oriented albums that turned me off a bit.

Roy Ayers is another guy who started out (recording-wise) playing straight ahead jazz that I liked, but moved into a heavily commercial direction and I lost interest in his playing.

Bags on the other hand had a lengthy career that was 99% pure jazz. Milt's was a blues player

par-excellence, and a great ballad player as well. When it came to swinging, he could not be beat, in my opinion. It was extremely rare when Bags did not sound terrific.

Some of Bobby Hutcherson's recordings are ones I very much like, but as my personal taste leans to straight ahead jazz, there are quite a few times when Hutcherson's playing doesn't do much for me.

Lem Winchester is a player I very much liked. Unfortunately, his early death left us a limited number of recordings.

It, as usual, all boils down to personal taste.

[BruceW]

Like someone else earlier said "This is a no brainer"

Why??

Because all are great BUT..

Milt Jackson is the only vibist who actually "played" the instrument. The rest executed either technically, rhythmically or experimentally. Milt made the instrument sing to you. No other had that potential except maybe Lem Winchester (who died too soon). Yes, Bobby was really out there pushing the envelope and was daring but the instrument did not speak to you. You knew he was executing frontiers on the vibes but not necessarily playing the vibes. Cal Tjader was the best at incorporating his vibes into the genre he was following, latin jazz, but again, the instrument did not quite sing to you, he merely executed very well within the context of the style of music (which a lot of other vibists cannot do even in latin jazz).

In short...... Milt was "in touch" with the instrument, the individual sound of each note, no matter what tune or progression. It was not just the blues, but him.

Bruce

[clifford_thornton]

Hutch took a detour pretty rapidly, at least a detour away from my personal tastes... seemed to have something to do with playing with pianists, rather than against them.

I'm really getting to like Khan Jamal - though he certainly falls outside the timeline set by this poll, as a direction inside and outside with the vibes, he's really someone who walks the line. The Revolt of the Negro Lawn Jockeys, with Jemeel Moondoc, is like a freer version of McLean's mid-60s work and should be heard by everyone on this board with line-blurring tendencies.

[BeBop]

Surprised not to see one of my favorites - though perhaps not top of my list - mentioned: Tubby Hayes. While not his primary instrument, he sounds quite good on most of his vibes recordings. I've even been known to pick up the record jacket while listening to a Tubby Hayes recording in order to find out 'who's that playing vibes?" Duh.