Music to Play While Cooking

Dexter's best?

We were making a lovely dinner Saturday night when you called. We chatted briefly and you noted that there was jazz playing in the background, as there so often is. 

I was feeling upbeat that night so we were listening to one of the great jazz albums “Our Man in Paris” (Blue Note, 1963) by Dexter Gordon. By this point, Gordon was living in Europe and so was the rest of the quartet.

I’m not surprised that so many jazz musicians moved to Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. I remember a story I heard about Duke Ellington. He said that one day he was playing a grand performance for Swedish royalty and given every courtesy imaginable, and then he came back to the USA and couldn’t stay in the same hotel as whites. I’m surprised MORE jazz musicians didn’t move to Europe. They didn't face the same level of discrimination and jazz was seen as the art form that it is.

Here's the band:

Dexter Gordon – tenor saxophone

Bud Powell – piano

Pierre Michelot – bass

Kenny Clarke – drums

Other than Michelot, the rest of the band are Legends. Bud Powell is, along with Thelonious Monk, the best pianist of the bebop era, and he died too young, like so many jazz musicians. Kenny Clarke, known as 'Klook', was one of the best jazz drummers ever and he recorded with just about everyone during his long career. In a nice change, he did not die young and lived until he was 71, which might be below the national average, but is positively ancient compared to other jazz musicians. Pierre Michelot, as the name would suggest, was a French bassist who doesn't have the credentials as his band mates, but he plays very well on this recording.

Dexter in Paris

The album is fantastic, as you’d expect from this line up and I highly recommend it.

Dinner was great that night and maybe the music helped. Have a listen to A Night in Tunisia and you’ll see why this album is considered one of the greats.

I’m sorry I didn’t invite you for dinner but it had been a busy day fixing broken dishwasher and leaky bathtubs and wasn’t up for entertaining. Rain check?

Salt Peanuts, Salt Peanuts

At this time we would like to play a tune - it was composed by my worthy constituent, Mr. Dizzy Gillespie, in the year of 1942 - we sincerely hope you do enjoy, Salt Peanuts.
(introduction by Charles Mingus)
 

That day in Toronto, May 15, 1953, when an all-star line-up recorded  one of the great live albums in jazz: Jazz at Massey Hall; an album released by Charles Mingus and Max Roach  on their Debut label.

Though the audio quality is far from perfect, the lineup is incredible. I wonder if you could come up with five greater players; each one was so famous, that they have become jazz icons. Such a discussion: the best quintet's imaginable! It would be a delightful conversation for us to have over coffee. Or perhaps wine if you are free one evening. I had a chianti last night that was out of this world. You'd prefer Scotch? Not a problem. I have a lovely 15-year-old. But for now let's focus on the band that blew the roof off of a half-empty Massey Hall on the same night Rocky Marciano knocked out Jersy Joe Walcott:

Charlie Parker: alto saxophone
Dizzy Gillespie: trumpet
Bud Powell: piano
Charles Mingus: bass
Max Roach: drums



suddenly in walked Bud, and then they got into something

From Max Roach's opening were he plays the melodic line on the drums before being joined by the rest of the band, you know this is going to be a killer track. First you are startled by Charlie Parker's solo, he sounds electrified and Dizzy shouting 'Salt peanuts! Salt peanuts!' to the  hall (where I have seen so many great shows) only adds to the intensity and you think "Who can top Bird?" Then Dizzy starts to blow and he matches Parker's skill, energy and ingenuity. Then comes Bud Powell, who had recently been released from a mental hospital and was in such rough shape that he had to be helped to the piano, and I challenge you to find Powell play any better. If you were to say that Powell, on that night at least, got the better of his bebop colleagues, I would have a difficult time arguing against you.

I listened to that song earlier, as I was enjoying this unseasonably warm autumn day, and I know I will be listening to it again in a few hours once I finish my afternoon appointments.

Until soon, my friend, when we shall discuss important issues like life and the greatest quintet.