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Though he was never a household name, Golson was one of the most accomplished tenor saxophonists and composers of the 1950s hard bop era.Beloved jazz composer and saxophonist Benny Golson passed away on September 21st. Though he was never a household name like his high school friend John Coltrane, Golson was one of the most accomplished tenor saxophonists and composers of the 1950s hard bop era, known for his smoky, muscular tone and for penning tunes like “Whisper Not,” “I Remember Clifford” and “Killer Joe” — songs that married indelible melodies with subtle harmonic sophistication. During his seven-decade career,...

Seen as a face-off between the old and new guards in jazz, Duke Ellington’s ‘Money Jungle’ album proved they were on the same continuum.First released in 1962 via the United Artists label, Duke Ellington’s collaboration with bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach, Money Jungle, was a momentous jazz summit. Though often seen as the moment where the old guard (Ellington) squared up to jazz music’s young lions (Mingus and Roach), the generational differences between its three participants are often exaggerated. Certainly, Ellington was entering his twilight years – he had just turned 63 – but Mingus, then aged 40,...

Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in September 1957, ‘Blue Train’ is one of John Coltrane’s masterpieces.Recorded on September 15, 1957, John Coltrane‘s Blue Train is an album revered, cherished, and loved by many… and there are others who cannot quite see what all the fuss is about. I am firmly in the former camp. Granted, some controversy surrounds the recording and critics argue that both Lee Morgan and Curtis Fuller have done much better work elsewhere. Yet such judgements seem overly harsh; this is, after all, a Coltrane album. Nonetheless, Billboard’s review of Blue Train was positive: “A provocative...

With his ‘Nigeria’ album, guitarist Grant Green turned in pitch-perfect hard bop performances that risked confusing his growing fanbase.As both a leader and sideman, Grant Green was undoubtedly the most prolific recording artist on Blue Note’s roster between the years 1961 and 1964, having appeared on 50 different sessions for the New York label during a supremely fertile four-year period. In 1962 alone, when he recorded the tracks for what became Nigeria, he led five more studio dates, which would yield the albums Oleo, Born To Be Blue, The Latin Bit, Goin’ West, and Feelin’ The Spirit. The St. Louis-born...

Jazz drummer T.S. Monk, the son of jazz great Thelonious Monk and administrator of the late pianist's estate, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Fort Bragg, Calif.-based North Coast Brewing Company over its popular abbey ale, Brother Thelonious. North Coast has been brewing Brother Thelonious for over ten years. The lawsuit states that the Monk estate had given verbal permission to North Coast to use Thelonious Monk's image in the sale of the beer in exchange for the brewery's agreement to donate some profits to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, a nonprofit jazz education program with locations in Washington D.C....

Monk's Dream (released in 1963) is a stellar bop album from the Thelonious Monk quartet (consisting of Monk, Charlie Rouse, John Ore and Frankie Dunlop). *Tracklist below* Monk's Dream 00:00 Body And Soul 6:30 Bright Mississippi 10:58 Five Spot Blues 19:36 Bolivar Blues 22:52 Just A Gigolo 30:24 Bye-Ya 32:54 Sweet And Lovely 38:57