So today was a jazzy kind of day. This afternoon I was doing some writing so I decided to listen to some jazz. I had download a Chick Corea and Gary Burton a while ago, so I decided to start the afternoon with another Chick Corea album. I chose his 2012 release Further Explorations. The album is a two disc tribute to Jazz legend Bill Evans.. On the album, Corea he leads original Evans alumni – bassist Eddie Gomez and the late drummer Paul Motian – on Further Explorations. The album was recorded on May 4-17, 2010, live at the Blue Note in New York City. (2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Evans’ original Explorations LP. Not being a huge fan of either Corea or Evans I didn’t realize that the album was a tribute album to Evans, but I did know that the album evoke the feel of Bill Evans and the second album that I listened to was Bill Evans’ The Complete Vanguard Recording 1961. As I look at the track lists for both albums tonight I see that two of the tracks I listened to “Gloria’s Step” and “Alice in Wonderland” appear on BOTH albums! Well, I’ll be, again, I’m not that familiar with either artist and the music was on in the background so I guess maybe I can be excused for not noticing that they were the same songs on each album!
Anyway, I enjoyed both albums and I decided to continue MY jazz explorations. The other night somewhere I was reading about the extreme popularity of jazz in Europe and the name of Dexter Gordon came up, so I decided to listen to a little Dexter Gordon I chose his 1962 release Go!. Again the music was good!
I ended the day listening to several tracks from the album that is number 4 on the ProgArchives list of best albums for 2010-2011 1000 Autunni by Ske. You can read a complete review of this interesting instrumental album – here
Here’s a little taste of Further Explorations with some great insights from the musicians! Hum, now after listening and reading I think I need to go back and listen to the album again!!