The other day, one of the new challenges that I thought I could initiate was the following. The 30-day New Musician Challenge. Each day during the challenge I will search Spotify for a musician whose music I have never heard. Ok so that really doesn’t sound very much different from what I normally do does it? Well, maybe it doesn’t but what the challenge does it gives me some structure something that I can do every day on a regular basis, well, at least for 30 days!
Anyway, the first day which was Sunday I actually ended up listening to two artists I had never heard of before. So here they are and I’ll count them as Day One and Day Two. Hmm, who will I listen to on Day Three??
First new Artist – Isla Eckinger
The first musician I listened to was Isla Eckinger. I found Isla on Spotify, when I reviewing albums Spotify selected for me. Their selections are based on the albums that you listen to. Eckinger’s album Hot Mallets was listed with other albums that were selected because I listen to vibraphonist Steve Hobbs. With an album title of Hot Mallets there was no way I wasn’t going to listen to the album.
So, I did and I liked what I heard. I discovered that Isla Eckinger is a Swiss vibraphonist and trombone player.
I listened to Isla’s release Hot Mallets. Hot Mallets was released on the German label Bell Records in 1992. The following are the artists featured on the album…..
- Guitar – Peter Schmidli
- Piano – Henry Chaix
- Tenor Saxophone – Andy Scherrer
- Vibraphone, Trombone – Isla Eckinger
As I was listening to the album for the first time initial reaction was – where are the “hot mallets”. While there were some good vibes in the first three songs it seemed that other instruments took center stage. Anyway, the vibes throughout the album were pretty good. You can check it out here
Here’s “Jitterbug Waltz” the closing track on Hot Mallets
Second New Artist – Joe Roland
Joe Roland was also listed with Isla Eckinger. When I checked out Roland, I discovered he was also a pretty hot vibraphonist. From Roland’s biography at AllMusic written by Scott Yanow
A fine bop-oriented vibraphonist, Joe Roland was best known in jazz during the 1950s…Roland was a member of the George Shearing Quintet (1951-1953), worked with Howard McGhee, and was with Artie Shaw & His Gramercy Five (1953-1954). He also worked with Mat Mathews and Aaron Sachs later in the ’50s. As a leader, Joe Roland recorded two titles for Rainbow (1949), four numbers with a string section for Savoy (1950), a few titles on the Seeco label (1953-1954), nine songs for Savoy (1954), and a full album with his quintet — which included Freddie Redd — for Bethlehem (1955). Read More
About Easy Living
I listened to Roland’s 1955 release Easy Living. Creed Taylor produced the album and Rudy Van Gelder was the engineer. I listened to the version of the album that was remastered in 2013. Here is the band line-up.
- Bass – Dante Martucci
- Drums – Ron Jefferson
- Guitar – Dick Garcia
- Piano – Freddie Redd
- Vibraphone – Joe Roland
i liked this album better than Hot Mallets. I also think there are more hot mallets in this album then the album bearing that title! I actually did take a moment to stop and look at what track was playing when I heard the great vibes on “After You’ve Gone”. That track also features some fine guitar from Dick Garcia and piano from Freddie Redd. (Note to self – Check out the Music of Freddie Redd – Hmm the next post?)
While writing this post I read this interesting tidbit about he album. “Goodbye, Bird” (track 7) was written by Roland. The track was recorded five days after Charlie Parker passed away i March of 1955. You can check out the album here
Here’s “Stairway to the Steinway” from Easy Living