Miles Davis Quintet: Teatro dell’Arte in Milan (1964)

 with Cool Jazz


Miles Davis Quintet at the Teatro dell’Arte in Milan, Italy on Sunday October 11, 1964, playing some cool jazz, the kind that you can and desire to listen to on a hot rainy day with your favorite cold drink nearby (Mine happens to be sparkling mineral water). The quality of the sound might not be to everyone’s liking, but this is from 50+ years ago; no doubt, it is hard to please everyone, and there is such a thing as musical taste and personal preference. As for me, with a cool drink in my hand, I am going to sit back and listen to some jazz history.
Courtesy: Youtube

The Quintet
Trumpet: Miles Davis
Saxophone: Wayne Shorter Piano: Herbie Hancock Bass: Ron Carter Drums: Tony Williams

The Playlist
Autumn Leaves 0:43 My Funny Valentine 14:34 All Blues 26:22 All of You 40:03 Joshua 50:41

Visiting Edwards Gardens (2018)

Urban Garden


We visited Edwards Gardens a couple of weeks ago. Year after year, it looks the same, but this is a good consistency, a welcome one, a consistency of natural beauty which I can appreciate. Some of the many photos I have taken are below:

All Photos: ©2018. Perry J. Greenbaum

John Coltrane, Stan Getz and Oscar Peterson: Hackensack (1960)

Hackensack, played by the Miles Davis Quintet in Düsseldorf, West Germany, on March 28, 1960.
Courtesy: Youtube

This was a night that Miles Davis himself decided to take a break. The music was originally written by Thelonious Monk and first recorded by the Thelonious Monk Quintet (May 11, 1954), which itself was an adaptation of a song, “Rifftide,” first recorded by the Coleman Hawkins Orchestra (Los Angeles; February 23, 1945). Hackensack is a tribute song to Rudy Van Gelder, whose recording studio was located in this New Jersey city of 43,000, situated 19 km (12 miles) northwest of Midtown Manhattan.

The Miles Davis Quintet:
Tenor Saxophone: John Coltrane;
Tenor Saxophone: Stan Getz;
Piano: Oscar Peterson;
Bass: Paul Chambers; and
Drums: Jimmy Cobb

Oscar Peterson: Hymn To Freedom (1964)

Hymn To Freedom performed by the Oscar Peterson Trio at the Holbaek Jazz Club in Holbaek, Denmark, on May 2, 1964.
Courtesy: Youtube

Oscar Peterson composed the music in 1962; it is the last track on the 1963 album, Night Train. The song, based on the Negro Spirituals he heard in the Baptist Church while growing up in Montreal’s Little Burgandy neighbourhood, is as beautifully arranged and played as it is timeless and true. Freedom begins in the mind and in the heart and works its way outward in human action. Freedom is an expression of human dignity. Freedom, while always important, takes on more significance when it is denied.


The Trio
Oscar Peterson on Piano Ray Brown on Bass Ed Thigpen on Drums

Ken Burns: Jazz (2001)

Music in America

“Put it this way: Jazz is a good barometer of freedom… In its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.”

—Duke Ellington [1899–1974]

Jazz, a documentary mini-series (10 parts, each two hours long), directed by Ken Burns and narrated by Keith David, was first broadcast on PBS-TV in 2001 (January 8 to January 31, 2001). This is a clip from Part 1. The series chronicles the history of Jazz in the United States, beginning in 1917. While Jazz might have had outside influences, it is considered quintessential American music, since the social and economic conditions that shaped the lives of its major artists gave rise to the music known as American Jazz. At its core is freedom to be. Of the many prejudices that society holds and normalizes, prejudice against the poor is universal, a stigma of disapproval, a condemnation of “human failure,” which in the end becomes a condemnation of the person. Period. Being Poor  (“Born Poor, Staying Poor”) has long been viewed in America (and also, but to a somewhat lesser extent, in Canada) as a Moral Failing. So in comes Jazz, the soothing balm for the common people, for the individuals ignored, set aside, shut out and shut in. Jazz is not elitist, even though it has become so in some circles, which, quite tellingly, is the direct opposite of Jazz’s early and humble beginnings—its roots, so to speak. No doubt, such is something worth remembering.
Courtesy: Youtube