One LP
One LP is a portrait on location of a musician with a favourite album by another artist. The photo is accompanied by an interview with the musician where they talk about the highly personal significance of their chosen record - and often the profound influence it has had on their lives a compelling insight into the person's musical DNA.
Bennie Maupin: Eric Dolphy: Out To Lunch!
by William Ellis
"My One LP--yes, it's the Eric Dolphy album he did on Blue Note called Out to Lunch! The album has Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis and Tony Williams, and it is such a phenomenal shift from anything that had been done on Blue Note Records. The compositions and the playing and the quality from Blue Note was always good because of Rudy Van Gelder and he captured this in such a wonderful way, it just resonated with me, you ...
read moreGregory Porter: Donny Hathaway Live
by William Ellis
"The Donny Hathaway Live album is so special because it captureswith full concentrationthe thing that's special in live performance. That communication, that exchange of audience and artist. There's back and forth conversation, the women and the men in the audience are screaming things back to Donny and Donny's of course responding musicallyand responding incredibly musically. You can feel the emotion in the room as soon as the needle hits the record. That communicationit's not just jazz, it's not just soul, ...
read morePino Palladino: Various: Motown Chartbusters Vol. 3
by William Ellis
At the time of this recording I was probably 15 or 16I was just getting into music when I heard (I'm A) Roadrunner." This track by Junior Walker on Motown Chartbusters Vol. 3 just turned me aroundI just couldn't get enough of it and must have played it 100 times. Q: And does that make you think about the bass? Not really, I didn't even know what it was--I just loved the feel of it. You ...
read moreRon Carter: Antonin Dvorak: New World Symphony
by William Ellis
"My record of import is one I heard in 1962 when I heard the melody played by Yusef Lateef on oboe. I later found out the record he made on this disc was called Goin' Home" which is one of the movements from a Dvorak Symphony. So I went out and bought the discthat would have to be done by Leonard Bernstein and The New York Philharmonic when they do the four movements of the Dvorak New World Symphonyand among ...
read moreBenny Golson: Dizzy Gillespie Sextet with Dexter Gordon: Blue 'n' Boogie
by William Ellis
WellI've been around for a long time, and during the time when I got started there were no such things as albums so there were no covers! This was the time of the 78 recording with three minute at tops for each recording so whatever the person was going to present they had to present it within the three minute framework. That's what I grew up with when I started. I had many heroes in the beginning, my ...
read moreJon Faddis: Dizzy Gillespie & Roy Eldridge, Soul Mates
by William Ellis
Jon Faddis: Wigan Arena, July, 2014 Dizzy Gillespie and Roy Eldridge Soul Mates (Verve, 1954) I remember getting this as a present from my sister on my 11th birthday and I just remember how excited I was. I listened to that record thousands of times. It wasn't my first Dizzy Gillespie record but I think it was one of the most important because I couldn't stop listening to it. Dizzy-Roy back and forth, Dizzy-Roy ...
read moreJoe Lovano: Miles Davis - 'Round About Midnight
by William Ellis
Joe Lovano: Birdland, NYC, 21st September 2014 Well, I would have to say Miles Davis, 'Round About Midnight (Columbia, 1957). I grew up listening to this recording as a kid and the poetic expression -the ensemble playing between John Coltrane and Miles Davis, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones just captured my attention from an early age. And of course their solos within each tune were just so masterful you know. But yet, as ...
read moreSheila Jordan: Charlie Parker, Now's The Time
by William Ellis
Sheila Jordan: At home, New York City, 11th February 2014 This is the first jazz recording I ever heard, it's not even bebop! It's a rebopper! Charlie Parker's Reboppers. There's a whole story behind this record. Charlie Parker alto, Miles Davis, trumpet, Curley Russell, bass and who's on piano? Hen Gates: that was Dizzy [Gillespie]he couldn't give his real nameand Max Roach on drums. So on the other side is Billie's Bounce"same personnel.
read moreJack Bruce: L'ascension, Olivier Messiaen
by William Ellis
"It's called L'ascension by Olivier Messiaen who was a French composer I have loved for most of my life. Why I love his compositions is he shows that music has always existed. Humans only stole it. We borrowed it -but it's in nature. It holds the universe together, ask any skylark or ask any blackbird, they'll tell you." Jack Bruce: Band on the Wall, Manchester, 24th March, 2011 This One LP appears ...
read moreKenny Burrell: Duke Ellington, The Great Paris Concert
by William Ellis
Kenny Burrell: University of California, Los Angeles, 7th May 2013 The record the maestro recorded in Paris in 1963; there are many great things on this recording. One that I particularly likeit's one of my favorite pieces in all of Ellingtonia and all musicis Tone Parallel To Harlem," known as Harlem Suite." This was commissioned in 1950 by Arturo Toscanini of The NBC Symphony Orchestra of New York. Duke Ellington at that point was pretty popular ...
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