100 Jazz Tunes Everyone Should Hear (#27) Pete Fountain - Hindustan (Live)

#27 - Pete Fountain Live in Santa Monica (1961) - 'Hindustan' - Jack Sperling on drums

An epic performance of 'Hindustan', nearly 12 minutes long, and most of it a duo between Jack Sperling's brilliant drums and Pete Fountain's clarinet. Towards the middle, the whole band joins in for awhile, but then it's back to Pete and Jack. Pete's melodic invention seems endless, as does Jack's rhythmic and tibral brilliance. Only in the very last chorus does Pete really give us anything like the full melody line to the tune. Sheer brilliance.

[ This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it representative of the "most important" or "best." Instead, following Duke Ellington's adage that the greatest music and musicians are "beyond category", I'm starting 2020 by sharing 100 jazz tunes I feel everyone should have the chance to hear--really just tunes and performances that I love. ]

100 Jazz Tunes Everyone Should Hear (#26) Benny Goodman - Bugle Call Rag 1936

#26 - Benny Goodman - Bugle Call Rag - 1936

Unlikely we'll ever hear anything like this again. Bands don't use the same instruments they made back then, so the fundamental sound of a jazz band is different now, and they don't play five shows per day, six or seven days a week to packed, crazed audiences. The men who played in Goodman's band and others like it back then had the opportunity ( and the pressure) to reach a level of tightness and unity that we can only marvel at now.

[ This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it representative of the "most important" or "best." Instead, following Duke Ellington's adage that the greatest music and musicians are "beyond category", I'm starting 2020 by sharing 100 jazz tunes I feel everyone should have the chance to hear--really just tunes and performances that I love. ]

100 Jazz Tunes Everyone Should Hear (#25) Charles Mingus

#25 - Charles Mingus - II B.S.

Rip your head off groove! Serious soul!

[ This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it representative of the "most important" or "best." Instead, following Duke Ellington's adage that the greatest music and musicians are "beyond category", I'm starting 2020 by sharing 100 jazz tunes I feel everyone should have the chance to hear--really just tunes and performances that I love. ]

100 Jazz Tunes Everyone Should Hear (#24) Doug Richford with Bob Wallis and His Storyville Jazzmen

#24 - Doug Richford with Bob Wallis - 'Alla Turca' - 1960

You have to suffer through the clunked-Mozart piano intro, but that's a small price to pay for admission to one of the fiercest, most intense trad-clarinet solos on record (by Doug Richford). Listen to that growling, that howling, and the snarling brass in the background!

[ This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it representative of the "most important" or "best." Instead, following Duke Ellington's adage that the greatest music and musicians are "beyond category", I'm starting 2020 by sharing 100 jazz tunes I feel everyone should have the chance to hear--really just tunes and performances that I love. ]

100 Jazz Tunes Everyone Should Hear (#23) Charlie Barnet

#23 - Charlie Barnet - Cherokee/Redskin Rhumba 

Before the bebop crowd made it a test tune of virtuosity in 12 keys, "Cherokee" was the epic theme song for the Charlie Barnet Band. Charlie's soloing isn't flashy, nor was it intended to be, but his proclamation of the melody is unique, effective, and over the wah-wah pattern of the trombones, creates one of the truly great moments in jazz history.

I first heard this as a kid on a cassette tape that fell into my hands somehow. It was stolen, along with my first Sony Walkman on an 8th grade field trip. I wasn't too torn up about losing the Walkman, but wished the kid who took it had at least left behind the tape. It was years before I could find another copy!

[ This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it representative of the "most important" or "best." Instead, following Duke Ellington's adage that the greatest music and musicians are "beyond category", I'm starting 2020 by sharing 100 jazz tunes I feel everyone should have the chance to hear--really just tunes and performances that I love. ]

100 Jazz Tunes Everyone Should Hear (#22) Joe Henderson

#22 - Joe Henderson - Black Narcissus

[ This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it representative of the "most important" or "best." Instead, following Duke Ellington's adage that the greatest music and musicians are "beyond category", I'm starting 2020 by sharing 100 jazz tunes I feel everyone should have the chance to hear--really just tunes and performances that I love. ]

100 Jazz Tunes Everyone Should Hear (#21) Acker Bilk

#21 - Acker Bilk - In A Persian Market - 1962

There are several versions of Acker playing "In a Persian Market", all of them worth checking out. This one (from the movie It's Trad, Dad) is among my favorites, if only because we get a closeup of Acker's technique and a chance to see the stump of a finger he managed to play with on his left hand. Other than Pete Fountain, very few Trad clarinetists have had the ability to 'lift' a band the way Acker could, with a type of soaring power. While his technique wasn't as fluid as Fountain's, he had the ability to turn even novelty tunes into uplifting achievements -- a quality all but entirely lacking in modern jazz. There's a sense of fun, humor, and joy here at an unusually high level.

[ This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it representative of the "most important" or "best." Instead, following Duke Ellington's adage that the greatest music and musicians are "beyond category", I'm starting 2020 by sharing 100 jazz tunes I feel everyone should have the chance to hear--really just tunes and performances that I love. ]