Welcome to the blog of Dennis J. Woodyard - Journeyman Artist, and Dragonfly Entertainment. Former TV animation producer/director, storyboard artist, character designer, writer, concept artist, Flip book designer, and other professional credits.
Showing posts with label Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Show all posts
Today's Sunday Music Muse Day will be short and sweet with two well know jazz player. First up, Wayne Shorter Quartet Beyond the Sound Barrie, is a collection of live recording from November 2002 - April 2004, from touring dates in North America, Europe, and Asia. The liner notes doesn't outbreak out exact date and location on each tune. The quartet consist of Shorter on saxophones, Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass, and Brian Blade on drum. Younger, but talented and experienced players. It worth a listen, as all Wayne Shorter music is.
Next up is the Gerry Mulligan Quartet Dragonfly, a CD I've had for a long time, and remember picking it up just because it had "dragonfly"as its title. Although, I do like Gerry Mulligan's playing, this session is too tame, and bland to get excited about. Best I can say about it is it's not bad background music.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and have a good week.
For a belated Sunday Music Day for this Memorial Day weekend I'll be finding time to enjoy two classic jazz players. First up, Django Reinhardt - Djangology , "...and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France with Stephane Grappelly". Actually, Grappelli's name is misspelled on the cover. This album was the first post-World War II recording with the fame violinist. Their first recordings that made them famous were done the 1934. The breakout of WWII forced the group band, but Django and Grappelli reunited after the war. Django's life story and career is worth reading about. His music and impact on jazz guitar is unrivaled.
Next, is The Gerry Mulligan Quartets in Concert. Gerry Mulligan is known as legend in the West Coast Jazz scene of the 1950s and '60s. I admit coming late to enjoying his playing. I've actually come to enjoy the sound of the baritone sax more than alto and soprano sax, and Mulligan is a master. This is a live dated produced my legendary producer Norman Granz, who also does the introduction on the date.
This Sunday Music Muse Day finds me enjoying and celebrating a pair of 2-CD sets of legendary jazz saxophonists. First up is Johnny Hodges at Sportpalast, Berlin, a 2 CD live set recored in Berlin, Germany in march 1961. Hodges uses fellow band mates of the Ellington Orchestra, including my father, Sam Woodyard, on drums. This CD set was produced by famed produce Norman Granz who handled the European tour of this group, while Duke had gone Paris to work on the movie, Paris Blues, with Billy Strayhorn. It sounds like it was a win-win for everybody. Most of the tunes are associated with the Ellington playlist, as to be expected. It's always fun for me to find Sam on other jazz outings. I think of this as collecting a nice music legacy for my kids.
Next is baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan Quartet, the original quartet with Chet Baker. This collection of cuts recorded in the early 1950s is giving me a education in the West Coast Jazz style of the era. It definitely has a more laid back feel than the East Coast style of artists like Miles Davis, and the Bebop of Dizzy Gillespie. It's alway fun to discovery the gems of the past in jazz made before I got into it in the 1970s.
Two sets double CDs, I'm looking forward to enjoying for a long time. Cheers.
Welcome to another Sunday Music Muse post. This week offers a series of double doses of baritone sax goodness, in the person of Gerry Mulligan, on a legendary label, with a legendary producer. First is Getz Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi, which finds another giant of the saxophone, Stan Getz, joining Gerry Mulligan for a October 1957 session produce by Norman Granz for the Verve label. You can't get more steeped in jazz legacy than that. They even swapped horn on the last three tunes, so you get to hear both play tenor and baritone saxophones. This re-release also includes tunes not on the original album. That's nice treat. I'll have to review my Jazz history, Mulligan and Getz are considered part the West Coast jazz of that period considered softer that the East coast player. They sound good to me.
Next up is the Gerry Mulligan Paul Desmond Quartet, recorded in August of 1957. Again, this of product of Verve, and Norman Granz. The liner notes states Mulligan and Desmond first played together when Desmond sat in with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, who Desmond famously played with, at Carnegie Hall (NYC) in 1954. Mulligan said they formed "a natural affinity". It wasn't until this 1957 date the that affinity was fully explored. Lucky of all music fans it was.
Here's another original tune is part of my Warped Sky - Stray Clouds project. Warped Sky - Stray Cloud, is a combination of songs from old tapes and new renditions of original tunes written and played by me in the 1980s. Today's tune is Without You - Mystical Heart. This started are just a collection of chords. Somehow I had two different songs with the title "Without You", one with lyrics and this one without. This video has my first complete version played against a Band in a Box backing tracking. A feature in Band in A Box suggest song titles based on the chord and it suggested "Mystical Heart", it's not a bad title, so I added it. Another feature is the video of the real musician playing the musical part, in this case the guitar solo. It's curious my ballads start to sound Country, which I never really like. That may be the Band the Band tracks style. Still, it's another song off by incomplete list. For added plus I used an old illustration of mine in the video.
Another Sunday Music Muse Day. I started the day with another Gerry Mulligan CD, which I had in my collection already. I brought "Dragonfly" by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet mainly because of the title name. (What can I say, I have a thing for dragonflys) The music is a nice way to ease into Sunday morning.
The quartet includes John Scofield on guitar. Scofield is one of my favorite guitarist and I have a lot of has early vinyl records and later CDs. I picked two to listen to today, "Slo Sco - Best of the Ballads" and "Quiet" which features John on nylon string acoustic guitar instead of his electric. "Spy vs Spy" and "Gil B643" on the Slo Sco CD were tunes I used to rock my first born to sleep on my shoulder when he was a year old. Funny how certain tunes become linked to special memories. As always, check these CDs out, and enjoy.
