Grant Green - Idle Moments (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition which includes two bonus tracks.

Simply put, this is the album that made me a full-fledged fan of Grant Green. It is widely regarded as one of Green’s finest recordings and features an exceptional lineup. The album - particularly the 15-minute title track - is striking for its expressive restraint and the ease with which band members take their cues from one another.

Green - guitar
Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone
Bobby Hutcherson - vibes
Duke Pearson - piano
Bob Cranshaw - bass
Al Harewood - drums

Original liner notes written by Duke Pearson; 2004 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: Recording of Special Merit
• Billboard: ★★★★
• DownBeat (★★★★): "Not only are all the performances of high order, but the entire undertaking also has a cohesion, a unity of approach that is quite a delight."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Listed at #12 on uDiscover's list of The 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums, calling the album "arguably the St. Louis fretboard maestro’s magnum opus."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: As mentioned above, the star here is the title track which might be the most laid back piece Blue Note ever released. The whole dang album gets it done in only 4 tracks and is nothing short of fantastic.

Bonus tracks: Alternate versions of Jean De Fleur and Django.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Not long after I fell down the Blue Note rabbit hole, I purchased this CD along with Midnight Blue and listened to nothing else during the evening hours for what seems like the whole of August 2021.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Talkin' About (1965)
Feelin' The Spirit (1963)
Green Street (1961)
Sunday Mornin'/Grantstand/Grant's First Stand/Green Blues

Burl Ives - Have A Holly Jolly Christmas (1965)

Ives was an Academy Award-winning actor and a folk singer who had four singles hit the Top 40, all in 1962. But to my generation and those that followed, Ives is best known as the voice of Sam the Snowman, the nattily attired narrator of the 1964 animated TV special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

While I enjoyed the show as child when it aired on network TV, I can't watch the thing today what with the adults behaving worse than their children, the nonstop bullying, and the eventual moral of "I don't like you unless you can do something for me." But I digress. My youngest son loved the thing and his favorite Christmas tune for several years around the turn of the century was A Holly Jolly Christmas. So we bought this CD for the family and when my son started his life as an adult, he left behind all his CDs (he now prefers vinyl), so here we are. And you know what? This album is a highly enjoyable seasonal treat. I wish I could say the same for the Baja Men CD he left me.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: did not chart
• Billboard Christmas: #32

Tracks: 12 tracks, 29½ minutes. The two familiar tunes written by Johnny Marks for the Rudolph special are both here: A Holly Jolly Christmas and Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, plus an earlier Marks tune, I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day. Other Christmas standards get their turn, too: Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, White Christmas, Little Drummer Boy, Winter Wonderland, and Silver Bells. Then there are the 4 tunes I've never heard elsewhere: Christmas Is A Birthday, Christmas Child (Loo, Loo, Loo), Christmas Can't Be Far Away, and Snow For Johnny. All with wonderful, characteristics 1960's orchestrations supporting the immediately recognizable voice of Ives.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: see above

Joe Henderson - In 'N Out (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2004 Rudy Van Gelder Edition which includes a bonus track.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not Henderson's biggest fan - I find him to be an overly busy soloist but, then again, I'm sure I'm just not hearing something I probably should. So why even bother to pick up this album? The presence of relatively overlooked Texas trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who was once called an “eternally underrated bebop trumpet icon” by critic Will Friedwald.

Slowly breaking away from Horace Silver's group, Henderson wisely put together a great band (see below). With players like that, the music was never going to be unoriginal. The hard bop here is energetic sometimes cool, quirky sometimes hip. A good album that somehow becomes even better when I think of it as a Dorham's instead of Henderson's. Bias can be a cruel mistress.

Plus another essential Blue Note album cover from the mind of Reid Miles.

Henderson - tenor saxophone
Kenny Dorham - trumpet
McCoy Tyner - piano
Richard Davis - bass
Elvin Jones - drums

Original liner notes written by Don Heckman and reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Downbeat (★★★): "The major moments on this album are contributed by trumpeter Dorham"
• Billboard: ★★★
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Tyner and Dorham shine on their solo work throughout. Compositionally, my favorite cuts are Punjab and Short Story. The bonus track is simply an alternate take of the the title track.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Mode For Joe (1966)

Jr. Walker & The All Stars - Shotgun (1965)/Road Runner (1966)

Not something I'd usually buy, but I found this 1986 two-fer set from Motown in a smooth-sided jewel case for 50¢ at a thrift store and couldn't pass it up. The legendary tune Shotgun is such a great cut, the rest has to be good, right? Boy howdy did I luck out because this this is some fun stuff. With powerful saxophone solos and raw vocal energy, the music is all very similar, it doesn't take itself too seriously, it's made for good times, and I can't sit still.

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SHOTGUN (1965)
11 tracks, 33 minutes

Press of the time:

• CashBox: "Jammed with a flock of teen shakeables"
• Record World: "Groovy, gutsy instrumentals"
• Billboard: "Powerful album"
• Record Mirror: ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #108
• Billboard R&B: #1

Tracks: The album contained 5 tunes that hit various Top 40 charts: Shotgun (#1 R&B, #4 pop), Do The Boomerang (#10 R&B, #36 pop), Cleo's Mood (#14 R&B), and the double A-side Shake And Fingerpop b/w Cleo's Back (#7 R&B, #29 pop).

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ROAD RUNNER (1966)
11 tracks, 35 minutes

Press of the time:

• CashBox: "should delight lots of soul fans with this groovy disk"
• Billboard: "this album can't miss"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #64
• Billboard R&B: #6

Tracks: This album contained 4 tunes that charted in at least one Top 40: (I'm A) Road Runner (#4 R&B, #20 pop), How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) (#3 R&B, #18 pop), Money (That's What I Want) (#35 R&B), and Pucker Up Buttercup (#11 R&B, #31 pop).

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

A stone cold classic with a couple of songs that have since become standards. Hancock, who wrote all the compositions, was only 24 years old when the thing was recorded and it was his fifth album as a leader. Incredible. Over the past 60 years, it's earned many accolades (see below) and deservedly so. If you need an entry point into mid-'60s post-bop jazz, this is just the album you're looking for. Highly recommended.

Hancock - piano
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
George Coleman - tenor saxophone
Ron Carter - bass
Tony Williams - drums

Much like the earlier Empyrean Isles album, Maiden Voyage was a concept album about the open seas. Also like Empyrean Isles, the album's liner notes were written in prose style by Nora Kelly. It is suspected that the name Nora Kelly was used as a pseudonym but I can't find anything definitive on the matter. In any case, you're better off with the 1999 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Downbeat (★★★★★): "This music communicates something good to me."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ♛★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

In 2017, Pitchfork ranked this album at #82 on their list of The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s while the uDiscover Music website ranked Maiden Voyage at #7 on its list of The 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums. And in 1987, this album was selected by Blue Note (Europe) as one of the 25 Best Albums on the label.

In 1999, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Finally, the album is listed in the The New York Times Essential Jazz Library: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (2002): "Maiden Voyage is a chill-out record and a chilly one; it's got early sixties ennui all over it."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks, ranked:

1. Maiden Voyage
2. Dolphin Dance
3. Little One
4. The Eye Of The Hurricane
5. Survival Of The Fittest

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:

Best of The Blue Note Years (1988)	Head Hunters (1973)
Round Midnight Soundtrack (1986)	Speak Like A Child (1968)
Lite Me Up (1982)	Empyrean Isles (1964)
Sunlight/Feets Don't Fail Me Now (1978/1979)

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Free For All (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2004 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

In which Blakey plays with his typical abandon and everybody in this all-star cast rises to meet his energy. This particular edition of the Jazz Messengers had been together since 1961 and the familiarity among musicians is obvious.

Original album liner notes by Nat Hentoff.

Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
Curtis Fuller - trombone
Wayne Shorter - tenor sax
Cedar Walton - piano
Reggie Workman - bass
Art Blakey - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: "captures one of the best bands Art Blakey has ever had.
• Billboard: "The Messengers wail through four originals with an abandon typical of Blakey's drive-drumming and leadership." [ed. note: three originals and a cover]
• Downbeat (★★★★★): "one of the best ever by a Blakey group"
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

1. Free For All, written by Shorter
   This thing swings hard. When it ends after 11 minutes, I'm exhausted just listening. Living up to the title, the composer takes an extended, frantic solo before Fuller and Hubbard get their turn. Blakey closes it out.
2. Hammer Head, written by Shorter
   Things slow down slightly for this slightly more restrained post-bop tune. Again, Shorter takes the lead, followed by solos from Hubbard, Fuller, and Walton
3. The Core, written by Hubbard
   Dedicated to the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), this fast-paced track progresses through a number of grooves, all dictated by Blakey's playing. Solos: Shorter, Hubbard, Fuller, and Walton.
4. Pensativa, written by Clare Fischer
   This beautiful bossa nova would eventually become a standard and I'm certain this wonderfully performed version helped get it there. My favorite cut on the album.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Vince Guaraldi & Bola Sete - From All Sides (1965)

Blurb from the back insert of this 1998 CD reissue:

An innocuous but enjoyable bossa nova recording - stands up to active listening but very well suited for cocktail party background music. As mentioned in the reviews below, Sete often steals the show (you might do well to ignore that nonsense in the Billboard review). This album was my introduction to Sete but you can be sure I'll be on the lookout for his name now. It's not quite in the same league, but this album pairs well with albums such as Getz/Gilberto, Jazz Samba, or Wave.

Original liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "The two work so well together that it's often difficult to distinguish the piano from the guitar sounds."
• CashBox: "The set is an unusual and extremely brilliant one"
• Downbeat (★★★½): "Guaraldi does all right but Sete does even better, and the listener gets the benefit of a rising parlay."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide (1985): ★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Bossa versions of everything from Mozart's 40th symphony (Choro) to the most famous bossa tune (The Girl From Ipanema) to a pop standard of the mid-'60s (A Taste Of Honey) to some Guaraldi retreads (Ginza Samba & Menino Pequeno Da Bateria) plus some originals. My favorite of the originals is track 6, Ballad Of Pancho Villa. A fine mix.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

The Horace Silver Quintet - Song For My Father (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with 4 bonus tracks.

Stone cold classic. A fantastic album, worthy of all the praise and inspiration (read: plagiarism) that goes to it and comes from it. Silver wrote a fantastic suite of songs, plays like a man on a swingin', groovy mission, and the rest of the band tries to keep up.

Original liner notes by Leonard Feather and 1999 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: "further variations in the style that has lately become increasingly mechanical with Silver."
• Downbeat (★★★★): "the prevailing mood, regardless of tempo, is one of complete relaxation and joy."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★★

In 1999, this album was inducted to the Grammy Hall Of Fame. uDiscover Music ranked this album at #13 on its list of The 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums, calling the album "an enduring monument to Silver’s genius." And in 1987, this album was selected by Blue Note (Europe) as one of the 25 Best Albums on the label.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #95
• Billboard R&B: #8

Tracks: My picks today are the title track, the laid back Calcutta Cutie, and the tranquil Lonely Woman.

Bonus tracks: The four bonus tracks include another arrangement of Que Pasa? plus three other tunes that are all very good, they just wouldn't fit in with the motifs that appear throughout the original cuts. Smart to leave them off. I think I'm going to start listening to RVG reissues with bonus tracks in two sittings: one with the album's original tracks as intended, then come back a bit later and listen to the bonus tracks. If nothing else, it's something new to try.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I chose this CD today because my father was born on January 11. Today he would have turned 87.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Blowin' the Blues Away (1959)

Andy Williams - Merry Christmas (1965)

I've checked the shelves at blog headquarters and can't find any Christmas tunes by Williams on any of the many CD compilations here [correction: I found him singing Angels We Have Heard On High on a compilation titled Christmas Favorites]. Seems hard to believe but here we are. This CD takes care of that problem and it's a beaut. Lots of brief '60s pop string arrangements with Williams crooning over it all. I was previously unfamiliar with Robert Mersey, but his arrangements here are first-rate. Pairs well with Ray Conniff. If you're aged 50+ and always get nostalgic around this time of year - like me - you should enjoy this offering.

Billboard, November 13, 1965, p. 72

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Christmas: #1 in 1966 & 1969

Tracks: Most are familiar 20th century Christmas tunes, plus one original titled Christmas Holiday which owes a lot to The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year. My favorite cuts are Sleigh Ride, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Some Children See Him, Do You Hear What I Hear, and Silver Bells. But at just 36 minutes in length, you can just put it on and enjoy without worrying about skipping tracks.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
16 Most Requested Songs (1986)

The Sound Of Music Soundtrack (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2015 reissue on the Craft label.

If you like Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals (I do) and are a fan of Julie Andrews (she's a treasure), you can't do any better than this album.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "outstanding soundtrack package"
• CashBox: "an unforgettable experience"
• High Fidelity: "much more palatable in its individual parts than as a whole"
• Record World: "RCA Victor must have one of the all-time top-selling soundtrack albums"
• Stereo Review: "The burden of the singing falls on Julie Andrews, and she almost succeeds in putting some spice into this overcooked stew of sentimentality."

For the record, the five Academy Awards won were Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Wise), Best Sound (James Corcoran & Fred Hynes), Best Film Editing (William Reynolds), and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment (Irwin Kostal).

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #1
• CashBox: #2 (kept out of the top spot by another Julie Andrews soundtrack, Mary Poppins)

In 2015, Billboard named this soundtrack album the second-best charting album of all time, behind Adele's 2011 album, 21.

Tracks: I know it's an easy cliché to claim that My Favorite Things is one of my favorite things, but it's true so I'm gonna go ahead and claim it. Other favorites include Sixteen Going On Seventeen, The Lonely Goatherd, and Edleweiss. But I'll happily listen to the whole thing.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I've seen both the stage musical and the 1965 movie multiple times; I always enjoy the show. I've never been in the cast of the show - my lone R&H cast experience was as Lt. Cable in South Pacific - but I once worked on the backstage crew of a touring company production when they passed through town back in the '90s.

When I was in high school, I received a Walkman knock-off for Christmas (probably 1983) and, for reasons unknown to me all these years later, opted to listen to my father's pre-recorded cassette of this album more than once that Christmas Day instead of any of my own tapes.

Grant Green - Talkin' About (1965)

Japanese import

I bought this hard bop CD simply based on a recommendation heard on a podcast. Add to that recommendation the fact that I've loved Green's playing since I first heard his Idle Moments album and this purchase was an easy call. And while it's Green's album, organist Larry Young steals the show throughout and Elvin Jones swings hard. Overall, a great trio making "a terrific album that ranks in Green's uppermost echelon."

Leonard Feather's original, informative liner notes are available here.

Green - guitar
Larry Young - organ
Elvin Jones - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "Green plays a real cool jazz guitar"
• CashBox: "a listening treat for jazz buffs of most persuasions."
• Downbeat (★★★½): "Green...plays with taste and built-in swing"
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000) (★★★½): "Green plays rich and simple by turns"
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Two originals (both written by Young) plus three standards, including a popular tune from the time taken from the musical Funny Girl, People. And while the band certainly makes the three standards interesting, it's the two originals that are my favorites.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Green Street (1961)

Frank Sinatra - September Of My Years (1965)

Currently on Wikipedia: "September of My Years is a concept album exploring the 'who am I' questions and perspectives that someone, particularly a man, faces upon entering middle age." Now don't get me wrong - Sinatra is fantastic here, the orchestral arrangements are top-notch, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the thing. It's a moody string album as opposed to a swingin' big band joint and even that doesn't bother me much. However, your humble blogger is currently in the proverbial September of his years (and October coming along more quickly than he'd like to admit), so if I'm gonna listen to Sinatra these days, I'm not going to spin this album. In other words, I don't necessarily want to be reminded that I'm aging! (Denial ain't just a river in Egypt, folks.)

At the 8th Grammy Awards in 1966, this album won four awards and was nominated for two others:

• Lowell Frank, engineer: Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical (nominated)
• Jimmy Van Heusen & Sammy Cahn for The September of My Years: Song of the Year (nominated)
• Stan Cornyn, writer: Best Album Notes (won)
• Gordon Jenkins for It Was a Very Good Year: Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist or Instrumentalist (won)
• Frank Sinatra for It Was a Very Good Year: Best Vocal Performance, Male (won)
• Album of the Year (won)

Press of the time:

• Stereo Review: "He sings now with more depth and insight than ever"
• Record World: "Sinatra is the man."
• CashBox: "pure and unadulterated mood music, and ballads as only Frank Sinatra can handle them."
• Billboard: "By far one of the most important and finest mood albums in the Sinatra catalog."

In 2017, it was ranked at #142 on Pitchfork's list of the 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #5

Tracks: My top picks are the title track, This Is All I Ask, When The Wind Was Green, Once Upon A Time, and of course, It Was A Very Good Year.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Sinatra Sings Cole Porter (2003)
The Capitol Years (1990)
That's Life (1966)
Sinatra at the Sands (1966)
It Might As Well Be Swing (1964)
Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!! And More (1961)

Ramsey Lewis - Hang On Ramsey! (1965)/Wade In The Water (1966)

UK Import

Because when you see a Ramsey Lewis BGO two-fer in the clearance bin for $3 you don't ask questions.

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HANG ON RAMSEY! (1965)
9 tracks, 45 minutes

Lewis was following up his #5 hit The 'In' Crowd with this live set of mostly pop covers recorded October 14-17, 1965 at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California.

The rear exterior of The Lighthouse as seen in the 2016 film La La Land.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #15
• Billboard R&B: #4
• CashBox: #14

Tracks: The lead track, a cover of The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, peaked at #29 on the pop chart and the final track, a cover of Hang On Sloopy, peaked at #11 so there was some success in repeating the same formula (they both sound very similar to The 'In' Crowd and who could blame him?). The cover of And I Love Her is very tasty as well. But there's other styles here as Ramsey mixes it up with some traditional piano trio jazz tunes (Satin Doll) and one Lewis original. The sequencing and variety means you can just slip this disc in the tray, set it and forget it. It also makes me want to travel back to Hermosa Beach ca. 1965.

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WADE IN THE WATER (1966)
10 tracks, 33 minutes

This is a slightly different animal from the album above. While the overall groove remains the same, here we're treated to big band arrangements in addition to the piano trio. The credits go to Ramsey Lewis not the Ramsey Lewis Trio. Also, a drummer named Maurice White had joined the group.

CashBox, September 3, 1966, p. 60

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #16
• Billboard R&B: #2
• CashBox: #18

Tracks: The title track peaked at #19 on the pop chart in the fall of '66 while Hold It Right There (track 16 on this compilation) won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance - Vocal or Instrumental. Also good are the covers of Ain't That Peculiar, Uptight (Everything's Alright), Day Tripper, and Hurt So Bad. Oddly, the tune that doesn't quite work was written by Bacharach. Go figure.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Tequila Mockingbird (1977)

Ray Conniff and The Ray Conniff Singers - The Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings (2016)

If you're like me, then around this time of year you try to recapture a taste of Christmastimes past. That desire led to the purchase of this two disc compilation of Ray Conniff Christmas albums from Real Gone Music.

The following three albums were originally released in 1959, 1962, and 1965, respectively. I wasn't around during those years and I don't know if I actually heard a lot of these arrangements in my early years, but in my mind I did. The latter album adopts a more folky sound to adapt to the times and even includes a trombone solo from Conniff himself.

As a teenager, I was surprised to learn The Ray Conniff Singers made albums that weren't Christmas music (still don't think I've heard them, though).

Peaks on the US Billboard Top 200 chart:

• Christmas With Conniff: #14 in 1959
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas: #32 in 1962
• Here We Come A-Caroling: #15 on the Christmas Album Chart in early 1966.

Tracks: Conniff had a formula and stuck to it. That formula made him a lot of money, but the recipe goes stale over the course of these 31 tracks. All tracks are highly recommended for Christmas music shuffles/playlists/mix tapes, but 90+ minutes straight? A bit much for this guy.

Overall, disc 1 is preferable to disc 2. If you like cheese on your Christmas dinner table, check out the groovy Joy To The World.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: You'd think that if I purchased CDs for nostalgia, then I'd have specific memories attached, but I gots nuthin'. But I'm reminded of this 1974 special markets album (Firestone? Goodyear?) which, ironically, doesn't include a Conniff track.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1995 reissue.

Generally regarded as "one of the most important records ever made" (AllMusic), I find myself listening to this iconic disc repeatedly as I try to understand what Coltrane was doing in this four part sermon/suite. In 1957, Coltrane had what he describes as a "spiritual awakening" that helped him battle his addictions to alcohol and heroin. This is a response to God, praising him and thanking him for His love, a love like no other, A Love Supreme. Try as I might, I don't think I currently have the acuity and capacity to understand this music. But I'll keep trying...

Coltrane - tenor saxophone
McCoy Tyner - piano
Jimmy Garrison - bass
Elvin Jones - drums

Original liner notes written by Coltrane.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "Coltrane, with God, plays excellent jazz"
• Downbeat (★★★★★): "thoroughly a work of art"
• Stereo Review: "a good record, one of the better ones Coltrane has made for Impulse."
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★★
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★♛

Update: In its 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone ranked A Love Supreme at #66 and in 2017, it was ranked at #3 on Pitchfork's list of the 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Probably my favorite part of the album is McCoy Tyner's piano work on Part 2: Resolution.

Also recommended: Ashley Kahn's 2002 book, A Love Supreme: The Creation of John Coltrane's Classic Album. There's also a Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church in San Francisco. I definitely need to visit that place.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I'm reminded of the album's use in the Spike Lee movie, Mo' Better Blues. Rumor has it that Coltrane's widow, Alice, denied Spike Lee the use of the title "A Love Supreme" as that's what Lee wanted to call that movie.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Coltrane Plays The Blues (1962)

The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1965)

I've decided my favorite Beatles album is whichever Beatles album I'm listening to, so right now my favorite Beatles album is Rubber Soul. This is an incredible album. Not only was the boys' writing getting better, they didn't mess around in the studio. The whole thing was written and recorded in just 4 weeks (Oct 12 - Nov 15, 1965) and released December 3 in the UK, December 6 in the US - just in time for Christmas. Let me say that again. 4 weeks. The thought of that leaves me flabbergasted. There's been plenty written about this album, so I won't try to compete for fear of being accused of suffering from logorrhea.

Update: In the 2020 ranking of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rubber Soul ranked at #35 and in 2017, it was ranked at #46 on Pitchfork's list of the 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "they've done it again"
• CashBox: "one of their most interesting and potent albums to date"
• Record World: "tunes are even more inventive than usual"
• HiFi/Stereo Review: "This album is certainly one of the best the Beatles have released."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #1 (6 weeks, Jan 8 - Feb 12, 1966)
• Billboard CD: #2
• CashBox: #1
• CashBox CD: #1

Tracks: Since all 14 are good (I don't even mind What Goes On), I will rank my top 5 tracks:

5. I'm Looking Through You
4. Drive My Car
3. Michelle
2. Norwegian Wood
1. In My Life

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I came late to the Beatles - I didn't know all the words to these songs until I was 15.

Previously revisited for the blog:

Love (2006)	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Anthology 1 (1995)	Help! (1965)
1967-1970 (1973)	Please Please Me (1963)
Abbey Road (1969)

Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

Perfect.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #23

Tracks: The jazzed-up carols (O Tannenbaum, What Child Is This, The Christmas Song) and Peanuts originals (Christmas Time Is Here, Skating, and the classic Linus and Lucy) create a joyous and festive meditation for the season. Heck, even listening to the kids belting out Hark, The Herald Angels Sing or "Schroeder" playing an excerpt from Beethoven's Für Elise reminds me of the TV special and puts me in a good mood. If this isn't my favorite Christmas album, it's certainly in the discussion. In this house, this CD is required listening every year.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Cold winter nights in West Texas in the late '60s/early '70s, eagerly waiting for the one night each year when A Charlie Brown Christmas was broadcast on CBS. I know I can buy it on Blu-Ray now, but it's just not the same, is it?

Exclusive CD longbox photo courtesy of
Dirk Digglinator of the Hambonian Archives.

A quick shout out to my best friend from childhood, Charlie Brown. That's me on the left and Charlie on the right, 1972.

The Beatles - Help! (1965)

I can't write much that hasn't already been written. With this release, John and Paul really came into their own as songwriters with John's You've Got to Hide Your Love Away and Paul's Yesterday. It continues to puzzle me why Capitol Records would change the US release from the UK release. Fortunately, they aligned the tracks with the original UK releases on the CD re-releases.

Two things come to mind as I listen: 1) this music was written, performed, and released before I was born, and 2) The Beatles released all their LP's between 1963 and 1970. All that great music within only 8 years makes me feel like I really haven't done much lately...

1987

Update: In its 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone ranked Help! at #266.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #1 (9 weeks, Sept 11 - Nov 6, 1965)
• Billboard Pop CD: #4
• CashBox CD: #2

Tracks: They're all great, but here's my top five from this release:

5. Help!
4. Ticket to Ride
3. I've Just Seen a Face
2. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
1. Yesterday

For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox,
go visit The Legend of the Longbox.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: The title tracked introduced my youngest son to The Beatles when he was very young. With the exception of a brief infatuation with Earth, Wind, and Fire, The Beatles have always been his favorite group.