Music Gourmets Presents 60 Years of Great Music - 1960

[Zeeba Neighba]

Welcome to Week Four of the MG's "60 Years of Great Music" series
Here's the rules:

Each Friday, I'll introduce a new year from 1957 through 2016. Each member selects an album released in that year with a few lines (or more) on why you picked it/enjoy it. Your selection does not have to be the most important release or the most admired release of that year (though it certainly can be), simply an album that grabs you and that you really love.

However, once an album is selected by a member, you must choose a different album.

Together we will compile quite the canon of "Great Music" and, who knows, maybe inspire each other to check out some new artists (or to revisit old forgotten classics).

This week - the albums of 1960

 

[Nickyboy]

Nino Rota- La Dolce Vita soundtrack

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Charles Mingus - Blues & Roots (1960)




I really wanted to pick a different artist than I did in 1959, but I started to panic - what if no one picks this one?! And I could've prevented it! Once again, a tremendous year in jazz, and, I'm afraid, several great ones will be left on the table (we really need 20 people posting picks), but, as my vote for Mingus' greatest album evah, this one's got to get my not. Jeez, it could be my pick even if it had just one song, the opener "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting", one of the most energetic numbers in jazz history (and a piece that Mingus would rework several times). Blues & Roots was Mingus' response to criticism that he didn't swing enough (difficult to believe given Ah Um a year earlier, but this one actually was recorded earlier), and boy did he deliver - a perfect amalgam of jazz, blues, and gospel. "Moanin'" (a different number than the Bobby Timmons piece feature on Blakey's '59 album) and "E's Flat Ah's Flat Too"are two other numbers that can't be missed.

 

[LeslieC]

I kept waiting to see what album I have strong feelings for and yet again another special album courtesy of my parents.... I loved this album & saw the play off-broadway too, not with this original cast, but still a good one. Jerry Orbach, may you rest in peace. Loved you in Law & Order.
The Fantasticks premiered at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, a small off-broadway theatre in New York City's Greenwich Village, on May 3, 1960 with Jerry Orbach as El Gallo, Rita Gardner as Luisa, Kenneth Nelson as Matt, and librettist Tom Jones (under a pseudonym) as the Old Actor, among the cast members.

The Fantasticks - Original Off-Broadway Cast

 

[axolotl]

For those in need of the quick-and-easy resource:

https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/1960

 

[Mattafett]

Wanda Jackson - Rockin' With Wanda
The undeniable Queen of Rockabilly.

 

[axolotl]

Tina Brooks ~ True Blue (1960)



My head leads me one way, my heart another. So, it is only with the teeniest twinge of heartache that I follow my head on this one.

But, how could I not? This is hard bop that bops along hard, yet so smooth, with the headliner Tina Brooks on tenor sax, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, and no-slouches Duke Jordan, Sam Jones, and Art Taylor on piano, bass, and drums, respectively

I admire and adopt the review of the Ranting Recluse (2/6/16) regarding this album:

The only session as leader released during tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks' regrettably short lifetime, the sublime "True Blue" is also his best. Opening with the killer hook of "Good Ole Soul", Brooks sets the distinctive tone that carries through the entire album, an enchanting mix of clear, upbeat playing shaded with just the right amount of melancholy to give the album a bluesy flavor without ever getting bogged down by it. Comprised almost entirely of originals (the lone exception being a peppy, latin-tinged cover of "Nothing ever changes my love for you"), Brooks displays a masterly ability to create tightly structured, melodic tracks that, despite their straightforwardness, still manage to pack quite a punch in terms of harmonic interplay and economical but effective solos. Given that "True Blue" is as impressive a debut as one could hope to have, it's surprising Brooks' career didn't take off after its release, considering the incredible amount of focus as both a composer and arranger on display and his playing style, which fits nicely in-between the intensity of the likes of Coltrane or Wayne Shorter and the more rounded, mellower sound of Hank Mobley and Dexter Gordon, it seems that Brooks really should have found more of an audience than he did at the time.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

^
Great pick, Axo!

 

[Markonomicon]

Tina Brooks ~ True Blue (1960)



My head leads me one way, my heart another. So, it is only with the teeniest twinge of heartache that I follow my head on this one.

But, how could I not? This is hard bop that bops along hard, yet so smooth, with the headliner Tina Brooks on tenor sax, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, and no-slouches Duke Jordan, Sam Jones, and Art Taylor on piano, bass, and drums, respectively

I admire and adopt the review of the Ranting Recluse (2/6/16) regarding this album:

The only session as leader released during tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks' regrettably short lifetime, the sublime "True Blue" is also his best. Opening with the killer hook of "Good Ole Soul", Brooks sets the distinctive tone that carries through the entire album, an enchanting mix of clear, upbeat playing shaded with just the right amount of melancholy to give the album a bluesy flavor without ever getting bogged down by it. Comprised almost entirely of originals (the lone exception being a peppy, latin-tinged cover of "Nothing ever changes my love for you"), Brooks displays a masterly ability to create tightly structured, melodic tracks that, despite their straightforwardness, still manage to pack quite a punch in terms of harmonic interplay and economical but effective solos. Given that "True Blue" is as impressive a debut as one could hope to have, it's surprising Brooks' career didn't take off after its release, considering the incredible amount of focus as both a composer and arranger on display and his playing style, which fits nicely in-between the intensity of the likes of Coltrane or Wayne Shorter and the more rounded, mellower sound of Hank Mobley and Dexter Gordon, it seems that Brooks really should have found more of an audience than he did at the time.

THAT's a good one. Need a physical copy in my collection as soon as the finances improve!

 

[Markonomicon]

Some good stuff...Brooks, Mingus, Miles, the Adderley Bros., "Open Sesame", Coltrane, couple Byrd lps, "Soul Junction", etc.

My #1 pick goes to the all killer, no filler "Soul Station".

 

[JazzyRandy]

John Coltrane - Giant Steps


I could play the waiting game, as I'm apt to do, but this time I think I'll jump out and free up someone else to pick something else besides the elephant in the room

 

[Ojai Sam]

Spotify playlist is here:

No Fantasticks

 

[patrikc325]

Johnny Horton - The Spectacular Johnny Horton

Battle of New Orleans was a big hit when I was 5.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

John Lee Hooker - Travelin'



The vocals are as good as the guitar playing. Other than that, I don't know what I can say about it. I just like it.

 

[earcartoons]

Etta James ~ At Last!

The hits have been so overplayed in this day and age by so many lesser artists, it's hard to judge what this Woman could do with her voice.
She played it like a great horn, covering every genre of the time.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

10 picks so far. Two days left to get in yer picks for 1960

 

[lpfreak1170]

Roy Orbison - Sings Lonely And Blue


Greatest male singer ever. His work on Monument is just amazing.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Muddy Waters - At Newport

Deep blues gains mainstream acceptance without a hint of compromise. Playing John Lee Hooker's guitar in front of a band that included Otis Spann, James Cotton, Pat Hare, and Francis Clay, how could he go wrong?

Linked individually above, I will add this to our Spotify playlist.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

So many great HM's:

Ella Fitzgerald - Ella In Berlin: Mack the Knife

It could be hard to remember that Ella, the supreme interpreter, in the middle of her tremendous Songbook series, could still swing and kick ass as a vocalist. Arguably the greatest live jazz vocal album (how's that for specific ). Ella forgets the lyrics of "Mack the Knife" at one point and scats her ways through.

Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain

I'm not a huge fan of third stream, the mixture of classical and jazz music that this album helped to introduce. I AM, however, a fan of Miles' treatment of Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" (I go back and forth whether Davis' or Jim Hall's version is better).

Frank Sinatra - Nice and Easy

Ole Blue Eyes last great Capitol album. Perfect title track!

Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas

Sure it's July, but can't forget one of my seasonal favorites

 

[axolotl]

You might remember me saying that I was going with my head over my heart in making my pick.

This was my other choice, something I have on vinyl:

Lester Young ~ Lester Young in Paris



The President is dead. Long live the Prez.