Music Gourmets Presents 60 Years of Great Music - 1961

[Zeeba Neighba]

If it's Friday, it must be the MG's "60 Years of Great Music" series. Welcome to 1961!
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 1961

Here's the RYM 1961 albums list:

rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/1961

Spotify playlist is here:

 

[Markonomicon]

The version of "Lush Life" on this album is my favorite Coltrane performance. Absolutely beautiful.

 

[patrikc325]

U.S.Bonds - Dance 'Til Quarter to Three

Contains some rock classics.!

 

[LeslieC]

West Side Story - Movie Soundtrack

I have always loved this movie and still cry at the ending.
Music Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics Stephen Sondheim

 

[Worm]

Judy Garland - Judy at Carnegie Hall


Going with the inimitable (unless you count drag shows) Judy Garland. That lady had some pipes.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Leslie, you took one album off my list. The film soundtrack to West Side Story was one of the earliest albums I ever owned (on 8-track!) and I loved it. Sentimental fave
Worm, love the Judy live album too

 

[Mattafett]

I have only 1 from this year, and @Worm picked it.
Really struggling, as nothing jumps out at me, and I don't see much in my wheel house.

Suggestions???

 

[Unsomnambulist]

I have only 1 from this year, and @Worm picked it.
Really struggling, as nothing jumps out at me, and I don't see much in my wheel house.

Suggestions???

Do you have Spotify? Look up the list on RYM and see if there's something you might like. Listen to it to confirm.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

I have only 1 from this year, and @Worm picked it.
Really struggling, as nothing jumps out at me, and I don't see much in my wheel house.

Suggestions???

One of the Ray Charles albums of the year?

 

[Nickyboy]

Django Reinhardt et le quintette du Hot Club de France


A coworker introduced me to Reinhardt's music when I graduated from college with this album. Django's strumming and Stephan Grapelli's violin set the sound for Gypsy Jazz that continues today.

 

[earcartoons]

Runaway With Del Shannon (1961)

I've looked several times and like Matt nothing other than Jimmy Reed's (Go get it Matt) jumps out at me.
Del Shannon's debut which had his monster hit seems as good as any.

EDIT: Wow! I never noticed, but I'm a "Well Known Member" now. (Celebrations with invitations to follow)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

J.J. Johnson & Kai Winding - The Great Kai & J.J.

As always some huge albums still left, but rather than go with one of them, I'm going to go with a quieter jazz album that's long been a love of mine. This album, Impulse! Record's first album btw, was one of my first jazz albums purchased after only owning some of the well known biggies, and was chosen quite randomly. In an era of blossoming experimental jazz, it's a simple album of standards and ballads played excellently but a pair of the greatest jazz trombonists ever who clearly enjoyed recording together (they'd have 12 albums released between mid-50s and mid-60s). Johnson, who grew to prominence in the bop era, was known for his deft speed (it's been said those who never saw him thought he was playing with a valve trombone) but here slows it down and shows his expressive side.

In residency, I would debate with a colleague of mine, the merits of jazz trombone. He felt it made a poor jazz instrument especially with solos, and it is true, jazz typically focuses on the dynamic tones of the trumpet or sax. The truly great trombonists, e.g. Ellington's and Mingus' groups, Grachan Moncur III, Curtis Fuller, really elevate the music. This album, while it might not impress at first listen, is like an old friend.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Pink Anderson - Carolina Blues Man, Vol. 1



I pick this for historical and sentimental reasons. Pink Anderson is where the "Pink" in "Pink Floyd" came from.

 

[Mattafett]

Nothing is really turning me on this year, so I went with an artist (well half of the duo) that I have seen in concert.
Ike & Tina Turner - The Soul of Ike & Tina Turner

 

[Ojai Sam]

Bobby "Blue" Bland - Two Steps From The Blues

Arguably Bland was the first contemporary soul artist. His modern, emotionally drenched spin on the blues took the genre once and for all out of the juke joints and into the urban 20th century.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Don't forget - almost Friday. Last chance to get in your pick

 

[axolotl]

Way too hard... So much good... There's more Coltrane, and more Morgan... and then there's the...

Freddie Redd Quintet ~ Shades of Redd



I have a number of albums from '61. On this one, Freddie Redd bounces along as the leader on piano, with the pairing of Jackie McLean and Tina Brooks on alto and tenor. Alto and tenor saxes are a beautiful thing.

Allmusic Rating:

Allmusic Review:

In an all too small discography, Freddie Redd's Shades of Redd is without a doubt his crowning achievement. Completed after a successful stint composing music for the stage play The Connection, Redd wrote music specifically geared for his two formidable front line saxophonists -- emerging alto giant Jackie McLean and the unsung hero of the tenor, Tina Brooks. Redd, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Louis Hayes, fresh out of the Detroit scene, took New York City by storm playing clubs and working with Redd when he was not doing production music. All of these tracks, originals by Redd, are brimming with the hope, optimism, and fresh ideas of the early '60s, music perfectly rendered and representative of the time period. The darting, daring, tart sweet alto of McLean and the robust, lean, protein enriched tenor of Brooks fit beautifully together when they play in unison, and they do that a lot. The calm, lovely, then bursting into bop piece "The Thespian" sets the tone, followed by the swinging, head nodding "Blues-Blues-Blues," and the happy, hip, swing/shuffle "Melanie" brings the cream to the top. The teamwork displayed here rivals any seasoned veteran band of the era. Redd's piano playing, never spectacular or boisterous, is instead literate and street smart, and comes to the forefront in any tempo, whether the fleet hard bopper to Latin tinged near-show tune "Swift" and the spicy calypso to swing strutter "Ole," where Brooks steps up and takes a marvelous John Coltrane cum Hank Mobley solo. McLean's feature on "Just a Ballad for My Baby" illustrates his unique style, slightly but purposefully using microtones that might seem somewhat off-putting to the non-cognoscenti, but is remarkable upon closer inspection. Considering this is 1960, and Ornette Coleman was also making his way beyond conventional means, McLean is innovating just as much....

 

[Nickyboy]

^ If you were trying to make a simulated American flag there, I will give you a 3/5 stars.

 

[Ojai Sam]

^ If you were trying to make a simulated American flag there, I will give you a 3/5 stars.

I may have created a monster, Nick. Wait til Axo takes on Grant Green.

 

[Nickyboy]

I may have created a monster, Nick. Wait til Axo takes on Grant Green.

>running around in circles in a panic emoticon guy<