You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Great Albums You Don't Know - #100

Episode Date: May 9, 2018

Today, Adam and Peter list 7 albums that you may not be familiar with but should definitely check out. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Menace and I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Today we're going to give you seven great albums you don't know. Going deep cuts today, eh? Deep cuts, yo. We're going aggressive too. We're saying that you don't know these. The odds of at least one of you out of our thousands of you'll hear at listeners

knowing some of these of these seven pretty high. But what we're talking about are deep cuts, albums that went under the radar and not for the good reason why some albums go under the radar because they suck. But these are like some of our favorites that, you know, for me, I'm always surprised when I'll mention one. It's almost like, oh, I've never heard of that. And they just, for whatever reason, maybe, you know, sometimes it's cyclical. People talk about them for a few years. So I'm going to jump right in with my number one great album that you don't know, but now you do.

And that's New High by Kenny Wheeler. Nice. And this is a great album. them I think it was like mid 70s, 75, 76, something like that on ECM. It's Kenny, Kenny, Keith Jarrett, Keith, Kenny Jared, as they used to call him, on piano, Jack Dijanette, I believe it's Dave Holland on bass. A bunch of slouches, that. Bunch of slouches.

And, you know, it's kind of unique. And it is a little bit known just because, you know, Keith Jarrett as a sideman didn't happen that much. But to me, like, his compositions on here are just incredible. The sound, of course, you know, iconic ECM. sound but if you haven't got a chance to hear that check that one out new high and it's G and you hi see this is one I actually kind of know you know we've been talking about how I didn't really get into ECM until the last couple years and this is one that I've been checking out

and it is fantastic so I actually know this one man okay well I'm not talking about you I'm talking about you I'm talking about the audience doesn't know it I'm right I'm saying but you know our audience is actually pretty sophisticated so I'd be surprised if if we don't get well we can swing back emails about this like we can always swing back and do seven deeper cuts. That's true. We can go crazy with this. All right.

So I'm going to go, this is actually one of my favorite albums ever. This is Grant Green, St. Louis's own Grant Green's debut album called Grant's First Stand. Grant Green is an unbelievably groovy guitarist. This is from 1961. He was pretty young. Seven. Yeah. Now this is a guitar quartet with organ and saxophone drums.

And it is so swinging, man. And the first track, Miss Anne's tempo is an F blues that is like so grooving. This really, I went deep into this when I was a kid and I still think about this, the feel of this album all the time. And when you bring it up to people, it's usually like, oh, what? Man, I'm surprised at how many people don't even know Grant Green. Yeah, I was going to say he's kind of a deep cut master in a way. And if they know him, they kind of know him for his like groovy stuff, late 60s, early 70s. But like, man, don't sleep on Grant Green.

Seriously, good stuff. Exactly. All right, well, next I'm going to go with Bobby Hutcherson Total Eclipse. This is one of his great blue note albums a little bit, well, not really later because he kept going for so long, but I think it's like 1969, 1970, right around that time. And I'm always surprised that it's not one of his top blue note albums.

I love the cover on it. I love all the tracks. It's like mostly, I think it's all originals except for Matrixes on there. And it's with, you know, Chick-Korea's great-tune Matrix. And Chick-Korea is playing piano on there. Harold Land was right during that period when he was playing with Bobby Hutcherson a lot. I think it's Joe Chambers on drums. But the tunes are just great.

Herzog is on their tune. I used to play a whole lot back in New Orleans in the 90s and stuff. And it's just one of those ones that I'm always surprised that I never hear anybody talking about because I think it's just one of his best. That's awesome. I actually don't know that one and I can't wait to check it out. Thanks for introducing me to that deep cut. You are welcome.

So I'm going to go with someone who the artist, themselves is not a deep cut at all and that's Antonio Carlos Jo Beam but this album guy I think he's a Brazilian cat yeah now this album is from I think it's from the early to maybe mid 70s like 74 I'll have to look this up but it's called stoneflower it's really it's kind of kitschy even but some really good players on that Ron Carter's actually playing bass on this and Tom Jobeam's playing like roads and doing a lot of singing and the vibe of it feels just incredible. This is a really special album.

If you haven't heard Stoneflower, it's really quirky, but there's still some big hits. He plays Brazil, this great, like, nine-minute-long version of Brazil, and it's a really fantastic record. Nice. I never heard it. I'm adding that to my list of ones to check out. Thank you.

Get in there. Okay. Next, I'm going to go, what are we on to? One, two, three, that's four. So number five is Ellis Marcellus, And Brantford Marcellus made an album in the mid-90s called Loved Ones, maybe mid-to-late 90s. It's called Loved Ones, and it's a duet record. It was on Columbia, CBS, and I think it's one of the most beautifully recorded and played records from, I mean, I'm a big fan of Brantford and Ellis.

But I think it's some of their just outstanding work, and nobody talks about that album. They're playing a bunch of just great standards. Stella by Starlight, Bess, you is my woman, really like old-school. standards. But it's cool because Ellis plays some super just, I mean, everything, he just touches the piano, just super modern chords, but very restrained and like very appropriate for a duet situation. Brantford's, you know, sound is just incredible, a lot of soprano playing, and a lot of, you know, kind of adventurous playing on both their sides, but very appropriate. And I don't think they play, I mean, obviously they're related because their father and son,

but I don't think they ever did a whole lot of playing together. And I've mentioned to Brantford several times how much I like that record. And he's always like, man, thanks a lot. He's like a lot of people. He's like no one ever really mentions that record. Yeah, how do I have not heard this record? It's a deep cut, dude. Oh, man. Yeah. I'm hooking you up. We need to do like four more of these episodes. This is great just for me personally.

Oh, we could just do one 28 deep cuts. Now no one has time for that. Exactly. We've been doing a lot of stuff about being efficient with your practice. You can't take up 28 minutes of people's done. All right, hurry out. All right, sorry. Number six. So number six, I'm going to call a little audible here. and I just thought of this deep cut record. And this is one of my most listened to records

for the past 10 years. It's Continuo, by Ava Shai Cohen, the bassist Ava Shai Cohen. This is an amazing record, especially if you like modern jazz composition. Ophshai Cohen is obviously a brilliant composer. And this has Sam Barsh on piano, Mark Giuliana on percussion.

It's got some other music. that do some really crazy stuff. It's so beautiful. Composition is so strong. The grooves are like so grooving. I mean, it's like Mark Giuliana, so it's going to feel great. And Sam Barsh just plays his tail off.

It's a really cool record. I love, like, when you discover an album that's kind of either under the radar or you feel like hasn't been discovered by a lot of others, but it's really, like, I can already tell by how you're describing it. It's just like so pleasing to listen to.

That's such a great thing because there are so many gems out there. I mean, you know, a lot of the ones that are the opposite of a deep cut, a shallow cut, you know, whatever, those are great. And the ones that, you know, the kind of blues and the giant steps, those are amazing. But when you see the depth of this music and I think for all these, what we're talking about, too, is these are all really strong albums. They're not just the deep, I know we keep seeing deep cut. That can apply as a track, but we're talking about complete albums. And that takes something.

I mean, because we've both been involved with playing on some albums where a few parts of it are good, but, you know, Sometimes you're like, it could have been better or whatever. But when you are part of something that's great, even if it's not discovered, it's a lot of fun. Well, you know, the thing about, I think, making a great album is it has to be a combination of, like, you know, you're super passionate about that project. And also timing can play a big thing of, like, for whatever reason, the people that were just involved in the project. Yeah. Because everybody's at this level is very, very good. Yeah.

And everybody's, but there's just a magic in the timing or the relationships where the whole thing comes together. And it's not that easy. I mean, people even like in the movies, they'll talk about, they're like, oh, my God, I can't believe Merrill Street made that horrible movie. It's like, she didn't go out. She's maybe a bad example because I think she might not have ever, but she's been in some movies that weren't as good as others. It's like you don't go out to do that, but sometimes the stars don't align. Yeah, some things get off. Yeah, this is art.

This is not a perfect science at all. That's right. That's right. You get what you pay for. Oh, actually, you do have to pay for these. Okay, so. You don't have to pay for this podcast. Oh, then you don't.

Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Okay. So number seven. I'm going to go a little bit self-indulgent here and go with Christian McBride's

2013 release called People People Music Huh And I love this record Yes, I am playing piano on it I was going to say that sounds familiar Yeah, link below Directly to purchase

No, I am on it But that's kind of the only reason I know about it It's because I'm on it And because I've never heard anyone talk about this To the point Like I had to go back I didn't listen to it for a couple years

After we recorded it and because I didn't hear anything about it, I was like, oh, I guess that album's not that good. I mean, I knew it was good. That's a good album, though, man. It's a very good album. I will second this one. Yeah, I can't believe people might not know about this.

This is a really good album. I've never heard anyone talk about it. Maybe I don't know the right people. Interesting. I just think it's kind of fluent. I mean, it's pretty recent, too, so I guess, and now that I'm thinking about it, I think we recorded in 2013,

but maybe it didn't come out until a couple years later. But anyway, it's, you know, it's with one of Christians' groups called Inside Straight that I've been playing with over the last, seven, eight years. And it's just, you know, it's like Steve Wilson on saxophone, Warren Wolf on vibraphone, Carl Allen on drums. And it's just, and Ulysses Owens as well on drums.

And it's just such a, you know, it's like a lot of Christians music. Actually, I think there's one of my tunes on there, maybe one of Warren's. But it's just, it's really a nice working band, but a really well recorded. It's great souls. Everybody's like listening a lot. And it's a nice statement. Christian put together a really nice kind of statement from beginning to end of the album. Yeah, I love that.

That's the seven great albums that you don't know, but now you know them. So go check them out and you'll hear it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast. You can go to you'll hear it.com to get more information, submit a question, or just say hello. You can do that. Absolutely. All right. And if you like what you heard, please leave a review and a rating below. Thanks.