You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Our 7 Favorite "Complete" Albums - #30

Episode Date: October 5, 2018

Today, Adam and Peter list 7 of their favorite complete albums. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Yo, Adam. Yo, Peter. Do you ever listen to an entire album, like a jazz album? Not since I got my Spotify subscription. What? And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you.

That's right. How's it going today, Pete? Good, good. I'm excited about this topic. Yeah, what's the topic today? I don't know. No, we're talking about our favorite. We prepare very well.

Yeah, no, our seven favorite complete albums. Yeah, I like this one too. This is a question on you'll hear it.com. I would say this is a lost start, but actually, I have two albums on this list that are very, very recent. One's very recent. One's fairly recent. Yeah, and I think, I mean, I like, we were talking about this before.

Like, I think that this list, well, first of all, just to be clear on this, these are albums that we both, either both love or individually love. That we love, the main thing that one of the main things that we love about it is the fact that you, there's value from beginning to end, which really is a lot of jazz albums. I would say more than many genres. It's a lot, but there, I think there's, it's a special album that is not. not only quality from beginning to end, but is also, it tells a story from beginning to end. Because a lot of jazz albums are kind of thrown together in a day, and they were doing what they were doing on the bandstand.

And that's cool because, you know, it's jazz, and what's happening in the music is what's important. But some of these more conceptual albums are really fun listeners to. You know, this comes from a listener, Juan, who says, I have a suggestion, if I may, a full episode. You may. Or perhaps a series of episodes. Now, don't dare us, one, because we'll do that.

just on suggestions for albums to listen to, perhaps getting into some stuff that's not so obvious to find. I'm always digging deeper into music. So, you know, we could look at this as like, and this is kind of a little bit of things maybe you're not hip to. Well, and I just realized you kind of projected with this. He didn't say anything about a complete album. Well, but he says,

you kind of form this to what Adam Manis wanted. He says, he says this. I'm always digging deeper into music, and I think one of the best ways of evolving music is through really just stopping and listening to full albums and feeling the music. Sorry, I didn't read the full question. You're projecting onto me. Do you see how that turned around?

That's right. No, so that sentence really sparked my thing of like, what are the albums that I keep coming back to full albums that I want to listen to from beginning to end? Well, and I think a big part of that too is, you know, I made a joke earlier, but I kind of, it's sort of true in that so many great jazz albums, what we were considered great, like the band is great, the music's great, the players are great. The whole thing is actually a lot of value. It's not like, you know, people complain like, oh, I love such and such.

I love Kelly Clarkson, but you only got one good tune on that out. But they're still happy with it. You hear a lot of jazz musicians say that day. I love John Coltrane, Giant Saves, but only Giant Seps. The rest is crap. Yeah, right. But I think with these, not only do we feel like there's just quality material, but really what makes these albums distinctive is that the listener, i.e. us,

subjective list here, is rewarded for listening in order. Yep. You know, so what you were talking about in terms of a complete story, really like a great set on a live album or a live performance or just a really well put together album in terms of the order not only the quality and i think all these achieve that all right so let's kick it off with number one now we're going a bit of a one two punch here at number one and number two and we're going john coltrane on both and the fam bam that's right and the first one is my pick and that is the masterpiece i think uh a love supreme my pick yeah that's my that's my that's my

that's my idea that one was my idea you're introducing this one to the world ladies and gentlemen I love Supreme, a wonderful complete album by Adam Maness. It's a deep cut. You might not have heard of it. Just kidding. Please, go ahead. Yeah, no, seriously. We're kidding.

But this is, I think, you know, we chose this number one because I think this embodies what an album can be from start to finish. The whole thing is a complete statement. Yeah. It almost is like a symphony form of the movements. There's, you know, the four movements. And it's just a gorgeous work of art start to finish. And everything is relevant to what happened before it. what comes after it.

And I think what was the peak of that band, you know, or certainly during the era of their peak of all four of those players just crushing it on this record. And, of course, trains its conception and the level of musical and social complexity

of this album is still revealing layers. Yeah. You know, even today. And it did feel like, you know, the peak, obviously we weren't alive when this album came. out. But I remember my dad telling him, it was like, oh, yeah, I remember when that album dropped. He didn't say dropped, because if he had said dropped, he would have meant when it actually dropped on the ground.

He would have peaked if he would have said dropped. Exactly. But it's, you know, 1964 and, you know, the classic Van Gelder studio sound, but, you know, really with, it almost feels like, and I'm maybe projecting a little bit, but like the culmination while at the same time kind of a doorway to that next sound, sort of a culmination of everything that was coming before that with the great work that quartet. Certainly went and kept exploring that new sound as well. Well, and that kind of brings us into number two. Yes. Which is in the same era. Exactly. Same band. A little bit earlier, and that's Crescent. And that this is like always been, you know, probably my favorite John Coltrane record, not that it's not necessarily the best or anything. It's just my favorite. And I have, you know,

I just have a lot of love and affinity and gratitude for this album. And it's fun now because there was a time kind of in the 80s and early 90s when this was like a really well-known power. John Coltrane, and I don't know that it's become a deep cut, but a little bit, you know, I've definitely mentioned to some younger players like, oh, I don't know that one, let me check that out. Yeah. So, but it's just, I mean, you talk about from beginning to end the story, you know, and then it's got it on the micro and the macro level in terms of within the tunes, within the solos. There's a lot of kind of effortless mastery to the story that's being told, I would say, and just beauty, of course. That's so good. Yeah.

Okay, so that takes us to number three. Number three is a more recent album, and this is Robert Glasper's Black Radio. What? And I think this is an embodiment of what a modern jazz album can be. And really, I mean, was a successful... Scattered and funky. No, I mean, it was super funky and like so many guest appearances by such amazing artists in hip-hop and R&B. And, you know, this is a popular, successful album as well.

It was like... This really projected Robert... onto a bigger stage than the just the jazz heads. I think he's always had that versatility and those of us that know him, no, that's always been there. He never really changed. But this album, certainly,

to the wider audience that the wider audience that he now enjoys, I mean, for many, many of them, large percentage, this was the entree point. You know how it starts off with everybody kind of warming up in the vocal booth, all the guests that are warming in the vocal booth? I mean, it feels like a concept album from the start and you're just kind of like taken into his world.

and you feel it. You feel it from the start. I think he did a great job with it, and I think it's almost more of a challenge conceptually with this kind of record that is highly produced, compared to a typical jazz album, like if he did it, like he has done,

tree albums and stuff, where you can kind of let the form of the tunes and the improvisation of the order of them define the story of the whole album. So it's a lot of production work to really pull something like this off without it just feeling like a bunch of random parts put together.

Very true. Yep. Okay, so now we're going to go to number four. Now, this is going to be our first and probably only solo piano recording, and this is Keith Jarrett's Facing You. And I love this record. It's his first. I always say that, but I should probably verify it.

It's certainly one of his first records for ECM. Maybe it's like his first solo record. I don't know. But he, you know, it's in the studio, so it's not as well known as, like, the Coln concert, which is like supposedly the greatest, the largest selling. solo piano record of her from a live performance and of course he did many great live

recordings and the audio and the video later but solo and trio and everything but this recording like I just I think it's the concept of the tunes and the vast amount of improvisation within them and then there's vamps and like there's a lot of different kinds of elements and then there's

such a potential for it to become sort of monotonous just by the nature of being solo piano especially with like the extended forms and stuff, but he does such a great job with creating these interesting stories and forms within the larger tunes and then piecing that together in a cohesive way. That's got to be to do a solo piano album that gets on this list, that's like doubly impressive. It is, yeah, yeah.

And then I also, I mean, it's just, and I think it's probably true for all these, we're starting to realize, like, you put on one of these records, and unless you've got like to pick up your kids somewhere or something, you have to leave, you don't want to leave. Like, that's a great thing. I mean, you could have a great recording and then it gets to the end of the second track, you're like, cool, I'll come back later or whatever. But these are truly, I mean, facing you as like, it pulls you in. It just feels like one continuous story.

That's great. So our number five, were we on five? Yes, sir. Number five, this is Thelonious Monk's brilliant corners. This album has a special place in my heart when I was in high school and, you know, someone said, you should listen to Thelonious Monk. This is just what I happen to randomly grab at a border in Sunset Hills. I love our generic, like, dude.

I know, man, you should. We've all had the same dude. kind of hovering around. Hey man, you should check Athlonious movie. Said Winton Marsalis. It sounds like it all. No, so I just happened upon this album, and I didn't realize it was, you know, one of his greatest. And I still listen to this pretty consistently.

Every year, I go through a phase of listening to Brilliant Corners. I think it's just a really well-thought-out flow of Monct's tunes, Munt's original tunes. You know, Brilliant Corners is the title track, opens it up then, the Ballou Boulevard. Bar Blues. Blues art, yeah. And then Pan Onica where he uses the Chalesta. I mean, there's just so much good stuff on here. And Bandis Killin, Sonny Rollins, you know, Max Roach.

The art on that record is... Art is killing with the mirrors, yeah. So this is one of my favorite records to just have a sit down, drink a whole pot of coffee, iced or not, and listen to the whole thing. Well, and I think, you know, a lot of people might say, well, Tholololini's Monk had so many great tunes, compositions that you could kind of throw in any eight or nine together or six on a record, and it's going to be great. And it would be, I mean, individually, but it's actually, I would say, a little bit more of a challenge to piece them together.

And this, he had several records, I think, Chris Cross, you know, Chris Cross is another one, yeah, for sure. Where he was extra successful in terms of, like, the order and the balance of the tunes. Because you can almost be like an embarrassment of riches where you're just jumping around, you know, which is fun, too. Well, and his sound is so specific that, you know, I think the flow is very important, and this one nails it for sure. Cool. So that was number five. And for number six. So I think this is our only live recording, right? I was thinking about putting one on. So this is Miles Davis.

Never heard of them. Saturday night at the Black Hawk, which is a club in either San Francisco or Oakland, West Coast Bay Area. And of course, there's Friday night too. And then a lot of people have seen it packaged together. But I grew up with the, well, both of the LPs, but especially the Saturday night. And like this is like just, I mean, like a lot of great. you know, jazz live recordings where you're at, that are recorded at a club where you just feel like you're there, you know. And what's interesting about this, there's edits in this. And there, this is still like the 50s, I think, or it's right around, I don't know, maybe 59, I would say, 58, something like that. But it, um, so the edits were not like Pro Tools edits. I mean, like, not like if they were in 1964, they would have been.

But, um, it's funny that it still has, I mean, a lot of people don't notice them because first of all, they're really well done the edits. But you really have the feeling that you're just sitting for a whole set. And the pacing of it is like a great jazz set. You hear a lot of kind of clinks and, you know, drinks and maybe a little cash register or something here. So you get the vibe and the ambiance, as they say in France and in America. But it's funny because there was definitely some production put on it. So it just shows you that it's not just always a matter of turn on the recorder.

You know, there was some tightening up. I think part of it was probably to fit it onto that LP length as well to get that whole set in there. That's awesome. That's a great pick. All right, so number seven, our final one. This is a recent album from 2015 by a tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington. This is the epic. This is a three-disc concept album from a modern king of concept albums.

Is that all he does, right? I mean, this guy has such an artistic vision for his music, and it comes across magnificently in this album. I'm kind of new to Kamasi Washington, and I'm digging it a lot, man. I mean, I definitely feel like I'm a little late to the game, but I've been listening to this album sort of on repeat the last few weeks, and I'm loving it, so. Good, good. Yeah, and I mean, I'm not actually, I've heard that record,

but I've never sat and listened to the whole thing. It's hard because it's like three hours. Yeah, yeah. Not because I'm not interested because I don't have time. I'm a busy man. No, no, but I want to dive more. I've actually heard Kamasi more live and really enjoys playing and got a chance to hang with him a little bit.

But, you know, I think that he's really, you know, he brings that same conceptual, flair and understanding to his live shows for sure. So I've been looking forward to digging into beyond just some tracks, which is kind of all I've done and getting into his longer form stuff. What's great about this? And there's some rock records that I've listened to that are this long as well. Yeah.

And the feeling of, it's almost like being on a very long meditation or something. Like once you get towards like the one hour mark, you start getting pretty antsy just because I think we're used to change. Yeah, yeah. But then. Bathroom break. Bathroom or something. But like if you can see.

Stick it out, man. You feel so good by the end and you're really connected to the music. I've been loving the experience of it. Good. Good. Good. Well, this was fun, man. We can definitely come back and revisit this at points because there's so many.

I mean, each one of these I think makes us each think of another four or five. As Juan suggests, maybe a series of episodes. He does say that. We got to pay closer attention to our brilliant listeners questions. They're very good questions. Shout out to our listeners. You guys doing great. So you can go to you'll hear it.

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