Kind of Blue - 50th Anniversary

The jazz world is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis' classic LP, Kind of Blue. Bop City has updated its playlist with the entire LP.

Kind of Blue, an album that sounds like it's never been in a good mood it didn't consider fleeting or a bad one it couldn't brood its way out of. When Davis and his band commenced recording in 1959, they settled on a new form of "modal" jazz that called for improvising through scales as opposed to preordained chord changes. And even if that doesn't sound apparent to an untrained musical ear, it's suggested by a spectral sense of wandering-an ease with uncertainty that comes across in no uncertain terms. Artists playing with Miles on Kind of Blue were Cannonball Adderly, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb.

Sony's Legacy Recordings has released a fabulous 50th anniversary edition of Kind of Blue. This will make a holiday gift that will never be forgotten for the jazz lovers in your life. You can help support Bop City's broadcast by purchasing this box set through the link below the box set's description.

The SUPER-DELUXE 12-INCH SLIPCASE BOX SET CONTAINS:

• Two CDs (original album plus studio sequences, false starts, and alternate takes from 1958-59 sessions, plus 17-minute “So What” live in Holland, 1960)
• DVD: newly-produced documentary featuring superstars of jazz
• 60-page ‘perfect-bound’ 12x12 full-color book, tons of photos
AND
• 180-gram blue vinyl 12-inch LP-first time ever in a Legacy box set!

In-depth liner note essays written by award-winning Miles Davis authorities Francis Davis and Gerald Early; session transcripts by Ashley Kahn; detailed 1957-60 quintet/sextet timeline by Bob Belden and Ken Vail

Box set memorabilia: 3-page hand-written liner notes by Bill Evans; reproduction of 1959 Columbia promo brochure; six 8"x10" photos; and 22"x 33" foldout poster.

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Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray - The Hunt

The Hunt also accrued its mythology because of its mention in two iconic books by Beat writers John Clellon Holmes and Jack Kerouac. John Clellon Holmes (1926-1988) was a writer, poet, and professor, best known for his 1952 book Go, considered the first "Beat" novel, which depicted events in his life with friends Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Allen Ginsberg. In Go, he writes, "The Hunt: listen there for the anthem in which we jettisoned the intellectual Dixieland of atheism, rationalism, liberalism—and found our group's rebel streak at last." Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) hardly needs an introduction. Not only is he the most famous Beat writer, he is credited with creating the term "Beat." In his novel, On the Road, the defining work of the postwar Beat Generation, he writes:

"They ate voraciously as Dean, sandwich in hand, stood bowed and jumping before the big phonograph, listening to a wild bop record I had just bought called "The Hunt," with Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray blowing their tops before a screaming audience that gave the record fantastic frenzied volume."

Dexter and Wardell recorded The Hunt at the Elks Auditorium, also known as the Elks Hall, the Elks Ballroom, and the Elks Club. Mention Elks or its street, Central Avenue, to a jazz fan and you will likely elicit a knowing bebop nod of the head and insider's smile; the mythology has immortalized the place and its better events. A listen of The Hunt reveals that the song "Cherokee" (also referred to as "Geronimo" and "Cherrykoke") sends the crowd into a frenzy—and rightly so. The playing sounds incredible, not least because of Dexter's sinuous lines that carry most of the song until Wardell joins in and intensifies the heat for the last two or three minutes. Sheer delight for the crowd then and listeners now. The concert recording is a reminder, though, that this music, bebop, emerges out of a thriving cultural community. Two thousand people with the music and with the musicians, listening and dancing. It's a Bebop moment, alright — Sunday, July 6th, 1947.

Franz Jackson 1912 - 2008

Franz Jackson was born in Rock Island, Illinois on November 1, 1912. He passed away on May 6, 2008.

Bob Koester of Jazz Record Mart and Delmark Records said, "With the passing of Franz Jackson, Chicago lost a kind and gentle man, an excellent reed player and band organizer and a valuable contact with jazz history."

A synopsis of his career and additional information can be found at The University of Chicago's Online Library.

The Keep Swinging Blog features an excellent two part posting on the career and life of Franz Jackson.