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Verve Presents: The Very Best of Christmas Jazz

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
by: Various Artists

November 05, 2001
This is my favourite Christmas CD, it has something for everyone! It's the perfect antidote for the tired old tunes that everyone plays at Christmas (if I hear "I wish it could be Christmas every day" one more time I won't be responsible for my actions), the highlights being "Zat you Santa Claus?" by Louis Armstrong and "Silent Night" by Dinah Washington.
Give it a go and you won't be disappointed, especially at this price!!

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Cantando

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
by: Bobo Stenson

August 25, 2008
Must have. It's a great album. Not much else to write that has not been written. Great trio and must have album

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Live at Belleville

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
by: Arild Andersen, Tommy Smith, Paolo Vinaccia

November 10, 2008
Living here in California and knowing this live concert recording would not be on sale until Nov. 25th, I ordered from the [always reliable] Amazon.UK. I'm a nut for live material, especially in the jazz idiom and realize that ECM seldom (if ever) releases a shoddily recorded live set.

This recording is superb! I only received it yesterday, so I have only listened on headphones and can't state that the concert atmosphere ambiance will duplicate as well on my 10-speaker rig. But musically there are no grounds for disappointment. Each member of the trio blends into a cohesive whole and the tonal balance is perfect!

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The Koln Concert: 24 January 1975

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
by: Keith Jarrett

July 01, 1988
I first heard this record at a friends house. I was completely blown away. I went straight to the first record store and bought it. Since then it became my favorite Jazz album of all times, and has put Keith Jarret, in my opinion, on the top of the world's greatest piano players.
I've been a fan ever since and bought every single live album he has released. They are all amazing, but there's no love like the first one.
No record collection will be complete without it.

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Officium

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
from: ECM New Series

September 05, 1994
I can see how sax fans find this album a revelation but it is a stain on the track record of the Hilliard Ensemble. I can see (kinda) what the involved parties tried to do but it still is painful to listing to it and even with a lot of good will this is simply a waste of money and time. To all those admirers of the Hilliard Ensemble: Don't do it to yourself!

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Bitches Brew

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
by: Miles Davis

July 12, 1999
The question isn't whether this is a weird branch that Miles Davis wandered off into in the 70's, and do only pseuds like it.

The question is whether this is the best album ever made.

Pharoah's dance knocks most modern orchestral music into a much-needed hole in the ground - its atonal genius - only Stockhausen could even get close to this match of mood and insane key combinations - is unsurpassed.

Bitches brew has a groove so deep that when you really hear it (maybe second listen, maybe third) you almost salute it - its dark, african and american - city and jungle - jesus its superb.

And if you don't like Spanish Key you are very likely dead.

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A Love Supreme

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
by: John Coltrane

November 07, 2005
OK, it's 1964, and Bebop has come a long way. We are six years after Coltrane recorded Kind of Blue with Miles, and it would be another five years before Miles records the next milestone: In A Silent Way. Tunes seem to be getting longer and longer...and with A Love Supreme John Coltrane finally produces a recording that gives himself free rein to really explore the furthest recesses from seed ideas, and just go with them. This is a very spiritual album, there seem to be no constraints.
Most of the four tunes begin with a basic theme, which is quickly jettisoned as Coltrane's creative juices start to flow.
There are some astounding sections on this CD, the musicians almost seem to be jostling for position at the mic, and yet they meld organically together. There ... Read More:

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The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
by: Charles Mingus

March 20, 1999
Forgive the tital, but how exactly do I define an album such as this, or indeed an artist like Mingus? This is the most undoubted five-star I have ever given, because, unlike most art, which either seems clear and gives you a good impression, or seems clear but gives you a banal impression, this does not seem clear ( in any of the multiple meanings of the term) , but gives you a transcendentally impressed feeling afterwards.
Certainly, it does seem quite gloomy. The title makes me think of some sort of lost scripture, with depressing implications for the fate of mankind, and the music is a series of movements circulating around the theme of damnation and torture in chains. The sounds which emerge: thundering, percussive drums, screaming brass, heavy piano, and frankly ... Read More:

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Mingus Ah Um

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
by: Charles Mingus

February 08, 1999
This is a rarity - a Mingus album with no duff tracks at all - everything is spot-on.The eclecticism of the music and its execution are breathtaking - if you need music to wake you up, try Boogie Stop Shuffle (so that's where they got the Mission Impossible theme from!).The gentler side of Mingus emerges beautifully on the slower tracks such as Pork Pie Hat.As for the recording - how did they manage such stunning sound? OK,it's remastered, but compare it to Monk CDs from the same time and it leaves them behind - vibrant,balanced,clear and dynamic - a must-buy!

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Out to Lunch

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Avant-garde
by: Eric Dolphy

May 03, 1999
Make sure you do some reading up on Eric Dolphy before you buy this. Don't expect to hear anything resembling the winning Blue Note hard bop formula characteristic of the fifities and sixties. As far as Jazz goes this is way ahead of it's time, those who know the contemporary Jazz scene will know that there are plenty of acts out there who try and sound exactly like what you hear on this record.
OK, it's not easy listening. For me Dolphy's compositions are no way near as compelling as some of Ornette Colman's for example. It's quirky, mysterious, it has you scratching your chin trying to figure it all out. "Gazzelloni," starts off as very accessible before disappearing into some great flute loops. Add to that William's nuerotic sounding drums and it makes for interesting listening. Freddie ... Read More: