Miles Davis - "Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants" CD, Album, 1989/1959 (Prestige)

One of my favorite all-time recordings is "The Man I Love," the Gershwin song here performed by Miles Davis, Kenny Clarke, Percy Heath, Milt Jackson, and the incredible Thelonious Monk.  There are two versions of it on the CD release from 1989.  Both are sonic perfection.  The solos are fascinating.  Miles' solo is slow and soulful, and Jackson's vibes bring it up to a faster pace, but Monk's solo is abstract painting as music.  His piano sketches the beautiful melody like he's tracing something on paper on the sand on a windy day.  I believe its take two where Monk even goes slower and plays with the melody as if having liquid slowly disappear between the fingers.   I get the impression that Miles probably wanted to throw his trumpet at Monk for going so slow, and playing with the melody as if a cat is is batting a toy mouse.   The whole album is terrific, but to have the two versions of "The Man I Love" opening and closing this album is just perfection being practiced by these giants of music (jazz). 

Barney Wilen - Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions) CD Album

Jazz In Paris Series

Barney Wilen – Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions)

CD Album, France, 1958

Jazz in Paris, Universal Music (France)

The great French Tenor Sax player Barney Wilen backed by ¾ of The Modern Jazz Quartet. Instead of John Lewis, we have the great vibe player Milt Jackson on piano, which I think is unusual. Nevertheless a great band with a fantastic rhythm section of Kenny Clarke and Percy Heath. These recordings always bring out the romantic in me, because I imagine these guys playing in a Parisian nightclub with numerous beautiful woman dressed in black with their gangster boyfriends. Drinking whiskey and water, and very little dialogue. Well, I think the Universal Music label 'Jazz in Paris' feeds that image for us foreigners, who spend a great deal of time in front of the TV/Computer to watch French gangster films of the 1950's.

So Jazz sur Seine (original title is Jazz Sessions) is a beautiful snapshot of what I imagine was a perfect time when French Jazz musicians played with American greats. It's the meeting of these two cultures that somehow becomes one-of-a-kind expression of a love shared by the few. This particular album has songs by Wilen as well as by Django Reinhardt, Charles Trenet and Thelonious Monk.

The original Vinyl album (1958)