Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The Jazz Thing, Round 1: Gordon v. Smith

It's been two years since the last Jazz Thing post, and I've since declared the project dead, but what the heck.



The Jazz Thing, Round 1 (40 Word/Album Limit)

#37 Dexter Gordon, "Go!" (1962) v. #40 Bessie Smith, "The Collection" (recordings from 1923-1933).


Melodic saxophone bop from the early 1960s, this is a solid entry in a subgenre I find easy to like.

And:



This is unadulterated blues music, sung by an acknowledged master, and has plenty of historical interest. But although it’s an important wellspring of jazz, vintage blues is so formulaic that I find it pretty stultifying. I’m not a “roots” guy.



It's hardly a fair fight, but Go! win easily against Ms. Smith.

3 comments:

Morgan said...

Hey, the Jazz Thing is back!

Michael5000 said...

That's right, daddy-o

Ben said...

Outta SIGHT, man! I like that Dexter Gordon album too!