The Arne Jansen Trio with Eric Schaefer and Eva Kruse Performing Release

Watch this video clip and listen to the magic music of Arne Jansen and his trio performing a tune called Release. While in our last post with the Arne Jansen Trio the song they performed was a uniformly quiet piece called On the Shore, this composition passes through different moods, from quiet long electric guitar notes while the drummer is playing the cymbals with mallets to parts where the drums become much louder and hammering while the guitar player plays faster runs on his instruments too. Let’s not forget Eva Kruse on the double bass, unfortunately the sound quality of this recording doesn’t allow to hear her clearly (At least not with the poor speakers built into my laptop).
This kind of music reminds me the records that used to appear on the ECM label during the 1970s and 80s, with artists like Jan Gabarek or Terje Rypdal, to mention just two of a long list who all compared a certain sound on these records. Sounds like open spaces.
I cannot avoid to mention that Eric Schaefer recently performed a very convincing concert in Mexico City as the drummer of the Carsten Daerr Trio. Look out for this young german drum talent, we’re sure that he soon will participate in more interesting projects.

The Fly Trio Performing a Tune Called Child’s Play

Watch this video with the Fly Trio. This trio counts with Jeff Ballard on drums, Mark Turner on tenor saxophone and Chris Lightcap on accoustic bass. The song is a composition by drummer Jeff Ballard, however, some people think it is kind of a remake of Billie’s Bounce, the famous song by the legendary alto saxophone giant Charlie Parker.
The composition might be influenced by Charlie Parker’s original melody, but the drummer’s introduction is very original: Jeff Ballard playing the drumset with his bare hands. Later he plays with one bare hand and one stick and finally plays the conventional two drum stick style.
This kind of trios require excellent musicians, there are only three instruments in charge of the interpretation. In this case it is especially heavy work for the bass and tenor saxophone players since the band does not include an instrument like the piano or the guitar which can play simultaneously sounding chords. Here the bass player has to perform bass lines that fill the space.

The Elvin Jones Trio Performing A Night in Tunesia – Jazz Standard by Dizzy Gillespie

Elvin Jones is one of the most significant jazz drummers of all times. He became famous while playing with the John Coltrane Quartet and in some occasions he has played duets with John Coltrane, for example on the album Interstellar Space which is an entire album dedicated to this saxophone-drums duet.
In the video clip featured here, Elvin Jones is playing with a guitar player and a hammond organ player: Bireli Lagrene and Joey Defrancesco. This is a relatively unusual combination of musical instruments.
The song they perform is the well known jazz standard tune A Night in Tunesia which was originally recorded by Dizzy Gillespie and his orchestra.
This recording of the song lasts about nine minutes and of course there is enough space for soloing on all instruments. Watch how Elvin Jones beats the drums, there are very few drummers out there who play with this energy and feeling.

Trumpet Player Dizzy Gillespie Performing A Night in Tunesia in a Show from 1958

This is a video clip showing the great jazz trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie performing the song A Night in Tunesia. The drummer on this recording is Kenny Clarke.
The song earned this title after Earl Hines suggested it to Dizzy because the melody sounded exotic and because of World War II battles, Tunisia was a well-known city in the news at the time.
Dizzy Gillespie plays a trumpet with a special form which was custom-made for him because he liked the sound he perceived when playing it. There are many legends and stories about the rare form of Dizzy’s trumpet among which the story that relates it to an accidental footstep of a guy on a birthday party seems to be one of the most believeable ones.
However, the form of Dizzy’s trumpet is not the most important thing when the conversation goes about jazz musicians and trumpet players. Nobody can have doubts about the excellent skills Dizzy shows on the trumpet. I think he is the world’s best trumpet player ever, even though I know that it is difficult to ‘proove’ this but after all it’s just a matter of taste. Some people might like Miles Davis better and still others mention Arturo Sandoval or Rafael Méndez. I would say that all of these guys are fabulous trumpet players but I like Dizzy Gillespie the best. Listen to his improvisation! You decide for yourself.

Ben Webster Performing the Song Perdido along with the Oscar Peterson Trio

Watch this video clip with the great tenor saxophone player Ben Webster improvising over the chord changes of the song Perdido. Some time ago, we have posted the same song performed by another jazz legend: Sarah Vaughan, go and listen to this version too, then compare and try to find out who you like better.
The group Ben Webster is playing with here is the Oscar Peterson Trio.
Ben Webster was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He started playing the saxophone in the early 20s of the past century and learned a lot from the inmortal Coleman Hawkins. Ben Webster has played with the bands and groups of Bennie Moten, Cab Calloway, Fletcher Henderson, and many others. Ben Webster’s favourite pieces are the jazz ballads, despite his excellent performances with the Duke Ellington Orchestra where he frequently performed up-tempo compositions with great improvisations. Ben Webster passed away in 1973.
As always when we present an important tenor saxophone jazz player, we invite you to participate in our poll and vote about the most important tenor sax jazz musician.

Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society Performing Christmas Woman

Watch this music video clip with Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society performing their sond Christmas Woman on the Moers Jazz Festival (Germany) in 1994 with bandleader Ronald Shannon Jackson on the drums, Dom Richards playing the electric bass, Rob Reddy on soprano saxophone, James Carter playing the tenor saxophone and Jef Lee Johnson on electric guitar.
The Moers Jazz Festival is well known among jazz musicians and fans of avantgarde jazz music. Every year this region of Germany attracts musicians and jazz fans from all over the world and it’s efinitely worth visiting some of the concerts.
Ronald Shannon’s mother played piano and organ at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church while his father run a local record store and jukebox business. In 1966, his family moved to New York and Ronald Shannon entered New York University where he met cats like René McLean, Charles Sullivan and bass player Abdul Malik from the Thelonious Monk band.
In his carreer as a composer and soloist he has played with jazz giants including McCoy Tyner, Charles Mingus, Stanley Turrentine, Bennie Maupin, Betty Carter, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson, Kenny Dorham, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ray Bryant, Shirley Scott and others.
Ronald Shannon Jackson also is a recognized composer and many of his pieces have been performed by european and other concert music orchestras. And of course, Ronald Shannon Jackson is giving classes and has helped many now important jazz musicians to start their musical career.