10 jazz recordings that have moved me - Part 1

My longtime friend Paul Hurd recently asked me to name my 10 favorite jazz picks, so here goes my first installment (i.e., the first 3). My criterion for this list: music that has moved me.

I encountered these first three performances on my list in 1969 or 1970 via the remarkable record collection of Dr. Sedrick Rawlins, jazz aficionado and father of my friend Wayne Rawlins, in Manchester, Connecticut (the title of each piece below contains a hyperlink to a YouTube video that containing the actual performance: I set up a YouTube playlist containing all of the pieces here).

1.  "'Round Midnight" from Miles Davis's Prestige (7150) album Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (the whole album, really). Performed by: Miles Davis (trumpet); John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Philly Joe Jones (drums); Red Garland (piano); and Paul Chambers (bass). I love the dark beauty of this Thelonious Monk composition and the solos of Messrs. Davis and Coltrane. Unlike the rest of this album, this particular track was recorded in 1956: note that Red Garland, not Mr. Monk, is the pianist on this recording. Ira Gilbert's very informative liner notes (including the discussion of the "alleged fisticuffs" between Miles and Monk) are available here.

2. "Bags' Groove" from Miles Davis's Prestige (7109) album of the same name. Performed by: Miles Davis (trumpet); Milt Jackson (vibraphone); Thelonious Monk (piano); Percy Heath (bass); and Kenny Clarke - drums. While I had a rough idea of what a blues progression was (courtesy of, among other things, "Albert's Shuffle" off of Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield's 1968 "Super Session"), Monk's famous piano solo in this performance schooled me to the notion that "it is possible to say a great deal with very few notes." Note that Monk does not play behind Miles's solo: Ira Gitler's liner notes state "This is the session where Miles asked Monk to lay out during his (Miles) choruses."

3. "If I Were a Bell" from Miles Davis's Prestige (7129) album Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet. Performed by: Miles Davis (trumpet); John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Philly Joe Jones (drums); Red Garland (piano); and Paul Chambers (bass). This one's here because Red Garland is one of my piano heroes: his solo (begins at about 4:30 of the video) really swings. At about 6:19, he starts playing block chords.

More later!