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[yourjazzfriend]

New find. I especially like the percussion in this piece. I’m always a huge fan of soft drumming and more pensive pieces like this. The trumpet parts have a really great aesthetic and the player does some pretty neat things with the instrument that may or may not be electronic effects. To top it all off the bass is mixed just right and has the right amount of punch.

[yourjazzfriend]

Live Today by Derrick Hodge ft Common

Spotify Link for those outside the US

I love when hiphop and jazz intersect. I’ll be doing a whole series on this but for now here’s a great collaboration between Derrick Hodge and Common that I’ve been digging today.

Derrick Hodge is a really great new artist and one of the ones I consider to be pushing the genre forward. If you like this check out the rest of his discography... especially Live Today and The Second. You won’t be disappointed.

[yourjazzfriend]

CTI in the 70s: Red Clay

The 70s was a really interesting time for Jazz. To some it represents a dead time after many artists’ branching into fusion and incorporating rock techniques and technologies “ruined” the genre. To the open-minded listener, it represents a time where artists really began to reap the rewards from the turbulence and change caused by albums like Miles Davis’ Bitches’ Brew in a more accessible way.

Red Clay by Freddie Hubbard was released in 1970, is the first jazz recording that really got me into the jazz, and one of my favorites. The energy in this piece is amazing, and I consider it the highlight of Hubbard’s career. It shows that a jazz group can take influences from funk and rock and still play some nice hard bop.

The piece is oozing with the kind of cool, controlled, deft playing you’d hear in bop recordings with modern (for its time) production. The soft warm overall tone and light touch of reverb really give it a feel of being in a dark bar with neon lights glowing outside.

This was Hubbard’s first album on the CTI record label. A lot of CTI’s recordings from this time strive for the same simultaneously warm-and-cool aesthetic as Red Clay. For the opening series of this blog we will explore these recordings and enjoy some truly awesome jazz.

Thank you for reading!

-Your Jazz Friend