V.A. - Jazz Directions (2004)

This compilation is created with real care and respect for those who sent jazz music to the sky limit. Jazz Directions is a small effort for such a big music that covers trends from Cool Jazz up to Post-Bop, Fusion, Folk Jazz and Avant Garde.

Drummer Jack DeJohnette's New Directions Quartet is certainly full of talent. One of the colourful moments of this excellent album is Salsa For Eddie G.

The incredible Oceanus it’s not only sounds wonderful, but also Ralph Towner has Jan Garbarek in tenor saxophone.

Return to Forever composed this album for listeners who grew up on rock and wish to explore jazz. These listeners they will find this stimulating music quite accessible.

Right from the start, a vastly different Weather Report emerges here, one that reflects co-leader Joe Zawinul's developing obsession with the groove. It is the groove that rules this mesmerizing album, leading off with the irresistible 3/4 marathon deceptively tagged as the "Boogie Woogie Waltz" and proceeding through a variety of Latin-grounded hip-shakers.

The album Hard Work was altoist John Handy's first as a leader since 1968."Hard Work" became a surprise hit, and overall, the set is open to the influence of R&B, although there are some strong moments from Handy on both alto and tenor.

This direct-to-disk double LP is really "a cut above" than the usual Dave Brubeck recordings. Pianist Brubeck is in good form and his three sons’ rhythm section also. This recording was cut direct to disk without any tapes and because of the destruction of the initial matrix, considered one of the rarest recording nowadays.

Recorded in 1975 at the Köln Opera House and released the same year, this disc has, along with its revelatory music, some attendant cultural baggage that is unfair in one sense: Every pot-smoking and dazed and confused college kid — and a few of the more sophisticated ones in high school — owned this as one of the truly classic jazz records, along with Bitches Brew, Kind of Blue, Take Five, A Love Supreme, and something by Grover Washington Jr. Nothing on this program — so ideally suited to CD — was considered before he sat down to play. All of the gestures, intricate droning harmonies, skittering and shimmering melodic lines, and whoops and sighs from the man are spontaneous.

Tracklist

1. Jack DeJohnette New Directions - Salsa For Eddie G.
2. Ralph Towner - Oceanus
3. Return To Forever - Vulcan Worlds
4. Weather Report - Boogie Woogie Waltz
5. John Handy - Hard Work
6. The New Brubeck Quartet - Take Five
7. Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert, Excerpt From Part I

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