It’s been ages since I blogged a link to a jazz video on YouTube. I did it for a while, but I stopped when it began to feel more like work than just a fun thing to share. In any event, here’s a video I’ve enjoyed enough that I thought it was worth sharing: The Modern Jazz Quartet with classical guitarist Laurindo Almeida playing Jobim’s “One Note Samba”.
If you like the clip, the album to buy is Collaboration by the Modern Jazz Quartet with Laurindo Almeida, which includes a pretty similar performance of One Note Samba. If you want more general recommendations of work by the MJQ, I recommend starting with The 1960 European Concert, which is wonderful. But really, pretty much all of MJQ’s stuff is good: Milt Jackson was an endlessly inventive blues player on vibes, and John Lewis was always interesting and thoughtful on piano.
IAdmitIAmCrazy says:
Grande Laurindo!
Thank you so much, Orin! What a wonderful glimpse into the vast musicality of a country that for good reason claims: “Deus é Brasileiro” (God is Brazilian), not really an exaggeration in musical terms. It is a pity that only from time to time a larger audience gets to know Brazilian music and its protagonists like the late Tom Jobim and Baden Powell or Mauricio Einhorn and Sebastião Tapajós, not to speak of the others who refuse to be squared into a particular style box.
I hope that the fun will return and you’ll blog more music again!
August 31, 2010, 2:00 amdearieme says:
Wonderful find! Many thanks from a first-time-round MJQ fan.
August 31, 2010, 3:59 amBT says:
Great stuff thanks. For a second when the piano player came in it was so delicate that I thought it was Ahmad Jamal.
August 31, 2010, 6:47 amAnon321 says:
I’d also add that The Last Concert is a classic album — one of my all-time favorites, really — and a great introduction to MJQ’s work.
August 31, 2010, 7:58 amTiberius Gracchus says:
One good source for jazz recordings and video is True Blue Music.
August 31, 2010, 9:25 amDebrah says:
Great clip.
However, the real gem was the intro given by the guy who lamented the “maltreatment” given the guitar.
Well….one could say that at the time of his comments, he had yet to see what was to come!
In keeping with a “strings” theme, electric violinist Jean-Luc Ponty is magical.
Renaissance has always been a staple of his repertoire.
I have to listen to this one each morning.
It takes you into the stratosphere!
August 31, 2010, 9:57 amCarl The EconGuy says:
Great stuff, thank you. And I think you will enjoy these two as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKd3N2bvLwY&feature=related
that’s Take Five on accoustic guitar, absolutely awsome.
and this one is so much fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcsSPzr7ays
August 31, 2010, 11:55 amdearieme says:
@Carl – good stuff, sir, good stuff.
August 31, 2010, 1:36 pmr gould-saltman says:
Carlos Barbosa-Lima’s reading on “Carioca” is wonderful, seemingly more relaxed, and Eliane Elias’ surprisingly dark vocal version also is pretty killer.
August 31, 2010, 2:07 pmKeith says:
Pshaw, the modern teenager needs to know at least four chords to play any decent song.
August 31, 2010, 2:52 pmManuel Antonio Torres says:
“IN the beginning G-d created the Heaven and the Earth.” IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was G-d.” And the great Sound (Wave) came thru the cosmos and materialized in a special way in Brazil in the lovely harmonies of a guitar as performed by Laurindo Almeida. I second an aforementioned statement in this blog that “Deus e Brazilian”, and also our true friend to all musicians and in a speial way guitarrists like Laurindo, C. Parkening, John Williams and many others worlwide. “He who knows the Wave knows the Secret” Dr. W. Russell. Thank you for the video. Muchas Gracias. Manuel (San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico)
September 1, 2010, 7:52 am