Advantages: trendy
Disadvantages: expemsive

...The Jazz Bar Previously the Jazz Bar, now called the slightly more trendy Bar Monaco. This bar is situated on the newly developed (with regards to night life) Albert Dock just outside the main Liverpool city centre. The Albert Dock is certainly the most trendy place currently to be seen on a night out in Liverpool, but unlike the more trendy Blue Bar and its private members club the Baby Blue, the Monaco goes for a rather different approach. There are jazz nights during the week, but these are not really frequented by the youth, they are aimed more at the older people. Not as trendy as the Blue, but just as expensive.... Read review

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Advantages: It's Miles Davis at his best
Disadvantages: Not long enough?

...The blurb on the back of this CD claims that K.O.B. is a “defining moment of 20th century music”… and they’re damn right it is. The Sony Music 1997 version has 5 tracks on it ( 6 actually, but the extra is an alternative version of the Flamenco Sketches – Trk. 5) – and they are 5 of the most amazing jazz pieces in history. The way Miles Davis’ trumpet, John Coltrane’s tenor sax, and Julian Adderley, smooth together is an amazing feat of improvisation – that can never be repeated –ever. This is why every one should have this album. If you only have one jazz album – have this masterpiece. It is hard to explain how well it works – but the musicians pick up a general riff , and improvise around it. The result is classic stuff. It begins with possibly the most famous jazz pieces – “So What” , and goes on to a more harsh “Freddie... Read review

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Advantages: Cost - Design
Disadvantages: Weight

...Fender, of Arizona, USA, are famous for making stringed instruments, most famous for their electric guitars, including the Stratocaster and Telecaster. Leo Fender also designed one of the most, if not the first, commercially successful solid-body electric bass, which is now standard in rock, jazz, country, funk, and all other types of popular music. Fender also make acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, and violins, as well as amplifiers and PA equipment. The company began as Fender's Radio Service in late 1938 in Fullerton, California. Leo Fender was an electronics technician who repaired radios, phonograph players, home audio amplifiers, public address systems and musical instrument amplifiers. In the 1940s, he started a partnership with Clayton Orr (Doc) Kauffman, and they formed a company named K & F Manufacturing Corp. to design... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic
Disadvantages: There are none

...A History of Jazz just has got to be one of the most comprehensive programmes on the history of jazz that I have ever come across. It is subtitled Bluesland A portrait In American Music. It shows the very heavy Blues influence on the original forms of jazz. The first section is called: Everybody got the Blues. It starts with a haunting Blues refrain, as the camera look along some railroad tracks to some plaintive blues music. The camera then shows some typical scenes of life in the south of America. A steam train, black people working on the farms and playing and singing the blues. Then, comes the introduction to the programme, proper, by the host, Keith David, with Albert Murray and Robert Palmer. Keith David points out that everyone gets the blues, and that everyone develops methods of coping with the blues. His favourite method... Read review

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Advantages: Outstanding music from outstanding musicians
Disadvantages: None

...In Kind of Blue, Miles Davis created a timeless album which epitomised the period of 'cool jazz' between bebop and fusion. The personnel list is impressive - Cannonball Adderly on alto and Coltrane on tenor were also in extremely productive periods at the time, and their solos on Kind of Blue, especially the two alternate Flamenco Sketches takes, are great examples of their styles, which both contrast and complement the other's. Although "So What" is remembered as the highlight of the album by most, I think Freddie Freeloader and Blue in Green are the outstanding tracks. The decision to use his new pianist Wynton Kelly instead of Bill Evans on Freddie Freeloader was inspired - Kelly's solo is sublime. This wasn't my introduction to jazz, but it was the album which sold the genre to me. Miles, forever the innovator, later said he couldn... Read review

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Advantages: Great jazz tunes from the Golden Age
Disadvantages: None

...This is real jazz, from the real Golden Age of Jazz. It's got the pace, the rhythm, the fluid trumpet playing, the relentlessly enthusiastic, rolling piano playing and the clear diction of some excellent singing of vocalists who could not only hold a tune, but who could capture your heart and soul, too… There's musicians with such great names as Muggsy Spanier, Meade Lux Lewis, King Oliver and Sidney Bechet. You do not get musicians called Muggsy nowadays. I wonder why? As well as straight out jazz such as the Dippermouth blues, there's also the dreamy and melodic April in Paris from Charlie Parker. Some jazz aficionados reckon that Charlie Parker eventually sold out. Well, perhaps he did. But some of his earlier work still stands the test of time. Jack Teagarden is on this CD, with So Many Times, a rather nice, well... Read review

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Advantages: Good
Disadvantages: Bad

...Kind of Blue isn't merely an artistic highlight for Miles Davis, a musician with more than his fair share of artistic highlights. It's an album that towers above its peers, a record generally considered as the definitive jazz album. Or, to be reductive, it's the Citizen Kane of jazz — a commonly accepted work of greatness that was not only innovative but also entertaining, somehow remaining fresh and filled with surprises decades after its original release. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the greatest jazz album ever made, bar none, but it certainly is a universally acknowledged standard of excellence. Even more than that, it's the kind of record that remains enchanting to those that have heard it hundreds of times, just as it will turn jazz neophytes into converts. Why — or how — does Kind of Blue posses such a mystique? Probably... Read review

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Advantages: Good Music
Disadvantages: None

...An interesting album of jazz tracks that grips you from the very first moment. The band are from New York and have recently made it onto the scene in the last few years. Some tracks are better than others. I would recommend this album as an easy listening record. It's something you can relax to in the evening. Sex Mob are a jazz quartet led by trumpeter Steven Bernstein. They are very talented musicians and I would highly recommend this album. Track listing: Pygmy Suite; Martin Denny; Exotique; Livin Blume; Quiet; Oakland; Dick Contino's Blues; Kid Rock Deluxe; 7 Bars. Sex Mob are a jazz quartet led by trumpeter Steven Bernstein. They are very talented musicians and I would highly recommend this album. £11.99 at Amazon... Read review

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Advantages: Great atmosphere
Disadvantages: Concerts are expensive

...The Montreux Jazz Festival takes place every year in July/August in Montreux, on the shore of Lake Geneva. In despite of its name, the music does not only cover jazz acts, but also latin, world music, pop and rock. Each night has a theme such as Brazilian night, Blues Old Timers, African night, etc. Performers have included BB King, Manu Dibango, Miles Davis, Michel Petrucciani, and many other big names. The festival takes place at the Montreux Casino, situated right on the quay by the Geneva Lake. The atmosphere in Montreux during the festival is great, with street performers, food stall, buskers. The downsides of the festival are the following : Concerts can be really expensive, up to CHF 120 (£50) for one night. Some concerts can start quite late, around midnight, not ideal for early birds!... Read review

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Advantages: The beautiful title track
Disadvantages: None

...vocal performance. We Need you was written by Deke Richards whose most famous work for Diana Ross was the U.K chart-topping, I'm Still Waiting in 1971. Also of great musical merit was the pleasant, mid-tempo Leave A Little Room where Diana glides through the verses and is joined by a gospel choir on the chrous which merley adds to its dramatic effect. Diana surprisingly makes her version of The Carpenters, I Won't Last A Day Without You her own but it's the latter half of the album that displays a lot of true artistic flair. Perharps holding onto Lady Sings The Blues in some way, Diana delivers two Jazz/Blues numbers that are both stunningly atmospheric. Her performance on Little Girl Blue is dreamy and rich whilst the mood deepens and steadily more sombre on the haunting, My Baby (My Own). Her striking, lower throat register performance... Read review

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