1961 Bill Evans - Sunday at the Village Vanguard

'Waltz for Debby'

Info: William John Evans, or Bill Evans, as he was commonly known, was born on 16th of August, 1929 in New Jersey to a Welsh father and Ukrainian mother, and died in September, 1980. Evans was a classically trained pianist and from the ages of 6-13 he would only play classical music scores, citing Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven as his preferences. In his early career he generally operated as part of a trio, and rejected the new waves in jazz such as free-form and jazz fusion. In 1958 he joined Miles Davis' sextet, which he heavily influenced, and was a key member of the band when they recorded Kind of Blue, the biggest selling jazz album of all time. Evans left Miles Davis' group in late 1959 and went on to record no less than 10 critically acclaimed albums over the next 4 years, an immense output, starting with Everybody Digs Bill Evans in 1959 to Conversations With Myself in 1963. In 1961 Evans released Sunday At The Village Vanguard, followed shortly after by Waltz For Debby, a track from which I've featured in the video above, purely because there are no performed videos of any of the songs on this album available at present that I can find. Inevitable success was unfortunately followed by tragedy, as both Evans' long-term girlfriend, Elaine, and his brother, Harry, committed suicide, leading to him succumbing to both cocaine and heroin addictions, which would eventually get the better of him and lead him to his early death in 1980. 

Track Listing:

1. Gloria's Step

2. My Man's Gone Now

3. Solar

4. Alice In Wonderland

5. All of You

6. Jade Visions

1960 Wes Montgomery - The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery

Info: John Lesley 'Wes' Montgomery was born in March, 1923 in Indianapolis, Indiana, into a family of musicians, his brothers Monk and Buddy both played jazz and recorded a number of albums as The Montgomery Brothers. Although he played a four-string tenor guitar at the age of twelve, it wasn't until his late 20's that he began playing a six string, learning from radio recordings of his idol, guitar player, Charlie Christian. As he developed he became one of the great modern jazz guitarists, and many outside the genre cited him as a huge influence on them, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Joe Satriani. Amongst his contemporaries he was also held in equally high esteem, and played and recorded with Cannonball Adderley and Jimmy Smith, and was also asked by Thelonius Monk to join his band after a jamming session, which he forewent to continue with the Montgomery Band. Purists favour his early works up to the mid 1960's, following which his sound became for popular and commercially very successfully as he reached a wider audience between 1965-1968. Tragically, on 15th June, 1968, he awoke one morning and told his wife that he felt quite ill, before collapsing and dying of a heart attack in his hometown of Indianapolis, aged just 45. The above album, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, is #5 for 1960 on www.rateyourmusic.com, and my preferred tracks would be opener 'Airegin' and the above video track, 'Four on Six'.

Track Listing:

1. Airegin

2. D-Natural Blues

3. Polka Dots & Moonbeams

4. Four on Six

5. West Coast Blues

6. In Your Own Sweet Way

7. Mr. Walker

8. Gone With The Wind 

Jake Bugg - Jake Bugg (2012)

Bugg on BBC Radio Nottingham, The Beat performing 3 songs (which amazingly didn't make his debut album)

Later With Jools Holland, 'Country Song', May, 2012

Info: I first came across Jake Bugg only last week in an interview in The Times admittedly with a good deal of cynicism as is my wont. Even though the interviewer wasn't spewing the usual fervent praise and whipping up hysteria over 'the next big thing' ageism got the better of me and I found it hard not to see 18 year old Bugg as the latest record label boss' wet dream. My guard had come down slightly by the end of the interview as he came across as quite down to earth and likeable, when talking about his friends he shakes his head and says; "They're out every Friday and Saturday night (clubbing) and it's always the same, I'd rather be sat at home, listening to Marvin with a couple of cans." From the Clifton Estate in Nottingham, where he still lives with his parents, he began playing in pubs when he was 15, and shortly afterwards, in 2010, uploaded some of his songs onto the BBC website, which landed him a gig at Glastonbury, the first time he'd even been to a festival. More recently he opened for The Stone Roses at a secret gig in London, is currently supporting Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds on their American tour, and can count Damon Albarn among his admirers, at least Noel and Damon agree on something, that at only 18, Bugg has already shown considerable talent for his age. He has said he is largely disinterested in modern music and his favourite artists are Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Don McClean, & Donovan. The influence of the folk singers is certainly very evident in a lot of his songs, but he does also slide into rock music on songs such as current single Taste It and Lightning Bolt, which mixes both genres nicely. While much of his lyrics are very innocent and some rhyming quite simplistic, it's also in some ways refreshing, it's nice to be able to enjoy an album without dissecting every line and lyric and appreciate it for what it is, a very young man's solid debut album. I expect a very bright future for Jake Bugg, but also hope he manages to develop his song-writing as independently as possible and doesn't end up like so many promising young artists before, releasing bland records after a talented first release. Finally, I thought I'd add one more video, it's for the song Broken, to be honest I found it hard to narrow down the videos because there are some excellent live performances, anyway, hope you enjoy.

'Broken'

Track listing:

1. Lightning Bolt**

2. Two Fingers

3. Taste It**

4. Seen It All

5. Simple As This

6. Country Song**

7. Broken

8. Trouble Town**

9. Ballad of Mr.Jones

10. Slide

11. Someone Told Me

12. Note to Self

13. Someplace

14. Fire

** Current Singles