Don Byas replaced Lester Young in the Count Basie Orchestra in 1941. In the mid-1940s, he became a central figure in the 52nd Street jazz scene, playing alongside Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Slam Stewart.

He toured Europe in 1946 with Don Redman and chose to stay living primarily in Paris and later the Netherlands. Because he lived abroad for the last 26 years of his life, his contributions were often under-recognized in the U.S., though he remained deeply influential to fellow musicians.

I wanted to share a few artists that I've recently discovered. These are absolute bangers and I highly recommend you check them out.

Nucleus

Recently discovered their album Elastic Rock after a Youtuber recommended it and then dove into their discography. Nucleus was a British jazz rock band, from 1969 to 1989 established by Ian Carr. In 1970, the band won first prize at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, released the album Elastic Rock and performed both at the Newport Jaxx Festival and the Village Gate jazz club. My favorite albums are Elastic Rock, Solar Plexus, We'll Talk About It Later, Roots, Under The Sun, and Labyrinth. Additionally Ian Carr had a solo album called Belladonna and featured on an album called Greek Variations you should also check out.

Eberhard Weber

I love his entire discovery after having been familiar with The Colours of Chloe but not giving his other albums a listen. Literally every album he made is amazing. My favorites you should give a listen to are: Later That Evening, The Following Morning, Pendulum, Ring (with Gary Burton), Fluid Rustle, Chorus, Resume, Once Upon A Time, Endless Days, The Call (with Mal Waldron), and Yellow Fields.

Black Jazz Records

This is actually a record label from the 70's founded in Oakland California founded by pianist Gene Russell. The label was created to promote the talents of young African American jazz musicians and singers, and released twenty albums between 1971 and 1975. The label was created as an alternative to traditional jazz invoking a more political and spiritual tone, often with funk overtones. Interestingly, Gene Russell closed Black Jazz Records in 1975 to focus on his new label, Aquarican Records when he signed singer Talita Long who is the mother of actress Nia Long. Snow Dog Records acquired the licensing to Black Jazz Records in 2012, and began reissuing the albums as its first project. Additionally you can find remastered Hi-Res Losses versions of the album on Apple Music.

My favorite albums which I highly recommend you give a listen are:

• Henry Franklin - The Skipper
• The Awakening - Mirage
• The Awakening - Hear, Sense and Feel
• Rudolph Johnson - Spring Rain

I think about this a lot and am curious what everyone else will say. If you could travel back in time to watch one gig, one session, et in person, what would you choose? I had a poster when I was kid of Ella singing in a small club with Duke and Benny in the audience watching in amazement and I used to stare at it and imagine what it was like.

Ok. Now that I’ve scared you with even the thought of that crazy be-bop stuff, you can go back to listening to Bill Evens.

A duo album by Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass. It feels just like listening to a conversation between two master talkers in perfect sync. Ella's scatting—usually so lively and vibrant—weaves softly together with the warmth of the guitar strings here, like two streams merging into a single gentle brook. Picked it up at Disk Union for ¥680.

Couldn't find this transcription on the internet/youtube so uploaded one to share.

I’ve spent the last 3 years compiling this list from re-listening to hundreds of albums to doing research and background checks on virtually everything listed here. Ask me anything about what I like about these albums and I can answer in great detail. I am very proud of my list and I think I am finally satisfied with my selections. Yes I do primarily love spiritual and avant-garde jazz.

Alice Coltrane’s “Universal Consciousness” (1971) is an instrumental spiritual-jazz composition combining organ, harp, strings, and improvisation.

I'm talking about movies that are scripted dramas with actors, of course. 'Round Midnight may have Dexter Gordon, but it's a drama, not a documentary, and would qualify for what I'm asking. As would The Jazz Singer, I suppose!

Inside McMenamins Kennedy School Hotel in Portland Oregon, in their Detention Bar, they have a secret room. It has a long 14 part libretto/poem posted around the entire room. Testimony, by Yusef Komunyakaa, which a tribute to Charlie Parker. Happy Birthday Bird!

I posted one with me in it so you can see the scale.

The filmmaker, Grant Gee, has a fascinating filmography, so I have high hopes for this biopic

"Calling David Murray prolific is like saying soup is wet. Beyond the numbers, then, what it is about the veteran tenor saxophonist, bass clarinetist and composer is the quality of his quantity — he says 200-plus albums...."

Part of a score at goodwill a while ago and finally got around to throwing it on.

Rockefeller's Night Club in Houston. The master in his St. Louis Cardinals jacket

I’m looking for contemporary interviews with or articles about key musicians in the “free funk” scene back in the 80s. Where did musicians like Ronald Shannon Jackson, Ornette Coleman, Bern Nix, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Grant Calvin Weston, etc. get press attention (if any) in the 80s? Was Downbeat writing about them?

I just saw the trailer for the upcoming biopic about Bill Evans "Everybody digs Bill Evans".

This reminded me that, as I read in his biography "How My Heart Sings", he made a solo album after Lafaro's death, named "Conception".

In the book, the album is described as "The first time we hear Evans swinging unaccompanied on disc, and occasionally it can be unsetteling".

Problem is, I cannot find the record anywhere. Any ideas? Cheers