18. Sarah Vaughan - At Mr. Kelly's (1957)

1. September In The Rain
2. Willow Weep For Me
3. Just One Of Those Things
4. Be Anything But Darling Be Mine
5. Thou Swell
6. Stairway To The Stars
7. Honeysuckle Rose
8. Just A Gigolo
9. How High The Moon
10. Dream
11. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
12. It's Got To Be Love
13. Alone
14. If This Isn't Love
15. Embraceable You
16. Lucky In Love
17. Dancing In The Dark
18. Poor Butterfly
19. Sometimes I'm Happy
20. I Cover The Waterfront


The vocal jazz albums march on! Fortunately, where I expected to be bored with this album, I was instead entertained! Way to go Sarah Vaughan for being interesting! These records really are all about personality, aren't they? Because this album is live, it has a more loose and organic feeling than the structured studio recordings. The band is made up of only 3 people, which means there are no blasting trumpets or syrupy strings to dilute the mood of the album. This makes the album quite a bit more enjoyable because there isn't any overbearing orchestration to distract us from Sarah, who manages to fulfill the quite daunting task of carrying this double album entirely by herself.

The material is the same tried tested and true material from the Great American Songbook, but they're made interesting by Sarah Vaughan's singing skill, and just as frequently, her mistakes. She has no idea what the lyrics to 'How High the Moon' are, but that doesn't stop her from singing it in the style of Ella Fitzgerald (that is, saying absolutely nothing). These 'mistakes', along with the between song banter, actually manages to evoke being in a late night club in the 50s. Thankfully, this was the era before any asshole with enough Bud Light could shout "FREEEEEEEBIIIIIIIIIIIRD!" and ruin your audio recording forever.

I enjoyed this album a lot more than I thought I would, especially since it's the longest one I've listened to yet. This practically felt like a single album! 8/10

17. Ramblin' Jack Elliot - Jack Takes The Floor (1958)

1. San Francisco Bay Blues
2. Ol' Riley
3. Boll Weevil
4. Bed Bug Blues
5. New York Town
6. Old Blue
7. Grey Goose
8. Mule Skinner Blues
9. East Texas Talking Blues
10. Cocaine
11. Dink's Song
12. Black Baby
13. Salty Dog


After all the complaining I did about authenticity in the last review, it's rather funny that the very next album is about as authentic as it gets. It's hard to get more authentic than a guy with his guitar, and some pretty lousy recording quality. Sadly, lo-fi was not the hip swingin' sound of 1958. In fact, almost nobody remembers that this album exists anymore, so it's rather hard to find any information on it that isn't another person doing the 1001 album trek.

Despite all of that, the album is pretty awesome. It's a bunch of old folk songs that sound like they're a hundred years old. He explains the origins of each song in a spoken intro, which adds to the whole experience. He even drags in Woody Guthrie on 'New York Town' just to show off how hardcore his folk cred was. It's a neat collection of songs, ranging from bizarre humorous stories to depressing prison blues. A lot like Tragic Songs of Life, but not quite as many murders. Pity.

Oh, and did I mention that this guy was a big influence on Bob Dylan? Apparently if you have something even slightly approaching a normal voice in folk music, you'll never become famous. 8/10

16. Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin (1958)

1. I'm a Fool to Want You
2. For Heaven's Sake
3. You Don't Know What Love Is
4. I Get Along Without You Very Well
5. For All We Know
6. Violets for Your Furs
7. You've Changed
8. It's Easy to Remember
9. But Beautiful
10. Glad to Be Unhappy
11. I'll Be Around
12. The End of a Love Affair


This album seems to have one hell of a divided opinion about it amongst the critical crowd. Of course, when you release something so polarizing it's not exactly a surprise. Basically, Billie Holiday's voice was shot to hell by 1958 due to smoking and heroin and all that fun stuff. I assume this album was recorded with the same sort of career boosting methods that had resulted in Frank Sinatra's 1950s comeback, but the problem is that Billie Holiday sounds like an 80 year old with cancer, despite that fact that she was only 42 when she recorded for this album. Unnerving stuff.

This album was most likely an attempt to emulate 'In The Wee Small Hours', even reprising a few of that record's songs, but while Frank Sinatra was able to evoke a wide range of emotions on that album, Holiday can scarcely sing. While some argue that since this album is made up of depressing material, her destroyed voice lends a certain authenticity to the whole affair, I've never thought that any perceived authenticity immediately makes an album good. After all, I follow the pop charts, and if I judged my music in that way I'd only listen to field recordings. As hauntingly 'authentic' as this album is, I didn't really enjoy it much. The fact that her voice had gone so much made this album feel unpleasantly voyeuristic. I suppose I should give points because of how unsettling it is, but frankly there are a lot more unsettling things in music now. 6/10

15. Tito Puente - Dance Mania (1958)

1. El Cayuco
2. Complicación
3. 3-D Mambo
4. Llego Mijan
5. Cuando Te Vea
6. Hong Kong Mambo
7. Mambo Gozón
8. Mi Chiquita Quiere Bembe
9. Varsity Drag {Mambo)
10. Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti
11. Agua Limpia Todo
12. Saca Tu Mujer

This album title could've used an exclamation point. I suppose Dance Mania is an alright album title, but I'm sure sales would've been even greater were it called Dance Mania! I certainly would've bought it (not that I have a choice, following this list as I am).

This album is certainly exuberant enough to merit such punctuation. It brings to mind Louis Prima, but Spanish and not quite as overbearing. This is music to mambo furiously by, and to do anything else is a disservice!

I must confess, I'm really at a loss for words here. The extent of my knowledge of Tito Puente was that he made a guest appearance on The Simpsons once. Apparently he's one hell of a timbales player, and that much is evident on the neat percussion breaks that pop up every once in a while. Overall, this album isn't really that distinct from all the other cheesy dance/Latin jazz albums I've already reviewed. They're lots of fun to listen to and dance around the room all acting like I'm not white and have dancing ability, but when it comes to talking about the album afterward, it all seems to blend together. If you're ever having a mambo themed party, however... 6/10

14. Little Richard - Here's Little Richard (1957)

1. Tutti Frutti
2. True Fine Mama
3. Can't Believe You Wanna Leave
4. Ready Teddy
5. Baby
6. Slippin' And Slidin'
7. Long Tall Sally
8. Miss Ann
9. Oh Why
10. Rip It Up
11. Jenny Jenny
12. She's Got It

After 5 jazz albums in a row, it's nice to have another rock album on the list. Even better, it's probably the best rock album so far! It actually rocks! You'd think they'd have thought of that by then!

Fundamentally, this album isn't much different from the Fats Domino album from earlier. Same sort of piano-driven R&B with plenty of sax solos! The main difference is that Fats Domino sort of lazily meanders his way through his songs (well, you would too if your name was Fats!) while Little Richard screams and shouts his way through these songs at a frantic pace truly worthy of the name 'rock 'n' roll'. While Chuck Berry left his mark on the new genre by redefining the role of the electric guitar, Little Richard brought the fire and fury. Almost all of the songs here move along at a breakneck pace, and nobody at the time could scream like he did. People still have trouble nowadays! It goes without saying that pretty much every harder form of rock has its roots in this guy.

The album itself? About the same as any other pre-Beatles rock LP. Normally, I like a little diversity, but the two tracks that stray furthest from the formula ('Can't Believe You Wanna Leave' and 'Oh Why?', both melodramatic slower numbers) are the worst tracks on the album! It's sort of like AC/DC. You know full well that their careers have had the musical diversity of a glacier, but on the other hand they get so much leverage out of the same ol' blues progressions and rote formula that you wouldn't have it any other way. That is, until I manage to find the lost Little Richard psychedelic album. Far out!

The entire album is more or less carried by his voice. The music and lyrics are both fairly pedestrian, but his incredibly animated singing is something to behold. Elvis' version of 'Tutti Frutti' seems like even more of an embarrassment compared to the hot fire of the original. The speed and energy with which he spits out the lyrics of 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Ready Teddy' could knock any bland white rocker on their ass, and it did (I'm looking at you, Pat Boone!).

Oh, also 'Tutti Frutti' was originally about anal sex. 8/10

13. Machito - Kenya (1957)

1. Wild Jungle
2. Congo Mulence
3. Kenya
4. Oyeme
5. Holiday
6. Cannonology
7. Frenzy
8. Blues A La Machito
9. Conversation
10. Tin Tin Deo
11. Minor Rama
12. Tururato

Afro-Cuban jazz returns yet again to haunt us on this album! This album seems to fit in the category of exotica, which was a set of jazzy lounge music meant to evoke faraway locales such as the beaches of the Pacific islands, or perhaps the jungles of "darkest Africa" like this album.Of course, these albums usually had very little to do with the actual music coming from those countries, and more to do with what white people thought they sounded like, but that's actually part of the charm!

This album is a sort of blend of swing music with a bit of Latin flair and African rhythms (read: lots and lots of congas). Unlike Palo Congo, reviewed earlier on this list, this album is rather conventional, focusing more on the jazzy arrangements than the frenzied spiritual rituals of the former. While I found the Santeria rituals (or whatever they are) to be a bit tiring, on this album I found the arrangements also a bit much (there's just no pleasing some people!). While the album starts off strong with such great frantic numbers like 'Wild Jungle' and 'Congo Mulence', it tends to drag in the middle as the songs get a bit slower. And by that part of the album, you've more or less gotten the point. I seem to have a talent for finding monotony in even the most fascinating of music! 7/10

12. Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool (1957)

1. Move
2. Jeru
3. Moon Dreams
4. Venus De Milo
5. Budo
6. Deception
7. Godchild
8. Boplicity
9. Rocker
10. Israel
11. Rouge
12. Darn That Dream

Jazz Week continues on Bass Odyssey! Seriously, it sure was nice of them to stick all these jazz albums in a row like this! Now I'm twice as insufferable as I once was!

In a shocking twist, I was actually pretty disappointed by this album. I had listened to Miles' jazz fusion records and much enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to this album. After I enjoyed the complexity of Brilliant Corners and was intrigued by the weirdness of Palo Congo, I was hoping for another peculiar, innovative masterpiece. However, this album felt very plain to me. It was an enjoyable listen, sure, but apart from a few moments nothing really commanded my attention the way the last couple of albums did. Upon further research, the reason for this is that the songs were recorded in 1949 and 1950, and then released years later. So, in a manner of speaking, this is a compilation album. Come on now,. you can't go around sticking compilation albums in this list! I'd expect this from Rolling Stone, but not from this book! Buckets of shame all around.

This album, in apparently yet another stunningly literal title, heralded the dawn of 'cool jazz', which is sort of like bebop but with more structured arrangements. And true to its name, it is a remarkably cool album. Sunglasses, smoke filled rooms, all that junk. The careful, more classical inspired arrangements make the tracks nice to listen to, but this honestly seemed a lot more like background music. All of the songs are relatively short, bite-sized jazz pieces and while they all sounded good, none of them really made a significant impression on me. This is the sort of album I suspect I'd have to listen to multiple times to truly 'get'. This is made even more annoying by the typical lavish praise thrust upon this album from all sides. Much like Elvis, I just don't really get what the fuss is all about! It's a bit better than that album, fortunately. That is, except for 'Darn That Dream', a vocal number that they decided to tack on the end of an instrumental jazz album for some stupid reason.

Well, they can't all be zingers, I guess. 6.5/10