Rudy Van Gelder

1 month ago | trackingangle.com | Rudy Van Gelder |Matthew Lutthans |Morgan Enos

SHORT OF ONE PROHIBITIVELY RARE, EXPENSIVE PRESSING, THIS IS THE WAY TO HEAR ITIn Greenwich Village, directly across from The Red Lion on Bleecker Street, an unremarkable mixed-use building conceals an extraordinary legacy. From 1964 to 1970, the basement of the defunct Garrick Theatre housed the Café Au Go Go — a pivotal New York club that welcomed legends ranging from Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King to the Grateful Dead.

Sep 5, 2024 | trackingangle.com | Rudy Van Gelder |Kevin Gray |Michael Fremer

And a new "Blue Note"-y cover While this is admittedly a simplification, Tone Poet Blue Note releases come in a few basic musical flavors: the "must have" ones that even non-jazz fans know by name, the great ones that when originally released couldn't find an audience but now are more popular and well-appreciated than ever, the head scratcher delayed release ones that have fans wondering how and why the label didn't issue them when originally recorded, and finally the delayed release ones...

Feb 24, 2024 | trackingangle.com | Rudy Van Gelder |Ryan Smith |Michael Fremer

squeezing from the tapes every last drop of sonic goodnessIf the task is to compare five releases of an album, which it is here, at least it should be an album worth repeated listenings, and of course Ballads is, though it's not up there with Coltrane's greatest recorded achievements. It can't be beat as a Coltrane intro record for non-jazz fans who need the melody.

Feb 4, 2024 | trackingangle.com | Rudy Van Gelder |Kevin L. Reeves |Michael Fremer

what's with those grooves? In a recently published New York Times piece titled "The Worst Masterpiece: 'Rhapsody In Blue at 100" the pianist/composer Ethan Iverson pilloried the popular Gershwin piece as "naïve and corny"—and those were among the nicer things he wrote about it.

Sep 12, 2023 | trackingangle.com | Rudy Van Gelder |Kevin Gray |Michael Fremer

with Blue Mitchell, Grant Green, John Patton and Ben DixonWhy saxophonist Harold Vick's Blue Note debut as bandleader was also his last, isn't clear. It certainly couldn't have been because the session was a musical disappointment. Far from it! Maybe it's because the date produced an album closer to the hard charging warm up for an r&b review than what Blue Note was typically releasing in 1963. Vick had played with all here but trumpeter Blue Mitchell and all had played in or skirted the r&b scene.