Muniini K. Mulera

Gerald Wilson Big Band: Moment of Truth

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicNovember 29, 20220 comments

Gerald Stanley Wilson (1918-2014) was a trumpeter, composer, arranger, educator, and big band leader. Born in Shelby, Mississippi, he spent most of his adult life in Los Angele, California. This record, which was made at the Pacific Jazz Studios, Los Angeles, in August, and ...

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers Roots and Herbs

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers: Roots & Herbs

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 20, 20220 comments

Hard Bop, Blues and Soul – all here, in this Lee Morgan Edition of the Messengers that consistently set top-tier records to tape for Blue Note. The title tune is enchanting. One imagines one sitting with a skilled medicine man in Kahondo ka Byamarembo, in ...

Free for All: The best Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers record?

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 18, 20220 comments

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers: Free for All Blue Note – BST 84170 Is this the best Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers? That’s a hard question, of course. However, to my ears, the answer is yes. Well, until I listen to other Blakey and TJM recordings by ...

Music for Intore and other African dances: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ A Night in Tunisia

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 16, 20220 comments

Jazz music, rooted in the African slave experience and its aftermath in America, is music that has maintained the link with the African American’s ancestral homeland. No instrument exemplifies this better than drums and, to my ears, Art Blakey was one of the greatest purveyors ...

The Big Beat: Art Blakey and the jazz messengers

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 15, 20220 comments

This is indispensable jazz. How can a record sound so fresh after multiple listening sessions over four decades? I first "met" Art Blakey and this edition of his jazz messengers in 1978. Full credit to George Cook Jr. of Columbus, Ohio who introduced me to Jazz in Maseru Lesotho. ...

Freedom - Kenny Burrell's hidden masterpiece

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 12, 20220 comments

FREEDOM! This swinging album led by Kenny Burrell, the great guitarist from Detroit, was first released in Japan in 1980. Recorded in 1963 & 1964 for Blue Note, the tapes sat in the vaults untouched until they were discovered 16 years later by Michael Cuscuna. (Mr. ...

Soultrane: John Coltrane & Company

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 10, 20220 comments

The date: February 17, 1958 The venue” Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, USA The company: John Coltrane tenor sax), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Art Taylor (drums) The Engineer: Rudy van Gelder The label: Prestige 7142 Re-issue: Analogue Productions Enjoyed ...

My Favourite Things include Coltrane's rendition of this classic music

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 8, 20220 comments

Whereas my top favourite record is constantly changing, John Coltrane’s rendition of My Favourite Things has permanent residence among my most favoured pieces of music. You do not have to like Jazz to enjoy this music that was made famous by Julie Andrews in Sound ...

Tenor Madness: My kind of musical therapy in a troubled world

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 8, 20220 comments

The love of great Jazz music reflects a healthy madness that is very healing in a troubled world. This Saturday evening finds me receiving the ministrations of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane on tenor, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. This ...

Mingus Ah Um/Charles Mingus: Indispensable Jazz

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicMarch 19, 20220 comments

MINGUS AH UM/Charles Mingus Columbia CS 8171 Recorded May 5-12, 1959, Columbia 30th Studio, New York City Released October 1959 My copy is a reissue by Classic Records in 1995 - 180 gm Musicians: Charles Mingus – bass, piano Horace Parlan – piano ...

Dizzy Reece, the great, underrated trumpeter, turned 91 today

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicJanuary 5, 20220 comments

To celebrate Dizzy Reece’s birthday today, I have listened to Star Bright and Soundin’ Off, two of his recordings on the Blue Note Label that are my kind of music. At 91, Dizzy Reece is one of a tiny number of surviving great musicians from the Golden Age ...

Freddie Redd Quintet’s Shades of Redd: my kind of desert island music

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicJanuary 1, 20220 comments

Freddie Redd Quintet: Shades of Redd Blue Note BLP 4045 Recorded August 13, 1960, Mono Recording Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder Released May 1961 Musicians: Freddie Redd – piano Jackie McLean – alto saxophone Tina Brooks – tenor saxophone Paul Chambers – ...

J. R. Monterose: the best tenor saxophonist you never heard

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicDecember 31, 20210 comments

My first encounter with J. R. Monterose was jaw-dropping. That was thirty years ago. Listening to him today is still jaw dropping. Bebop/hard bop, played by the masters in their young years. The rhythm section of Horace Silver (piano), Wilber Ware (bass) and “Philly” Joe ...

Gil Mellé's Patterns in Jazz: Underrated gem

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicDecember 30, 20210 comments

Underrated. Underappreciated. Underplayed. Underpromoted. These are the words that flow through my mind when I listen to Arab Barber Blues, Nice Question and other tracks on this 1956 Blue Note recording. This is swinging, enjoyable music. The rhythm section alone is worth the ...

Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers / First Flight to Tokyo:The Lost 1961 Recordings

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicDecember 11, 20210 comments

The contents of the recently discovered tapes of this January 14, 1961 concert in Tokyo Japan are now on two vinyl LPs. Released on Friday December 10, 2021, the double LP package is as one would expect. It is Art Blakey (drums) with Lee Morgan (trumpet), Wayne Shorter tenor ...

Walter Davis Jr: Davis Cup

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicDecember 8, 20210 comments

Walter Davis Jr (September 2, 1932 – June 2, 1990) was one the most underrecognized top tier jazz music pianists of the twentieth century. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he played with, among others, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Art Blakey ...

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