Joëlle Léandre Rocks On, Freely
You ask, ‘Why’?” says Joëlle Léandre, 71, when asked about recording somewhere between 140 and 200 albums since 1981, with three times as many gigs … Read More “Joëlle Léandre Rocks On, Freely”
King Oliver: Oh Play That Thing! Original 1923 Recordings (Naxos, 2003)
Yes, King Oliver’s recordings introduced Louis Armstrong to the world. That alone would win them a spot on this list. But consider as well the vast number of devices—breaks, stop-time choruses, a bevy of cornet mutes for Oliver—that were startling at the time (but quickly became part of the jazz vocabulary). Jazz was already a craze when Oliver appeared in Chicago, but even its most ardent fans didn’t know it went this deep. MICHAEL J. WEST
