Art Taylor – Taylor’s Wailers (1957) [Analogue Productions 2012]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 Mono > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 40:49 minutes | Scans included | 1,65 GB
or DSD64 Mono (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Basic Scans included | 1,62 GB
or FLAC 2.0 (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Basic Scans included | 897 MB
Taylor’s Wailers is the debut album by drummer Art Taylor, released in 1957 on Prestige. It features tracks recorded mainly on February 25, 1957 plus a track from a different session featuring John Coltrane.
Five of the six selections on this reissue feature drummer Art Taylor in an all-star sextet of mostly young players comprised of trumpeter Donald Byrd, altoist Jackie McLean, Charlie Rouse on tenor, pianist Ray Bryant, and bassist Wendell Marshall. Among the highpoints of the 1957 hard bop date are the original version of Bryant’s popular “Cubano Chant” and strong renditions of two Thelonious Monk tunes (“Off Minor” and “Well, You Needn’t”) cut just prior to the pianist/composer’s discovery by the jazz public. Bryant is the most mature of the soloists, but the three horn players were already starting to develop their own highly individual sounds. The remaining track (a version of Jimmy Heath’s “C.T.A.”) is played by the quartet of Taylor, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, and bassist Paul Chambers and is a leftover (although a good one) from another session.
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Art Taylor – A.T.’s Delight (1960) [APO Remaster 2009]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 36:56 minutes | Scans included | 1,56 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 783 MB
Although Art Taylor was one of the busiest modern second-generation jazz drummers, working in the studio with Coleman Hawkins, Donald Byrd, John Coltrane and many others, he only released five albums under his own name, of which A.T.’s Delight was the third. And a delight it is indeed, bright and percussive, and when conga player Carlos “Patato” Valdes joins Taylor and pianist Wynton Kelly and bassist Paul Chambers on three cuts (Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy,” “Move” and a Taylor calypso-inflected original called “Cookoo and Fungi”), the rhythm pocket opens into a deep blue sea for the horn men (Stanley Turrentine on tenor sax and Dave Burns on trumpet). “Move” does exactly that, it moves, and at a blistering pace. Monk’s “Epistrophy,” thanks in part to Valdes, reveals its rumba roots, and has never sounded brighter. The seldom-covered Coltrane composition “Syeeda’s Song Flute” seems likewise refreshed and revived. The lone Taylor original, the driving “Cookoo and Fungi,” is as sharp and alert is a kitten waking from a nap in the spring sun, and Taylor’s drum solo is crisp, efficient and slides seamlessly into the calypso-informed main theme. A.T.’s Delight is a solid outing, with a wonderfully nervous but completely focused energy.
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Art Taylor – Taylor’s Wailers (1957) [APO Remaster 2012]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 40:49 minutes | Scans included | 1,65 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 764 MB
Five of the six selections on this reissue feature drummer Art Taylor in an all-star sextet of mostly young players comprised of trumpeter Donald Byrd, altoist Jackie McLean, Charlie Rouse on tenor, pianist Ray Bryant, and bassist Wendell Marshall. Among the highpoints of the 1957 hard bop date are the original version of Bryant’s popular “Cubano Chant” and strong renditions of two Thelonious Monk tunes (“Off Minor” and “Well, You Needn’t”) cut just prior to the pianist/composer’s discovery by the jazz public. Bryant is the most mature of the soloists, but the three horn players were already starting to develop their own highly individual sounds. The remaining track (a version of Jimmy Heath’s “C.T.A.”) is played by the quartet of Taylor, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, and bassist Paul Chambers and is a leftover (although a good one) from another session.
Read more