I recently stumbled on the song Celestial Blues by Gary Bartz from his album Harlem Bush Music. The song has is a unique mash up of jazz instrumentals from Gary with vocals by Andy Bey. It’s the lyrics sung by Bey that pulled me in: We must get closer to the essence of life…But be … Continue reading Celestial Blues
When I was high school, I decided to listen to jazz. This was in the mid-90’s when grunge and alternative were all the rage and I had spent plenty of time listening to both. There isn’t a shining moment for my decision to listen to jazz. I didn’t grow up with an older brother or … Continue reading Cosmic Language
A couple of weekends ago, I helped a friend at her record store repair some pieces of gear to sell in her shop. While working, I stumbled on this dubbed tape of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Sonny Rollin’s A Night at the Village Vanguard. I thought it would be fun to have this … Continue reading Coltrane, Rollins & Dan Baird? How Mixtapes Didn’t Kill The Music Industry.
Over Labor Day weekend, my neighborhood record store had a 20% off sale on everything in the store. My wife was interested in purchasing a Bob Ross life size cutout to put in her art room at school so we took advantage of the sale to buy Bob at a discount. While picking up Bob, … Continue reading Further Explorations
Below are two new releases I’ve been listening to this week: John Coltrane – Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album Discovering a lost John Coltrane album in 2018 is nothing short of a miracle, especially a studio album recorded in March of 1963 with Rudy Van Gelder and performed with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison … Continue reading What I’m Listening To: 7.5.18
I am sucker for jazz drum solos. I stumbled on two this weekend, both by Max Roach and from the same album, Brown and Roach Incorporated. The album features trumpeter Clifford Brown and was released in 1955. The first song, Sweet Clifford, comes at you with break neck, hard bop speed, as if the musicians … Continue reading Max Roach’s Drum Solos
I curated this one hour playlist of music to help you concentrate and focus. This playlist differs from those online in that it offers an instrumental beats/lo-fi/hip-hop/jazz driven style instead of classical or ambient. This playlist features music from BadBadNotGood, Khruangbin, Peanut Butter Wolf, The Album Leaf, Oddisee, Helios and many more. If you enjoy … Continue reading Concentration Beats Vol. 4
I decided to officially “start listening” to jazz in high school. I started with the staples, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. This was in the CD era so I invested in buying jazz carefully because it’s easy to find something that looks great but in reality isn’t. And in … Continue reading Hartley’s Jazz Jams Vol. 1
Aaron Hartley 