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The cover of the 1960 debut album by the Jazztet, co-founded by the trumpeter Art Farmer and the tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, and which always featured a trombonist and a piano-bass-drums rhythm section. Golson wrote much of the music, but “Hi-Fly” – a tune featured on Bob Hecht’s playlist devoted to sextets – was written by pianist Randy Weston, and appears on the 1960 album Big City Sounds.
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…..This month in our progressive series of playlists, in which we increase the number of instruments by one, we reach the number six. The sextet format in jazz takes us into another harmonic realm and brings us to some of the most outstanding of modern jazz group recordings.
…..In the following playlist we hear how the front line of horns has been expanded. Often to the team of trumpet and saxophone has been added a trombone, as in Randy Weston’s sextet in which Melba Liston contributed not only her virtuosic trombone but her brilliant arranging skills.
…..In Miles’s iconic Kind of Blue aggregation, the addition to the frontline was not a trombone but a second saxophone, the two saxes of Trane and Cannonball—that one worked out pretty well!
…..In some instances, the additional ‘voice’ has been a guitar as in the Clifford Brown-Gigi Gryce Sextet or the Stan Getz-Cal Tjader group.
…..In quite a number of these groups in which a trombone was added, the choice was the remarkable Curtis Fuller. Thus we hear him on the Coltrane classic “Moment’s Notice, on Wayne Shorter’s “Miyako” on Blue Mitchell’s “Nica’s Dream,” and on Art Blakey’s “One by One.” That ‘bone got around!
…..Enjoy The Joy of Six!
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…..Bob Hecht
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Bob has curated an impressive array of listening experiences within playlists he assembles exclusively for Jerry Jazz Musician, and within them shares his profound lifelong journey with jazz music.
Click on the links below to be taken to the playlists within this series.
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Next up…a playlist of septets!
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This playlist was assembled by Bob Hecht, who frequently contributes his essays, photographs, interviews, playlists and personal stories to Jerry Jazz Musician. He has a long history of producing and hosting jazz radio programs; his former podcast series, The Joys of Jazz, was the 2019 Silver Medal winner in the New York Festivals Radio Awards. In addition, he is a widely published fine art photographer, whose work has appeared multiple times in The Sun, LensWork, Black & White Magazine, Zyzzyva and other periodicals, as well as in the book, Dream of Venice in Black & White, published by Bella Figuera Publications. He lives with his wife in Portland, Oregon. His photo website is roberthecht.com.
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Click here to read about his book, Stolen Moments: A Photographer’s Personal Journey
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In addition to putting together great playlists, Bob has conducted several fine interviews for Jerry Jazz Musician.
Click here to read Two of a Mind: Conversations on Creative Collaboration, featuring Bill Charlap and Sandy Stewart; Click here to read his interview with Pepper Adams biographer Gary Carner. Click here to read “Life in E Flat” – a conversation about Phil Woods – with pianist Bill Charlap and jazz journalist Ted Panken, and click here to read his interview with Alyn Shipton, author of The Gerry Mulligan 1950’s Quartets.
Click here to view all playlists published on Jerry Jazz Musician
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Click here to read The Sunday Poem
Click here to read “Bluesette,” Salvatore Difalco’s winning story in the 67th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
Click here for information about how to submit your poetry, short fiction, playlists, art, or essays
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Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced (and AI-free) since 1999
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Dear Mr. Hecht:
Thanks for putting this together. I especially liked Stratusphunk. And, of course, So What is incredible and one of the greatest of all time.
Beatitudes,