On Shuffle

This morning, gently coming round, drinking coffee and enjoying a day off work, I thought about the best early morning jazz to listen to. I came up with these three songs. There are plenty of others, but I think this is a pretty good early morning jazz selection.

Colour Yes by Matthew Halsall. There's so much right with this track. Nat Birchall's sax playing is gorgeous, it's rare to see a song get over a third of the way in before the band-leader starts playing. When Halsall's trumpet arrives it's more than worth the wait, this is 9 minutes plus of sheer brilliance.
The musicians are:

Matthew Halsall - Trumpet
Nat Birchall - Soprano Saxophone
Adam Fairhall - Piano
Gavin Barras - Contrabass
Marek Dorcik - Drums



Suspended Variation II by Tomasz Stanko Quartet. Last week I posted a live version of Cinema Paradiso by the Marcin Wasilewski Trio. The Tomasz Stanko Quartet features all three members of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio and Tomasz Stanko on trumpet. This is phenomenal music, it's from the album Suspended Variation which certainly deserves a place in your record collection.
The musicians are:
Tomasz Stanko - Trumpet
Marcin Wasilewski - Piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz - Contrabass
Michal Miskiewicz - Drums



I Remember Clifford by Lee Morgan. It wasn't ever my intention to feature songs from band leaders who play the trumpet. You may remember I posted John Coltrane's Lazy Bird from the album Blue Train a while back, that also featured Lee Morgan on trumpet. One of Lee Morgan's influences, and briefly a teacher, was Clifford Brown and this song was written in his memory by saxophonist Benny Golson. Clifford Brown died when he was only 25, having recorded for only four years but playing on 17 albums, Lee Morgan lived until 33. He recorded, as leader and sideman, 86 albums in a 16 year career. Happily Benny Golson is 81 and still recording and touring.
The musicians are:
Lee Morgan - Trumpet
Benny Golson - Saxophone
Gigi Gryce - Saxophone
Wynton Kelly - Piano
Paul Chambers - Contrabass (who also played with Lee Morgan on the above mentioned Blue Train, along with a whole host of other superb albums)
Charlie Persip - Drums