Sonny Rollins "Saxophone Colossus"

Hello my wonderful viewers once again. Once more we have ourselves yet another album review in the jazz genre. This one happens to be from Sonny Rollins' album called Saxophone Colossus. I do hope you enjoy this review and if I missed anything or anything of the sort please don't criticize. Sometimes I have a tendency to forget certain things. Anyway, onto the review!

This album (created in around the 1950's) is a jazz album with a total of five songs featuring Sonny Rollins on saxophone, Tommy Flanagan on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Max Roach on drums. These five songs are called "St. Thomas", "You Don't Know What Love Is", "Strode Rode", "Moritat (Mack the Knife)", and "Blue Seven".

The songs I liked in this album would have to be St. Thomas because of the catchy beat that it gives off and it's just quite a good upbeat song. I still remember performing this song for a jazz concert one time which makes it familiar and still lovable to this day. Though the solos did sound a little off at times I still enjoyed it. Strode Rode I can also say is another favorite of mine in this album mainly because the beginning has quite an attention grabber in the song and it's upbeat, catchy, and has a good melody. I'd have to say the only thing I didn't like about the song was when the band went silent expect for the saxophonist for a short while. Sure it made sense after a while and it maybe signified it was a solo but I wish it was better than that. With Mack the Knife (Moritat), this is another song that I'm familiar with and have performed with before. In this version I will say it does have a more catchy beat than I remember it to be. I really enjoy listening to it but not as much as the version that comes with vocals. At least then the song sounded much better. But I will say that this one's still great to listen to; the melody, the harmony, everything in this song is great.

The songs I didn't like in the album would have to be You Don't Know What Love Is because to me it doesn't sound that great. The melody sounds a little off in my opinion plus it's slow and I'm not that into romance if any of you were to know me. It doesn't really catch my attention as much but like I said, this is my opinion, not yours. Then there's Blue Seven. I didn't really like it as much because the beginning, in my opinion, was a little too quiet and the melody doesn't make as much sense. I'm not really into the melody of the song once when the beginning is done but I guess it's sort of alright. It may not be a favorite to me but I'm sure at least someone does. I also don't like the solos as much in this song either because they sort of sound a little bland in my opinion.

And that's all I have for this review. I do hope you guys enjoyed it. Feel free to add either a nice comment or check out the link below to listen to the album yourself. Anyway, I'll see you wonderful viewers in the next future post. See ya!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=botVi3_P9K0

Cannonball Abbrey's "Know What I Mean" Album review

Hello once again viewers. I bring once again, yet another album review. Though, to be honest, I'm not as much of a fan of doing an album review than a average but what more can I say? I may have myself no choice but I don't mind. Anyway, let's get on with the review!

This album (created in 1961), is a jazz album with a total of ten songs featuring Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on Alto saxophone, Bill Evans on Piano, Percy Heath on Bass, and Connie Kay on Drums. These ten songs are called "Waltz for Debbie", "Who Cares?" (Take 5), "Who Cares?" (Take 4), "Venice", "Toy", "Elsa", "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)", "Know What I Mean?" (Re-take 7), and "Know What I Mean?" (Take 12).

I've got to say that my favorite songs in this album would have to be Waltz for Debbie, take 5 of Who Cares?, and Toy. Mainly because they're songs I felt like I could either dance to (like with Toy) or because I thought the song itself sounded interesting in every way that caught my attention all the way.

I however didn't enjoy the song Venice as much since it was a quiet song to me, the beginning was so quiet I could barely recognize it as music being made. But that probably means I have hearing problems or something so don't criticize just because I can't hear it well enough. Then there's also Elsa that I didn't enjoy as much since the beginning was a bit bad in my opinion and it just suit my tastes in music among the jazz genre. In other words, it wasn't as upbeat. I'm not saying the song was bad, it's just that it wasn't my style of jazz. Nancy (with the laughing face) also didn't catch my attention as much because it too wasn't upbeat and it sounded a bit depressing at the beginning in my opinion. It's also a rather slow song for a while and for some parts.

I sort of found the beginning of re-take 7's Know What I Mean until somewhere in the middle where it changed its transition. I didn't like the fact that it felt long and slow but after the transition it made the song much better. But around the end, it changed back. I'd probably leave this as an in-between for a like and dislike, mainly because there's some parts I like and others I don't. The same goes for the twelfth take of this song. I didn't like the beginning but once the transition came up that was when I had my attention on it. I give my remarks for this song the same as the seventh re-take. An in-between.

That's all that I've got for this review, if you like it or have anything nice to say about it feel free to add a comment below. If you want to hear the album yourself then feel free to check out the link below. Anyway, that's all I have to say. So see you guys in the next future post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmFfy56nSzY