Deep in the Stacks: Your Daily Jazz LP Podcast
Every day, Danny from Kissa Kissa -- the Japanese-style jazz vinyl bar in Crown Heights, Brooklyn -- pulls one album from the stacks and tells you who made it, why it matters, and what to listen for. Three minutes, one record you need to hear. Calendar-driven picks tied to recording dates and artist birthdays, plus deep cuts from the Kissa Kissa collection.
Episodes
22 episodes
Horace Silver And The Jazz Messengers — Horace Silver (Blue Note, 1955)
Nobody had fused the Black church with bebop and made it swing like this before. Horace Silver brought gospel-inflected melody lines into jazz with The Preacher and Doodlin', backed by Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Doug Watkins, and Art Blakey. This ...
Live At Slugs' Volume 1 & 2 — Music Inc. (Strata-East, 1972)
Recorded on this date in 1970. Slugs' was the kind of after-hours club where the real music happened -- a cramped basement dive on East Third Street where musicians went to stretch out after their uptown gigs ended. Charles Tolliver had been maki...
One Step Beyond — Jackie McLean (Blue Note, 1963)
Recorded on this date in 1963. McLean was at a crossroads. The hard bop alto master had spent the late fifties running with Miles Davis and Art Blakey, but by nineteen sixty-three, he was pushing beyond the familiar changes and chord structures. ...
Night Dreamer — Wayne Shorter (Blue Note, 1964)
Recorded on this date in 1964. By April nineteen sixty-four, Shorter had already logged time with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, but Night Dreamer was his moment to step forward as a leader with something to say. Blue Note paired him with Lee Morg...
My Gentleman Friend — Blossom Dearie (Verve Records, 1959)
Blossom Dearie born on this date in 1924. By nineteen fifty-nine, Dearie had already conquered the Paris jazz scene and made her mark in London, but this Verve Records session marked her full arrival as a recording artist in America. Producer Nor...
Serenade To A Bus Seat — Clark Terry Quintet (Riverside Records, 1957)
Recorded on this date in 1957. Clark Terry was thirty-six and still playing in Duke Ellington's orchestra when he made this record for Riverside. He was moonlighting as a leader, and the quintet he assembled was ridiculous -- Johnny Griffin on te...
Sunset Eyes — Teddy Edwards (Pacific Jazz, 1960)
Teddy Edwards was born on this date in 1924. By 1960, the Mississippi-born tenor saxophonist had become one of LA's most dependable players. Sunset Eyes, cut for Pacific Jazz with Duke Jordan on piano, Larry Ridley on bass, and Freddie Waits on dr...
Here's Jaki — Jaki Byard (New Jazz, 1961)
Deep in the Stacks, Episode 14: A piano player who refused to pick a lane -- stride, bebop, free jazz, standards -- all in one session with Ron Carter and Roy Haynes.---More from Sticky Note Podcasts:
Happy Girl — Nathan Davis (Saba, 1965)
Deep in the Stacks, Episode 13: An expatriate tenor man in the Black Forest with Woody Shaw, Larry Young, and a band that had no business being that good.---More from Sticky Note Podcasts:The...
Hip Cake Walk — Don Patterson (Prestige, 1964)
Deep in the Stacks, Episode 12: A Hammond organ master who learned from the best and then found his own groove.---More from Sticky Note Podcasts:The Why of Words (daily etymology) |
Left Alone — Mal Waldron (Bethlehem, 1959)
Deep in the Stacks, Episode 11: A farewell letter written in real time, by the last pianist to sit beside Billie Holiday.---More from Sticky Note Podcasts:The Why of Words (daily etymolog...
Strings! — Pat Martino (Prestige, 1967)
Deep in the Stacks, Episode 10: A young guitarist with the precision of a veteran, backed by strings that never get in his way.---More from Sticky Note Podcasts:The Why of Words (daily et...
Really Big! — Jimmy Heath (Riverside, 1960)
Deep in the Stacks, Episode 9: A tentet date with arrangements so good they make a room full of all-stars sound like a working band.---More from Sticky Note Podcasts:The Why of Words (dai...
A Happy Afternoon — Dieter Reith Trio (SABA, 1966)
Reith was born in nineteen thirty-eight and started piano lessons at age seven. He studied music and experimental physics, and by the late fifties he was playing jazz in clubs around Mainz. Featured tracks: On Green Dolphin Street, How About a Bl...
Tears for Dolphy — Ted Curson (Fontana, 1964)
Curson was born in Philadelphia in nineteen thirty-five. He moved to New York in nineteen fifty-six at the suggestion of Miles Davis and quickly found his way into some of the most adventurous music of the era. Featured tracks: Kassim, Tears for ...
Black Drops — Charles Earland (Prestige, 1970)
Earland was born in Philadelphia in nineteen forty-one and started gigging on tenor sax while still a teenager, joining McGriff's band at seventeen. When McGriff let him go, Earland pivoted to organ full-time, forming a trio with Martino and drumm...
To My Queen — Walt Dickerson (New Jazz, 1962)
Dickerson was born in Philadelphia in nineteen twenty-eight, studied at Morgan State University, and served two years in the Army before settling in California. There he formed a group with pianist Andrew Hill and drummer Andrew Cyrille -- two mus...
The Song Book — Booker Ervin (Prestige, 1964)
Ervin was born in Denison, Texas in nineteen thirty and grew up surrounded by gospel and blues. After enlisting in the Air Force, he picked up the saxophone on base and never put it down. Featured tracks: The Lamp Is Low, Just Friends Deep in th...
Acid — Ray Barretto (Fania, 1968)
Barretto was born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents and fell in love with percussion after hearing jazz records as a teenager. He served in the Army, came home, and worked his way through the Latin music and jazz circuits -- playing congas along...
Leapin' and Lopin' — Sonny Clark (Blue Note, 1961)
By nineteen sixty-one, Clark had been a Blue Note fixture for years -- Cool Struttin' had made his name, and sideman dates with everyone from Dexter Gordon to Jackie McLean cemented his reputation. But this session shows a different pianist. Feat...
Primitive Modern — Gil Melle (Prestige, 1956)
Gil Melle was the first white musician signed to Blue Note Records, a visual artist who painted album covers for Miles Davis, and a jazz innovator who walked away from the genre after just three albums. Featured tracks: Iron Works, Adventure Swin...