Dusko Goykovich - Swinging Macedonia [Enja 1966]

This was fairly early in Goykovich's career but it was his bandmates Nathan Davis and Mal Waldron who first caught my attention here; Goykovich was a secondary pleasant discovery for me. Clearly a Miles influenced player, Goykovich has lovely tone and favors modal compositions, making the Miles comparison even easier. The truth is he has cleaner, more controlled chops than MDD3 but we have all learned by now that chops aren't everything. Speaking of chops, Nathan Davis flashes his considerable arsenal from the first tune. The failure of most of America to catch on to Davis is really sad - this man should be in the same sentence with Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson yet even jazz educators in the States are barely aware of him as anything other than a teaching colleague. Pretty unforgivable since he is one of ours. Goykovich hasn't much presence in the US either which is also pretty sad given the length of his career and the prolific, high quality output he has produced.

1. Macedonia (Goykovich) - 7:51
2. Old Fisherman's Daughter (Goykovich) - 3:59
3. Jumbo Uganda (Goykovich) - 3:47
4. The Gypsy (Reid) - 4:06
5. Macedonian Fertility Dance (Waldron) - 2:13
6. Bem-Basha (Goykovich) - 4:26
7. Saga Se Karame (Goykovich) - 4:12
8. Wedding March of Alexander the Macedonian (Goykovich) - 3:59
9. The Nights of Skopje (Goykovich) - 5:17
10. Balkan Blue (Goykovich) - 4:42

Dusko Goykovich - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Mal Waldron - Piano
Nathan Davis - Flute, Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)
Eddie Busnello - Sax (Alto)
Peter Trunk - Bass
Cees See - Drums

New link to flac CD rip in comments.

Nathan Davis - Jazz Concert in a Bennedictine Monastery

This is certainly one of the rarest of birds and after years of trying to clean a muddy cassette tape copy from an old pal J.D., (it was better than nothing for sure), I have finally pieced together a much cleaner, clearer copy from multiple sources and in mp3. Still not perfect, but MUCH better than what we've had around here to date. The music itself is well worth the trouble, Davis is at his peak as is Waldron, and the Woode/Taylor rhythm connection is a powerful one. Great Stuff!

Roots Salutes the Saxophone

Our good buddy Bluebird is back with another lovely goodie from Nathan Davis' Roots project. This time Nathans' front line teammates are Sam Rivers, Arthur Blythe and Chico Freeman! WHEW!!

While the tunes are all mainstream, this particular ensemble plays much closer to the 'edge', for lack of a better term. That shouldn't be particularly surprising, given that the participants all have pretty fair free jazz backgrounds. This was actually the first Roots ensemble recorded live in 1991. It is a riveting and fun ride start to finish!

"Recorded at the Leverkusen Jazz Festival, where this outstanding all-star saxophone repertory band made its début in 1991, this album features ROOTS celebrating some of the great saxophonists in jazz with memorable versions of the great compositions with which they are associated.
"What ROOTS celebrates so enjoyably... is the sheer vitality, adaptability and diversity of the jazz tradition itself, providing as it does an ever-expanding body of work to be interpreted anew by each succeeding generation of musicians."

(Chris Parker, Jazz Correspondent , Daily Telegraph Weekend)

Roots - Saying Something

Every now and again, one of our friends here will send me a share that gets buried in my inbox and forgotten but they always resurface once I get around to going thru emails. Obviously I am inferring that this is one of those; bluebird sent this nearly a month ago and I am just now getting around to it.

Roots is a saxophone ensemble that toured Europe each summer or much of the 90's. The band was lead by Nathan Davis and always featured at least 3 other killer saxophonist and a first class rhythm section. Each tour the band would focus on 2 or 3 sax masters and songs associated with them. Here the focus' are Wayne Shorter, Lester Young and John Coltrane and Dr. Davis is joined by Arthur Blythe, Benny Golson and Chico Freeman on the front line. The rhythm section is merely Kirk Lightsey, Buster Williams and Ed Thigpen.

The powerful 7 song live program is full of great moments and lovely songs; all done with plenty of room for folks to stretch out - now that bluebird has reminded me of them, perhaps some other recordings of this great band will be forthcoming.