Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Track Of The Day: Dizzy Gillespie - Kush (Impulse!)


Another sprawling live jazz jam you say? In a similar vein to Coltrane’s ‘My Favourite Things’, but quite different all the same. I can’t remember the first time I heard this track but, like so many others, it has its roots in the 80s depths of Fort St; Pete Pulford, Mike Wilkinson, Colin Nuttall and others who passed through its portals. It’s an expansive piece of music which is reasonably tight considering its length. When I moved down to London in 1987 I made it my mission to see as many jazz giants as I could. I got to see Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Jimmy Smith and Dizzy Gillespie, amongst others. Unfortunately I was a bit of a typhoid Mary, as they all died quite soon after my patronage. In any case, the Gillespie gig, with his United Nations orchestra, was one of the more memorable and the recording was released as an album. ‘Kush’ is there, as it had to be. Not as long as this version, but still enough of it to make an impact.

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