Another entry in the perpetually listening to every record in my collection alphabetically and blogging unscholarly thoughts project. This installment stars Shelly Manne, Michael Mantler and Steve Marcus.

Here’s a bit of an autobiographical way of describing how long I have been listening to Shelly Manne. My father is a jazz drummer. My younger sister’s name is Shelley (yes, the spelling is different). I can’t remember a time without Shelly Manne somewhere in my universe. He’s awesome.

Shelly Manne and His Friends – I tend to prefer playing jazz that references music after bebop, not before, but I can’t deny how special it is to play with musicians who understand how different jazz was prior to bebop, and have the ability to make that happen. For example, on these recordings (made in 1944), Manne “feathers” quite a lot, which is a total disaster for bassists…unless the drummer understands the music of the 1940s. Love songs like “How High the Moon” or “On the Sunny Side of the Street” are bebop extravaganzas, unless the cats know about the 1940s. I’m pretty sure my father loved the 1940s the most. His beat is a more metronomically precise beat than the way ahead styles that emerged in the 1950s and 60s. And even though he appreciated the awesomeness of Coltrane et al, he always preferred the lyricism of cats from the 40s. I can imagine him loving this record.

“The Three” & “The Two” – Yet another thing I love about Shelly Manne is his adventurousness. Whether it’s his work with Ornette Coleman or Tom Waits, or records like this – piano- and bass-less on side one, drums and piano on side two – he brings a spirit of curiosity to everything. This record is fascinating and fun. And anyway, I love Giuffre and Shorty Rogers, and Russ Freeman crushes it.

Shelly Manne and His Men at The Black Hawk, Vol. 1 – I remember being VERY excited to check out this whole series and psyched when I finally completed the set. I love Monty Budwig and Victor Feldman, and both Joe Gordon and Richie Kamuca sound fantastic, alongside Manne of course. This just no-nonsense awesomeness. They do an incredible job of using dynamics, register, and both rhythmic and chromatic density to create narrative on these instrumental tunes. Killer albums, every one. Kamuca sounds so awesome on “Summertime” and “Poinciana”, especially. Manne’s snap crackle (yes, I know that’s Roy Haynes) on the head of “Our Delight” is delightful.

Shelly Manne and His Men at The Black Hawk, Vol. 2 – More of the same. Awesome. It’s great to hear them stretch out, and Shelly’s playing shines the whole time. I like the med-up tempo “What’s New”, and “Step Lightly” by Benny Golson is one I am going to have to learn.

Shelly Manne and His Men at The Black Hawk, Vol. 3 – Still awesome. “Whisper Not” is a standout.

Shelly Manne and His Men at The Black Hawk, Vol. 4 – What a great way to close out the series! Manne is on fire on “Cabu”, which is definitely a tune I need to add to the transcription list.

Michael Mantler – Something There – This album is quite an adventure. It’s super weird but strangely interesting at the same time. It has vamp-y things that I like about Carla Bley and Steve Swallow, long and interesting melodies played by Mantler on trumpet (sort of weirdly Kenny Wheeler-ish at times) and fascinating guitar solos by Mike Stern. I don’t think this will ever be a record that I listen to over and over, but it certainly was worth the run through the couple of times I have heard it. Also, the drummer on this record is Nick Mason from Pink Floyd AND his debut solo album has Bley, Swallow and Mantler AND Bley wrote the music for it. I’ll have to find that one and check it out. Even if I have sort of low expectations for it, I’m sure it will be interesting!

Steve Marcus – Count’s Rock Band – I love records like this one, even if I don’t totally love this actual album. Here we have amazing musicians – Larry Coryell, Mike Nock, Bob Moses, Chris Hills – playing like jazz musicians on pop-oriented tunes. Some amazing music has happened in that realm. You know, like on Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong records. Jazz musicians played pop music. Come at me. They did. Whether on their own records (what do you think Bye By Blackbird was before Miles played it?) or on actual pop records like Sinatra or even Ray Charles records. In this case, because of the timeframe, the music is more like rock music, but that doesn’t change the fact that when they play “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme” they don’t hold back at all. Fun, fascinating, interesting, exciting record.

Steve Marcus – The Lord’s Prayer – A more daring record with strings and added personnel, and hey, Herbie Hancock and Miroslav Vitous are even on this record!