Good Vibrations

Bobby Hutcherson

There's always room for plenty of jazz music in my life, and there's certainly room for a vibraphone player on my jazz records.  Some of my favorite jazz vibraphone players are Roy Ayers, Bobby Hutcherson, and Milt Jackson.  I thought I'd feature a track from each of my favorite vibraphone players off my favorite albums of theirs. 

Taken off of Bobby Hutcherson's 1966 release Happenings, "Aquarian Moon" starts out slow, then begins to seriously cook a little over a minute into the song.  A great opening track to a great album!

I love me some good CTI albums, and Milt Jackson's Sunflower is one of my favorite albums from the label.  With an all-star cast featuring the likes of Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard, I decided to feature the song "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life".  This is a moody opening song for an album, but I love it.  Some people argue that CTI's releases can sound overproduced, especially with the added strings.  However, the strings on "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life" add a mysterious, soundtrack-like quality to the composition that I really enjoy. 

I have a lot of Roy Ayers albums, but my favorite track of his is "Coffy Is The Color" off of the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film that he composed.   His vibe solo near the end of the track is amazing.  Seriously cooks, and like many of Ayers releases, you can't go wrong with it.