The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1

The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1

ASIN: B0000032ND

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
You've heard Ken Nordine before, his immediate baritone resonating like the voice of God in countless radio and TV commercials, hawking everything from Taster's Choice to Murine. In the late 1950s, though, Nordine created "word jazz"--a combination of storytelling, sound painting, and pre-beat improvisation--as a less commercial, more personal outlet for his natural speaking talents. Best gathers the brightest of his four initial albums--material that found him somewhere between the prosody of Jack Kerouac and the arch satire of Nichols & May. As the title suggests, there's a light jazz backing behind Nordine's incantations--ranging from the lighthearted "Hunger Is From" to the disturbing, absurd scenario "Flibberty Jib" to the harrowing memoir "Confessions of 349-18-5171." Good, curious stuff. --Michael Ruby

Tracks:

My Baby
Original Sin
What Time Is It?
Confessions Of 349-18-5171
Hunger Is From
The Vidiot
Reaching Into In
Adult Kindergarten
The Sound Museum
Bury-It-Yourself Time Capsules
Anytime, Anytime
A Whistler
Flibberty Jib
Faces In The Jazzamatazz
I Used To Think My Right Hand Was Uglier Than My Left
Looks Like It's Going To Rain
Down The Drain
You're Getting Better

Amazon.com

You've heard Ken Nordine before, his immediate baritone resonating like the voice of God in countless radio and TV commercials, hawking everything from Taster's Choice to Murine. In the late 1950s, though, Nordine created "word jazz"--a combination of storytelling, sound painting, and pre-beat improvisation--as a less commercial, more personal outlet for his natural speaking talents. Best gathers the brightest of his four initial albums--material that found him somewhere between the prosody of Jack Kerouac and the arch satire of Nichols & May. As the title suggests, there's a light jazz backing behind Nordine's incantations--ranging from the lighthearted "Hunger Is From" to the disturbing, absurd scenario "Flibberty Jib" to the harrowing memoir "Confessions of 349-18-5171." Good, curious stuff. --Michael Ruby

Customer Reviews:

Flibberty Jib & Jazzmatazz.......2006-07-03

Haunting me since I was a preschooler in the late `50's, from the sound of Ken Nordine's booming, string bass voice to his funny and frightening stories, right down to its paper collage cover, the original LP WORD JAZZ has lodged permanently in my psyche. I was delighted when the recording resurfaced in 1990, even if only in parts, on this compilation CD. At first I only revisited my old favorites, "Hunger Is From," a description of a sleepless, midnight raid on the refrigerator, complete with munching sound effects, "The Vidiot," a forecast, unfortunately, of the television addict I would become, "The Sound Museum," a dreamlike, wonderfully evocative "tour" of a series of aural exhibits and the artists who have created them, "Flibberty Jib," an immensely creepy portrait of religious zeal that reminds me of every facilitator of mass hysteria from Adolf Hitler to Jim Jones, and "Looks Like It's Going to Rain," in which the narrator invites the listener in to visit the noisy chambers of his brain. All of this is accompanied by the strains of cool jazz, with a tinkling piano here, noodling woodwinds there, and in several key places, some experimental electronic sounds and tape loops. Then I began to explore the other tracks on this CD, most of them new to my ears. My favorite of these previously unknown gems is "Faces In The Jazzmatazz," which I have listened to dozens of times now. Somehow it is so nostalgic that I have developed a false memory of having heard it before, somewhere in my distant past -- maybe I did, but I don't think so. Although the material on THE BEST OF WORD JAZZ, VOL. 1 is spoken, there is something so musical about Nordine's voice that, for me at least, I hear these pieces as songs, and can revisit them from time to time just as I can other favored music. The pleasure I derive from this album is so personal, and so connected to my childhood, that I don't know if I can recommend it to the uninitiated. One thing that anyone over the age of say, 30, might latch on to is Nordine's mellifluous baritone: it has been heard on more than just novelty recordings, as he has had a long career in voiceovers and narration on radio and television. So Ken Nordine will sound familiar even to those who have never heard his name.

I hope there's a Vol. 2 (may not happen, given the time that has elapsed since this CD was first released), and that it will include "Roger," a funny little nightmare scenario about a piano teacher that still gives me shivers when I hear it on my scratched up vinyl copy of WORD JAZZ.

Beyond the valley of Cool..........2005-12-05

Late at night, toss this into your cd player, press pause.

Turn off the lights.

Turn on the TV. Turn off the sound. Flip to channel 3...

Static...

Hit play attention...

Ken Nordine is the comforting yet oddly disturbing voice in your head that you try to ignore, but can't; he's the Twilight Zone for your ears.

Andre Breton Vs. Miles Davies.......2002-07-13

Well not really. But Ken Nordine has opened a portal to a whole new and different musical space. This is Jazz-Rap. There are some great reviews on this page for this extraordinary album and I'm just another voice to endorse this work. Whatever you might expect - DON'T. There is humour here, pathos, and total dis-orientation. This album is way out in left-field, like the little schitzophrenic voice that torments all our souls from time to time. Give in to it! Take time-out from whatever you are into to get a whole new perspective of what music is capable of. This is Jazz not because of the sax stabs but because there is an improvisational logic to Nordines crazy stories. It is surrealism for the same reason. There is a stream-of-consciousnees feel to these tales. The net effect is slightly unnerving but great fun nevertheless. Highly recommended!

I'm hooked.......2002-01-08

I found this online doing some random searches, going outside my usual music genres. I had never heard of Ken Nordine, but the voice was very familiar. I listened to a few samples and thought maybe it wasn't for me, but I might buy it just for kicks...so I did. By the fourth track I had this big grin on my face...this man has such an amazing voice that anything he says holds my attention. He talks about eating food from his fridge and I just can't bring myself to turn it off. Instead I'm laughing and listening more intently than I have ever listened to anyone before. It's funny, it's thoughtful, and its just beautiful to listen to. It is also very inspiring and really brings out creativity, at least for me. If you don't think you'll like this type of spoken word recording, you probably will so buy it anyway. You can at least play it for parties and watch everyone's attention drift towards the stereo until everyone has a smiling, glazed over look on their faces.

freaky stuff, man.......2001-08-30

I'd never heard of Ken Nordine until just recently. Someone online suggested I give him a listen, so I bought this CD. It's a bunch of spoken word pieces recited by Ken Nordine, some with sound effects and music. Some of it's funny, and some just stupid. The language is interesting, though, since much of it is from the beat subculture of the 60s. You don't hear people talk like that anymore except in TV reruns. Or on Ken Nordine's CD.

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