Three times three... Evan Parker... Jimmy Giuffre... Ornette Coleman... plus Gene Ammons and Richard 'Groove' Holmes...

A belated happy new year to everyone... and three trios plus an organ and tenor combo to greet 2010...

Evan Parker Trio and 'Geometry.' Starts off busy, fragments of saxophone and bass running round each other as the drums lay out a broad sweep underneath to carry them. Dropping back to solo drums, intricate use of space and silence, a sparseness that builds back into more layered and complicated rhythms then eases again into pointillist dabs of sound at the high end of the range, spliced with sudden runs into the lower sax register. Parker coming from small pieces of sound to build a knottier line, disrupted by sudden register leaps, his trademark illusion of playing several lines at once. Fast clattering from Lytton, cymbals occasionally lashing through like sabres, who falls out to leave Parker strafed by Guy's prodding and speedy pattering. Sometimes hard to distinguish who is playing what in an area where rhythm, melody and sound disrupt conventional boundaries. Going to the end on some throaty blowing and quick-walking bass, Lytton sure-footedly booting it along. Three as one, post-Euclidean definitely...

Another trio... Jimmy Giuffre with Bob Brookmeyer and Jim Hall, their version of 'Blue Monk, from 1958 and the album 'Western Suite.' Jumping across time and genres, shadowing the 'archetypal' nature of the original, they come in on an easy swing propelled by Hall's guitar in a chugging straight four that echoes the likes of Freddy Green. This timeless feel reinforced by Guiffre on clarinet, blending with the trombone as a two thirds approximation of the classic New Orleans front line. Giuffre solos first, chalameau register with the odd piping move into higher registers, occasional trombone shadowing. Brookmeyer solos after the leader, in turn swathed in Giuffre's woody obbligatos. Hall chordally thunks out a couple of choruses with ghostly support from trombone and clarinet before spreading out melodically but staying within basic bluesy parameters. A masterly minimal and original look at one of Monk's greatest tunes that takes it back to its roots without being preciously retro. This trio manage to create a large airy space to move through – while generating a full sound that belies the numbers. Hall is the backbone for this strategy – his deep moving notes offer the illusion of a bass while his chord work fills out the middle. Giuffre dropped the drums in his ground-breaking trios of the fifties, probably because his own visions of freedom in jazz would have been shackled by most conventional modern jazz drummers of the time... I always see a link between him and Ornette Coleman, not least their Texan connection...

... which leads to: Ornette and his 1965 trio on tour in Europe, recorded at the Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 30, 1965. One of my favourite lineups, Izenzon on bass and Charles Moffett on drums to support the leader, on fine form that year. This is 'Clergyman's Dream,' one of those odd yet memorable Coleman tunes, combining a brief slow slurred section with a sprightly answering. Ornette takes an exhilarating solo, bluesy combined with unfettered freedoms - themselves grounded in the logics of the blues? Izenzon plays fairly solid four throughout then moves outwards in his own solo – fast runs and pauses that indicate his thought processes, subtly backed by faintly hissing cymbals. Moffett up next for a swinging section that combines those old jazz virtues with a new linearity and melodic sense, new in the sense that although his antecedents – Max Roach and Kenny Clarke to name two who explored the extended rhythmic melodic possibilities given by bop but one could go further back to Warren 'Baby' Dodds for the sake of inclusion – had done similar, they were still playing in the main across set chorus structures. Moffett has the wide open spaces in front of him to explore... and does. Ornette returns and the track goes into some intriguing stretching and contracting as the rhythm breaks up. Back into the theme for the last minute of so ending on a rapid run through. Cue applause and rightly so...

Going out on some Gene Ammons and Richard 'Groove' Holmes from a live recording at the Black Orchid Lounge in Chicago in 1961... I've mentioned before when putting up a couple of tracks from the album that I bought this when I was a teenager and have that obsessive fondness for it still, remembering how it was when young, with little money and no great range of stuff to buy anyway in the jazz racks of the local shops, so that each album became a small treasure. This is a joyful bounce through 'Exactly like you,' 'meat and potatoes' jazz I called it before, the classic organ and tenor combo. Swinging, soulful, social music – yet with some bite to it, due to the skills involved. Ammons solo combines big-hearted r and b rawness with some hurtling bebop flurries later in, Holmes ice cool organ, like the joys of a menthol cigarette in more innocent days. Some trading between the constituents at the end to keep the crowd happy – the applause sounds as if they succeeded. The whimsical thought just occurred to me that Groove Holmes sounds like a hip building company specialising in real estate for bohemians...

Evan Parker
Evan Parker (ts) Barry Guy (b) Paul Lytton (d)
Geometry
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Jimmy Giuffre
Jimmy Guiffre (cl) Bob Brookmeyer (v-tr) Jim Hall (g)
Blue Monk
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Ornette Coleman (as, tp, vln) David Izenzon (b) Charles Moffett (d)
Clergyman's Dream
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Ammons/Holmes
Gene Ammons (ts) Richard Holmes (org) Gene Edwards (g) Leroy Henderson (d)
Exactly like you
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Jon Hassell, Jimmy Giuffre/MJQ, Al Cohn/Bob Brookmeyer, Blind Joe Taggart, Bob Wills...

So here we go again... Having spent the sunny days listening to old Wolf Eyes wahoo and other assorted loud power electronics... here's...


Jon Hassell. Who sails away on 'Blues Nile.' A gag I could not resist. I'm all for cheap and easy laughs... Opens on a drone then shadowy trumpet, breathy and bending. Trumpet doubled up, a muezzin-like call across a misty landscape. The influence of his voice teacher Pandit Pran Nath comes through strongly here, it seems – a vocalised line of fragile beauty.
From his first album, 'Vernal Equinox.'

'Hassell coined the term "Fourth World" to describe his musical style, as expressed both in his trumpet playing and in his approach to composition.. This musical conception combines the philosophy and techniques of minimalism with Asian and African styles, and relies heavily on the use of electronic instruments. Critics of Hassell's style have noted its incorporation of New Age and world music styles, but have also detected the influence of Miles Davis, particularly Davis's use of electronics, modal harmony and understated lyricism . (From here...).

The comment about Miles's influence is interesting – Davis's reticence (often seen as lack of technique compared to the more flamboyant bebop trumpeters) on conventional sequences and his later jumps into the sonic unknown via electronics make him much more of a visionary than maybe is often realised. Because he could let rip when the spirit rose – check out some of the tracks with the quintet in the late sixties, where he is surrounded by young musicians and maybe wanted to lay down the odd marker. But by the time of 'Bitches Brew' and onwards, he was looking beyond 'jazz'... Hence the connection with Hassell? Who acknowledges the influence:

'After years of trying to make the case for an improvisational music which is 'not-jazz' and staying away from cliches of jazz instrumentation and style, I started to feel free enough to let more obvious elements of my respect for Miles creep in from time to time.'

(From a fascinating interview here...).

Colour and timbre – here's Jimmy Giuffre and the Modern Jazz Quartet from 1956, playing a Giuffre composition 'Fun.' I took a slight swipe at Connie Kay in a previous post but in this context you can understand his role in the MJQ. Percy Heath and Milt could carry the band with no problem – effortless swing as and when required.

Al Cohn and Bob Brookmeyer play an oblique, somewhat gruff restatement of the theme of 'Lady is a tramp.' An arrangement which, in its own quiet way, re-encapsulates the essence of how jazz deals with melody in a dynamic, elastic manner. Cohn solos first, swinging solidly. Brookmeyer next, looping nicely through the changes. Always an appealing player. They hook up for a double runthrough, a neatly arranged section taking the track out. Mainstream fun...

To a different area of emotion, experience and spirituality - Blind Joe Taggart sounds as if he is ripping chunks out of a hard reality and vocalising them through the filters of his culture and religion... 'When I stand before the King.' In 1926 '...Taggart became the first full-time guitar evangelist to cut a side [for Vocalion].' (From here).
A scuffling guitar backs up the beautifully raw vocals, Blind Joe backed by Emma Taggart (presumably his wife).

'If one ever ran into Blind Joe Taggart in a dark alley, the only possible protection would be to have Blind John Henry Arnold with you. According to the famous folk singer and blues artist Josh White, there was only one man on earth who was meaner than Taggart, and that was Arnold. White obviously knew what he was talking about, having been abused and kicked around by both men, as well as the even more famous Blind Lemon Jefferson.' (Ibid).

Given the nature of his life, perhaps one should balance up this quote with the following:

'Performers trying to survive in such a lifestyle can hardly be blamed for developing what can be best described as street-hardened personalities.' (Ibid).

As an ex street musician myself in another incarnation (albeit in much more benign circumstances) I have a little understanding of what the sentence means - especially with regard to a lot of the old boys I met down the road...

Thinking about going to Texas on my next trip to the States... here's old Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, one of my favourite groups, playing 'Basin Street Blues.' Saxophone, steel guitar, over a rock solid rhythm section. Echoes of Big T in the Tommy Duncan vocal perhaps - or just a shared timbral inheritance. 'Aw, Basin Street, yes yes...' as Mr Wills leads it in... Interesting to remember that Bob W outdrew the Glen Miller and Bennie Goodman bands in 1945... And a great story from here, just to go out on:

'By 1945, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys had achieved enough notoriety that they were invited to play at the prestigious home of country music a little farther east. Bob unknowingly created quite a stir at his Grand Ole Opry performance. A drum set was a natural, integral part of the Playboys' music, but it was unheard of in the world of country music back then. When the Opry staff told Bob that his drummer couldn't play, he angrily declared that he would not leave a band member out. It was all the Texas Playboys or none. Bob did agree, however, to let the drums be set up behind the curtains. That is, until time to play, when he hollered, 'Move those things out on stage!' In that moment, Bob Wills had left a permanent mark: there would forever be a beat in country music. (He and the Texas Playboys, by the way, were not invited back.) '





Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell (trumpet, Fender Rhodes (specially tuned and altered by Buchla and Arp Synthesizers))
Nana Vasconçelos (congas, shakers, ocean, talking drum, bells, tropical birds)
David Rosenboom (mbira, rattles, tabla, dumbek) Miguel Frasconi (claves, bells)
Nicolas Kilbourn (talking drum, mbira) William Winant (kanjira, rattles) Drone (Serge Synthesizer, Motorola Scalatron) Night Creatures of Altamira Perrasita—distant barking...
Blues Niles
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Jimmy Giuffre/MJQ
Jimmy Giuffre (cl) John Lewis (p) Milt Jackson (vib) Percy Heath (b) Connie Kay (d)
Fun
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Al Cohn/Bob Brookmeyer
Al Cohn (ts) Bob Brookmeyer (tr) Mose Allison (p) Teddy Kotick (b) Nick Stabulas (d)
Lady is a tramp
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Blind Joe Taggart (g, v)
When I stand before the king
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Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
Basin Street Blues
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Barry Altschul... Shelley Manne... Cecil Taylor... Al Cohn/Bob Brookmeyer... Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee

Barry Altschul, from 1977, the title track of the album 'You can't name your own tune.' Starts off brisk and busy, then Muhal comes through quickly for a solo, single line and swirl, horn riffs bridging this and Lewis's trombone, borne along on a strong tide that floods most of the sonic space, not allowing Lewis much room in the mix, that ebbs slightly then dies off for Dave Holland to come through and solo. Ending on a fast walk to bring in Rivers. Interesting – more space now opening than for the other horn as the piano drops out and the drummer holds off. Ensemble return to finish. A strange track, somehow, in its combination of tight writing and free solos that do not, however, stray too far from camp. As what was not often the case in earlier recordings, the bass is very up in the mix here – which blocks the trombone perhaps, muddying things a tad here and there as the bustling hyper-hustle of the drummer covers much of the canvas. Still – you can't have everything. Fascinating stuff...

Shelley Manne was doing some interesting work in 1954... His drums open on 'Abstract No 1,' followed by tenor and trumpet, an integral part of the three lined movement through this precursor of free jazz in the melodic/sonic way he intertwines with the horns, messing up the then-accepted (although increasingly fragile) jazz givens of rhythm/melody/harmony. Giuffre switches to clarinet and his inimitable bucolic tone adds another colour to the palette – back to baritone at the end. A sure-footed step into new areas – exploring sound, colour and texture, a long ways from bebop but not as dry as much of the third stream would become.

Cecil Taylor... 'I forgot,' take one. This is early on in his recorded career and the more fascinating because of that. He first recorded in that epochal Death of Bird year, 1955 – 'Jazz Advance,' the album, but this is from the marathon Candid sessions of 1961. The young Archie Shepp, who sometimes seemed to be floundering on some tracks (understandably), here contributes well to the sombre mood of this slow, smoky performance. Two sections - Taylor thoughtful, calm, dropping occasional astringencies into the proceedings but nothing like his usual galloping energy. Neidlinger adding deep arco bass as Shepp wanders through with almost dreamlike tenor. A pause - then the drummer gives spasmodic cymbals, Taylor enters on floating, distant piano, spartan drifting figures. Charles gives restrained cymbal splashes like breaths before bass, tenor and then piano return. A sudden rush, falling away. The whole, like a slow fragmented episodic blur, riffing on the elusiveness of memory - 'I Forgot?' And similar to the Shelley Manne piece in its handling of colours and mood...

To measure the distance travelled, the spaces laid out in new mapping... A 1957 date from Al Cohn and Bob Brookmeyer, from which comes this track, 'Lazy Man Stomp.' A fast yet frothy romp – you could imagine people jiving to this. Cohn was a pretty good sax player, one of the original 'Four Brothers' in Woody Herman's Second Herd, (I think he followed Herbie Steward into the section -who is, according to the link, the only surviving member of that illustrious fraternal grouping) whose arranging/composing skills took over his career, although he kept up a long-term sporadic partnership with other Brother Zoot Sims. A Brookmeyer composition – the title might give that away, perhaps, evocative of an earlier era in jazz that the trombonist always kept a foot and a large piece of his heart in. Good solos all round - including a crystal clear Mose Allison, playing a sideman's role here, rocked along nicely by some punchy drumming from Nick Stabulas and Teddy Kotick's masterfully sprung bass. To say this is solidly swinging and satisfying would be to under-praise it (in a wreckless splash of unintentionally Miltonic sibilance - hissing 'like Medusa's head in wrath' indeed as James Russell Lowell says here... [long scroll down]). The interest for me in selecting these tracks is that, given the haphazard way I pick them, how fascinating it is to let them bounce off each other in such a spontaneous way. I can't help but compare 'Lazy Man Stomp' to the Altschul piece above, given the similar ensemble - trombone and tenor plus rhythm section - this is much clearer, oddly more space allowed for the music, much as I like the other recording. And the drumming is equally as forceful here...

Sonny and Brownie – 'Stranger Blues.' That fine-sprung bounce of Brownie's guitar leads them in after a brief spoken delineation, with Terry's harmonica running across like an effervescent hound dog in the breaks between their matched vocals, also punctuated by Sonny's high woops. By the time this was recorded in the sixties they had fine-honed their style – but it works so well. I saw them a couple of years later in London, headlining a big blues show and they were wonderful. And in Dublin on what was their last European tour together, must have been in the late seventies. They were still great...

Barry Altshul
Barry Altshul (d) Sam Rivers (ts) George Lewis (tr) Muhal Richard Abrams (p) Dave Holland (b)
You can't name your own tune

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Shelley Manne
Shelley Manne (d) Shorty Rogers (t) Jimmy Guiffre (ts, cl, bs)
Abstract No 1
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Cecil Taylor
Archie Shepp (ts) Cecil Taylor (p, cel) Buell Neidlinger (b) Denis Charles (d)
I forgot take one
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Al Cohn/Bob Brookmeyer
Al Cohn (ts) Bob Brookmeyer (tr) Mose Allison (p) Teddy Kotick (b) Nick Stabulas (d)
Lazy Man Stomp
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Sonny Terry (v, hca) Brownie McGhee (g, v)
Stranger Blues
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Stan Getz/Bob Brookmeyer... Sonny Rollins... Jimmy Lyons... George Adams/Don Pullen

Coming in for a fast hit today...

Introduced by Stan the Man, this is 'Polka Dots and Moonbeams' from the classic 1954 album 'Live at the Shrine.' An easy swing through this ballad, Getz solos first, elegant and smooth. Brookmeyer next, a more bluff tone via the valve trombone, backed by obbligato from the sax - then they start to spin lines off each other, moving through an unaccompanied coda up to the end. Short, pithy and rather beautiful.

Another ballad, another 1954 track, this is Sonny Rollins' take on 'More than you know.' Late night, bleary sax, you could imagine Sinatra sat somewhere nursing a whiskey, replete in raincoat and that iconic hat. Thelonious Monk comps succinctly, feeding a gnarled arpeggio here and there as Rollins starts to dig in. The pianist takes the next solo, thoughtful and probing, his unexpected intervallic leaps and flinty chordal voicings giving some edge. Low to mid-register mainly, keeping the sombre mood. Rollins returns to take it out... A classic...

Rollins again - another ballad, same year, different rhythm section. 'Silk N'Satin.' As befits the title, a smooth and sensual reading. But big and powerful tone, muscular all the same... Elmo Hope eases in, delivers some rippling fluid lines (compare to Monk in the previous track). Rollins again, with an odd muffled afterthought of a trumpet obbligato which sounds as if it's in another room, from Kenny Dorham.

Moving on a few years... the late Jimmy Lyons, from a live trio session with Sunny Murray and John Lindberg. Consider the space that had become available by now for the three musicians - this is the curtly titled 'Riffs #5.' Alto swirls in with melodic fragments, followed closely by the bass, speedy playing across the registers as Murray's cymbals ebb and flow. On one line of progress, a light year away from 1954 - yet there was always a touch of Lyon's original master, Charlie Parker, residing in his playing, with some oddly boppish touches and the sheer brave-hearted dash of it all. Getting pretty frenetic with high-register squawks, but you always know he has complete control over his instrument. A master himself, fascinating to hear in this piano-less setting, away from his long-time bandleader Cecil Taylor. Murray takes a brief stomping coda then out to applause.

To end on: another live belter. George Adams and Don Pullen from 'Live at the Village Vanguard Vol 1.' 'Intentions.' And their intentions here are evident from the start - coming fast out of the traps, building up to a full-scale fire storm. Adams first record was with Roy Haynes, but he arguably made his bones with the Mingus band. Plus a few stints with Gil Evans... Hooking up with Don Pullen (who also played with Mingus)to form a great quartet in the 80's, the connection with the bassist/composer is maintained by the presence of Danny Richmond on drums, on fine unfettered form throughout. Cameron Brown in the bass chair, fluid and driving. Adams, an extremely underrated player, skids up and down his saxophone, deep honk to high squeal, entwining himself in tight melodic knots to suddenly bound free, chased by the bass, drums and thumping piano. Pullen solos, treble single notes stretched across jabbing left hand, then those swirling clusters, his trademark, jumping across the styles and the years to bend them all into his individual over-arching paradigm. Cameron Brown now, mobile melodic grace. Adams returns to lead off the exchange of eights that ratchets up the energy even further.

In the Videodrome...


Adams and Pullen quartet...

Adams and Pullen (with Lewis Nash replacing Danny R)...

George Adams does the Blues March... positively stunning...


Stan Getz/Bob Brookmeyer
Bob Brookmeyer (vtb) Stan Getz (ts) John Williams (p) Bill Anthony (b) Art Madigan (d)
Polka Dots and Moonbeams
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Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Thelonious Monk (p) Tommy Potter (b) Art Taylor (d)
More than you know
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Sonny Rollins (ts) Kenny Dorham (t) Elmo Hope (p) Percy Heath (b) Art Blakey (d)
Silk N Satin
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Jimmy Lyons/Sunny Murray
Jimmy Lyons (as) John Lindberg (b) Sunny Murray (d)
Riffs # 5
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George Adams/Don Pullen
George Adams (ts) Don Pullen (p) Cameron Brown (b) Danny Richmond (d)
Intentions
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