I can't seem to settle into any blogging rhythm at the moment... back from London last Monday after the wonderful Rollins concert weekend (and pissed off that I missed Sunburned Hand of the Man on Sunday because I hadn't checked the listings), then back again to London yesterday, returning late... Still, things are quietening down for a few days (until next week's double dose of the Akron Family, tuesday and wednesday - woot woot!) so... where were we?
Godoggo mentioned in a recent comment that he liked this track -'Hey Jude,' by the Don Ellis big band, live from the Fillmore in 1970. Ellis had been using electronics for a couple of years with this group, alongside a heavy emphasis on unusual time signatures. This starts out in a different soundscape to the usual one jazz inhabited – nearer the heavy processed sonics of psychedelic rock – not sure if the trumpet is the source, probably was, by the sound of the breathy bits, but the sound is bent and shaped away from conventional acoustic tibres. Leading into the theme, played by distorted guitar and a deliberately corny pit band sound (echoes of 'Sergeant Pepper?) before the orchestra fully take it up in a brass-laden back beat. They all drop out for Ellis to solo with his echoplex setting up chasing, conflicting and complementing lines. Going into a jaunty march that disappears in the reverberations. A seriously weird rendition of the Beatles tune – which I have always hated, so, for me, this is a great taking apart (or deconstruction, if you must) of the bugger. Finally going into that runout with le tout ensemble on jazz time at last as Ellis splutters over them. Mucho rapturous applause... if the Fillmore audience had their collective hands on good drugs that night this must have seemed probably more amazing than it was. Fascinating stuff, all the same. Contrast and compare with Miles when he started running the electronic voodoo down.
A change of pace... Duke Ellington in a small band setting: Swing veteran Harry 'Sweets' Edison and Johnny Hodges, Ellington's long-time band member, man the front-line. This is 'Beale Street Blues, the old Handy number, a hybrid of ballad and blues, twelve bars, eight, then twelve, recorded in 1959. Duke leads in, Hodges takes the first strain, Edison the next, tightly muted, then Hodges and Hodges call and reply across the the third section. Hodges solos with a strong bluesy edge despite the smoothness of his instantly recognisable alto, steel concealed in velvet. Duke next, in parsimonious mood, spare and spartan. Spann comes up with his guitar - some Montgomeryesque octaves in the last chorus. Edison rides and bends a riff and goes into nice paraphrase of the theme in the second chorus, ending on spaced out trumpet smears before he becomes more expansive. A sequence of fours with Hodges to end. The whole moving along like a fine-tuned limousine, subtle and swinging. What we used to call mainstream, back when...
And more Sonny Rollins, as a memento of last week. so here's the man from 1956, with a band under his name which is, in effect, the Clifford Brown/Max Roach quintet he was playing with round that time – with Brownie dropping out on this short track 'Count your blessings instead of sheep.' A steady tempo and straight in, the theme being elaborated on in the first chorus, then Powell takes a swirly solo, what seems a slight hesitation and prod from Roach then Rollins back to play just one superb chorus and out. Sublime.
Elmo Hope, from 1959, playing with bass and drums, 'Like someone in love.' Sonny Rollins, his old sidekick, had some nice things to say about him on BBC Radio 3 last week. (Follow the links for 'Jazz Library' here). A sombre reading as Hope explores the standard carefully, mixing space and time by his use of silence, becoming more linear as he expands his lines further. Jimmy Bond takes a thoughtful solo, letting his single notes ring. All sewn together by the underrated Frank Butler...
Don Ellis
Don Ellis (t,d) Stuart Blumberg, Jack Coan, John Rosenberg, Glenn Stuart (t) John Klemmer, John Clark, Sam Faizone, Fred Seldon, Lonnie Shetter (s, ww) Ernie Carlson, Glen Ferris (tr) Don Switzer (b-tr) Tom Garvin (p) Doug Bixby (b, tuba) Don Quigley (tuba) Jay Graydon (g) Dennis Parker (b)Ralph Humphrey (d) Ronnie Dunn (d, perc) Lee Pastora (conga)
Hey Jude
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Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington (p) Harry 'Sweets' Edison (t) Johnny Hodges (as) Les Spann Al Hall, Sam Jones (b) Jo Jones (d)
Beale Street Blues
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Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Richie Powell (p) George Morrow (b) Max Roach (d)
Count your blessings instead of sheep
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Elmo Hope
Elmo Hope (p) Jimmy Bond (b) Frank Butler (d)
Like someone in love
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Showing posts with label Sonny Rollins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sonny Rollins. Show all posts
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sonny Rollins at the Barbican, London, Saturday 24th November, 2007
The compere : 'Two Words: Sonny Rollins.' On came a frail, stooped man, seemingly bent under the weight of his tenor saxophone. But as soon as he started playing... you forgot the years and the weight and drag of straight time. Over the next two sets, Mr Rollins was to defy gravity and more than fulfil the expectations of the packed, sold-out house at the Barbican. He opened on a somewhat fragmented 'In a Sentimental Mood,' moving round the stage to cue his band as he did throughout with a jab or two of notes – the same scenario throughout where solos were prodded by a small interchange with the chosen musician until the leader would drop out and leave them to play. An odd lineup, but it worked – electric bass, electric guitar, drums and percussionist and trombone – all of whom took some solo space and acquitted themselves well, but looked to their main task - which was to provide the setting for their leader. Cranshaw took only one solo, a fleet scamper round his bass early on, Bobby Broom, albeit his sound seemed a bit muffled, a couple of hurtling, note tumbling efforts, linear and asymmetrically interesting with a bluesier edge creeping in during the calypso in the second set. On the first tune of the night, the percussionist Kimeti Dimizulu scattered chimes and shakers with a filigree shimmer that seemed at first to be out of place – but as the number slowly settled down and over the two sets, you saw how integral he was to Rollins' conception and he took a couple of neat solos. Jerome Jennings held it all together, brush work and stick as necessary, taking his own space in the spotlight late on in the second set, after a couple of briefer efforts where he traded with the leader, moving between quiet patter and louder hurtling rhythms over a classic bophihat ticking on two and four. Clifton Thornton gave solid support in the front line, themes and obbligatos, but also took a couple of rip-snorting solos that showed some fire and finesse. The material – standards, one from Duke (Sentimental), a couple of calypsos where the drum/percussion unit came into its own, a wry but heartfelt 'White Cliffs of Dover,' fragments of which Rollins wove into the last song – another rocking, rolling calypso.
And Sonny Rollins? His voice displayed his 77 years in his announcements, showing a fragile grace – but his tenor playing drew on wider and deeper powers. He was magnificent, still searching for new ways to twist a melody through a harmonic filter – and beyond. Defying the years, it was if he was channeling the whole freight of the traditions he came from – especially on the calypsos, with their cyclic, stripped down harmonies that seemed to offer him more space to blow like a demon, rough bluesy honks where he rode a single note like an r and b tenor shouter of old interlaced with long, breath-defying passages that veered suddenly into dense chromatic flurries that echoed the moves of free jazz. Playing from his position within the music, he veered across and beyond those established spaces, the occasional reed squeak adding to the intensity of the long searches through each song. No disrespect to his cohorts, but his playing was of another order. You were watching one of the great jazz musicians in action, offering no safety net but a performance dedicated to the difficult and demanding art of improvisation that he has followed so rigorously for so long. As he said at one point, 'Let's see if we can find something fresh in this,' referring to a song that he first recorded way back. He did...
At the end of the night, a long and passionate ovation finally drew him back briefly to wave a two-handed salute in acknowledgment before disappearing. The man had blown his heart and soul out for us – his wave was enough of an encore...
And Sonny Rollins? His voice displayed his 77 years in his announcements, showing a fragile grace – but his tenor playing drew on wider and deeper powers. He was magnificent, still searching for new ways to twist a melody through a harmonic filter – and beyond. Defying the years, it was if he was channeling the whole freight of the traditions he came from – especially on the calypsos, with their cyclic, stripped down harmonies that seemed to offer him more space to blow like a demon, rough bluesy honks where he rode a single note like an r and b tenor shouter of old interlaced with long, breath-defying passages that veered suddenly into dense chromatic flurries that echoed the moves of free jazz. Playing from his position within the music, he veered across and beyond those established spaces, the occasional reed squeak adding to the intensity of the long searches through each song. No disrespect to his cohorts, but his playing was of another order. You were watching one of the great jazz musicians in action, offering no safety net but a performance dedicated to the difficult and demanding art of improvisation that he has followed so rigorously for so long. As he said at one point, 'Let's see if we can find something fresh in this,' referring to a song that he first recorded way back. He did...
At the end of the night, a long and passionate ovation finally drew him back briefly to wave a two-handed salute in acknowledgment before disappearing. The man had blown his heart and soul out for us – his wave was enough of an encore...
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Don Ellis... Clifford Brown/Max Roach... Harold Land... Sonny Rollins
"Despair to Hope" from Don Ellis's 1961 album 'New Ideas' features improvisation based on 'an emotional framework, rather than a musical one.' Ellis provided a detailed explanation of his approach in the album's liner notes:
"The inspiration for 'Despair to Hope' came while listening to a John Cage concert. The concert tended to make one more aware of the music in the sounds surrounding us in our daily living, but I had the feeling that jazz musicians, given the conception, could do much more with the indeterminacy principle involved.
One of the pieces, 'Cartridge Music,' was performed by Mr. Cage and David Tudor. They had cards to which they referred, presumably for directions. This to me, is 'controlled' indeterminacy, which is an extension of something which has been taking place in music for a long time. It seemed valid to take Cage's idea one step further and not predetermine anything except the performers and their instruments. The idea of having planned cards with predetermined choices seemed too rigid. If the performers had more freedom they would be able to interact with the audience even more – giving a heightened dimension. Classical musicians, I reasoned, are not trained for this type of extemporizing today, but jazz musicians are. Why not see what could be done? A great deal in jazz has always been left up to chance, but a framework of some sort was always in use (whether written, or stylized by custom).
Al Francis and I tried improvising a duet with just free associations. This was not satisfying to me. I needed to hear more of an overall direction than aimless rambling. The idea of using an emotional framework, rather than a musical one occurred to me. We tried it once keeping in mind the thought of progressing from despair to hope. It 'happened.' I did not try it again before the record date for fear of establishing any set musical routine. When we came into the studio, this was the first thing recorded. Other than the emotional framework and the instruments and means at our disposal nothing was planned. We did one take." (From here... ).
Cor blimey... But this is a fascinating track. Starting in 'Despair,'one assumes, slow muted trumpet over odd rattles and chimes from the vibes, Ellis bending his notes quizzically. A drifting, weary feel, with the odd sudden eruption from Francis – then a long trumpet glissando that turns into a whinny and then something that sounds like a swanee whistle(?). Marking the transition (somewhat annoyingly - an echo of the clarinet upward sweep in Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' - which I have never liked)to 'Hope,' one supposes. Francis is the more interesting player for me and I find it difficult to assess this piece – but at the time it must have sounded downright weird at the time of recording and release. Nearly fifty years on, strangely enough, it would sit easily with a lot of European improv – far from the groove and snap which was retained in however a disguised fashion in the fire musics of the sixties, this is more concerned with sound texture and space. Ellis is another of the 'forgotten,' whose career spanned the fifties to seventies and the upheavals therein. Probably better known for his later big band experiments, which interestingly predate Miles' immersion in electronics and his twist on rock (Ellis was using an echoplexed trumpet in 1967, for example), which used many different time signatures – out-Brubeckian Brubeck... Which I must dig out sometime... Something of the Stan Kenton about him in his dogged, dogmatic approach – but whichever way it falls, he was a superb trumpet player.
A truly great trumpeter, cut down in his prime – was Clifford Brown. Heard here with the band he co-led with the mighty Max Roach, playing a fast version of Duke's 'Take the A Train.' Solos lead off with Harold Land, then Brownie, who always seemed to have so much time at his disposal even at fast tempos. Richie Powell fleet and boppy, then a few exchanges with the drummer – Max letting it rip in stunning controlled bursts. Going out on a programmatic train hoot and simulated engine slowdown. Corny, perhaps – but a sparkling track overall.
Harold Land went on to record 'The Fox' under his own name in 1959. Here is 'Mirror Mind Rose,' which was composed by the pianist on the date, Elmo Hope. Dupree Bolton leads off on this ballad, followed by Land as the slow swaying beat is marked out by the bass and the horns commence to entwine. Land off first to solo, eloquent and probing, to stop suddenly and let Bolton take over for a brief outing before Hope explores his theme, a clenched solo with occasional sudden hard chorded eruptions. Bolton and Land return to spell out the winding melody... Mysterioso...
Freedom means different things to different people at different times. When Sonny Rollins recorded 'Freedom Suite,' in 1958, his original angry comments, directed at racialism in the U.S., were dropped from the sleevenotes and replaced by a more oblique essay by Orrin Keepnews that emphasized artistic rather than political/social freedom. The music was/is ground-breaking, expanding the tradition from within and sending out ripples which are still visible. Rollins explores several themes at length, binding the whole by his melodic virtuosity as Pettiford and Roach dance and weave round him in glorious interaction, switching from four four to waltz time and back. The bass takes a couple of fleetly linear solos and Max is a revelation throughout. In the slow sections, Rollins' horn has a keening, yearning edge to it that hits you right where it should do... When the tempo is up, his sure-footed and rolling command of his instrument bursts through in all its glory. This session took the game further on, out of bop and hard bop to hint at the wider vistas to come...
“America is deeply rooted in Negro culture: its colloquialisms; its humor; its music. How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America's culture as his own, is being persecuted and repressed; that the Negro, who has exemplified the humanities in his very existence, is being rewarded with inhumanity." (From Rollins' original notes, quoted here... an interesting article by Marshall Bowden about the original recording and the recent take on it by David S. Ware).
This last selection is a taster for Saturday night: I'm off to London for the weekend, mainly to see Sonny at the Barbican - the first time I have ever heard him play live. Part of a somewhat lacklustre London Jazz Festival... A recent interview here gives a flavour of what is to come... and what drives him still...
In the Videodrome...
Newk and Don...
Don Ellis big band play 'New Horizons'...
Bouncing with Bud Powell - 'Anthropology'...
... and 'Round Midnight.'
Don Ellis
Don Ellis (t) Al Francis (vib)
Despair to Hope
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Clifford Brown/Max Roach
Clifford Brown (t) Harold Land (ts) Richie Powell (p) George Morrow (b) Max Roach (d)
Take the 'A' Train
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Harold Land
Harold Land (ts) Dupree Bolton (t) Elmo Hope (p) Herbie Lewis (b) Frank Butler (d)
Mirror Mind Rose
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Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Oscar Pettiford (b) Max Roach (d)
Freedom Suite
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"The inspiration for 'Despair to Hope' came while listening to a John Cage concert. The concert tended to make one more aware of the music in the sounds surrounding us in our daily living, but I had the feeling that jazz musicians, given the conception, could do much more with the indeterminacy principle involved.
One of the pieces, 'Cartridge Music,' was performed by Mr. Cage and David Tudor. They had cards to which they referred, presumably for directions. This to me, is 'controlled' indeterminacy, which is an extension of something which has been taking place in music for a long time. It seemed valid to take Cage's idea one step further and not predetermine anything except the performers and their instruments. The idea of having planned cards with predetermined choices seemed too rigid. If the performers had more freedom they would be able to interact with the audience even more – giving a heightened dimension. Classical musicians, I reasoned, are not trained for this type of extemporizing today, but jazz musicians are. Why not see what could be done? A great deal in jazz has always been left up to chance, but a framework of some sort was always in use (whether written, or stylized by custom).
Al Francis and I tried improvising a duet with just free associations. This was not satisfying to me. I needed to hear more of an overall direction than aimless rambling. The idea of using an emotional framework, rather than a musical one occurred to me. We tried it once keeping in mind the thought of progressing from despair to hope. It 'happened.' I did not try it again before the record date for fear of establishing any set musical routine. When we came into the studio, this was the first thing recorded. Other than the emotional framework and the instruments and means at our disposal nothing was planned. We did one take." (From here... ).
Cor blimey... But this is a fascinating track. Starting in 'Despair,'one assumes, slow muted trumpet over odd rattles and chimes from the vibes, Ellis bending his notes quizzically. A drifting, weary feel, with the odd sudden eruption from Francis – then a long trumpet glissando that turns into a whinny and then something that sounds like a swanee whistle(?). Marking the transition (somewhat annoyingly - an echo of the clarinet upward sweep in Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' - which I have never liked)to 'Hope,' one supposes. Francis is the more interesting player for me and I find it difficult to assess this piece – but at the time it must have sounded downright weird at the time of recording and release. Nearly fifty years on, strangely enough, it would sit easily with a lot of European improv – far from the groove and snap which was retained in however a disguised fashion in the fire musics of the sixties, this is more concerned with sound texture and space. Ellis is another of the 'forgotten,' whose career spanned the fifties to seventies and the upheavals therein. Probably better known for his later big band experiments, which interestingly predate Miles' immersion in electronics and his twist on rock (Ellis was using an echoplexed trumpet in 1967, for example), which used many different time signatures – out-Brubeckian Brubeck... Which I must dig out sometime... Something of the Stan Kenton about him in his dogged, dogmatic approach – but whichever way it falls, he was a superb trumpet player.
A truly great trumpeter, cut down in his prime – was Clifford Brown. Heard here with the band he co-led with the mighty Max Roach, playing a fast version of Duke's 'Take the A Train.' Solos lead off with Harold Land, then Brownie, who always seemed to have so much time at his disposal even at fast tempos. Richie Powell fleet and boppy, then a few exchanges with the drummer – Max letting it rip in stunning controlled bursts. Going out on a programmatic train hoot and simulated engine slowdown. Corny, perhaps – but a sparkling track overall.
Harold Land went on to record 'The Fox' under his own name in 1959. Here is 'Mirror Mind Rose,' which was composed by the pianist on the date, Elmo Hope. Dupree Bolton leads off on this ballad, followed by Land as the slow swaying beat is marked out by the bass and the horns commence to entwine. Land off first to solo, eloquent and probing, to stop suddenly and let Bolton take over for a brief outing before Hope explores his theme, a clenched solo with occasional sudden hard chorded eruptions. Bolton and Land return to spell out the winding melody... Mysterioso...
Freedom means different things to different people at different times. When Sonny Rollins recorded 'Freedom Suite,' in 1958, his original angry comments, directed at racialism in the U.S., were dropped from the sleevenotes and replaced by a more oblique essay by Orrin Keepnews that emphasized artistic rather than political/social freedom. The music was/is ground-breaking, expanding the tradition from within and sending out ripples which are still visible. Rollins explores several themes at length, binding the whole by his melodic virtuosity as Pettiford and Roach dance and weave round him in glorious interaction, switching from four four to waltz time and back. The bass takes a couple of fleetly linear solos and Max is a revelation throughout. In the slow sections, Rollins' horn has a keening, yearning edge to it that hits you right where it should do... When the tempo is up, his sure-footed and rolling command of his instrument bursts through in all its glory. This session took the game further on, out of bop and hard bop to hint at the wider vistas to come...
“America is deeply rooted in Negro culture: its colloquialisms; its humor; its music. How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America's culture as his own, is being persecuted and repressed; that the Negro, who has exemplified the humanities in his very existence, is being rewarded with inhumanity." (From Rollins' original notes, quoted here... an interesting article by Marshall Bowden about the original recording and the recent take on it by David S. Ware).
This last selection is a taster for Saturday night: I'm off to London for the weekend, mainly to see Sonny at the Barbican - the first time I have ever heard him play live. Part of a somewhat lacklustre London Jazz Festival... A recent interview here gives a flavour of what is to come... and what drives him still...
In the Videodrome...
Newk and Don...
Don Ellis big band play 'New Horizons'...
Bouncing with Bud Powell - 'Anthropology'...
... and 'Round Midnight.'
Don Ellis
Don Ellis (t) Al Francis (vib)
Despair to Hope
Download
Buy
Clifford Brown/Max Roach
Clifford Brown (t) Harold Land (ts) Richie Powell (p) George Morrow (b) Max Roach (d)
Take the 'A' Train
Download
Buy
Harold Land
Harold Land (ts) Dupree Bolton (t) Elmo Hope (p) Herbie Lewis (b) Frank Butler (d)
Mirror Mind Rose
Download
Buy
Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Oscar Pettiford (b) Max Roach (d)
Freedom Suite
Download
Buy
Sunday, October 28, 2007
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
Download
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
Download
Buy
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
Download
Buy
Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Thelonious Monk (p) Tommy Potter (b) Art Taylor (d)
More than you know
Download
Sonny Rollins (ts) Kenny Dorham (t) Elmo Hope (p) Percy Heath (b) Art Blakey (d)
Silk N Satin
Download
Buy
Jimmy Lyons/Sunny Murray
Jimmy Lyons (as) John Lindberg (b) Sunny Murray (d)
Riffs # 5
Download
Buy
George Adams/Don Pullen
George Adams (ts) Don Pullen (p) Cameron Brown (b) Danny Richmond (d)
Intentions
Download
Buy
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Charles Mingus... Tal Farlow... Cecil Taylor... Sonny Rollins
Mingus in 1960. A stunning quartet sans piano, bravura stuff all round:
'This ensemble featured the same instruments as Coleman's quartet, and is often regarded as Mingus rising to the challenging new standard established by Coleman.' (From here...)
'What love' begins as slow meditation before the impeccable Ted Curson takes a long solo, starting mournful – a flamenco/spanish edge to it - becoming more jaunty with wonderful spiralling runs, over changing rhythms. Mingus next up, fast runs and pauses, a single note poked at several times – this is like eavesdropping on someone's private thoughts. Dolphy sidles in with low sinister bass clarinet before engaging in conversation with the leader. Richmond's cymbals join them then drums as the rhythm sort of staggers out – start stop start stop. One of the defining characteristics of 'jazz' was/is the manner in which instrumental tone was 'vocalised.' Here, you can hear them talking to each other, Dolphy especially hilarious as he imitates the rise and fall of a quizzical speech cadence. Answered by Mingus. They sound like a bickering couple. Funny and thought-provokingly brilliant – Mingus always painted on a broad canvas.
Linked to Mingus by his time with the Red Norvo trio, just before he branched out on his own, Talmadge Holt Farlow, a genius of modern jazz guitar, was something of an enigma. At the height of his fame, he dropped out of the profession and returned to his original career as sign-painter. Although he surfaced in later years (and sadly died of cancer in 1998), that return to small-town life has probably taken him off the radar for many. Listen to his blistering runs and odd phrases on 'Just one of those things.' It wasn't, believe me... Classic small combo modern jazz - he's well-supported by Red Mitchell and Stan Levy. Claude Williamson takes a matchingly fleet solo.
Cecil Taylor again. I like him... From his first album 'Jazz Advance,' and boy, it certainly was, 'Song,' featuring Steve Lacy on soprano saxophone. Now, this was recorded in 1956, the bass is solid, the drums unobtrusive, not stretched into the new pulses and time continua to come. Yet Taylor takes off in places to hint at what was not far round the corner. His piano fairly romps and stomps in places, blatting out clusters and dense runs. Lacy is cool, holding his own ground, seemingly unfazed by the surrounding furore.To have stepped out of Dixieland into this music was an interesting manoevre, to say the least. There is a wonderful freshness to this track, still retaining the virginal energies of its conception as new territories were joyfully explored. Hearing old masters still playing with youthful fire has been a special privilege the last couple of years - yet how much more thrilling must it have been for those who caught it the first time round...
Finally... Sonny Rollins. 'We kiss in a shadow,' taken from the ever-fascinating album 'East Broadway Rundown' that he recorded with Coltrane's rhythm section. (Freddy Hubbard was also on the session but only for one track). Contrast and compare time... Rollins, despite his own undeniable brilliance, lived so much in the shadow of Coltrane, despite out-living him and becoming a celebrated elder stateman of the tenor – perhaps we should consider these musicians more in the spirit of 'both/and' rather than 'either/or.' Partisanship is fine – and I am a stone archetypal fan in the sense of fanatic for a variety of musics. But it can get out of hand and lead to neglect of important contributors... Certainly in jazz... I'm thinking about figures like Jimmy Giuffre perhaps, or Lennie Tristano – or the sombre reality of being a genius unrecognised and unrewarded as in the case of the trombonist/free improvisor Paul Rutherford, who died earlier this week. Some bitter irony in the coverage of his death – I just noticed this extensive obit in the Guardian today by Richard Williams – as compared to the obscurity of much of his recent life, which poses many questions about how such cases of economic and artistic neglect can be dealt with – if at all... Ending on a sombre note – but it's a sad tale...
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus (b) Eric Dolphy (b-cl) Ted Curson (t) Danny Richmond (d)
What Love
Download
Buy
Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow (g) Claude Williamson (p) Red Mitchell (b) Stan Levy (d)
Just one of those things
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor (p) Steve Lacy (ss) Buell Neidlinger (b) Dennis Charles (d)
Song
Download
Buy
Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Jimmy Garrison (b) Elvin Jones (d)
We kiss in a shadow
Download
Buy
'This ensemble featured the same instruments as Coleman's quartet, and is often regarded as Mingus rising to the challenging new standard established by Coleman.' (From here...)
'What love' begins as slow meditation before the impeccable Ted Curson takes a long solo, starting mournful – a flamenco/spanish edge to it - becoming more jaunty with wonderful spiralling runs, over changing rhythms. Mingus next up, fast runs and pauses, a single note poked at several times – this is like eavesdropping on someone's private thoughts. Dolphy sidles in with low sinister bass clarinet before engaging in conversation with the leader. Richmond's cymbals join them then drums as the rhythm sort of staggers out – start stop start stop. One of the defining characteristics of 'jazz' was/is the manner in which instrumental tone was 'vocalised.' Here, you can hear them talking to each other, Dolphy especially hilarious as he imitates the rise and fall of a quizzical speech cadence. Answered by Mingus. They sound like a bickering couple. Funny and thought-provokingly brilliant – Mingus always painted on a broad canvas.
Linked to Mingus by his time with the Red Norvo trio, just before he branched out on his own, Talmadge Holt Farlow, a genius of modern jazz guitar, was something of an enigma. At the height of his fame, he dropped out of the profession and returned to his original career as sign-painter. Although he surfaced in later years (and sadly died of cancer in 1998), that return to small-town life has probably taken him off the radar for many. Listen to his blistering runs and odd phrases on 'Just one of those things.' It wasn't, believe me... Classic small combo modern jazz - he's well-supported by Red Mitchell and Stan Levy. Claude Williamson takes a matchingly fleet solo.
Cecil Taylor again. I like him... From his first album 'Jazz Advance,' and boy, it certainly was, 'Song,' featuring Steve Lacy on soprano saxophone. Now, this was recorded in 1956, the bass is solid, the drums unobtrusive, not stretched into the new pulses and time continua to come. Yet Taylor takes off in places to hint at what was not far round the corner. His piano fairly romps and stomps in places, blatting out clusters and dense runs. Lacy is cool, holding his own ground, seemingly unfazed by the surrounding furore.To have stepped out of Dixieland into this music was an interesting manoevre, to say the least. There is a wonderful freshness to this track, still retaining the virginal energies of its conception as new territories were joyfully explored. Hearing old masters still playing with youthful fire has been a special privilege the last couple of years - yet how much more thrilling must it have been for those who caught it the first time round...
Finally... Sonny Rollins. 'We kiss in a shadow,' taken from the ever-fascinating album 'East Broadway Rundown' that he recorded with Coltrane's rhythm section. (Freddy Hubbard was also on the session but only for one track). Contrast and compare time... Rollins, despite his own undeniable brilliance, lived so much in the shadow of Coltrane, despite out-living him and becoming a celebrated elder stateman of the tenor – perhaps we should consider these musicians more in the spirit of 'both/and' rather than 'either/or.' Partisanship is fine – and I am a stone archetypal fan in the sense of fanatic for a variety of musics. But it can get out of hand and lead to neglect of important contributors... Certainly in jazz... I'm thinking about figures like Jimmy Giuffre perhaps, or Lennie Tristano – or the sombre reality of being a genius unrecognised and unrewarded as in the case of the trombonist/free improvisor Paul Rutherford, who died earlier this week. Some bitter irony in the coverage of his death – I just noticed this extensive obit in the Guardian today by Richard Williams – as compared to the obscurity of much of his recent life, which poses many questions about how such cases of economic and artistic neglect can be dealt with – if at all... Ending on a sombre note – but it's a sad tale...
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus (b) Eric Dolphy (b-cl) Ted Curson (t) Danny Richmond (d)
What Love
Download
Buy
Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow (g) Claude Williamson (p) Red Mitchell (b) Stan Levy (d)
Just one of those things
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor (p) Steve Lacy (ss) Buell Neidlinger (b) Dennis Charles (d)
Song
Download
Buy
Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Jimmy Garrison (b) Elvin Jones (d)
We kiss in a shadow
Download
Buy
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Thelonious Monk/Gigi Gryce... Sonny Rollins... Joe Morris... Blind Lemon Jefferson... Bob Wills...
'Brake's Sake' is a less well-known Thelonious Monk composition, taken from an album under Gigi Gryce's name (who played alto saxophone on this date). Recorded in 1955 – the golden age of Monk, perhaps, when everything was still fresh. Gryce states the theme shadowed rhythmically by Monk. An appealing player, the altoist was to become better known for his composing skills. The higher range of his saxophone gives an airier feel than usual (Monk's bands were usually fronted by tenor players). Monk takes a sparkling solo, expanding the theme in his usual asymmetric manner – Blakey and Heath are steady as you go – with the drummer letting go a few figures towards the end to mark his presence...
Sonny Rollins: 'Someday I'll find you,' taken from his 1958 album, 'The Freedom Suite.' Recorded at a time when cultural and political freedoms were to become a dominating issue in American life. Yet a corollary musical freedom breathes throughout – one of the roads out of the bop box was taken by many in the fifties with the decision to drop the piano – I've talked about before about Gerry Mulligan, Jimmy Giuffre – and the most famous piano-less quartet of Ornette Coleman's – here Rollins follows suit. (No pun intended). So: different but related takes on freedom - read more here about the liner notes - Rollins original, concerned with explicit oppression and Orrin Keepnews more distanced take that moves the focus to themusical search for freedom, which was the one used by the record company. In itself, a reflection on the times... This version of an old Noel Coward song opens on a bouncing three four, with much pattering of clenched hihat from Roach, before settling into a sturdy four four. Anchored by the bass, Rollins and Roach take it out, the drummer especially busy, giving the saxophonist plenty of rhythmic stimulation. Sax and drums exchange tight one bar to and fro before the theme restatement. 'Someday I'll find you, moonlight behind you, true to the dream I am dreaming.'
More from Joe Morris's solo acoustic guitar album, 'Singularity.' This is 'Flight,' another exercise in stripped-down abrasive purity. Probing and grittily dissonant... Morris displays his mastery with his ranging runs up and down the neck of his instrument – at one point a brief section of fast-strummed chords gives a distant echo of Derek Bailey...
If you wanted portability and easy moving, a guitar was your instrument – capable of accompaniment for vocals and instrumental work – or the two combined. The early country blues singers evolved a style that still cuts and also demonstrates various enduring elements of african-american music/culture. There is a loose freedom to the blues before it became more codified, (although in the public domain, one could argue it was already set in form quite early on, via W.C. Handy et al), a spirit that I think returns, in a more explicit way, with the avant-garde in the sixties. Here's Blind Lemon Jefferson with the old staple 'Easy Rider Blues.' The form allows for considerable space where the guitar echoes and answers the voice in an ongoing dialogue... Those who regard(ed) this music as 'primitive' and count the bars to see when the canonic twelve are overridden are maybe missing a point - 'form is never more than an expression of content, ' after all, if you follow Creeley - via Olson...(Quote from here... I also like the revamp from Denis Levertov: 'Form is never more than a revelation of content.' (Quoted from here... scroll down...
For no other reason than it's on my hard drive, but there is a relationship – Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys http://www.texasplayboys.net/Biographies/bobwillsbio.htm like Blind Lemon, came from the Lone Star State. Music for dancing and fun – there's a joyful exuberance to Wills' music. And I have a kind of theory that the manner in which his bands stacked styles – country, dixieland/jazz, folk etc. - into a newly minted whole, while expressing the vitality and cross-fertilisations of Texas musics – in a way fore-runs Ornette Coleman's Prime Time bands... something in the soil? Or the air... Wills had a gig early on at the Crystal Ballroom in Fort Worth, if I remember correctly, toured all over and would also have been heard on radio throughout the south west... Here you have hoe-down fiddles, jazzy piano and electric guitar, countrified vocals and the inimitable Wills' high-piched yiha interjections: 'Aw, Brother Al Strickland now.' Stay all night, stay a little longer...
In the Videodrome...
Bob Wills and 'Ida Red'
Ornette in 1980...
and in 1974...
...and some immaculate T Bone Walker...
Gigi Gryce/Thelonious Monk
Gig Gryce (as) Thelonious Monk (p) Percy Heath (b) Art Blakey (d)
Brake's Sake
Download
Buy
Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Oscar Pettiford (b) Max Roach (d)
Someday I'll find you
Download
Buy
Joe Morris (g)
Light
Download
Buy
Blind Lemon Jefferson (g, v)
Easy Rider Blues
Download
Buy
Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Download
Buy
Sonny Rollins: 'Someday I'll find you,' taken from his 1958 album, 'The Freedom Suite.' Recorded at a time when cultural and political freedoms were to become a dominating issue in American life. Yet a corollary musical freedom breathes throughout – one of the roads out of the bop box was taken by many in the fifties with the decision to drop the piano – I've talked about before about Gerry Mulligan, Jimmy Giuffre – and the most famous piano-less quartet of Ornette Coleman's – here Rollins follows suit. (No pun intended). So: different but related takes on freedom - read more here about the liner notes - Rollins original, concerned with explicit oppression and Orrin Keepnews more distanced take that moves the focus to themusical search for freedom, which was the one used by the record company. In itself, a reflection on the times... This version of an old Noel Coward song opens on a bouncing three four, with much pattering of clenched hihat from Roach, before settling into a sturdy four four. Anchored by the bass, Rollins and Roach take it out, the drummer especially busy, giving the saxophonist plenty of rhythmic stimulation. Sax and drums exchange tight one bar to and fro before the theme restatement. 'Someday I'll find you, moonlight behind you, true to the dream I am dreaming.'
More from Joe Morris's solo acoustic guitar album, 'Singularity.' This is 'Flight,' another exercise in stripped-down abrasive purity. Probing and grittily dissonant... Morris displays his mastery with his ranging runs up and down the neck of his instrument – at one point a brief section of fast-strummed chords gives a distant echo of Derek Bailey...
If you wanted portability and easy moving, a guitar was your instrument – capable of accompaniment for vocals and instrumental work – or the two combined. The early country blues singers evolved a style that still cuts and also demonstrates various enduring elements of african-american music/culture. There is a loose freedom to the blues before it became more codified, (although in the public domain, one could argue it was already set in form quite early on, via W.C. Handy et al), a spirit that I think returns, in a more explicit way, with the avant-garde in the sixties. Here's Blind Lemon Jefferson with the old staple 'Easy Rider Blues.' The form allows for considerable space where the guitar echoes and answers the voice in an ongoing dialogue... Those who regard(ed) this music as 'primitive' and count the bars to see when the canonic twelve are overridden are maybe missing a point - 'form is never more than an expression of content, ' after all, if you follow Creeley - via Olson...(Quote from here... I also like the revamp from Denis Levertov: 'Form is never more than a revelation of content.' (Quoted from here... scroll down...
For no other reason than it's on my hard drive, but there is a relationship – Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys http://www.texasplayboys.net/Biographies/bobwillsbio.htm like Blind Lemon, came from the Lone Star State. Music for dancing and fun – there's a joyful exuberance to Wills' music. And I have a kind of theory that the manner in which his bands stacked styles – country, dixieland/jazz, folk etc. - into a newly minted whole, while expressing the vitality and cross-fertilisations of Texas musics – in a way fore-runs Ornette Coleman's Prime Time bands... something in the soil? Or the air... Wills had a gig early on at the Crystal Ballroom in Fort Worth, if I remember correctly, toured all over and would also have been heard on radio throughout the south west... Here you have hoe-down fiddles, jazzy piano and electric guitar, countrified vocals and the inimitable Wills' high-piched yiha interjections: 'Aw, Brother Al Strickland now.' Stay all night, stay a little longer...
In the Videodrome...
Bob Wills and 'Ida Red'
Ornette in 1980...
and in 1974...
...and some immaculate T Bone Walker...
Gigi Gryce/Thelonious Monk
Gig Gryce (as) Thelonious Monk (p) Percy Heath (b) Art Blakey (d)
Brake's Sake
Download
Buy
Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Oscar Pettiford (b) Max Roach (d)
Someday I'll find you
Download
Buy
Joe Morris (g)
Light
Download
Buy
Blind Lemon Jefferson (g, v)
Easy Rider Blues
Download
Buy
Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Download
Buy
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