Art Tatum... James Emery... Oliver Nelson... Amina Claudine Myers... Bessie Smith

Art Tatum steps elegantly into 'A Foggy Day,' followed by the sour-sweet alto of Bennie Carter. From the album 'Tatum Group Masterpieces, Volume One,' a classic track. Carter is magisterial, imperious even, one of the great saxophonists in jazz, yet one perhaps overshadowed by Bird and Johnny Hodges on alto, perhaps because of his long time spent in the studios as an in-demand arranger. The evidence for his real standing speaks out in the theme statements and solos... Good overview of his astoundingly long career here...
Tatum still causes critical splits, with some not able to enter his sound-world of overwhelming, swirling, rapidfire piano. Me – I love him. You can hear his stride influences clearly here, overlaid with diamond-sharp runs and harmonic disruptions, Carter, however, well able to stand up to the gale force. Louis Bellson keeps it ticking over. I've often seen Tatum as the father, not just of the bop piano players, but of free jazz firebrand Cecil Taylor. Max Roach makes the same point, sort of:

'“Now you have people... who preserve the tradition. And then there are people who push forward, who perpetuate the continuum by trying out things. Cecil Taylor is more like Art Tatum than a guy who plays like Tatum. It may not always come off, but that’s what creativity’s about. .' (From here... )

Swooning, vertiginous bass introduces James Emery's '4 Quartets Fugitive Items,' taken from the 2003 release, 'Transformations.' Throughout, the bass keeps a strong jazz reference going underneath the more 'third-stream' writing and European nuances. Emery has a unique touch on guitar, spidering his finger-buster angular runs throughout in sudden dashes of cool brilliance. An interesting composition which allows space for Tony Coe, Franz Kogelman and the bass player, Peter Herbert to demonstrate their ease of performance with this complex music. I originally came across James Emery with the String Trio of New York way back – with Billy Bang and John Lindberg – playing similar chamber jazz – with a similar steely heart.

Oliver Nelson and company play 'The Meeting,' from the album 'Screamin' the Blues.' A soul-jazz feel to the swaying gospel roll and 'amen' cadences. Richard Williams chokes out some fierce trumpet. Then - Eric Dolphy, who especially on these earlier sides always sounds in a different galaxy compared to everyone else. Wyands takes a nifty solo without slipping too much into Timmons-y cliches y'all. Nelson next, that wide-open vibrato to the fore. I always find his playing intriguing in that he doesn't play complex lines particularly (and how to compete with the Immortal Eric?) yet he threads them through on interesting logic and tonal bending. Somewhat more interesting 1961 take on more rootsy jazz than many others - lifted by Dolphy's wild angularities...

Amina Claudine Myers channelling Bessie Smith. McBee opens here on fierce bass evoking earlier vocalised guitar styles ending on a repeating note that strums into a guitar-like backing as Myers enters vocally with the first chorus of 'Jailhouse Blues. Third chorus she brings in sharp piano chords and the drums kick in. She lets loose with a hard-hitting stomp of a solo that references the tradition – octave trills out of Hines, classic blues figures. Going out with the return of the bass – the star really of the track, although Amina does justice to a difficult task, given that her voice, good as it is, does not carry the massive emotional weight of the Mighty Bessie...

... who can be heard here doing the original. Power and soul...


Art Tatum
Art Tatum (p) Benny Carter as) Louis Bellson (d)
A Foggy Day
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James Emery
James Emery (g) Tony Coe (ts, cl) Franz Koglmann (fl-h) Peter Herbert (b)
4 Quartets Fugitive Items
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Oliver Nelson (ts) Richard Williams (t) Eric Dolphy (as) Richard Wyands (p) George Duvivier (b) Roy Haynes (d)
The Meetin'
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Amina Claudine Myers
Amina Claudine Myers (v, p) Cecil McBee (b) Jimmy Lovelace (d)
Jailhouse Blues
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Bessie Smith
Jailhouse Blues
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Art Tatum... Von Sclippenbach Trio... Junior Walker...

Back again in God's Little Acre and hitting the ground - not exactly running, more of an elegant stagger...

Making Whoopee – as we all like to do... Here, played by a trio of Art Tatum, Benny Carter and Louis Bellson. Tatum ripples in for the first A section then Carter takes the repeat 8 bars theme in a chomped-off manner, stretching the melody out more in the bridge and last 8. Tatum solos first, swinging solidly and staying near the theme, suddenly disrupting with a rapid waterfall of notes. Two-fisted old school in places – overall, damn near timeless stuff that transcends generation and style. Carter, one of the great alto players, lest we forget, comes up for his solo. Pithy elegance but with bite, the occasional double time smoothly showing his mastery. Tatum swirls round him like a velvet mist at times as Bellson keeps it moving fairly unobtrusively.

Evan Parker, Alexander Von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens – the Old Firm, together now for many years. From 'Elf Bagatellen,' this track is 'Resurrection of Yarak.' I would argue for a generous and inclusive continuum that sees Benny Carter and Evan Parker connected, even though the sound worlds of this group and the Tatum trio possess a fair distance of separation. This is pretty abstract stuff – a pointillistic beginning, dabs and dots. Yet the scamper of Parker's lines when he gets going, the occasional bent sonority, display his jazz lineage, however obscured. Schlippenbach solos and demonstrates the same heritage – and the interplay between all of the musicians in this improvised setting binds it all together into that wider linkage. Well, I think so... 'jazz,' shmazz,' at this level, who really cares? The excitement generated as they really take off around seven minutes in obscures trivial debates about genre... Coming to land finally on rumbling deep piano...

Honking r and b tenor is another strand of the collectivity – Junior Walker and the All-Stars here, in a track with an English slant – 'Tally Ho.' Indeed... Weirdly suitable for a late autumn and wet early afternoon back in Blighty... grits and greens meet the stirrup cup over a whacking twelve bar blues...

Art Tatum
Art Tatum (p) Benny Carter as) Louis Bellson (d)
Making Whoopee
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Alexander Von Schlippenbach

Alexander Von Schlippenbach (p) Evan Parker (ts) Paul Lovens (d)
Resurrection of Yarak
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Jr Walker (ts) plus the All-Stars
Tally Ho
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Thomas Chapin... Art Tatum... Mal Waldron/Marion Brown... Hampton Hawes... Billy Bang...

The music called 'jazz' has moved at an incredible speed of development since its murky beginnings, sometime in the early years of the last century. I use the brackets intentionally, as I often do, because so many strands have split off from the origins that it can be difficult sometimes to define what is and what isn't 'jazz.' Many famous musicians have been unhappy with the word, seeing it as either a form of defamation, intentional or otherwise, that links their artistic endeavours to the whorehouses of New Orleans via one of the etymological meanings of the word and some of the social uses of the early music – or, in an expanded point from this argument, as a limiting term that binds into formal constrictions and punishes innovation. Further, there is probably a resentment by often (but not exclusively) African-Americans at the trivialising and misunderstanding of their art by critics, however well-intentioned – or just plain hostile. Leaving this debate aside, what I find fascinating is the variety achieved in what can be very loosely grouped within the common understood parameters – in the contemporary world where New Orleans/Dixieland styles co-exist with retro swing bands, where the mainstream has shifted to bebop, where the neocons of the Lincoln Center bunker glower across at the antics of those who continue their explorations in the 'free jazz' lineage. And vice versa, no doubt... A world where the benefit of some hindsight and temporal distance now enables the listener to track the continuities that were not always so evident in earlier days – especially from bop onwards, perhaps the first great perceived rupture. With some generosity of spirit, one could (should?) widen the field (in an Olsonian sense) to include rather than exclude...

To start – the traditional count – 'One two three four' – and a bouncing vamp on tuba buttressed by the brass section introduces 'Golgotham' by the Thomas Chapin Trio, playing with an expanded line up (that calls to mind Coltrane's 'Africa Brass,' perhaps). The bright, searing sonorities of the trumpets blended into the trombones giving more than a hint of past big band glories. The tuba – a link back to the twenties... but here taking a ride through the expanded timbral palette of splutter, spit and odd phonics, in an interlude that bridges the opening and Chapin coming in to solo over the heavy backbeat – he sails effortlessly over the ensemble, a squalling, bluesy smeary honking performance from his wide range of stylistic devices. A track that collides many years of the music into a glorious live performance that you could dance to. Continuing with growling and unmuted brass call and response and simultaneous lines, emphasizing the timbres acquired early on in the 'jazz' sound world. Stop time breaks as bass and brass duel... drum solo that flows over the implicitness of the rock vamp rhythm that underpins the track – followed by chants from the band. Ensemble through-composed for a section that then falls into a free for all as the track drops out of the rhythm and the band are name-checked by the leader (?)to the audience, picking up the beat again to suddenly end. Inside and outside... a sprawling riffingly joyous track big-hearted as the city it was conceived in, almost at odds with the punning title – 'Place of skulls?' Sardonic...

Marion Brown in a duo with Mal Waldron – a pianist who moved easily across the piano styles. Slow resonating chords, the overtones ringing in the spaces between the phrases, going subtly into a rocking rhythm as Brown enters on ruminative alto – a touch of Johnny Hodges in his tone, the swooping bend round the long-held notes. Sweet and sour... A track that uses space intriguingly, unhurried in its movement. Waldron takes a solo, a sparse melody twisting in interesting directions. Brown rejoins, playing off a repeated note. Two musicians moving through the tradition – this could have been recorded anytime within quite a large abitrarily agreed timeframe...

Art Tatum made a slew of recordings before his untimely death that document his supreme virtuosity and stature in the canon. This selection is a trio playing 'Hallelujah' - Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich – the latter having the sense to pull back from his usual 'Traps the boy wonder' pyrotechnics by switching to brushes. Bubbling virtuosity from two timeless players as Hampton matches the pianist's speed of thought. Tatum steps up for a solo, stride piano figures disrupted by those tumbling moves up and down the keyboard. Hampton back for some stunning interplay – Rich comes through strongly here. Anyway you slice it, collective improvisation of the highest order. Hot jazz...

Hampton Hawes, playing 'What is this thing called love.' Arpeggiated chords and a ripple of Tatum almost in the introduction (I also hear a distant echo of Erroll Garner) before it picks up tempo and the bass and drums enter. Hawes was self-taught, but acquired the technique necessary to play bop – as evidenced here. Fleet and powerfully swinging, well-supported by Red Callender on bass and Chuck Thompson on drums. He acknowledged a great debt to Charlie Parker who "influenced me more than anybody, even more than piano players." (quoted from here – a very good review of Hawe's autobiography that gives an extensive overview of his career).

Billy Bang would usually be associated with the more radical end of contemporary jazz. Here he is leading a quartet through a swaying swinging version of 'Willow weep for me.' Cutting violin, an instrument that can veer into the lachrymose (I've never liked Grappelli for that reason, undoubtedly fine musician that he was). Swarming bluesy piano- two handed testifying... Bang takes a solo – fire and soul, trenchant bowing... pretty mainstream, if you ask me...

In the Videodrome...

Art Tatum on T.V....

Thomas Chapin at Newport...

Late Billy Holiday swinging out – with Mal Waldron on piano...

The Duke...

... can't leave out the Count – here with a late incarnation of the Kansas City Five...

John Kirby plays for dancers...

... more dancing and playing from a great movie (Slim Gaillard in there somewhere)... a sadly missed old friend of mine was in the English stage show of Hellzappopin'...

... Billy Bang et al in Antwerp


Thomas Chapin
Thomas Chapin (as, f) Mario Pavone (b) Michael Sarin (d) Al Bryant, Frank London (t)
Curtis Fowlkes, Peter McEachern (tr)Marcus Rojas (tuba)
Golgotham
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Art Tatum
Art Tatum (p) Lionel Hampton (vi) Buddy Rich (d)
Hallelujah
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Mal Waldron/Marion Brown
Mal Waldron (p) Marion Brown (as)
Soul Mates
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Hampton Hawes
Hampton Hawes (p) Red Callender (b) Chuck Thompson (d)
What is this thing called love
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Billy Bang
Billy Bang (v) D.D. Jackson (p) Akira Ando (b) Ronnie Burrage (d)
Willow weep for me
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