A cool vid of my old prof, Clive Meachen, late of Aberystwyth American Studies Department, UCW, Aberystwyth, talking the talk - and walking the walk... I say 'old' - we're the same age... but he's better looking... ho ho...
Showing posts with label charlie parker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charlie parker. Show all posts
Monday, October 05, 2009
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Charlie Parker... Evan Parker/John Stevens... Joe Morris... Clifton Chenier...
Back to the source...
Miles leads in with youthful almost hesitant poignancy then Bird takes over to run double time in the main, all round, over and through this slow ballad theme 'Don't Blame Me.' Tommy Potter holds the line, Duke Jordan chords somewhere in the next room alongside equally sonically discreet Max Roach. After the bravura alto, Miles returns for a brief snatch before they end. The flash of Bird is not mere technique venting forth – his sound had such a strong yet vulnerable timbre, his alto saxophone truly a 'vocalised' instrument, that makes his speed integral to his overall concept. Head and heart locked in a mighty embrace. Perhaps one of the defining characteristics of jazz, apart from improvisation (which is linked to it as a moving ever-renewable expression of individuality), is the manner in which an instrument is so heavily connected to a player. This requires the high technical standards necessary in the search for and achievement of individual expression, the way in which a listener can pick out different players from each other by their 'signatures.' But technique alone is not enough - the notes would be 'empty' without emotion. Much of the excitement of jazz comes from this identification with individual concepts and their shifting relationship to the communal. Here – Miles's fragile muted trumpet is instantly identifiable – and Parker even more so. These are voices we know and cherish... Which reminds me of an apposite story that a friend of mine (The Blessed Frank Marmion) recently told me. When he was at sea as a young man a clarinet player came over the radio whom he correctly identified within a few bars – Jimmy Noone, I think. Someone mocked him, in effect saying 'How can you possibly know that – a clarinet is a clarinet, could be anybody.' He had to eat his words when the announcer gave the personnel at the end of the number...
Another mighty player – Evan Parker, in a duet with John Stevens. Coming from a totally different emotional and cultural area, drier, more rarified. Opening on small fragments over spartan percussive patterns. This is '19.44,' taken from the album 'The Longest Night.' Operating on the higher end of the spectrum – cymbals and sharp hits as Parker's soprano crabs its way onwards - this is very intense music, a record of two musicians listening and responding to each other with great intimacy. Going up to bat-squeak sqiggles – yet always under tight technical control. Towards the end, clenched drum rolls and spattering cymbals spur Parker to a longer line - the point where you can see very clearly the lineage back into 'jazz.' Evocative of two friends having a long-ranging late-night conversation that develops its own rules as it moves on through.
My favourite contemporary guitar player Joe Morris, with a trio session from 1997 , playing 'Stare into a lightbulb for three years,' from the album 'Antennae.' Commences with a jerky, fragmented theme, progressing into a three-way collaboration between Morris, bass Nate Morris and drummer Jerome Duepree. The guitarist splats out knotted, gnarled lines with odd intervallic jumps to keep you on your toes, unremitting and remorseless linear improvising. Morris has a purist gunslinger ethos, little tinkering with the sound of his guitar which harks back to earlier modern jazz styles, but a total dedication to his art that takes no prisoners. Actually, once you enter his world, it becomes more friendly – much joy to be had following his logic.
"Morris has gone to the avant-garde well to test the brink of improvisational reason, but at the same time developed a quintessential jazz-guitar tone, dark and dulcet, its vibrato squarely modulated and inimical to sonic overkill. If Ornette Coleman were Jim Hall, he would be Joe Morris."
Said Gary Giddins, quoted from here... 'If Ornette...' Sort of – but Morris is very much his own man... And his cohorts balance him perfectly here – Duepree takes a rippling ripping solo followed by one of some eloquence from the bassist. Morris explains where the inspiration for the album came from in the liner notes:
'This set of pieces was originally named The Green Book. Inspired by a collection of visual graphic aids by that name created by the late composer/improviser/pianist Lowell Davidson... Lowell's Green Book was intended to be used as a guide for improvisation. It consisted of a set of color Xerox images made by the copier running on it's own without source material. The results were dense blotches of random pattern and color. Lowell considered the Green Book to be one of his most advanced devices to be used to steer himself and his players. Others included index cards with different sizes of notes (these were similar to the work of other composers from the 50s and 60s) and his invented staves which were intended to isolate certain musical zones and sounds. He also notated on materials other than paper and used methods of notating such as making holes in aluminum foil and placing it in front of a light bulb. Lowell said that by looking at the foil you could imprint the pattern of light on your synapses and then transfer the pattern to your instrument. In one of Lowell's most extreme experiments, he stared into a high wattage chrome coated light bulb every day for what he claimed was three years-I didn't know him at that time.' (From here – scroll down).
Brief Wikipedia article on Lowell Davidson here... sounds like he was an interesting dude...
Some Zydeco - Clifton Chenier essays a slow-rocking mean old twelve bar - 'I can look down at your woman.' Smouldering stuff - and Chenier transcends the old musicians gag about accordions here with some fine playing. ('The definition of a gentleman is someone who knows how to play an accordion - but doesn't...')
Uploading this as Thelonious Monk solo piano moves into the Velvet Underground playing 'Sister Ray' on my Last Fm feed – whip it on me, Jim... Between those two polarities I can live easily... One of the joys of Last Fm – just when you think it ticks off stuff you know in the background something totally different comes blasting through – the latest being guitarist Pat Martino the other week, whose playing I did not really know before - what a blast that was. Stopped me in my tracks... I have some of his music arriving soon...
Charlie Parker
Miles Davis (tp) Charlie Parker (as) Duke Jordan (p) Tommy Potter (b) Max Roach (d)
Don't blame me
Download
Buy
Evan Parker (ss) John Stevens (d)
19.44
Download
Buy
Joe Morris
Joe Morris (e-g) Nate Morris (b) Jerome Duepree (d)
Stare at a lightbulb for three years
Download
Buy
Clifton Chenier
I can look down at your woman
Download
Buy
Miles leads in with youthful almost hesitant poignancy then Bird takes over to run double time in the main, all round, over and through this slow ballad theme 'Don't Blame Me.' Tommy Potter holds the line, Duke Jordan chords somewhere in the next room alongside equally sonically discreet Max Roach. After the bravura alto, Miles returns for a brief snatch before they end. The flash of Bird is not mere technique venting forth – his sound had such a strong yet vulnerable timbre, his alto saxophone truly a 'vocalised' instrument, that makes his speed integral to his overall concept. Head and heart locked in a mighty embrace. Perhaps one of the defining characteristics of jazz, apart from improvisation (which is linked to it as a moving ever-renewable expression of individuality), is the manner in which an instrument is so heavily connected to a player. This requires the high technical standards necessary in the search for and achievement of individual expression, the way in which a listener can pick out different players from each other by their 'signatures.' But technique alone is not enough - the notes would be 'empty' without emotion. Much of the excitement of jazz comes from this identification with individual concepts and their shifting relationship to the communal. Here – Miles's fragile muted trumpet is instantly identifiable – and Parker even more so. These are voices we know and cherish... Which reminds me of an apposite story that a friend of mine (The Blessed Frank Marmion) recently told me. When he was at sea as a young man a clarinet player came over the radio whom he correctly identified within a few bars – Jimmy Noone, I think. Someone mocked him, in effect saying 'How can you possibly know that – a clarinet is a clarinet, could be anybody.' He had to eat his words when the announcer gave the personnel at the end of the number...
Another mighty player – Evan Parker, in a duet with John Stevens. Coming from a totally different emotional and cultural area, drier, more rarified. Opening on small fragments over spartan percussive patterns. This is '19.44,' taken from the album 'The Longest Night.' Operating on the higher end of the spectrum – cymbals and sharp hits as Parker's soprano crabs its way onwards - this is very intense music, a record of two musicians listening and responding to each other with great intimacy. Going up to bat-squeak sqiggles – yet always under tight technical control. Towards the end, clenched drum rolls and spattering cymbals spur Parker to a longer line - the point where you can see very clearly the lineage back into 'jazz.' Evocative of two friends having a long-ranging late-night conversation that develops its own rules as it moves on through.
My favourite contemporary guitar player Joe Morris, with a trio session from 1997 , playing 'Stare into a lightbulb for three years,' from the album 'Antennae.' Commences with a jerky, fragmented theme, progressing into a three-way collaboration between Morris, bass Nate Morris and drummer Jerome Duepree. The guitarist splats out knotted, gnarled lines with odd intervallic jumps to keep you on your toes, unremitting and remorseless linear improvising. Morris has a purist gunslinger ethos, little tinkering with the sound of his guitar which harks back to earlier modern jazz styles, but a total dedication to his art that takes no prisoners. Actually, once you enter his world, it becomes more friendly – much joy to be had following his logic.
"Morris has gone to the avant-garde well to test the brink of improvisational reason, but at the same time developed a quintessential jazz-guitar tone, dark and dulcet, its vibrato squarely modulated and inimical to sonic overkill. If Ornette Coleman were Jim Hall, he would be Joe Morris."
Said Gary Giddins, quoted from here... 'If Ornette...' Sort of – but Morris is very much his own man... And his cohorts balance him perfectly here – Duepree takes a rippling ripping solo followed by one of some eloquence from the bassist. Morris explains where the inspiration for the album came from in the liner notes:
'This set of pieces was originally named The Green Book. Inspired by a collection of visual graphic aids by that name created by the late composer/improviser/pianist Lowell Davidson... Lowell's Green Book was intended to be used as a guide for improvisation. It consisted of a set of color Xerox images made by the copier running on it's own without source material. The results were dense blotches of random pattern and color. Lowell considered the Green Book to be one of his most advanced devices to be used to steer himself and his players. Others included index cards with different sizes of notes (these were similar to the work of other composers from the 50s and 60s) and his invented staves which were intended to isolate certain musical zones and sounds. He also notated on materials other than paper and used methods of notating such as making holes in aluminum foil and placing it in front of a light bulb. Lowell said that by looking at the foil you could imprint the pattern of light on your synapses and then transfer the pattern to your instrument. In one of Lowell's most extreme experiments, he stared into a high wattage chrome coated light bulb every day for what he claimed was three years-I didn't know him at that time.' (From here – scroll down).
Brief Wikipedia article on Lowell Davidson here... sounds like he was an interesting dude...
Some Zydeco - Clifton Chenier essays a slow-rocking mean old twelve bar - 'I can look down at your woman.' Smouldering stuff - and Chenier transcends the old musicians gag about accordions here with some fine playing. ('The definition of a gentleman is someone who knows how to play an accordion - but doesn't...')
Uploading this as Thelonious Monk solo piano moves into the Velvet Underground playing 'Sister Ray' on my Last Fm feed – whip it on me, Jim... Between those two polarities I can live easily... One of the joys of Last Fm – just when you think it ticks off stuff you know in the background something totally different comes blasting through – the latest being guitarist Pat Martino the other week, whose playing I did not really know before - what a blast that was. Stopped me in my tracks... I have some of his music arriving soon...
Charlie Parker
Miles Davis (tp) Charlie Parker (as) Duke Jordan (p) Tommy Potter (b) Max Roach (d)
Don't blame me
Download
Buy
Evan Parker (ss) John Stevens (d)
19.44
Download
Buy
Joe Morris
Joe Morris (e-g) Nate Morris (b) Jerome Duepree (d)
Stare at a lightbulb for three years
Download
Buy
Clifton Chenier
I can look down at your woman
Download
Buy
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Charlie Parker/JATP... Frank Sinatra/Count Basie... Frank Wright...
A wet, cold bank holiday so far here in God's Little Acre... Something to cheer me up. Old School... This is 'The Opener' from a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in 1949. I can remember way back various critics being sniffy about JATP and Norman Grantz – as if people enjoying the music in a live setting and musicians responding with a bit of rabble-rousing was somehow not the done thing. What crap... Flip Phillips opens up the batting here with some rip-snorting tenor. Tommy Turk cools it down a bit with a fine solo - why was he such an obscure figure? Lester sidles in, lithe and detached but getting almost enervated as the background riffing picks up to boot him along. Then the sublime Bird... Playing further 'in' than usual, locking things down in place with a couple of his patented blues phrases – drums were not Max or Kenny Clarke which would have given him a better cushion. (Buddy Rich is four-square but that doesn't matter so much in the overall context perhaps). But still unmistakably THE BIRD... Hank Jones next, some rather spiffing piano - heard very clearly for once – many of those old live recordings were a bit iffy. Then Roy Eldridge – ripping and stabbing at notes, one of the great trumpeters, the link from swing to Diz, surely. Sure its grandstanding – but breathes there a man (or woman) with soul so dead they cannot dig? Also, an interesting transition being documented – swing to bop (with some r and b elements thrown in) and although the differences are there – re my remarks about Buddy Rich, for example – somehow it doesn't seem such a jump between the two. At this point with hindsight it is evident that modern jazz hadn't been totally disenfranchised from swing - as many of the boppers had started in big bands etc, no matter their subsequent stylistic transgressions into 'Chinese Music' (as Louis dubbed it - an early reaction subsequently recanted). Voltaire said: 'All styles are good except the tiresome kind.' Yup...
In a similar vein... A grand meeting of pop and jazz, from the days when popular music was not that far away from jazz. Combining the sheer drive, swing and snap of the Count's band with the majestic presence of old Francis Albert performing 'I believe in you.' The Basie band punch in like a well-oiled machine embedded with soul if that makes sense and Frank enters for a smooth dance over the top of their contained power, his phrasing a delight - learned in the big band trade during his apprenticeship with Tommy Dorsey - whose trombone phrasing he emulated vocally. Although that early gig was not a smooth ride - see here...
So inexorably to the New Thing... Frank Wright on his second recording date in 1967 for fabled free jazz label ESP. 'The Lady,' taken from the album 'Our Prayer.' Starting with the ensemble horns playing the rather attractive head at a slowish pace as the bass runs around underneath leading the drums in a faster rhythmic contrast. Arthur Jones, one of those who popped up briefly and then disappeared not long after (unfortunately – what a good player!), takes a smearing bluesy solo. Nice blog piece on him sometime back on Destination Out . Coursil – who turned up in New York in the sixties and made a couple of stunning appearances on ESP – starts slow over the busy rhythms, following the logic of the theme - then cranks it up mightily. Lowe comes in in Ayler-ish fashion – you can hear the influence strongly. Oddly enough – or not – this brings the blogpost full circle for me... is JATP really so far away from the tonal distortions here – that one could also hear in the African American church as well as in r and b honking horns? And: Coursil's bravura trumpet is surely not so far from Roy Eldridge? There is a freshness to this music that I find very appealing.
The name of the bass player, Steve Tintweiss, intrigued me as I couldn't place it straight away. Googled however to find some interesting info here – and a nice quote from the article about this session:
“All of us, except for Jacques Coursil the trumpet player, were all on acid for that record. We had learned to use LSD in a disciplined way, as a tool. We were able to discipline ourselves to be able to play and fulfill our obligations.”
Far out, as they say. Actually, after I read further, I remembered who he was - the bass player on Albert Ayler's last date, in Europe, a track from which I put up way back. Maybe more from that soon – that's the way this blog works -jump cuts and random movements diagonally...But fun, essentially...
Wonder if the weather will improve today?
Charlie Parker et al/Jazz at the Philharmonic
Charlie Parker (as) Flip Phillips, Lester Young (ts) Tommy Turk (tr) Roy Eldridge (t) Hank Jones (p) Ray Brown (b) Buddy Rich (d)
The Opener
Download
Buy
Frank Sinatra/Count Basie
I believe in you
Download
Buy
Frank Wright
Frank Wright (ts) Arthur Jones (as) Jacques Coursil (t) Steve Tintweiss (b) Muhammad Ali (d)
Download
Buy
In a similar vein... A grand meeting of pop and jazz, from the days when popular music was not that far away from jazz. Combining the sheer drive, swing and snap of the Count's band with the majestic presence of old Francis Albert performing 'I believe in you.' The Basie band punch in like a well-oiled machine embedded with soul if that makes sense and Frank enters for a smooth dance over the top of their contained power, his phrasing a delight - learned in the big band trade during his apprenticeship with Tommy Dorsey - whose trombone phrasing he emulated vocally. Although that early gig was not a smooth ride - see here...
So inexorably to the New Thing... Frank Wright on his second recording date in 1967 for fabled free jazz label ESP. 'The Lady,' taken from the album 'Our Prayer.' Starting with the ensemble horns playing the rather attractive head at a slowish pace as the bass runs around underneath leading the drums in a faster rhythmic contrast. Arthur Jones, one of those who popped up briefly and then disappeared not long after (unfortunately – what a good player!), takes a smearing bluesy solo. Nice blog piece on him sometime back on Destination Out . Coursil – who turned up in New York in the sixties and made a couple of stunning appearances on ESP – starts slow over the busy rhythms, following the logic of the theme - then cranks it up mightily. Lowe comes in in Ayler-ish fashion – you can hear the influence strongly. Oddly enough – or not – this brings the blogpost full circle for me... is JATP really so far away from the tonal distortions here – that one could also hear in the African American church as well as in r and b honking horns? And: Coursil's bravura trumpet is surely not so far from Roy Eldridge? There is a freshness to this music that I find very appealing.
The name of the bass player, Steve Tintweiss, intrigued me as I couldn't place it straight away. Googled however to find some interesting info here – and a nice quote from the article about this session:
“All of us, except for Jacques Coursil the trumpet player, were all on acid for that record. We had learned to use LSD in a disciplined way, as a tool. We were able to discipline ourselves to be able to play and fulfill our obligations.”
Far out, as they say. Actually, after I read further, I remembered who he was - the bass player on Albert Ayler's last date, in Europe, a track from which I put up way back. Maybe more from that soon – that's the way this blog works -jump cuts and random movements diagonally...But fun, essentially...
Wonder if the weather will improve today?
Charlie Parker et al/Jazz at the Philharmonic
Charlie Parker (as) Flip Phillips, Lester Young (ts) Tommy Turk (tr) Roy Eldridge (t) Hank Jones (p) Ray Brown (b) Buddy Rich (d)
The Opener
Download
Buy
Frank Sinatra/Count Basie
I believe in you
Download
Buy
Frank Wright
Frank Wright (ts) Arthur Jones (as) Jacques Coursil (t) Steve Tintweiss (b) Muhammad Ali (d)
Download
Buy
Friday, March 28, 2008
Charlie Parker/Dizzie Gillespie... Horace Silver/Jazz Messengers... Jim Hall/Bill Evans... Cecil Taylor
To be or not to bop (with apologies to Babs Gonzales...)
Bird and Diz at Carnegie Hall, 1947... Bop in the joy spring of its years... This is 'Confirmation' – of their greatness (I know - but - couldn't resist). Opening on drums, then the familiar theme in unison at a sprightly tempo. Bird up first, sounding relaxed, sudden flurries of notes breaking the line. Tone drenched in the blues, such a human sound. The double-tempo he frequently launches into and stays in for long stretches is stunning. Yet the tune is never far away – this is not just virtuoso playing over the changes. Gillespie next – soaring upwards to descend in rapid runs, brash, brassy and beautiful. John Lewis takes a solo from somewhere upstate by the muffled sound of it – way off-mike. Bass up briefly then theme and out. Rapturous applause etc... and rightly so. Glory Days.
Bop – to the birth of hard bop. Returning to the blues as grounding (although Bird was never more than a flicker away from them). Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers. Their first incarnation as a small group - Silver was to leave and Art Blakey take over the leadership. From 1955, playing his composition the ever-catchy 'Doodlin.' Silver takes the first solo, funky figures, a facet of his style that perhaps Bobby Timmons would inherit when he joined the band in 1958. Think Moanin' etc... Much dropping of 'g's, I'm thinkin'... Tenor next, Hank Mobley, sounding calm, a little detached almost, although spiking his passage with blues figures. Kenny Dorham then, as Silver plays an almost boogie woogie train figure underneath for the first chorus and a few bars into the second. Elegant and spacious trumpet. Blakey takes a piece, some hard hitting on and off the beat as his cymbals mark the movement through. Funky.
Onwards a few years – back to the cool, say, in 1962. Jim Hall and Bill Evans take a look at 'I'm getting sentimental over you.' Slow yet supple, weaving round each other in an intricate coupling, seamlessly moving between accompaniment and solo – blurring the partition, actually while not getting in each other's way - guitar and piano can create a muddy sound if the participants are not very careful. Here? Two hearts beating as one... well, I'm in a sentimental mood myself today... Intelligent and moving.
Cecil Taylor at the old johanna live and solo from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974, this is 'After All (Fifth Movement).' Repeating an opening chordal figure to suddenly spray a higher flash of notes across the deeper contrast. More complex harmonic terrain than above – yet still you find a bluesy snatch here and there that links to the tradition. Behind it all, however abstracted or disguised, the rhythms of jazz. European conservatory meets the Afro-American tradition (Cecil uses call and response as a major performative vehicle). Towards the end, thoughtful, rhapsodic and perhaps not so far removed from Bill Evans above...
A final thought on criticism - what it should be, as opposed to what it frequently has been and is, in all disciplines:
'Admit what you can’t conceal,' [Randall] Jarrell concludes in "The Age of Criticism," 'that criticism is no more than (and no less than) the helpful remarks and the thoughtful and disinterested judgment of a reader, a loving and experienced and able reader, but only a reader. . . . Remember that you can never be more than the staircase to the monument, the guide to the gallery, the telescope through which the children see the stars. At your best you make people see what they might never have seen without you; but they must always forget you in what they see.' (From here... ).
Not sure about the 'experienced and able' (or 'disinterested' - music is too intense an experience for me) but certainly 'loving' in my own case... and hopefully 'helpful' occasionally... I love the image of 'the staircase to the monument.' As a renegade from academe, how true those words are and how many critical 'monuments' exist, that should be knocked down for 'staircases.'
Oo-pop-a-da - to end where we started, with Babs Gonzales...
Charlie Parker (as) Dizzie Gillespie (t) John Lewis (p) Al McKibbon (b) Joe Harris (d)
Confirmation
Download
Buy
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
Horace Silver (p) Kenny Dorham (t) Hank Mobley (ts) Doug Watkins (b) Art Blakey (d)
Doodlin'
Download
Buy
Jim Hall (g) Bill Evans (p)
I'm getting sentimental over you
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p)
After All (Fifth Movement)
Download
Buy
Bird and Diz at Carnegie Hall, 1947... Bop in the joy spring of its years... This is 'Confirmation' – of their greatness (I know - but - couldn't resist). Opening on drums, then the familiar theme in unison at a sprightly tempo. Bird up first, sounding relaxed, sudden flurries of notes breaking the line. Tone drenched in the blues, such a human sound. The double-tempo he frequently launches into and stays in for long stretches is stunning. Yet the tune is never far away – this is not just virtuoso playing over the changes. Gillespie next – soaring upwards to descend in rapid runs, brash, brassy and beautiful. John Lewis takes a solo from somewhere upstate by the muffled sound of it – way off-mike. Bass up briefly then theme and out. Rapturous applause etc... and rightly so. Glory Days.
Bop – to the birth of hard bop. Returning to the blues as grounding (although Bird was never more than a flicker away from them). Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers. Their first incarnation as a small group - Silver was to leave and Art Blakey take over the leadership. From 1955, playing his composition the ever-catchy 'Doodlin.' Silver takes the first solo, funky figures, a facet of his style that perhaps Bobby Timmons would inherit when he joined the band in 1958. Think Moanin' etc... Much dropping of 'g's, I'm thinkin'... Tenor next, Hank Mobley, sounding calm, a little detached almost, although spiking his passage with blues figures. Kenny Dorham then, as Silver plays an almost boogie woogie train figure underneath for the first chorus and a few bars into the second. Elegant and spacious trumpet. Blakey takes a piece, some hard hitting on and off the beat as his cymbals mark the movement through. Funky.
Onwards a few years – back to the cool, say, in 1962. Jim Hall and Bill Evans take a look at 'I'm getting sentimental over you.' Slow yet supple, weaving round each other in an intricate coupling, seamlessly moving between accompaniment and solo – blurring the partition, actually while not getting in each other's way - guitar and piano can create a muddy sound if the participants are not very careful. Here? Two hearts beating as one... well, I'm in a sentimental mood myself today... Intelligent and moving.
Cecil Taylor at the old johanna live and solo from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974, this is 'After All (Fifth Movement).' Repeating an opening chordal figure to suddenly spray a higher flash of notes across the deeper contrast. More complex harmonic terrain than above – yet still you find a bluesy snatch here and there that links to the tradition. Behind it all, however abstracted or disguised, the rhythms of jazz. European conservatory meets the Afro-American tradition (Cecil uses call and response as a major performative vehicle). Towards the end, thoughtful, rhapsodic and perhaps not so far removed from Bill Evans above...
A final thought on criticism - what it should be, as opposed to what it frequently has been and is, in all disciplines:
'Admit what you can’t conceal,' [Randall] Jarrell concludes in "The Age of Criticism," 'that criticism is no more than (and no less than) the helpful remarks and the thoughtful and disinterested judgment of a reader, a loving and experienced and able reader, but only a reader. . . . Remember that you can never be more than the staircase to the monument, the guide to the gallery, the telescope through which the children see the stars. At your best you make people see what they might never have seen without you; but they must always forget you in what they see.' (From here... ).
Not sure about the 'experienced and able' (or 'disinterested' - music is too intense an experience for me) but certainly 'loving' in my own case... and hopefully 'helpful' occasionally... I love the image of 'the staircase to the monument.' As a renegade from academe, how true those words are and how many critical 'monuments' exist, that should be knocked down for 'staircases.'
Oo-pop-a-da - to end where we started, with Babs Gonzales...
Charlie Parker (as) Dizzie Gillespie (t) John Lewis (p) Al McKibbon (b) Joe Harris (d)
Confirmation
Download
Buy
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
Horace Silver (p) Kenny Dorham (t) Hank Mobley (ts) Doug Watkins (b) Art Blakey (d)
Doodlin'
Download
Buy
Jim Hall (g) Bill Evans (p)
I'm getting sentimental over you
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p)
After All (Fifth Movement)
Download
Buy
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Antics with the A Band/Johnny Scarr/Filthy Turd - plus mp3s from Bird, Diz and Monk/James Blood Ulmer/Lord Buckley
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The A Band gig (with Johnny Scarr - and Filthy Turd – I kid you not)last night at the Art Organisation in Nottingham was a blast... review to follow when the notes have been deciphered etc -here's a couple of photos as a taster...
And a couple of mp3s that bear no direct relation, but so what... 'Revelation March' from James 'Blood' Ulmer's (love that Blood in inverted commas) album 'Tales of Captain Black.' A bit late for the Pirate Day, perhaps. A fast harmolodic scrabble with Blood's – or should that be 'Blood's' – old guvnor in the alto chair -Ornette Coleman. Whose shadow hangs heavy over this session... Ulmer plays some great flailing guitar...
The Fountainhead – or one of them – Bird and Diz with Thelonious Monk in 1950. This is an alternat take of 'Mohawk,' a loping 12 bar. Bird takes a couple of choruses, playing within himself, Diz tightly muted, fires off some pyrotechnical runs. Monk performs his off-kilter scamper for a quick chorus followed by bass. An odd session, you feel something didn't quite gell – could be the choice of drummer, Buddy Rich – a bit of a four-square thumper in general (although somewhat muted on this track), despite his technique – all that 'Traps the Boy Wonder' stuff. Max or Klook would have fit in better, maybe...
Saturday Morning – just edged into the afternoon. I must go boldly soon into God's Little Acre – here's something to bring a smile – of the hip variety, of course, Mildred... A bit of Shakespeare, 'Mark Anthony's Funeral Oration' as interpreted by the immortal Lord Buckley: 'The bad jazz that a cat blows wails long after he's cut out. The groovy is often stashed with their frames.'
Dig...
In the Videodrome...
His Lordship circa 1949...
...with Groucho...
... and a smallextract of the Lord live telling the story of the Carpenter Kiddy
James Blood Ulmer
James Blood Ulmer (g) Ornette Coleman (as) Jaamaladeen Tacuma (b) Denardo Coleman (d)
Revelation march
Download
Buy
Charlie Parker (as) Dizzy Gillespie (t) Thelonious Monk (p) Curley Russell (b) Buddy Rich (d)
Mohawk alternate take
Download
Buy
Lord Buckley
Mark Anthony's funeral oration
Download
Buy
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Bill Dixon... Archie Shepp... Bill Evans/Lee Konitz/Warne Marsh... David S. Ware... Lennie Tristano/Lee Konitz... Lennie Tristano/Charlie Parker
Bill Dixon co-led a band from 1961 to 1963 with Archie Shepp but they had gone their separate ways by 1964 when this album was recorded, each having a side to feature their now separate talents. The first track is Dixon and his 7 Tette, playing the previously unreleased 'Alternate take Section III, “F” ' from 'Winter Song.' Counted in with traditional manner- 'One two, one two three four.' Borrow leads off briefly, followed by McIntyre on oboe. McRae keeps it busy behind him. Dixon solos in spartan fashion (According to the sleeve notes for the CD, he had been having embouchure problems not so long before). Similarities to the spurting asymmetries of Don Cherry, perhaps... Howard Johnson essays a gruff baritone section followed by a two bass lead out that terminates when someone (Dixon?) says, 'We've got to do that again.' Work in progress, recorded a few months before the famous October Revolution...
Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary Five, playing the leader's composition 'Like a Blessed Baby Lamb.' Oddly enough, the drummer, Sunny Murray, sounds almost conservative by comparison to Howard McRae on the previous track. Shepp growls in after the theme, spindly phrasing with mucho cymbals behind from Murray. Cherry takes over with Murray a little more in evidence on his snare, throwing in a sporadic roll. Oceans of space for the pocket trumpet to sail through. Tchicai next, angular, worrying and fluttering at phrases, joined by spiky accents from the other horns. Boykins on more or less straight walking throughout holds it all together. An odd theme, like a cross between Ornette laced with a stabbing phrase straight out of Monk...
Run forward – to 1977. Bill Evans had recorded with Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh before – a live session in 1959, under Konitz's leadership. This later studio bash sees everyone on fine form. Evans sounds more extrovert than usual and the date has an easy-going feel to it throughout. Modern jazz at the highest level...
David S Ware on 'Sweet Georgia Bright.' His bleary tenor states the theme and you hear Sonny Rollins somewhere in the background – whom he practised with as a young apprentice. Ware is a consummate original though, let us be clear on that. Fireball trails of notes spin off as the rhythm stops and starts under him, Shipp uncharacteristically reticent – sparse chords on the comp. Parker fires off a fast line, followed by Shipp suddenly opening up with a dancing ripple alongside him. An interesting exercise from the cream of the contemporary free jazz lineage in a more orthodox setting. The album title – which could be miscontrued as suggesting 'Surrendered' to the orthodoxies of the market place - is more likely referring to Ware's spirituality... which is reflected in the sense of ego surrendering to the music, perhaps... I like his playing very much – just bought a couple more CD's in fact which I will extract the odd morsel from at some point... so much music, so little time...
Another taste of Konitz – playing with his mentor, Lennie Tristano. Drumming is quite stroppy, going against the usual accepted wisdoms that the pianist required time to be kept neatly and no fancy stuff. Tristano marks out the changes as Konitz dances elegantly over the top. One of the true greats still blowing strong – a survivor who was always determined to mark out his own track apart from the gravity pull of Bird. Tristano takes a restrained solo. Towards the end he suddenly breaks out to play a contrapuntal line that moves up alongside Konitz. Stunning... A live date – I think this is from 1955, the gloriously named 'Sing-Song Room, Confucius Restaurant' in New York being the venue. Bass and drums then would be Gene Ramey and Art Taylor, which makes sense. Tristano once said : 'Vitality arises from an emotion that is free.' (Quoted from here...). Quite...
To end: the immortal Bird, in an impromptu session with Tristano. Kenny Clarke is listed as the drummer but apparently he played a phone book with brushes - as you can hear. This was a private recording – as you can hear! Hissy, rough – but it is like suddenly stepping into a tunnel that connects back over the years to the glory days of bop. Bird is superb, Tristano here just content to lay out the chords behind. Possibly a practice session? The Tristano discography lists it as 1951, but it possibly was recorded earlier in 1947, according to this review of the album containing this track by Greg Thomas here...
In the Videodrome...
Sonny Rollins and Don Cherry here...
the Great Clifford – on T.V....
... have we done this before? Trane on My Favourite etc...
...some Miles
... and some more Coltrane...
Bill Dixon
Bill Dixon (t) George Borrow (ts) Ken McKintyre (as, ob) Howard Johnson (tuba, bs) Dave Izenson, Hal Dodson (b) Howard McRae (d)
Alternate take Section III 'F' from 'Winter Song.'
Download
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp (ts) Don Cherry (pc) John Tchicai (as) Ronnie Boykins (b) Sunny Murray (d)
Like a Blessed Baby Lamb
Download
Buy
Bill Evans/Lee Konitz/Warne Marsh
Bill Evans (p) Lee Konitz (as) Warne Marshe (ts) Eddie Gomez (b) Eliot Zigmund (d)
Eiderdown
Download
Buy
David S. Ware (ts) Matthew Shipp (p) William Parker (b) Guillermo Brown (d)
Sweet Georgia Bright
Download
Buy
Lennie Tristano (p) Lee Konitz (as) Gene Ramey (b) Art Taylor (d)
All the things you are
Download
Buy
Charlie Parker (as) Lennie Tristano (p) Kenny Clarke (d)
All of Me
Download
Buy
Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary Five, playing the leader's composition 'Like a Blessed Baby Lamb.' Oddly enough, the drummer, Sunny Murray, sounds almost conservative by comparison to Howard McRae on the previous track. Shepp growls in after the theme, spindly phrasing with mucho cymbals behind from Murray. Cherry takes over with Murray a little more in evidence on his snare, throwing in a sporadic roll. Oceans of space for the pocket trumpet to sail through. Tchicai next, angular, worrying and fluttering at phrases, joined by spiky accents from the other horns. Boykins on more or less straight walking throughout holds it all together. An odd theme, like a cross between Ornette laced with a stabbing phrase straight out of Monk...
Run forward – to 1977. Bill Evans had recorded with Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh before – a live session in 1959, under Konitz's leadership. This later studio bash sees everyone on fine form. Evans sounds more extrovert than usual and the date has an easy-going feel to it throughout. Modern jazz at the highest level...
David S Ware on 'Sweet Georgia Bright.' His bleary tenor states the theme and you hear Sonny Rollins somewhere in the background – whom he practised with as a young apprentice. Ware is a consummate original though, let us be clear on that. Fireball trails of notes spin off as the rhythm stops and starts under him, Shipp uncharacteristically reticent – sparse chords on the comp. Parker fires off a fast line, followed by Shipp suddenly opening up with a dancing ripple alongside him. An interesting exercise from the cream of the contemporary free jazz lineage in a more orthodox setting. The album title – which could be miscontrued as suggesting 'Surrendered' to the orthodoxies of the market place - is more likely referring to Ware's spirituality... which is reflected in the sense of ego surrendering to the music, perhaps... I like his playing very much – just bought a couple more CD's in fact which I will extract the odd morsel from at some point... so much music, so little time...
Another taste of Konitz – playing with his mentor, Lennie Tristano. Drumming is quite stroppy, going against the usual accepted wisdoms that the pianist required time to be kept neatly and no fancy stuff. Tristano marks out the changes as Konitz dances elegantly over the top. One of the true greats still blowing strong – a survivor who was always determined to mark out his own track apart from the gravity pull of Bird. Tristano takes a restrained solo. Towards the end he suddenly breaks out to play a contrapuntal line that moves up alongside Konitz. Stunning... A live date – I think this is from 1955, the gloriously named 'Sing-Song Room, Confucius Restaurant' in New York being the venue. Bass and drums then would be Gene Ramey and Art Taylor, which makes sense. Tristano once said : 'Vitality arises from an emotion that is free.' (Quoted from here...). Quite...
To end: the immortal Bird, in an impromptu session with Tristano. Kenny Clarke is listed as the drummer but apparently he played a phone book with brushes - as you can hear. This was a private recording – as you can hear! Hissy, rough – but it is like suddenly stepping into a tunnel that connects back over the years to the glory days of bop. Bird is superb, Tristano here just content to lay out the chords behind. Possibly a practice session? The Tristano discography lists it as 1951, but it possibly was recorded earlier in 1947, according to this review of the album containing this track by Greg Thomas here...
In the Videodrome...
Sonny Rollins and Don Cherry here...
the Great Clifford – on T.V....
... have we done this before? Trane on My Favourite etc...
...some Miles
... and some more Coltrane...
Bill Dixon
Bill Dixon (t) George Borrow (ts) Ken McKintyre (as, ob) Howard Johnson (tuba, bs) Dave Izenson, Hal Dodson (b) Howard McRae (d)
Alternate take Section III 'F' from 'Winter Song.'
Download
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp (ts) Don Cherry (pc) John Tchicai (as) Ronnie Boykins (b) Sunny Murray (d)
Like a Blessed Baby Lamb
Download
Buy
Bill Evans/Lee Konitz/Warne Marsh
Bill Evans (p) Lee Konitz (as) Warne Marshe (ts) Eddie Gomez (b) Eliot Zigmund (d)
Eiderdown
Download
Buy
David S. Ware (ts) Matthew Shipp (p) William Parker (b) Guillermo Brown (d)
Sweet Georgia Bright
Download
Buy
Lennie Tristano (p) Lee Konitz (as) Gene Ramey (b) Art Taylor (d)
All the things you are
Download
Buy
Charlie Parker (as) Lennie Tristano (p) Kenny Clarke (d)
All of Me
Download
Buy
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