Slowly cycling back through my stash of music – extensive but not infinite, although sometimes when I survey the accumulated cds, tapes and digital formats, I wonder... I used to travel light...
I saw Lambert, Hendricks and Ross in the UK, back in the old days, hip, finger-snapping stuff, cleverly self-referential – what could be more self-reflexive than putting words to improvised jazz solos? The vocalese sub-genre of Eddie Jefferson, Babs Gonzales and King Pleasure taken to new heights. Here is a track from 'Sing a song of Basie,' where this conception is extended further: the material is based on the Count's tunes, the band sections were recreated by vocal over-dubs ( new technology at the time – for jazz, at least, although Lennie Tristano had done some multitracking in 1955) as the original idea of using a group of backing singers did not work in practice. It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing, etc. And the rhythm section came from the Basie band, minus the boss with Nat Pierce in the piano chair. 'One O' Clock Jump,' perfect swinging music for a sunny Sunday morning. The gig I went to, they were on tour with the Basie Ork and to hear them riffing off the source was a blast indeed...
Update: just found this memento - L, H and R with Basie and Ocie Smith on vocals, from the Juan Les Pins jazz festival in 1961. Go here...
A ten o' clock jump, as it were – to John Zorn's Masada. Mysterious bass over drums lead in on 'Hadasha.' Joined by the trumpet and alto, long notes on a sad theme cutting into each other. Zorn opens a slow spiral over deep trumpet that progresses into more enervated keening and high register squalls before dropping into an Ornettish line. Baron disrupts the background vamp with sudden surges. Dave Douglas solos, some gentle bluesy figures before he opens it out – yet keeping on a conversational level – vocalised tone and inflections. Zorn returns to parry lines as the trumpet drops back themewards. A sudden fast flourish and then wending onwards into a double improvisation. Free-ish and also operating within a fairly restricted area – an interesting paradox...
More singing – one of my favourite folk/blues/acoustic performers, Kelly Joe Phelps. Who came from a jazz background before he started to explore a mixture of slide and finger-picking styles to accompany his vocals and oblique songs. This is 'Wandering Away,' yet another song of the restless on the road, but a good few notches above the usual banalities we have become used to. Slide shadows voice, the vocalised guitar that came out the country blues call and response. Channelled, not 'tribute.'
A Milt Jackson date for Blue Note, featuring what would become the first incarnation of the Modern Jazz Quartet (Conny Kay replaced Kenny Clarke in 1955), with Lou Donaldson added for his first recording session. A sprightly jog through 'Don't get around much anymore.' Donaldson is usually figured under the sign of Parker but here he gives echoes of an older tradition, a shadow of Johnny Hodges, perhaps, in the fractional slides into notes of the theme statement.
Did Milt Jackson ever take an uninteresting solo?
Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke again in the engine room for an oddity – Kenny Dorham, one of the great bop trumpeters – also singing here: 'Lonesome Lover Blues.' Showing that perhaps the rhythm and blues roots weren't so far away from modern jazz. Dorham sings, plays some fiery trumpet, followed by a snatch of Jimmy Heath (Percy's brother) on tenor... Recorded in New York, 1953. Dorham was always somewhat overshadowed by Diz, Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro perhaps, but could hold his own in any company. He also recorded with Donaldson and Milt Jackson on some seminal Monk sessions round this time – must dig them out...
To go out: a different 'Lonesome Lover Blues' done by Billy Eckstine, fronting his kicking big band in 1946-ish. Playing some neat valve trombone as well... Here... Come to think of it, Kenny Dorham was in the band round that time, replacing Fats Navarro in the trumpet section...
Lambert Hendrick and Ross
Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, Annie Ross (v) Nat Pierce (p) Freddie Greene (g) Eddie Jones (b) Sonny Payne (d)
One O' Clock Jump
Download
Buy
John Zorn/Masada
John Zorn (as) Dave Douglas (t) Greg Cohen (b) Joey Baron (d)
Hadasha
Download
Buy
Kelly Joe Phelps (v, g)
Wandering Away
Download
Buy
Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson (vib) Lou Donaldson (as) John Lewis (p) Percy Heath (b) Kenny Clarke (d)
Don't get around much anymore
Download
Buy
Kenny Dorham (t, v) Jimmy Heath (ts, bars) Walter Bishop Jr. (p) Percy Heath (b) Kenny Clarke (d)
Lost lover blues
Download
Buy
Showing posts with label milt jackson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label milt jackson. Show all posts
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Clusone Trio... Mance Lipscomb... Herbie Hancock... John Coltrane/Milt Jackson... Cecil Taylor... Tito Puente...
Finally, after all the excitement and exhaustion – back to the music. So we beat on, boats against the current... whatever...
The Clusone Trio give the Herbie Nichols tune, '117th Street,' an outing. Always an element of drollery lurking when Bennink is involved – those crazy Dutch, eh? This swings in lightly over crisp old-school drumming as Moore states the theme and take the first solo – a limpid performance that builds through some more complex swirls into earthier smears. Reisjeger picks his cello through his turn before Moore returns for a brief passage then back in to the theme. Bennink throughout is in homage to earlier drummers mode. An odd mix of the old and disguised hints of the new, filtered through a wash of post-modernism, done with some affection...
Mance Lipscomb – a 'songster' whose material ranged far from the blues into many other areas – through 'folk' and beyond. The lines are never as straight as purists would have you believe - Lipscomb was indeed a river into which many streams flowed:
'Lipscomb represented one of the last remnants of the nineteenth-century songster tradition, which predated the development of the blues. Though songsters might incorporate blues into their repertoires, as did Lipscomb, they performed a wide variety of material in diverse styles, much of it common to both black and white traditions in the South, including ballads, rags, dance pieces (breakdowns, waltzes, one and two steps, slow drags, reels, ballin' the jack, the buzzard lope, hop scop, buck and wing, heel and toe polka), and popular, sacred, and secular songs. Lipscomb himself insisted that he was a songster, not a guitarist or "blues singer," since he played "all kinds of music." His eclectic repertoire has been reported to have contained 350 pieces spanning two centuries.' (Ibid).
(The 'buzzard lope' looks intriguing... may well describe my dance moves...).
This is 'Joe Turner killed a man' which builds a narrative out of a collection of familiar 'floating' verses over a thumping monotonic bass and slashes of slide (bottleneck/knifeblade?) that root it more in the blues.
Herbie Hancock from his bustout album 'Future Shock,' a track called 'Rough.' (Which matches the way I feel today – red wine too late at night!). Yeah, sure, it's a little dated but fun all the same... Ah, the outrage of the day from the jazz community... Play that funky music...
More blues – from the coupling of John Coltrane and Milt Jackson for a 1959 recording date. This is 'Blues Legacy,' a riffed-out twelve bar. Jackson up first to roll out a dazzling line, subtle yet blues-drenched as his playing always was. Coltrane takes it up, the relaxed tempo giving him plenty of ruminative space, yet unleashing those blinding flurries occasionally to spur things along. Connie Kay, somewhat surprisingly perhaps, gives out a solid if sedate backbeat throughout. Paul Chambers paces underneath like a velvet panther. Hank Jones solos, his single note strings echoing Jackson's vibes-induced linearity. Trane returns to spell out the theme. You would have thought that Kay was an odd choice for this gig, given the powerhouse drummers Coltrane was used to playing with, yet his simplified two and four here – almost r and b-ish – lets the bass take a supple role – one that Chambers was used to supplying anyway with his bandmate in the Miles Davis group. Maybe Jackson invited him – they were, of course, long-time partners in the Modern jazz Quartet.
Cecil Taylor – from his 1973 solo album recorded in Japan, this is the first track 'Choral of voice (Elision).' Not sure where I got this from – it's not one of mine, I found it buried amongst a collection of mp3s that I was searching for someone else - so homage to original up-loader. Amid the usual dense piano hurly burly, some more reflective passages. Cecil's solo work is probably the most accessible way into his unique sound world – although presenting formidable problems to the first-time listener, perhaps. But the format offers a chance to follow his logic a little more clearly...
The sun is shining here in God's Little Acre, for the moment at least, so here is some Latin fire - Tito Puente and band roaring through 'Para Los Rumberos.' A mighty sound... they cheer me up, anyway... as I do the buzzard lope round the room...
Clusone Trio
Michael Moore (as, cl, mel) Ernst Reijseger (cel, el-cel) Han Bennink (d, perc)
117th Street
Download
Buy
Mance Lipscomb (v, g)
Joe Turner killed a man
Download
Buy
Herbie Hancock, Michael Beinhorn (keys) Bill Laswell (el-b)
Rough
Download
Buy
John Coltrane/Milt Jackson
John Coltrane (ts) Milt Jackson (vib) Hank Jones (p) Paul Chambers (b) Connie Kay (d).
Blues Legacy
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p)
Choral of Voice (Elision)
Download
Buy
Tito Puente
Tito Puente (vib, mar, tim) Charlie Palmieri (p, org) Mario Rivera (fl, bs) Santos Colon (v) Jose Madera (quiro, perc) Johnny (Dandy) Rodriguez (bongos) Jimmy Frisaura (t, b-t) Yayo El Indio (v) Roy Burroughs, Tony Cofrezi (t) Michael 'Mike' Collazo (d) Dick Meza (ts) Israel 'Izzy' Feliu (b-g) Pete Fanelli (as) Don 'El Barbito' Palmer (fl, as) Jose Merino (t)
Para los rumberos
Download
Buy
The Clusone Trio give the Herbie Nichols tune, '117th Street,' an outing. Always an element of drollery lurking when Bennink is involved – those crazy Dutch, eh? This swings in lightly over crisp old-school drumming as Moore states the theme and take the first solo – a limpid performance that builds through some more complex swirls into earthier smears. Reisjeger picks his cello through his turn before Moore returns for a brief passage then back in to the theme. Bennink throughout is in homage to earlier drummers mode. An odd mix of the old and disguised hints of the new, filtered through a wash of post-modernism, done with some affection...
Mance Lipscomb – a 'songster' whose material ranged far from the blues into many other areas – through 'folk' and beyond. The lines are never as straight as purists would have you believe - Lipscomb was indeed a river into which many streams flowed:
'Lipscomb represented one of the last remnants of the nineteenth-century songster tradition, which predated the development of the blues. Though songsters might incorporate blues into their repertoires, as did Lipscomb, they performed a wide variety of material in diverse styles, much of it common to both black and white traditions in the South, including ballads, rags, dance pieces (breakdowns, waltzes, one and two steps, slow drags, reels, ballin' the jack, the buzzard lope, hop scop, buck and wing, heel and toe polka), and popular, sacred, and secular songs. Lipscomb himself insisted that he was a songster, not a guitarist or "blues singer," since he played "all kinds of music." His eclectic repertoire has been reported to have contained 350 pieces spanning two centuries.' (Ibid).
(The 'buzzard lope' looks intriguing... may well describe my dance moves...).
This is 'Joe Turner killed a man' which builds a narrative out of a collection of familiar 'floating' verses over a thumping monotonic bass and slashes of slide (bottleneck/knifeblade?) that root it more in the blues.
Herbie Hancock from his bustout album 'Future Shock,' a track called 'Rough.' (Which matches the way I feel today – red wine too late at night!). Yeah, sure, it's a little dated but fun all the same... Ah, the outrage of the day from the jazz community... Play that funky music...
More blues – from the coupling of John Coltrane and Milt Jackson for a 1959 recording date. This is 'Blues Legacy,' a riffed-out twelve bar. Jackson up first to roll out a dazzling line, subtle yet blues-drenched as his playing always was. Coltrane takes it up, the relaxed tempo giving him plenty of ruminative space, yet unleashing those blinding flurries occasionally to spur things along. Connie Kay, somewhat surprisingly perhaps, gives out a solid if sedate backbeat throughout. Paul Chambers paces underneath like a velvet panther. Hank Jones solos, his single note strings echoing Jackson's vibes-induced linearity. Trane returns to spell out the theme. You would have thought that Kay was an odd choice for this gig, given the powerhouse drummers Coltrane was used to playing with, yet his simplified two and four here – almost r and b-ish – lets the bass take a supple role – one that Chambers was used to supplying anyway with his bandmate in the Miles Davis group. Maybe Jackson invited him – they were, of course, long-time partners in the Modern jazz Quartet.
Cecil Taylor – from his 1973 solo album recorded in Japan, this is the first track 'Choral of voice (Elision).' Not sure where I got this from – it's not one of mine, I found it buried amongst a collection of mp3s that I was searching for someone else - so homage to original up-loader. Amid the usual dense piano hurly burly, some more reflective passages. Cecil's solo work is probably the most accessible way into his unique sound world – although presenting formidable problems to the first-time listener, perhaps. But the format offers a chance to follow his logic a little more clearly...
The sun is shining here in God's Little Acre, for the moment at least, so here is some Latin fire - Tito Puente and band roaring through 'Para Los Rumberos.' A mighty sound... they cheer me up, anyway... as I do the buzzard lope round the room...
Clusone Trio
Michael Moore (as, cl, mel) Ernst Reijseger (cel, el-cel) Han Bennink (d, perc)
117th Street
Download
Buy
Mance Lipscomb (v, g)
Joe Turner killed a man
Download
Buy
Herbie Hancock, Michael Beinhorn (keys) Bill Laswell (el-b)
Rough
Download
Buy
John Coltrane/Milt Jackson
John Coltrane (ts) Milt Jackson (vib) Hank Jones (p) Paul Chambers (b) Connie Kay (d).
Blues Legacy
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p)
Choral of Voice (Elision)
Download
Buy
Tito Puente
Tito Puente (vib, mar, tim) Charlie Palmieri (p, org) Mario Rivera (fl, bs) Santos Colon (v) Jose Madera (quiro, perc) Johnny (Dandy) Rodriguez (bongos) Jimmy Frisaura (t, b-t) Yayo El Indio (v) Roy Burroughs, Tony Cofrezi (t) Michael 'Mike' Collazo (d) Dick Meza (ts) Israel 'Izzy' Feliu (b-g) Pete Fanelli (as) Don 'El Barbito' Palmer (fl, as) Jose Merino (t)
Para los rumberos
Download
Buy
Friday, October 12, 2007
Oliver Nelson... Milt Jackson/Thelonious Monk... Zoot Sims/Joe Pass... Albert Ayler
Oliver Nelson recorded 'Afro-American Sketches' in 1962 – a forgotten masterpiece. 'There's a yearnin''is a slow sonorous sway in 3/2, scored for an unusual orchestral combination that combines strings and french horns and tuba with the more conventional sections. Nelson states the theme on alto, his tone immediately identifiable – broad and ripe – as the ensemble wrap round him like dark velvet. Jerry Dodgion's flute pipes in a couple of times to answer the sax. This is flat out gorgeous and sad... blue beauty...
Milt Jackson recorded early on with Thelonious Monk and was one of the great interpreters of the pianist's music. Jackson's melodic and rhythmic sense never seemed to desert him throughout his career in whatever circumstances – witness (ho ho) his playing on 'Evidence,' one of those dark, sardonic Monk themes, hardly a melody but instantly recognisable in the unpredictable rhythmically displaced stabs of the notes. Monk chases Jackson with his more outre comping but the vibist is up to the challenge. The piano essays some sparklingly dissonant crunches...
Zoot Sims met up with Joe Pass in 1982 to record a laid-back duo session roduced by Norman Granz. Zoot was no ground-breaker, perhaps, but a remarkably consistent improviser throughout his career. This is the title track from the album 'Blues for Two,' a relaxed tenor bounce over Pass's comping and walking lines and melodic fragments – some technique this guy had for playing back and fore ground simultaneously. As displayed in his solo... Swinging and subtle.
Albert Ayler had a similar broad vibrato to Oliver Nelson – except he cranked it up further – way past Sidney Bechet, even – to produce an even more heavily vocalised sound on tenor. This is Albert in his pomp – recorded live in 1964 with Sunny Murray and Gary Peacock, a squalling ride through 'Wizard.' Some superior free jazz here – and they said this man could not play? Weird... Peacock takes a good solo and Murray's cymbal work ably supports.
In the Videodrome...
Zoot plays 'My Old Flame'...
Joe Pass delivers a masterclass...
Oliver Nelson big band with Gato...
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Nelson (as) Ernie Royal, Joe Newman, Joe Wilder, Jerry Kail (t) Urbie Green, Britt Woodman, Paul Faulise (tr) Bob Ashton (ts, fl, cl) Jerry Dodgion (as, fl) Julius Watkins, Ray Alonge, Jim Buffington (fr h) Charles McCracken, Peter Makis (c) Don Butterfield (tba) Art Davis (d) Ray Barretto (perc)
There's A Yearnin'
Download
Buy
Zoot Sims (ts) Joe Pass (g)
Blues for Two
Download
Buy
Thelonious Monk/Milt Jackson
Thelonious Monk (p) Milt Jackson (vib) John Simmons (b) Shadow Wilson (d)
Evidence
Download
Buy
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler (ts) Gary Peacock (b) Sonny Murray (d)
Wizard
Download
Buy
Milt Jackson recorded early on with Thelonious Monk and was one of the great interpreters of the pianist's music. Jackson's melodic and rhythmic sense never seemed to desert him throughout his career in whatever circumstances – witness (ho ho) his playing on 'Evidence,' one of those dark, sardonic Monk themes, hardly a melody but instantly recognisable in the unpredictable rhythmically displaced stabs of the notes. Monk chases Jackson with his more outre comping but the vibist is up to the challenge. The piano essays some sparklingly dissonant crunches...
Zoot Sims met up with Joe Pass in 1982 to record a laid-back duo session roduced by Norman Granz. Zoot was no ground-breaker, perhaps, but a remarkably consistent improviser throughout his career. This is the title track from the album 'Blues for Two,' a relaxed tenor bounce over Pass's comping and walking lines and melodic fragments – some technique this guy had for playing back and fore ground simultaneously. As displayed in his solo... Swinging and subtle.
Albert Ayler had a similar broad vibrato to Oliver Nelson – except he cranked it up further – way past Sidney Bechet, even – to produce an even more heavily vocalised sound on tenor. This is Albert in his pomp – recorded live in 1964 with Sunny Murray and Gary Peacock, a squalling ride through 'Wizard.' Some superior free jazz here – and they said this man could not play? Weird... Peacock takes a good solo and Murray's cymbal work ably supports.
In the Videodrome...
Zoot plays 'My Old Flame'...
Joe Pass delivers a masterclass...
Oliver Nelson big band with Gato...
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Nelson (as) Ernie Royal, Joe Newman, Joe Wilder, Jerry Kail (t) Urbie Green, Britt Woodman, Paul Faulise (tr) Bob Ashton (ts, fl, cl) Jerry Dodgion (as, fl) Julius Watkins, Ray Alonge, Jim Buffington (fr h) Charles McCracken, Peter Makis (c) Don Butterfield (tba) Art Davis (d) Ray Barretto (perc)
There's A Yearnin'
Download
Buy
Zoot Sims (ts) Joe Pass (g)
Blues for Two
Download
Buy
Thelonious Monk/Milt Jackson
Thelonious Monk (p) Milt Jackson (vib) John Simmons (b) Shadow Wilson (d)
Evidence
Download
Buy
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler (ts) Gary Peacock (b) Sonny Murray (d)
Wizard
Download
Buy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
