Curtis Counce... Booker Ervin... Marilyn Crispell/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian...

Continuing apologies for lack of blog presence... lingering illness (cough bloody cough) and another project that I am way behind on (the CD/Download label) have taken my time... so here are three tracks to re-start the fandango...

Holding the bop line in 1957... on the West Coast... Curtis Counce, another who went too young (died in 1963), a respected bass player around and about, formed his group in the fifties and recorded a few fine albums. This is a spacy, swaying reading of the old bop warhorse, 'Woody 'n' You.'

The Book had a way of hitting a note smack dab that gives his playing a diamond-hard edge... couple this to a fine sense of exploration and a bluesy swagger that earths his playing solidly – and I get: one of my favourite tenor players. From 1968, 'In a Capricornian Way' swings in on a dancing 6/8, Ervin's saxophone accompanied in the front line by the exemplary Woody Shaw. Tenor solos first – swirls of notes, high long-held cries, powerhouse blowing. Shaw next, bright and brassy. Barron follows, pithy and succinct. The whole kicked smartly along by bass and drums – Billy Higgins in fine fettle.

Marilyn Crispell is renowned for raising up stormwinds of dense hard-hitting piano. Here, she throttles way, way back and drops acres of space into her reading of 'Open, to Love,' taken from the album of Annette Peacock compositions she recorded with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian - 'Nothing ever was, anyway.' Thoughtful, quietly discursive, but with an edge of steel. Peacock roams around deep mainly as Motian colours and subtly punctuates. Paul Bley recorded many Peacock compositions (and was married to her – as was the bass player on this session, Gary Peacock, earlier – gee, it gets complicated) – perhaps some of his presence hovers over this track especially.

Curtis Counce
Curtis Counce (b) Jack Sheldon (t) Harold Land (ts) Carl Perkins (p) Frank Butler (d)
Woody 'N' You
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Booker Ervin
Booker Ervin (ts) Woody Shaw (t) Kenny Barron (p) Jan Arnet (b) Billy Higgins (d)
In a Capricornian Way
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Marilyn Crispell
Marilyn Crispell (p) Gary Peacock (b) Paul Motian (d)
Open, to love
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John Coltrane... Charles Mingus... Paul Motian... Jackie McLean...

...and I said that these posts would stabilise into more regular delivery. But: things have got hectic here at the Eagles Nest – which is yet again in transitional mode as we have to move again soon – hopefully to a more stable tenure. But one tries to keep it rolling...


With my usual amnesic panache – I neglected to mention the John Coltrane anniversary just passed, the fortieth anniversary of his death on July 17 1967.. Sorry John. So: here's a track from one of my favourite albums, 'Africa/Brass,' 'Song of the Underground Railroad.' Deep and sonorous brass drape round the sinuous folk theme before Coltrane comes belting out of the gates – full-tilt tenorboogie. Tyner solos next, restating the theme before taking off in a calmer yet sparkling diversion, underscored by spare brass passages. Coltrane returns, that keening edge slicing through before Tyner vamps over running bass and the track somewhat abruptly ends. Elvin Jones is superb throughout...

Mingus from the Fifties. Another restless, driven artist. 'Passions of a Woman loved.' Starting sedate and sombre before falling helter-skelter into stop-start rhythms and silences - Mingus early on was disrupting the frantic flow of the bop line. This spins off on into long melodic lines and rhapsodic piano jumping into a skittery walz-time and beyond - freely swirling passages amid cool and calm, Legge coltishly boppish scamperings, Hadi romantically eloquent, Knepper gruffly sardonic. Episodic evocation of a loved one? Like a cubist portrait maybe... This is one of the two unreleased tracks added to the CD re-issue (of the album recorded in 1957 but unreleased until 1961).

A synchronous segue – just pulled this out and the first track is 'Pithecanthropus Erectus,' the Mingus composition.. This blog runs on such improvisations... An unusual line up, the Paul Motian band with three electric guitarists, two tenors and no piano. Plenty of space to roam here – the guitars keep out of each others' ways. Lines drift across each other to form into a patchwork of some beauty...

Jackie McLean, the title track from his 1965 album 'Jacknife.' Lee Morgan was also on this date, but it's Charles Tolliver in the trumpet chair here, a fast, almost savage tune as befits the streetgang title. Cue metaphors for sharpness, cutting through etc... but you wouldn't be far wrong. Jack DeJohnette is the mainspring, swinging the ensemble powerfully, placing accents with a surgical skill, scalpel rather than jacknife, really...

Tomorrow I'm off to see the Pet Shop Boys at Newmarket Racecourse with the rather gorgeous Rachel who is their überfan... we have tickets for the Royal Enclosure - so this will be the first gig I have ever attended with a dress code... looks like fun, either way... I wonder if I have to wear socks? Which I never do from April to October as a rule. Damn the weather, in my head it is summer... a report soon...


John Coltrane
Song of the Underground Railroad
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Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus (b) Shafi Hadi (as) Jimmy Knepper (tb) Wade Legge (p) Danny Richmond (d)
Passions of a woman loved
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Paul Motian
Paul Motian (d) Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder, Jakob Bro (el-g) Jerome Harris (b) Chris Creek, Tony Malaby (ts)
Pithecanthropus Erectus
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Jackie McLean
Jackie McLean (as) Charles Tolliver (t) Larry Willis (p) Larry Ridley (b) Jack DeJohnette (d)
Jacknife
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