Thelonious Monk/Miles Davis/Doc Watson/Delmore Brothers/Max Roach

The bloody World Cup is here again so I am in need of (much) distraction, although not having a television helps to a certain extent... But, despite the fact that football bores the bejasus out of me, it would be churlish not to wish for the best in South Africa – a big moment for them.

And I am off to Devon tomorrow for a few days r and r and some biz. So:

The curse of the blogger of course, is to make rash statements: 'Apologies for being away but now I'm back etc' – to then disappear again. I have not posted any mp3s for some time and reviews have dried up somewhat as I have been busy on an ongoing project that has taken much time and energy. But I like to think that I can still roll one or two out here and there... Some jazz, some folk blues, some bluegrass, eclecticism rules as ever...

I posted Jimmy Guiffre's version of this sometime back – so here is the original, a recording of 'Blue Monk' made by the composer in 1954 with a trio, himself on piano, Percy Heath on bass and the redoubtable Art Blakey on drums. Over seven minutes long, giving them a chance to stretch out. Monk takes this at a sprightly tempo – he always plays this tune a fraction faster, I think, than you realise at first, the brain seems to say that it's a slower drag blues. He leaves plenty of space, floating phrases then suddenly doubling back, clenched repeating figures that suddenly spring out in an unexpected direction. Solid bass springs the track and Blakey knows when to push with quick cymbal spats and those trademark rolls, the battering triplets. Giuffre's version caught the pull of the time-line in the theme – at once archaic and modern and Monk of course, even more so now at this distance, proves this even deeper. Heath takes a fluent solo over Blakey backbeat hi-hat cymbal clips that continue into his own solo. Some hint of parade ground cadence that swings off sideways. Monk still in his springtime, on the cusp of greater recognition. And still fresh.

Miles from 1966: 'Dolores' a track on 'Miles Smiles.' Certain people regard this album as the last TRUE JAZZ acoustic Davis recording. Each to their own. What you do have is Miles coming to terms with the new wave and rock, both of which inflect on this album. Davis's Fifties Quintet was seen as a pinnacle of his art and certainly the rhythm section of that band took some beating – Philly Joe, Red Garland and Paul Chambers. Here the young drummer Tony Williams moves the band into new areas – I've always contended that jazz could not evolve any faster than its drummers. A lot of fifties attempts at moving the music beyond bebop fell foul of this rule... 'Dolores,' a Wayne Shorter composition opens uppishly on a line by tenor that falls into bass, band then bass again. Miles takes the first solo, open horn swirled along by William's wash of cymbals and a fast bass walk. No Hancock at first – Miles was always a master of space but with this quintet he was to explore the frontiers anew. Shorter follows Hancock enters at last on a single note line, leaving his left hand at home. Without chords being sketched, the linearities can take unexpected directions Peppy and fresh...

Another American treasure - Doc Watson playing 'Deep River Blues.' Just the Doc and his acoustic guitar, some fine picking and that warm baritone voice. Recorded in 1964, the album this comes from was a staple round our house several years later as all the guitar players worked out their own versions of many of the songs.

Alton and Rabon Delmore, brothers born in Alabama, pioneers of country music, regulars in the Grand Old Opry from the thirties onwards. (The Opry is the longest running radio show in the U.S. I discovered on the Wikipedia entry – I knew it had been around a long time but not that long!). Like Doc Watson, interestingly they crossed styles as and when, no doubt confounding purists, who seem to have little understanding at a distance of the commercial moves a musician makes. Their version of 'Big River Blues' is an antecedent of the above 'Deep River Blues' and gives a fascinating contrast in linked but different styles. Singing in close harmony, straight out of the high lonesome, backed by interweaving guitars, whether it's because they come from an earlier generation, one can track the rhythmic differences. They are just that fraction more four-square than the Doc, albeit that the lead bounces nicely off the accompaniment. Much more country, as well, Doc's voice reminding me oddly of a folk blues Jack Teagarden. In another strange reversal, later in their career, during the forties, they added electric guitar and drums – Doc Watson had started his professional career playing electric guitar in a country/western swing band. I gather his superb flat-picking technique came in part from playing fiddle tunes on the electric, in later years moving them onto his acoustic guitar.

Searing stuff from Max Roach and company – 'Mendacity,' recorded in 1961, from his album 'Percussion Bitter Sweet.' Booker Little leads the ensemble in on soured trumpet before the Abbey Lincoln takes the song. A chorus then stopped by an ensemble surge. Then the incomparable Eric Dolphy's alto – talk about 'vocalisation of tone' – this reminds me of the musical conversations he had with Charles Mingus in the quartet that recorded equally biting music - 'Faubus Fables' etc. Another ensemble punctuation then Max takes his equipment out front, the most musical of drummers, chunks of silence after each statement. An unusual solo that stops and starts, stops and starts, yet with a narrative line throughout. Far from the ker-ching of orthodox modern jazz - the times were a-changing in many ways. Abbey Lincoln returns, the lyric darkly spelling out the racism these musicians and their people endured. Angry, righteous music.

Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Percy Heath (b) Art Blakey (d)
Blue Monk
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Miles Davis
Miles Davis (t) Wayne Shorter (ts) Herbie Hancock (p) Ron Carter (b) Tony Williams (d)
Dolores
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Doc Watson (g, v)
Deep River Blues
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Delmore Brothers (g, v)
Big River Blues
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Max Roach
Booker Little (tp) Julian Priester (tb) Eric Dolphy (as) Clifford Jordan (ts) Mal Waldron (p) Art Davis (b) Max Roach (d) Carlos "Patato" Valdes (cga) Carlos "Totico" Eugenio (cowbell) Abbey Lincoln (vo)
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Christmas Greetings... and some music... Howling Wolf... Paul Butterfield... Steve Lacy...John Zorn... Funkadelic... Thelonious Monk... Lennie Tristano...

Seasons greetings to all. It's been a while... but I've decided that there might be some life in the mp3 free download and obscure chat formula still - maybe a concentrated look at a track or two could still be interesting in this age of mass album downloads - well, before they shut us all down, or try to... I live in the hope that the Internet can resist the fools and thieves - i.e. politicians - and their attempts at policing the Anarchosphere...

To the music: here comes the Taildragger – the mighty Howling Wolf performing 'Shake for me.' Taken from a live recording from the American Folk Blues Festival on tour in 1964.  Guessing at the lineup, Hubert Sumlin contributes some stinging sharp guitar, comping and single note lines that lock nicely with Sunnyland Slim's piano.  Classic Chicago blues...

Some rocky white blues edging into r and b/soul stylings with the addition of the horn section – Paul Butterfield and his band at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Playing 'Driftin' Blues,' I'm guessing this is the same lineup that recorded 'Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw,' so Keith Johnson on trumpet leading it in before the vocal takes it up, shadowed by Elvin Bishop's guitar. Butterfield takes a harp solo, three eloquent choruses that build nicely. Video of the performance here

Steve Lacy with bass and drums playing 'Blue Jay' from his album 'The Holy La,' recorded in France in 1998. Despite all his years playing, there was always an early morning fresh jump out of bed feel to his work.

John Zorn in 1998. From the album 'Downtown Lullaby,' this is '228 West Broadway.' Bit of a curiosity, interesting in the sense that the musicians: Zorn plus Wayne Horvitz, keyboards, Elliott Sharp, guitar and Bobby Previte on drums freely improvised the material in the studio and then added the titles – all New York addresses that refer, I think, to loft spaces where they have played. Oddly eastern feel to it - Elliott Sharp's electric guitar weaving in and out of Zorn's alto over minimal drums that build into a backbeat that stops just under four minutes in as Horvitz drops in some sprinkles of keyboard, reforming again after half a minute, adding some cymbal splash. Starting to get more interestingly tangled together, Previte mixing up the rhythm, keyboard dropping in some chordal crashes. Ebbing away and down as Zorn plays with a fragment of melody, tossing it around gently. Out on faint scuffling drums and a dying guitar note.

Mr Clinton from 1974. 'Alice in my fantasies,' from 'Standing on the verge of getting it on.' I first got into George C when I bought a copy of Parliament's 'Chocolate City' in a Dublin cut-out bin, circa 1976(? - That was a heavy Black Bushmills year). Not sure how the new prez will work out after a decidedly jumpy start, but let's be charitable in hard times: 'You're the capital, C.C.' This is a wild ride which cuts through a few genre barriers, rock colliding with funk in a heavy guitar-laced track, some weirdo vocal giving way to the mighty 'Smedley Smorganoff,' the criminally unsung Eddie Hazell blasting out some fierce wah wah, fading out somewhat abruptly. A bit of fun...

Monk, the first album he made for Columbia – 'Monk's Dream' – and take one of 'Bye-ya.' Another album which is important to me – I bought this when I was living with my first wife in some glorious boho dump in London – our first 'apartment.' Used to play this on a portable record player... it was my birthday present from her that year. Frankie Dunlop's drums open by spelling out the rhythm of the theme, when the band come in they accentuate Monk's compositionary vision - a seamless mix of rhythm, melody and harmony. Charlie Rouse takes a jaunty solo, followed by Monk in expansive mood, prodding and flowing in equal order, jumping off a riff to roll down on his patented whole note runs. A solo that amply demonstrates how he respects his improvisational start points. But everything on a good Monk track (which was most of them) always comes together - not always on first listen if you don't understand his vocabulary but there is always a supreme musical intelligence at work. Tunes are never just vehicles for blowing - over the years that I have been listening to his work, since that mind-blowing performance in 'Jazz on a Summer's Day' which opened my very young ears further to the possibilities of modern jazz and beyond, I have never bought into the myths that he was some kind of mad primitive. Monk was an exotic character, which is part of his appeal, but the vision behind the music and the man should be acknowledged more. It looks as if the new biography may go some way to rectify some of the idiocies - can't wait to grab a copy in the New Year. Apparently Bill Evans thought that Monk's singular vision was due to not being exposed to Western classical music, some kind of idiot savant... which demonstrates my point. Yes he was, Bill...

Another pianist/visionary who suffered at the hands of critical myopia - ironic, given his own disability - was Lennie Tristano. While Monk had at least a good measure of success in his life and is still acclaimed critically, Tristano was never as highly regarded - yet he was one of the great pillars of modern jazz with a unique take on linearity and melody. Here he leads a powerhouse lineup - Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz on saxophones, Billy Bauer on guitar, Arnold Frishkin, bass and Denzil Best on drums. One of those corny titles: 'Sax of a kind' - ha ha - which disguises a fleet and intricate theme. Bauer solos first, fluently - he was a fine bebop guitar player - followed seamlessly by Tristano, over to Konitz then Marsh, a brief trade between the saxes then into the theme before you realise it. One flowing whole, no joins - fascinating, how Tristano taught his methods of improvisation to pupils who remained of his school while developing their own distinct approaches.

Back soon...

Howling Wolf
with possibly Sunnyland Slim (p) Hubert Sumlin (g) Willie Dixon (b) Clifton James (d)
Shake for me
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Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield(v,hca)
with possibly Elvin Bishop (g)David Sanborn (as) Brother Gene Dinwiddie (ts) Keith Johnson (t) Mark Naftalin (keys) Bugsy Maugh (b) Phillip Wilson (d)
Driftin' Blues
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Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy (ss) Jean-Jacques Avenel (b) John Betsch (d)
Blue Jay
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John Zorn
John Zorn (as) Wayne Horvitz (keys) Elliott Sharp (g) Bobby Previte
228 West Broadway
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George Clinton/Funkadelic
Spaced Viking; Keyboards & Vocals: Bernard (Bernie) Worrell
Tenor Vocals, Congas and Suave Personality: Calvin Simon
A Prototype Werewolf; Berserker Octave Vocals: Clarence 'Fuzzy' Haskins
World's Only Black Leprechaun; Bass & Vocals: Cordell 'Boogie' Mosson
Maggoteer Lead/Solo Guitar & Vocals: Eddie 'Smedley Smorganoff' Hazel
Rhythm/Lead Guitar, Doowop Vocals, Sinister Grin: Gary Shider
Supreme Maggot Minister of Funkadelia; Vocals, Maniac Froth and Spit;
Behaviour Illegal In Several States: George Clinton
Percussion & Vocals; Equipped with stereo armpits: Ramon 'Tiki' Fulwood
Rhythm/Lead Guitar; polyester soul-powered token white devil: Ron Bykowski
Registered and Licensced Genie; Vocals: 'Shady' Grady Thomas
Subterranean Bass Vocals, Supercool and Stinky Fingers: Ray (Stingray) Davis
Alice in my fantasies
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Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Charlie Rouse (ts) John Ore (b) Frankie Dunlop (d)
Bye-ya take one
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Lennie Tristano
Lee Konitz (as) Warne Marsh (ts) Lennie Tristano (p) Billy Bauer (g) Arnold Fishkin (b) Denzil Best (d)
Sax of a kind
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Thelonious Monk... Mal Waldron/Marion Brown... Evan Parker/Eddie Prévost... Donald Byrd...

'Monk plays Ellington' was never rated as one of Thelonious's great albums. Yet I have always had a fancy for it, if only for the fascination of hearing one great pianist/composer take on another's work. This is 'I got it bad and that ain't good.' Monk leads in solo, stretching phrases to their breaking point, using almost unbearable periods of silence with the placement of a master. Suddenly bouncing off in a jaunty ride, joined by bass and the subtle tick of Kenny Clarke's drums. Pettiford solos, showing his class. Monk again, staying close to the melody – then suddenly dropping off into another space with an oblique turn, a rush of notes, a crunching chord. Thelonious in his heyday, sounding as if he was enjoying himself.

Mal Waldron is of the line of Monk – a minimalist vision at times, using space to great effect. Here, he is joined by Marion Brown for a slow, elegaic version of 'My Funny Valentine.' Piano starts off, allowing the air to blow through both melody and chords, holding back the beat, using repeated figures for emphasis. Late night feel, perhaps, but thoughtful rather than brooding, Just over three minutes in, Brown enters, holding the mood with keening long notes, harking back to an older tradition, saxophonic pyrotechnics stripped right back. At the end, Waldron rips out chords for the alto to pirouette through in an elegant coda.

Evan Parker and Eddie Prévost duet on 'Knowledge is power,' from a 1997 session. A long track that uncurls at its own speed, lazily snake-like with the occasional lash of the tail to snap the dynamics up a few notches. Opening on mysterious sonorities and scrapings, a fluttery sax like an early morning bird call. Prevost moves into more conventional percussive territory with some hammered toms. Parker worries a phrase across the registers. Moving from busy back into freer space, utilising a wide range of sounds between them, Parker getting so much out of his saxophone in between the usual long lines of circular breathing, at one point approximating a muted trumpet. They go into a more jazzy feel as the track progresses – at its back I hear Coltrane's sax/drums workouts, but Parker always acknowledged the influence – and proceeded over the years to fully work out his unique strategies rather than remain a copyist. This goes long because it has to...


Donald Byrd and band play 'Beale Street,' not the W.C. Handy piece but a choppy funky composition of its time – out of 'Sidewinder' etc. Hank Mobley blows a couple of choruses then Sonny Red takes some – playing with texture and sonorities, sounding bluesy. Byrd next, high up the range, spurred on by front line riffs. Cedar Walton comes in for a brief piano interlude. An odd mix of funk and bop, nothing particularly earth-moving, perhaps, but a snapshot of the trumpeter's working band from 1967, under the stamp of Blue Note...


Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Oscar Pettiford (b) Kenny Clarke (d)
I got it bad and that ain't good
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Mal Waldron (p) Marion Brown (as)
My Funny Valentine
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Evan Parker (ss) Eddie Prévost (d, perc)
Knowledge is power
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Donald Byrd (tp) Sonny Red (as) Hank Mobley (ts) Cedar Walton (p) Walter Booker (b) Billy Higgins (d)
Beale Street
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Shelly Manne... Spontaneous Music Ensemble... Thelonious Monk...

Shelly Manne made an album called 'The Three and the Two' in 1954 – the Three being himself, Shorty Rogers on trumpet, Jimmy Giuffre on assorted saxes and clarinet, the Two a duo with Russ Freeman on piano. No bass on either – which poses interesting questions in both lineups... These days we are used to drum/other instrument duos – at the time it was fairly radical in modern jazz, especially because of the changes in the rhythm section that had come about, where the bass is much more the basic rhythmic pivot, freeing up the drums. I have chosen two tracks, one from each lineup – both of them Charlie Parker lines - in an attempt to measure some the continuities - and fractures – that Mann was attempting. Arguably, to come at bop from his own direction, in the spirit of inquiry which was the flipside to what is usually seen as 'cool school' simplifications and embrace of commercial success. I think that one of the main impulses in West Coast experimental musics as such was an emphasis on counterpoint in an effort to acquire a greater freedom of linearity from what were increasingly perceived in some quarters as restrictive bop orthodoxies by the fifties. (A measure of the speed of the music's development, as well...). For white musicians, perhaps an attempt to come to terms with the black origins of jazz by attempting to graft more consciously 'European' devices onto the music? As a white European (sort of), one speculates... I do not profess to know the answer - and it is a tricky/dangerous subject to explore without coming across as some wishy-washy liberal apologist – or bigotedly ignoring the harsh and brutal cultural and political realities of post-slavery America. A fascinating blog post by Evan Iverson takes up the thorny subject of the white-black dynamic in jazz at some length, via a consideration of Lennie Tristano and Barack Obama's recent speech. I might take issue with some of his conclusions but to tackle the subject at all is a brave and considered step... Something else I learned from this piece – that Tristano apparently had no time for Monk – put him down badly/offensively, in fact... Tristano is a musician I admire and regard as very underrated – so this was a shock. But, like I say, these are tricky issues – which should be met head on...

The music: a busy opening on 'Billies Bounce' as the piano takes the lead and the left hand covers for lack of bass by ranging deep and busy – some heavy chording in places. Manne ranges freely – always a melodic drummer, concerned with timbre. The exchanges with Freeman point this up... the pianist also keeps to the middle and lower registers to give a full sound, less forays up the keyboard than you would hear if a bass was there to cover the bottom end. This gives a feeling of earlier two-fisted piano styles crossed with modern harmonies – and stomps along nicely.

'Steeplechase' is introduced by the drums before the horns weave in a dissonant counterpoint, a stop-start feel to the first sixteen bars and in the last eight. Giuffre solos first, Giuffre laying down a fairly insistent four – to compensate for the lack of bass? The use of baritone against the trumpet gives a feeling of the Mulligan Quartet refracted into a more abstracted/fragmented area. Rogers was always an attractive player with an ear for the experimental. Some busy exchanges between drums and the two horns. A sideways tipping of bop into something else – less frenetic than Bird would be yet still busy, the lack of bass or piano offering and opening up free spaces...

Plucks, thumps, sporadic drum hits, a single saxophone note followed by another, chomped off, sparsely spattered, the free rhythm slowly gathers pace as Stevens becomes busier. A succession of almost discreet moments that overlap enough between the three participants to move the performance along. This is the English group 'Spontaneous Music Ensemble,' a trio in this manifestation, of John Stevens, Trevor Watts and Kent Carter, playing 'Rambunctious One.' Pioneering free improv of the Brit variety, pointillist and rigorous, coming from 'jazz' but going elsewhere into distanced considerations of manipulating sounds moving through space and time, taking the instruments to the edges of conventional technique and beyond. Building up a fair head of steam as it progresses, an image in my mind of three people walking in to a room, strewing various fragments about and slowly assembling them, as the lines become longer, more developed. Carter's bass returns in places to an almost conventional role, yet the grounding as such timbrally comes from Stevens - contrast and compare to Shelly Manne above...although the rhythms are much more exploded and stretched. I would hazard that Manne was doing something similar back in 1954...

We started on the West Coast – to return, Monk at the Blackhawk club with a pickup band in 1960. East meets West and the combination defies Kipling's strictures... An unusal lineup for Monk who favoured quartets in the main, to his usual tenor man Charlie Rouse are added Joe Gordon and Harold Land to flesh out the front line. His regular bass player of the time, John Orr, is aided by Billy Higgins on drums. 'Worry later', also known as 'San Francisco Holiday,' is the selection. This album never seems to figure much in the Monk canon but it has always been one of my favourites from when I bought it on first release many (many) years ago. A great live recording, evocative because of the extraneous noises, snatches of conversation, glasses chinking etc... Higgins leads it in with the rhythmic figure of the theme – one of those nagging, stabbing lines that are pure Monk. Rouse takes the first solo, always dependable but sounding quite frisky here. Joe Gordon next, warm of tone and spirit, playing well considering the nature of the music. Land is always interesting – especially here, thrown in to the maelstrom at such short notice. Some commentators have criticised their contributions because of the hurried nature in which the date was organised – Monk's music not easy to drop into etc. Precisely because of this, I find them interesting – but I'm perverse... Monk emits his perennial twists turns, sudden drops and rhythmic displacements, the usual fascinating interrogations. An oddly satisfying closing of the circle here – he was supposed to play with the musician who started this sequence, Shelly Manne, but they did not gel, apparently, so this session was hastily arranged and recorded.

In the Videodrome...

Tristano in Copenhagen – wonderful wonderful, etc...

and with the quintet at the Half Note 1964...

Warne Marsh in Berlin...with Klook...

Kenny Clarke/Bud Powell/Clark Terry in Paris 1959...

Mingus in Milan 1976...

Ornette dances in your head...

at Bonnaroo last year...

Some Johnny Shines slide...


Shelly Manne
(Shelly Manne (d) Shorty Rogers (t), Jimmy Guiffre (bs) Russ Freemn (p)
Billie's Bounce
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Steeplechase
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Spontaneous Music Ensemble
John Stevens (perc, v) Trevor Watts (ss) Kent Carter (b)
Rambunctious One
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Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Charlie Rouse, Harold Land (ts) Joe Gordon (t) John Orr (b) Billy Higgins (d)
Worry Later
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Thelonious Monk... Johnny Griffin/Eddie Lockjaw Davis... Cannonball Adderley

Monk takes three minutes and fifteen seconds to stretch out on one chorus of 'I should care.' Slowed down for every crunching sonority to ring out to his quizzical ear, as if turning each small phrase round in his head before fingering the keyboard. Timing is all...

'Soft Winds,' from 'Tough Tenors' - by the tough tenors par excellence, Johnny Griffin and Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis. Earthy music, but played with the technical finesse that was required of musicians raised in bop and beyond. Johnny Griffin, of course, was a fearsome soloist at nightmare tempos, gunslinger supreme, although he developed his ballad playing as he got older. Davis was maybe not rated so highly - yet he could hold his own in most company. Yet: this is a relaxed performance that goes against the grain of their macho reputations. Sprightly piano from Junior Mance leads it in. Davis takes the first solo, prodding at a couple of riffs until he eventually wakes himself up with a fearsome r and b-like smear followed by some more fancy stuff. Mance comes up with his usual blues-inflections, bouncing nicely through. Griffin starts quietly, building slowly up to some r and b inflected call and response figures. An odd track in their canon, perhaps, more relaxed than some of the wilder workouts...

Cannonball Adderley was playing in the Miles Davis band when he made the 1958 Blue Note album 'Somethin' Else,' from which I have chosen brother Nat's composition 'One for Daddy O.' Easy swinging in, Cannon takes the first solo. Always something of a spring morning about his playing (or maybe it's because the sun is shining for once in God's Little Acre - in between the hail and rain). There was always a piping clarity to his lines that spun complexity and emotion into such an attractive dance. Ending as Blakey summons one of his mighty press-rolls and Miles is almost propelled forward by the air-pressure. Moving through the space in such a different way, with a more plaintive and shadowed emotion, some piercing high notes that cut straight through you. Hank Jones takes a sparkle of a solo and Cannon returns for some more, as does Miles, again using half as many notes, the contrast between the sparse and the plenty creating a dynamic that drives this album, as with so much of Davis's work. Although Miles could let rip when he felt the need, it wasn't so much a matter of technique, rather: sensibility and sensitivity to the occasion. Jones wraps up before they take the theme out. Miles was a guest on the session – although there is some dispute as to how much of a part he played overall on the date and his sign-off at the end of this track, the famous 'Is that what you wanted, Alfred?' seems to hint at a wider involvement. Still... who cares? This was a marvellous date, one of those places where various lines meet... on the apex of hard bop, with 'Kind of Blue' just round the corner. Cannon is an underrated sax player, I feel – probably because he was another who was touted as the 'New Bird' on his debut – who could live up to that? Or maybe because he went off and made some money before his tragic early death? Lest we forget - he stood alongside Miles and the burgeoning John Coltrane and always held his ground. Mercy mercy mercy...

More later: it looks as if the weather may permit a dash to the shops - if we are quick...

In the Videodrome...

Tough Tenors...


Cannonball talks about Bird and plays... the subject is... jazz...

Orrin Keepnews on Monk...



Thelonious Monk (p)
I should care
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Johnny Griffin/Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Johnny Griffin (ts) Junior Mance (p) Larry Gales (b) Ben Riley (d)
Soft Winds
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Cannonball Adderley
Julian Cannonball Adderley (as) Miles Davis (t) Hank Jones (p) Sam Jones (b) Art Blakey (d)
One for Daddy O
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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'
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Zoot Sims (ts) Joe Pass (g)
Blues for Two
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Thelonious Monk/Milt Jackson
Thelonious Monk (p) Milt Jackson (vib) John Simmons (b) Shadow Wilson (d)
Evidence
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Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler (ts) Gary Peacock (b) Sonny Murray (d)
Wizard
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Max Roach: A small tribute... part two... with Clifford Brown... Charles Mingus... Thelonious Monk... George Russell

Max Roach founded a quintet with Clifford Brown in the early 1950s – here is a track from their album 'Study in Brown.' 'Jacqui' was composed by the band's pianist, Richie Powell – Bud's brother - who died in the same tragic car crash that took Brownie. The young trumpeter had also played with the other drum giant of hard bop, Art Blakey. With Max, he had a band that during their brief existence arguably stands shoulder to shoulder with the Messengers. Brown was a stunningly fiery yet beautiful player who had no problems digging out the linear gold from the density of bop harmony at synapse-baffling high speeds. No matter the tempo, he never sounds rushed - it always seems as if he has the quiet interior space and time to figure things out and spin them into patterns of melodic wonder. To get a snapshot of Max in 1955 – listen to his solo here. A lighter touch than Blakey but those rolls contain a power held in subtle reserve. Harold Land is his underrated best and it's always worth remembering Richie P.

Max and Mingus, from 'Mingus at the Bohemia.' 'Percussion discussion.' Ominous dark bowed bass and the talking drums communicate on a strange track which is edging some way from the hard bop norms of 1955 – an epochal year in jazz, symbolised by the death of Charlie Parker. In a blindfold test, I suspect this might baffle a few people as to the recording date – it sounds pretty contemporary to me, outside of the bop chink a ching cymbals into a new rhythmic ground – it slips into conventional rhythm here and there but, in the main, this is searching stuff. And another great 'conversation' (thinking of those amazing duets between Mingus and Eric Dolphy) – two iconoclasts overheard discussing the future... Max was a drummer who had a deep interest in the melodic and timbral aspects of drumming and Mingus – well, no matter how abstract he might get, that powerful, pleading, raging voice is never far away to ground things into the all-too human, channelled through the bass and his various ensembles... Interesting how this prefigures later duo performances that found Max with a variety of musicians from Cecil Taylor to Dizzie Gillespie – a track that shows his range and curiosity.

The lines criss-cross and collide – Max had played with Monk on several famous sessions and Sonny Rollins had come into his and Brownie's band a couple of years earlier. Roach and Monk, colossi of the New York scene, also originally came from North Carolina way back, Newland and Rocky Mount respectively, although Monk was a few years older. This is them all together on 'Bemsha Swing' from the 'Brilliant Corners' album. Max switches between conventional jazz kit and tympani, which gives a deep rolling bottom resonance to Monk's theme. When Max solos, it is almost like a collision between the classical and the jazz world. Conventional wisdom always states that Blakey was Monk's best drummer – and they certainly recorded some wonderful tracks. But Max is well up to the mark on this album. And he fires off a couple of rolls that equal the mighty Blakey, to show his own power. Ernie Henry has a searing bluesy edge – yet another one who died young. And Clark Terry always seemed to be easy in whatever company he found himself in – but to slip into Monk's world so gracefully points to open ears beyond mere eclecticism...

Finally: a big band session with George Russell – 'A helluva town' is taken from the composer's 1958 album 'New York, N.Y.' Lot of Max on here... he introduces the track before Jon Hendricks enters with his proto-rap: 'Think you can lick it, get to the wicket.' Etc. Then he powers the band in – noted as a small group drummer in the main, Max had played with several big bands in the forties when he was starting out so he knew the form. Hard-hitting where required or subtle cymbal work in smart flicks of the percussive whip – this last track on the album (Charlie Persip was in the chair for the rest of the session) boots along nicely – leading into a solo section where he lets rip... A helluva town. A helluva drummer...



Clifford Brown/Max Roach
Clifford Brown (t) Harold Land (ts) Richie Powell (p) George Morrow (b) Max Roach (d)
Jacqui
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Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus (b) Max Roach (d)
Percussion discussion
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Thelonious Monk
Clark Terry (tp) Sonny Rollins (ts) Thelonious Monk (p) Paul Chambers (b) Max Roach (d)
Bemsha Swing
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George Russell
Art Farmer, Ernie Royal, Joe Wilder (tp) Tom Mitchell, Frank Rehak (tb) Bob Brookmeyer (vtb) Hal McKusick, Phil Woods (as) Al Cohn (ts) Gene Allen (bars) Bill Evans (p) Barry Galbraith (g) George Duvivier (b) Max Roach (d) George Russell (arr, cond) Jon Hendricks (nar)
A helluva town
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I shall return... soon... tomorrow...

Things have been busy here at the hovel these last weeks... but more regular posting will resume very soon... here's three tracks to keep it rolling... Monk, leading a tentet recorded at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Centre, in 1963. Echoes of his famous Town Hall concert a few years earlier with an expanded lineup. Thad Jones takes initial solo honours.











'Great Black Music.' Was the aspirational and infinitely flexible wraparound for the Art Ensemble of Chicago. This is 'Ohnedaruth,' a spacy exploration of musical freedoms. 'Ancient to the future.' Indeed... From a live gig in 1972.

Going out on Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys...'Take me back to Tulsa.' The Art Ensemble of Texas from yesteryear. Tee hee... but maybe not so far from the truth... Yi ha...






More very soon- including those old airshots I am finally mastering from the original cassettes... once I get my new quarters organised





Thelonious Monk
Thad Jones (cor) Nick Travis (tp) Eddie Bert (tb) Steve Lacy (ss) Phil Woods (as) Charlie Rouse (ts) Gene Allen (bars, cl, bcl) Thelonious Monk (p) Butch Warren (b) Frankie Dunlop (d)
I Mean You
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The Art Ensemble of Chicago- (instrumentation so varied that to put it in the usual abbreviated form would be futile - and it's late... )
Lester Bowie (Percussion, Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Kelphorn, Multi Instruments, Whistle (Human), Vocals, Drums) Joseph Jarman (Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano), Vocals (Background), Soprano (Vocal), Multi Instruments, Whistle (Human), Vocals, Sax (Tenor), Sax (Baritone), Percussion, Conga) Roscoe Mitchell (Clarinet, Multi Instruments, Whistle (Human), Vocals, Percussion, Saxophone, Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor), Sax (Soprano), Sax (Alto), Drums) Famadou Don Moye (Percussion, Conga, Drums, Vocals, Multi Instruments, Whistle (Human), Marimba, Gong)

Ohnadureth
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Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
Take me back to Tulsa
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Thelonious Monk... John Patton... Art Farmer... Booker Little... Eric Dolphy/Ken Mcintyre... Matthew Shipp/Roscoe Mitchell... Howlin' Wolf...

Thelonious Monk was out on the coast in 1960 and recorded a rather happy live session at San Francisco's Blackhawk club with an expanded quartet – Charlie Rouse, John Ore and Billy Higgins were joined by locals Joe Gordon and Harold Land on trumpet and tenor saxophone respectively. This is 'Worry Later,' also known as 'San Francisco Holiday,' which maybe refers to this sojourn. This album never seems to score as high as I think it should, for some reason. There's a casual, relaxed feeling to the date – the audience are a bit chatty in places but that adds to the ambiance. Billy Higgins takes it in with drum figures that echo the melody before the ensemble play the head. Rouse first – with no great advantage of knowledge over the strangers in the front line, actually, as this tune was relatively new. Gordon follows, negotiating the changes well. Harold Land comes in strong and keeps up. Monk plays his usual games of displacing the rhythm with unexpected accents, a couple of times (amusingly) seeming to stop some of his more familiar runs abruptly which leaves you hanging, the theme never far away... He appears to be on cheerful form...

Do the boogaloo – a choppy, funky track from Big John Patton and company, 'The Turnaround,' from a 1964 soul jazz classic: 'Let 'Em Roll.' Some nice Grant Green to commence before Big John comes in, firing off a batch of bluesy runs that go to some interesting melodic areas, Green backing up with sharp chording. Green has a raucous edge to his guitar than was usual in jazz at that time, a more r and b sound. Another ensemble timbral oddity perhaps – the inclusion of vibes master Bobby Hutcherson – who does not solo on this track. Rocking stuff.


There is a calm elegance to Art Farmer's music that maybe disguises the intrinsic fire... Here is the title track from his album 'Farmer's Market,' a fast jumpy bop blues. The first solo is by Wynton Kelly and comes out of the traps at speed, complete with bop-cheeky quote from 'Buttons and Bows.' Farmer next, a fluent display. Hank Mobley follows him, breathily in the pocket. Art's twin brother Addison takes his bass for a swift sure-footes run. All held together by the young Elvin Jones in fairly conventional but swinging style. Freshly consolidated bop, from 1956, a year on the cusp of change...

The Booker Little track 'The Confined Few' can be found under his own name as part of the 'New York Sessions,' but was originally out with Teddy Charles as leader. The trumpeter was only twenty three when he died – an amazing fact when you consider the poise and control here. Charles is luckily still with us but has been off the critical map for a while – unfortunately, as he was a prominent member of the generation who set about re-modelling jazz in the fifties. A slow beginning that drops off into a steady tempo. Addison Farmer on bass again. The rather wonderful Booker Ervin is up first, booting tenor nicely tracked by Shaughnessy's drums. Mal Waldron takes a thoughtful solo, followed by fluent and melodic bass floating on Charles' vibes. Then Booker Little – fire and brio. Sharp and bright...

Two contrasting alto players – Ken McIntyre and the great Eric Dolphy. From their album 'Looking Ahead,' this is 'Curtsy.' Dolphy seemed fond of this frontline format - he recorded a couple of similar albums with Oliver Nelson, who led those sessions. The two altos come steaming in on the theme then McIntyre solos first. Some interesting curlicues – but Dolphy follows and ups the track a gear. His tone is so powerful, although his lines here are not pushing across the harmonies as far as usual. Mcintyre retaliates, rising to the game then Dolphy again, this time expanding outwards – as he continues to do in the ensuing fours, bringing to bear more of his unique intervallic conception. McIntyre, it has to be said, is not left behind. Some sure-handed piano from Walter Bishop before the theme close. A jaunty, cheerful track. Their turn to curtsy - my turn to bow ...

Coming relatively up-to-date... 1996. A duo performance by Matthew Shipp and Roscoe Mitchell. Starting off with dabbed at notes and short phrases, pointillism in action, the piece slowly expands into a swirl of dense lines, the sour-sweet horn of Mitchell swathed in the deep, cavernous sonorities of Shipp's piano. Which reminds me at times of our own Keith Tippett and his pounding storms of overtones. This is the last track from the album '2Z,' 2-Z-11 - also named 'The Physics of Angels,' which combines neatly the scientific and the spiritual. Or something. Wonderful, expansive music...

Back a few years... opening on a rough scrawl of overloaded guitar before settling into a bouncing blues. The Wolf, singing 'Mr Highway Man,' interspersing vocals with gutty harmonica. A wild slice of prime rhythm and blues from the Golden Age, thumped along by booming drums and ending on a juke-boxy scratch and scrape before the needle lifts...


In the Videodrome...

Art Farmer, with Lee Konitz and Oliver Nelson...

More Konitz – with Lennie Tristano...

Booker Little with Max Roach...

...some recent Anthony Braxton...

Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Joe Gordon (t) Charlie Rouse, Harold Land (ts) John Ore (b) Billy Higgins (d)
Worry Later
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Big John Patton
John Patton (org) Bobby Hutcherson (vi) Grant Green (g) Otis "Candy" Finch (d)
The Turnaround
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Art Farmer
Art Farmer (t) Hank Mobley (ts) Wynton Kelly (p) Addison Farmer (b) Elvin Jones
Farmer's Market
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Booker Little
Teddy Charles (vibes); Mal Waldron (p); Booker Little (tpt); Booker Ervin (ts); Addison Farmer (b); Eddie Shaughnessy (dr)
The Confined Few
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Eric Dolphy/Ken McIntyre
Eric Dolphy, Ken McIntyre (as) Walter Bishop (p), Sam Jones (b) and Art Taylor (d)
Curtsy
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Matthew Shipp/Roscoe Mitchell
Matthew Shipp (p) Roscoe Mitchell (as)
2-Z-11 The Physics of Angels
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Howling Wolf
Mr Highway Man
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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
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Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Oscar Pettiford (b) Max Roach (d)
Someday I'll find you
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Joe Morris (g)
Light
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Blind Lemon Jefferson (g, v)
Easy Rider Blues
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Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
Stay all night, stay a little longer
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