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Monday 22 February 2021

Roscoe Mitchell - Bells for the South Side


“In the midst of the historic events surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), I wanted to highlight my explorations into new artistic territory, as represented by the series of trio project showcased in this recording.

“I began work on these trios when Jeff Gauthier and Alex Cline contacted me to say they wanted to honor me for my 71st birthday and 45th anniversary of AACM by inviting me to be a part of Angel City Festive 2011. Alex Cline wanted to do an arrangement of my composition ‘People in Sorrow’ (‘For People in Sorrow: an Homage’ by Alex Cline for a twelve-piece ensemble with Will Salmon conducting). For the same occasion I decided to write a composition, titled ‘Angel City’, for my first trio. Trio number one consists of two of my colleagues at Mills College, James Fei and William Winant, and myself. ‘Angel City’ was premiered at the REDCAT Theater on Sunday, October 2, 2011, Los Angeles, California.

“The second trio was formed after a friend and local supporter of new music, Harry Bernstein, called me to mention that Tyshawn Sorey was playing a solo concert at his home and asked me if I would and play a piece with Tyshawn at this concert. This was my first time meeting Tyshawn Sorey, and I found him to be an amazing musician. After that performance I had an opportunity to do some more music with Tyshawn Sorey and decided to add Hugh Ragin, a musician I’ve worked with since the mid-1970s, who I met when I was giving a workshop at the Creative Music Foundation in Woodstock, New York. This occasion led to the formation of the second trio.

“The third trio formed when I was scheduled to play at the Café Oto in London. A bold young London drummer named Kikanju Baku wrote me an email saying he wanted to play with me and sent me some of his music to listen to. I was very impressed with the music he sent me, and on the second night of my performance at Café Oto I invited him to sit in with the trio of John Edwards, Tani Tabbal, and myself. I’ve worked with Craig Taborn since the late 1990s. He has been a member of several of my bands and is a musician of the highest caliber. Putting these musicians together resulted in the formation of trio three.

“The fourth trio features two musicians I have had the pleasure of working with since the mid-1970s, Tani Tabbal and Jaribu Shahid. They were members of the Sound Ensemble, the first groups I established outside of the Art Ensemble of Chicago after returning to the United States from Europe in the early 1970s. They are also founding members of the Creative Arts Collective (CAC), the musicians’ collective I founded modeled on the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). To me, it was always a given that Tani and Jaribu would be my fourth trio for the performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art.” (Roscoe Mitchell. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Roscoe Mitchell (si/s/a/bs-sx/fl/pl/b-recorder/pc), Hugh Ragin (tp/p-tp), Tyshawn Sorey (tb/pi/dr/pc), James Fey (si/a-sx/ca-cl/electronics), Craig Taborn (pi/og/electronics), Jaribu Shihad (bs/bs-gt/pc), Kikanju Baku/Tani Tabbal (dr/pc), William Winant (pc/tubular bells/glockenspiel/vb/mb/rototoms/cymbal/bs drum/wood block/timpani)

1. Spatial Aspects Of The Sound
2. Panoply
3. Prelude To A Rose
4. Dancing In The Canyon
5. EP 7849
6. Bells For The South Side
7. Prelude To The Card Game, Cards For Drums, And The Final Hand
8. The Last Chord
9. Six Gongs And Two Woodblocks
10. R509A Twenty B
11. Red Moon In The Sky/Odwalla

Monday 8 February 2021

Johnny Griffin - The Man I Love


“Critic Ralph J. Gleason made an oft-quoted remark about Johnny Griffin during the course of a 1958 ‘Down Beat’ record review. To avoid any misunderstandings this is Gleason’s paragraph, in full: ‘Unquestionably Johnny Griffin can play the tenor saxophone faster, literally, than anyone alive. At least he can claim this until it’s demonstrated otherwise. And in the course of playing with this incredible speed, he also manages to blow longer without refueling than you would ordinarily consider possible. With this equipment he is able to play almost all there could possibly be played in any given chorus.’

“As far as it goes Gleeson’s words are probably correct. (In the absence of a jazz section to the Guinness Book of Records we must assume Griffin’s leading position in the field of runners in the Semi-Quaver Race.) But it would be wrong to assume that John Arnold Griffin III was nothing more than a note-producing machine fitted with a control graduated from ‘Finished with Engines’ up to ‘Full Speed Ahead’. He is an amazingly consistent soloist, a man who is never off from by all accounts; undeniably he likes fast tempos but is a complete, rounded jazz musician, capable of tackling any material with the aid (or something otherwise!) of any rhythm section. Since he came to Europe in 1962, at the age of 34, he has been giving free lessons on the gentle arts of relaxation, saxophone technique, deep-seated emotional intensity and a host of other important elements to thousands of listeners in Paris, London, Copenhagen and other centres where jazz is appreciated.

“When John left the United States he seemed already to have achieved more than many jazzmen achieve in a lifetime. He was 16 when he joined Lionel Hampton’s band as an alto saxophonist. (At least Griffin thought he had been booked to play alto in the reed section. On his first date with the band he took out the smaller horn only to be asked the whereabouts of his tenor. He dashed back home to Chicago at the earliest opportunity laid hands on a tenor and rejoined Hamp’s reed section which contained such stalwarts as Arnett Cobb, Bobby Plater and Charlie Fowlkes.) When Joe Morris, one of Hamp’s trumpeters, left to form his own band in 1947 John went with him and stayed with Morris for three years. (Morris’s lively little rhythm-and-blues band had a rhythm section comprising Elmo Hope, Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones for a time.)

“Apart from a handful of relatively short engagements with other bands (Arnett Cobb’s unit in 1951, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers from March to October 1957 and the Thelonious Monk Quartet during the summer of 1958) Griffin has been a solo artist or band leader since leaving the Joe Morris band. When I spoke to him during one of his bookings at the Ronnie Scott Club during the late sixties he seemed content to be touring the European jazz centres, secure in the knowledge that he would find a suitable rhythm section for his engagements. (He also spoke of the Johnny Morris band with pride, listed the names of the men who had passed through its ranks and gave me the news that Morris had died a few years earlier.) But I suspect that his appearances at the Montmartre Jazzhuis in Copenhagen during 1967 must have given him particular pleasure. The rhythm section contained two other expatriate Americans, friends of Johnny who had worked and recorded with him back home. Pianist Kenny Drew, a direct contemporary of Griffin, came to Europe from New York City in 1962 while Al Heath brother of bass player Percy and saxophonist Jimmy, lived in Europe between 1965 and 1968. The bass player, Nils Henning Ørsted-Pedersen, is of course the world-class Danish jazzman who has worked with every visiting American and was a member of the Oscar Peterson Trio for a time.

“The LP contains music which is wholly typical of a Johnny Griffin set, rich in blues either actual (such as ‘Blues for Harvey’) or as an overlying mood (Duke’s lovely ‘Sophisticated Lady’, painted here in varying shades of azure). Despite the different instruments Griffin’s most obvious influence must be Charlie Parker and if one plays parts of the LP at the incorrect speed of 45rpm the Parker Quality is perhaps more noticeable. (The speed change shifts the tenor up into the alto saxophone register.) Listen to the manner in which Griffin even when those phrases consist a flurry of notes you will observe the Parker-like rhythmic approach. ‘I like to play fast. I get excited. When the rhythm section gets cooking I want to explode,’ Griffin once told an interviewer. He was too modest to even hint that his own playing, in turn, was the cause of many rhythm sections cooking as they have never cooked before. The threesome heard here have proved their worth in other contexts but the presence of Griffin ‘The Infallible’ must have acted as a spur and when Al Heath sets the ball rolling with a crisp drum solo right at the beginning of ‘The Man I Love’ the atmosphere seems to be charged with a special electricity which affects all four men. Back in the early sixties Johnny helped to spark off just such a feeling night after night when he co-led a quintet with that other great tenor saxophone individualist, Eddie Davis.

“But the music is not made up simply of break-neck races over chordal assault courses. On ‘Hush-a-Bye’ the Griffin tenor is positively Hawkins-like in places, full of rich-toned authority but edged with a mellowness which is as welcome here as it is on the beautiful ‘Sophisticated Lady’. Johnny is careful to ensure that his fellow musicians are given solo space and inevitably it is the resourceful Kenny Drew who makes a big impression with his wonderfully swinging two-handed piano playing.

“The set closes with ‘Wee’, the Denzil Best tune which Griffin has been using as a theme for some time. The number started life under the title ‘Allen’s Alley’ when it was a part of a Coleman Hawkins record date on which Allen Eager was featured.” (Alun Morgan. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Johnny Griffin (t-sx), Kenny Drew (pi), Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (bs), Albert Heath (dr)

1. The Man I Love
2. Hush-A-Bye
3. Blues For Harvey
4. The Masquerade Is Over
5. Sophisticated Lady
6. Wee

Kenny Wheeler - Songs for Quintet


“Recorded nine months prior to his death in September 2014, Kenny Wheeler’s ‘Songs for Quintet’ is the acclaimed jazz trumpeter's last studio album. Produced by ECM’s Manfred Eicher at London’s Abbey Road Studios with a handful of Wheeler’s closest musical associates, ‘Songs for Quintet’ is an intimate, lyrical session that exemplifies all that made Wheeler such a distinctive voice in jazz. Joining Wheeler here are tenor saxophonist Stan Sulzmann, guitarist John Parricelli, bassist Chris Laurence, and drummer Martin France. These musicians all played with Wheeler in various configurations over the last ten years of his life, resulting in an album made with love by a band of like-minded and sympathetic artists who clearly share a deep affection for Wheeler’s music. Mixing acoustic and electric sounds, Wheeler and his band play with a hushed yet vigorous interplay and reverence for melodicism while still allowing plenty of room to flirt with modal dissonance and the occasional bristle of electric guitar fuzz. Wheeler (who would have been 85 years old at the time of release) plays flügelhorn throughout and delves into each number with a warm fragility that belies his adventurous harmonies and free-flowing lyrical ideas. In many ways, the album fits alongside the best of his ECM works such as 1975's ‘Gnu High’ and 1977's ‘Deer Wan’. And while there are certainly newer compositions here, it’s fascinating to hear Wheeler return to older material, such as the expansive ‘Nonetheless’ from 1996’s ‘Angel Song’ and ‘Old Time’, a frenetic carry-over from his Azimuth trio. Ultimately, ‘Songs for Quintet’ is a beautiful and poignantly subtle farewell from one of the quiet giants of jazz.” (Review by Matt Collar for AllMusic. See here.)

Performers: Kenny Wheeler (fl-h), Stan Sulzmann (t-sx), John Parricelli (gt), Chris Laurence (bs), Martin France (dr)

1. Seventy-Six
2. Jigsaw
3. The Long Waiting
4. Canter No.1
5. Sly Eyes
6. 1076
7. Old Time
8. Pretty Liddle Waltz
9. Nonetheless

Dave Holland - Seeds of Time


“In the mid-1980s, bassist Dave Holland led his finest group, a quintet with up-and-coming altoist Steve Coleman, trombonist Julian Priester, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and (on this date) drummer Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith. The all-star musicians pack plenty of music and concise solos into each performance (nine originals), and the unique group carved out its own niche, not quite free but certainly unpredictable.” (Review by Scott Yanow for AllMusic. See here.)

Performers: Dave Holland (bs), Kenny Wheeler (tp/p-tp/cn/fl-h), Julian Priester (tb), Steve Coleman (a/s-sx/fl), Marvin "Smitty" Smith (dr/pc)

A1. Uhren
A2. Homecoming
A3. Perspicuity
A4. Celebration
A5. World Protection Blues
B1. Gridlock (Opus 8)
B2. Walk-A-Way
B3. The Good Doctor
B4. Double Vision

Dave Holland - Jumpin' In


“Bassist Dave Holland leads one of his most stimulating groups on this superlative quintet date. With the young Steve Coleman on alto and flute, trumpet great Kenny Wheeler, trombonist Julian Priester, and drummer Steve Ellington in the band, Holland had a particularly creative group of musicians in which to interpret and stretch out his six originals; Coleman also contributed one composition. This set, which has plenty of variety in moods, tone, colors, and styles, is one of Holland's better recordings.” (Review by Scott Yanow for AllMusic. See here.)

Performers: Dave Holland (bs/ce), Kenny Wheeler (tp/p-tp/cn/fl-h), Julian Priester (tb), Steve Coleman (a-sx/fl), Steve Ellington (dr)

A1. Jumpin' In
A2. First Snow
A3. The Dragon And The Samurai
B1. New-One
B2. Sunrise
B3. Shadow Dance
B4. You I Love

Kenny Drew - This Is New


“‘This Is New’ happens to be more than just one of the song titles here, more even than a visually evocative phrase that suggested a photographic cover idea too good to be passed by. It also happens to be a quite apt description of what is taking place musically in this album:

“This is current jazz played by musicians who are young, but have considerable playing experience. All of them also have much the same sets of jazz roots and attitudes. They are men to whom the jazz revolution preached by Bird and Dizzy and Monk at the start of the 1940s is the important starting point. But in referring to the music that developed primarily out of the early-‘40s experimentation, it must be noted that roughly a decade and a half has gone by since Minton’s. And that is actually more calendar time, for example, than elapsed between the issuance of King Oliver’s earliest records and Benny Goodman’s!

“The fact is that at least a full jazz generation has grown up in that time, and that jazz has changed considerably. But, perhaps because it takes a good deal of time to get perspective on such things, or perhaps because there has been no violent upheaval of -form- (certainly nothing comparable to the differences between Swing or Dixieland and Bop), there is a strong tendency to lump everything recent together as ‘modern’. Well, not quite everything: there is a wide variety of experimentation, and there is the music of the West Coast jazzmen, and most of this gets called ‘cool’, as distinguished from the sort of music you hear in this album, which is usually tagged as ‘post-bop’ or ‘hard bop. Sometimes of course the lines get blurred, as will happen with any over-simplification: Miles Davis’ man-walking-on-eggshells trumpet tone is often singled out as the starting point of cool jazz, yet by background and continuing jazz context he belongs to the boppers, and his influence is surely importantly felt in the work of younger horn men like Donald Byrd.

“But the major point to be made is that by now the music of the disciples of bop has emerged as an entity, as a self-contained style. Giving it names like ‘post-bop’ may obscure this point, making it seem as if this is more-of-the-same, but it’s not all like that. This is jazz with basic distinctive qualities of its own, and these qualities seem to be very effectively and excitingly in evidence here.

“Above all, this is ‘funky’ jazz, taking that word in its current meaning of earthy, almost gutbucket, with a decided overall feeling of the blues. It is a far less frenetic and self-conscious music than much of early bop (which often failed to conceal its dogged determination to be ‘different’). Some critics complain that there is excessive attention to top-speed tempos, but I find a high and effective proportion of swinging middle-tempo material. Wholehearted, unembarrassed ballads are rather rare; but there are occasions, as with ‘You’re My Thrill’ here, when everything jells beautifully and soulfully. It is a rhythmically sound jazz (whereas early bop, busily working out new concepts of the functions of rhythm instruments, was not always so), and one reason for this may well be the emergence of a large crop of outstanding bassists, of whom Wilbur Ware is one of the most impressive. This is a music aware of newer harmonic ideas without being pretentious about it, and capable of re-exploring the basic and ‘old-fashioned’ jazz art of ensemble playing: listen particularly to the big sound of Byrd and Hank Mobley together on ‘This Is New’; and also on ‘It’s Your or No One’, which they had recorded, but quite differently, when both were member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. (The Blakey group, incidentally, has been something of a post-bop training school: its frequently shifting personnel has also included Drew and Ware.)

“Kenny Drew is rapidly maturing into one of the significant younger pianists. Born in New York City in 1928, he has worked with a wide variety of major jazz performers [...]. Although his approach indicates the influence of Bud Powell and, to an extent, Thelonious Monk, he is almost unique among modernists in also appreciating and making use of the heritage of such pre-moderns as Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller. Donald Byrd, still in his very early twenties, is quite clearly the coming young man on trumpet; Hank Mobley is among the most highly regarded of current tenor men. Wilbur Ware, since coming to New York from Chicago about a year ago, has quickly established himself as among the more formidable bass players, both in solo work and as a rhythm man. G.T. Hogan, who has worked with Illinois Jacquet and Stan Getz, considers this his jazz record debut, and it is a promising one.” (Orrin Keepnews. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Kenny Drew (pi), Donald Byrd (tp), Wilbur Ware (bs), G.T. Hogan (dr)

A1. This Is New
A2. Carol
A3. It's You Or No One
B1. You're My Thrill
B2. Little T
B3. Paul's Pal
B4. Why Do I Love You

Miles Davis - Blue Moods


“Miles was fresh from his triumph at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival when he agreed to record for his old friend Charles Mingus’s label (they had first met in California ten years before). Considering the volatile temperaments of the two protagonists, the music is surprisingly calm, but according to Elvin Jones (a new face in town), ‘if they had just printed the conversations in the studio at that time, that would have been a best-seller.’ Woodman had known Mingus since boyhood, and Charles was then a frequent musical associate with similar ideas about composing and arranging. The charts here are all by Teddy, except ‘Alone Together’, which is by Mingus.” (From the liner notes to the 1990 CD reissue.)

Performers: Miles Davis (tp), Teddy Charles (vb), Charles Mingus (bs), Elvin Jones (dr)

A1. Nature Boy
A2. Alone Together
B1. There's No You
B2. Easy Living

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew Live


“‘We played a lot of half-empty clubs in 1969,’ Miles Davis wrote in his autobiography. The jazz market was dwindling, and so even as he was making some of his most revelatory music, Miles Davis was not a major draw. Often, his hot new quintet - keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland, drummer Jack DeJohnette and mainstay saxophonist Wayne Shorter - was playing places like the Blue Coronet in Brooklyn or Shelly’s Manne-Hole in Los Angeles. But what a difference a year can make.

“In a way, Davis and Newport Jazz Festival impresario George Wein were in similar places in 1969. Both were facing declining sales and wanted to move with the time. And both came to the same conclusion: explore the possibilities of rock music. They met with very different results.

“Even at 43, in an era when the mantra was ‘Don’t trust anyone over 30,’ Davis retained a formidable cool. But jazz had not. ‘Rock was happening.’ For a restless artist like Miles Davis, being ‘a happening’ may well have been a larger part of rock’s allure than the music itself.

“In order to resuscitate waning ticket sales, Wein decided to take the blasphemous step of booking rock bands for the 1969 Newport Jazz Festival. Besides iconic jazzers like Buddy Rich, Art Blakey and Dave Brubeck, the bill included Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and Sly & the Family Stone, among others. In ‘66, Davis had rented a boat and docked it in Newport Harbor so he wouldn’t have to hang out backstage. He just walked off the boat, played his set, then got back aboard and split back to New York. But in ‘69, Davis stayed on site the whole weekend. ‘He watched every group and he watched the response of everyone in the audience, who got the most applause, what music they were playing,’ Wein recalls. ‘He wanted to be part of that world because that’s where it was happening.’

“The Miles Davis Quintet played Saturday afternoon, July 5th, on a bill with Gary Burton, John Mayall, Frank Zappa and the Mothers, Tal Farlow, Red Norvo, the Newport All-Stars and Ruby Braff. It was about three weeks before the release of ‘In a Silent Way’.

“Every Miles Davis show was unique. But some were more unique than others. The Shorter-Corea-Holland-DeJohnette lineup is called ‘The Lost Quintet’ because they never recorded in the studio as a fivesome. But the band that played Newport that day could be called the Really Lost Quartet - Shorter got stuck in traffic and missed the gig.

“Before he even played a note, Davis’ clothes signaled what side of the cultural divide he was on - he’d forsaken his trademark sharp Brooks Brothers suits and was now sporting gigantic bug-eye shades and a blue denim suit that laced up the legs. ‘Miles was very consumed with being outrageous all his life,’ says Wein. ‘He wanted to walk into a room and have everybody look at him.’

“Their set was brief but dense with incident. The cool, elegant sound of Davis’ first electric albums, ‘Miles in the Sky’, ‘Filles de Kilimanjaro’ and ‘In a Silent Way’, so unlike the cataclysmic social climate of the late ‘60s, belied live performances that didn’t just reflect the tenor of the times, but their accelerated pace and din. ‘My group is loud,’ Davis noted. ‘That’s just the times we live in.’

“‘Miles Runs the Voodoo Down’ only found its languid Nawlins strut in the studio; this version burns hotter and faster. You can feel the rush of excitement from the younger players, who had been playing with the maestro for less than a year, but the feeling is clearly mutual. Davis starts with a fairly restrained solo, lays out for maybe ten bars, then plays another solo in a different mood as the band erupts around him - it’s almost as if, lacking Shorter, Davis is simulating the effect of a second soloist.

“The ‘Bitches Brew’ sessions took place six weeks later, so not all the music on the album was totally improvised - the band had been playing ‘Voodoo’, ‘Sanctuary’ and ‘Spanish Key’ before they recorded them, something Davis rarely did after 1963. During ‘Voodoo’, Corea quotes from ‘John McLaughlin’, originally a section of ‘Bitches Brew’ - so it too was kicking around before recording.

“Davis was in top shape - vegetarian, drug-free and on a boxer’s workout regimen; it shows in his float-like-a-butterfly-sting-like-a-bee playing. Corea is on fire, digging into the overtones of the electric keyboard, indelibly personalizing what many had considered an impersonal instrument. DeJohnette is absolutely rolicking and yet rarely ignoring the backbeat, and although Holland is all but drowned out, he was holding down the fort. They bring ‘Voodoo’ to the brink and back, never letting up until Davis steps in, takes it down and builds it up again over febrile riffing. Davis cues them with the tune’s theme and it’s into ‘Sanctuary’.

“‘Sanctuary’ gets a bit deflated - the climactic riff becomes an unadorned melody line rather than the expansive Davis-Shorter fanfare. Davis played a pensive lick that recalls his intro, signaling DeJohnette into a double-time beat that launches ‘It’s About that Time’ from ‘In a Silent Way’. There’s a lull, as if they’re catching their breath, then boom, DeJohnette uncorks a fast snare roll, Davis spews a dizzying flurry of notes, and it’s like the band got shot out of a cannon. Corea eventually calms things down and Davis picks up the mood, Corea occasionally hinting at the tune’s theme, but DeJohnette lights a fire under things very quickly, Davis is playing punchy, rhythmic licks, then tootles out traditional set-ender ‘The Theme’ while things are still airborne.

“A lot of the audience hadn’t yet heard the electric Miles Davis in concert. But note the big applause. People dug it. Of course they did - the set, as Davis would say, was a motherfucker.

“Wein doesn’t recall the show. ‘It was so hectic, I didn’t know what the hell was going on,’ he says. ‘I was concerned with not having a riot.’ He’s serious - on two days, hordes of rock-crazed hippie kids crashed the festival fences and bedlam ensued. Wein had argued that jazz and rock had common ground - the blues and improvisation - but the deeply divided audiences told otherwise. George Wein never again invited so many rock bands to Newport. ‘I definitely sold out that year, no question about it,’ he admits. ‘Because my festival was dying. But after that, I said let it die, we’ll keep struggling.’

“Some people felt Miles Davis had sold out too. But in fact he’d gained a new lease on musical life and was on the brink of attaining one of his greatest triumphs.

“Shorter left in early 1970, eventually replaced by former McCoy Tyner and Max Roach sideman Gary Bartz, who’d recorded some hip late ‘60s albums under his own name. Davis also added Brazilian percussionist Airto and another keyboardist, Keith Jarrett, who’d played with DeJohnette for jazz-rock pioneer Charles Lloyd. The septet played mostly rock venues that summer, opening for the Grateful Dead, Santana and Neil Young. They learned what worked for the rock crowd and they were right.

“Situated on an island off the southern coast of England, Isle of Wight ‘70 was one of the biggest rock festivals ever, attendance estimated as high as 600,00. Headliners included The Who, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix. The atmosphere was often contentious: a hippie with delusions of grandeur interrupted Joni Mitchell’s set and tried to declare a free festival. But no one dared interrupt Miles Davis. ‘He’s a pretty cool cat, Miles,’ note Murray Lerner, director of the Isle of Wight documentary ‘Message to Love’. ‘What was there to attack?’

“They began playing just as the sun began to go down on that hot August day. They followed Tiny Tim, whose silly but wildly well received performance was an ideal set-up: people were ready for something heavy.

“They took the stage, the only jazz band of the festival, all big hair and bell bottoms, and opened with a longtime set-starter ‘Directions’, a Joe Zawinul composition that was an outtake from a November 1968 session. They vamp for several minutes, as if synchronizing their musical watches; once they’re locked in, Davis cues the tune’s angular theme, complete with world-tilting bass line by Holland. His switch to electric bass guitar is key: its sonic gut-punch means you can now hear everything Holland plays - and just as importantly, so could the band. That and the two electric keyboards underscore the notion that, galvanic as it was, the Newport ‘69 band was stranded between two worlds; Isle of Wight ‘70 is full-blown electric Miles.

“Jazz was originally body music - funky, not just cerebral - and Davis wanted to reclaim, as he wrote in his autobiography, ‘that roadhouse, honky-tonk, funky thing that people used to dance to on Friday and Saturday nights.’ By the Isle of Wight, ‘The funkiness and the sort of primal stuff that he wanted,’ said Jarrett in Lerner’s documentary ‘Miles Electric’, ‘was finally coming out.’ This was Miles Davis you could dance to.

“At Newport, it was as few as three people playing at once; now it’s usually six. ‘Bitches Brew’ exemplified the same economy of line as Zen painting, the metaphor used by pianist Bill Evans in his famous ‘Kind of Blue’ liner notes. But Davis wasn’t doing Zen painting anymore; now the canvas was dense with brushstrokes. Wisely, they all throttle back the density and tempo a little. Corea (in the right speaker) plays much less densely than at Newport, spinning out guitar-like chords and motifs, even imitating feedback and wah-wah effect with an effects box he kept on his keyboard. Meanwhile Jarrett (in the left speaker) pounds out hard-grooving bolts of pure energy. Brilliantly, Davis placed Corea and Jarrett on opposite sides of the stage so they couldn’t hear each other. By design, they often clash. But they’re superlative musicians, so they clash gloriously.

“‘Bitches Brew’ opens like some interstellar villain’s theme song but then Holland thrums out a lick, Corea responds and the groove is on. It morphs constantly: there’s a King Crimson-like interlude, and under Bartz’s beguiling solo, it gets so funky, it almost sounds like the Meters, leading to a breakdown that summons up extraterrestrial Dixieland. Sometimes they exult in pure sound, like that wind-blows electronic scree from Corea’s keyboard - a master musician truly at play. Like Corea, Davis had also come to embrace noise - Airto rarely plays time and instead basically plays sound effects, as in the way he use the whimpering sound of the cuica to bounce off Davis, like a hip-hop ‘hype man’ echoing and egging on the frontman.

“Davis’ lyricism, poise and skill in the midst of roiling clamor is what makes him not just cool but inspirational. But the whole band is heroic - part of the music’s incredible excitement stems from the fact that they’re basically jamming out on one chord the entire time, drawing on endless creativity and technique to remain utterly riveting the entire time. The listening, the intense focus, is audible.

“The band reaches a mind-blowing peak near the end of ‘It’s About Time’, Corea and Jarrett locked in a ferocious pas de deux. But Davis almost cruelly kills the momentum. What’s he up to? The music starts building and actually tops the previous peak, absolutely spine-tingling. They cool down with a quick ‘Sanctuary’ then crank it up on last time for ‘Spanish Key’. After a long absence, Bartz takes his final solo, screaming through his mouthpiece and then answering on the sax, Davis solos, the band vamping with almost unbearable tension - until he cues the tune’s theme and everything explodes into daylight. As ever, Davis cuts in with ‘The Theme’ while the party’s still rocking and leaves the stage. Jarrett strikes an ominous yet beautiful chord identical to one he played at the top of ‘Bitches Brew’ as the band’s final crescendo lapses into applause.

“A year before, Miles Davis had been playing small clubs. Now, four months after ‘Bitches Brew’, he’s got what was one of the best-selling albums in jazz history and instead of playing his new electric music before audiences of aging, disapproving jazz traditionalists, he’s blowing the minds of hundreds of thousands of young people. As Murray Lerner says, ‘It was a big, revolutionary moment when a person like that could play in front of such a large rock audience.’ At the Isle of Wight, Miles Davis had gone farther than any jazz musician had ever gone before - or since.” (Michael Azerrad, December 2010. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Miles Davis (tp), Gary Bartz (s/a-sx), Chick Corea (e-pi), Keith Jarrett (og), Dave Holland (bs), Jack DeJohnette (dr), Airto Moreira (pc)

1. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
2. Sanctuary
3. It's About That Time (Theme)
4. Directions
5. Bitches Brew
6. It's About That Time
7. Sanctuary
8. Spanish Key
9. The Theme

Elmo Hope - Meditations


“This is the case of a musician whose talent was buried for a long time. While things were happening in New York in the mid and late Forties, Elmo Hope was traveling around the country with rhythm and blues bands. Although he was one of the first and best to play in the particular style which so many modern pianists work in today, he was never around for his playing to be appraised, much less praised. Last year he was discovered, unearthed might be a better term, and is at last starting to receive the recognition due to him.

“Elmo has a drive which is extremely reminiscent of Bud Powell. This is as it should be, for he and Bud grew up together and evolved along the same lines by exchanging ideas. On numbers like ‘Lucky Strike’ and ‘Elmo’s Fire’ this is best demonstrated, the left hand insistently building plateaus for the right hand to take off from. Elmo gets to the heart of the matter on the beautifully sad ‘Blue Mo’. There is no pounding, the piano counterpart of a honking tenor, or over-syncopation, the device which is used by some as an impoverished excuse for swinging. Elmo swings naturally.

“For his rhythm accompanists, Elmo has chosen two of the new talents who have been impressing musicians and serious listeners in New York during the past few years.

“John Ore, heard most often with Lester Young, is another in the line of illustrious Philadelphia (born there in 1933) bassists (Percy Heath, Nelson Boyd). He started on cello at 9, switched to alto later on and took up bass in 1951.

“Brooklyn born (1929) Willie Jones started playing in 1947. He studied at Parkway Institute in his native borough and has played with Randy Weston, Jay Jay Johnson and Thelonious Monk. Art Blakey and Max Roach are considered tops by Willie who is consciously working towards a melodic style where the accents simulate the rhythmic figures of melody phrases and are shaded accordingly.

“This LP represents something new for Elmo. In previous recordings he had concentrated on his own originals. This set has, in addition to four new originals, six standard which range from Kern to Rodgers with a stop at Berlin on the way.” (Ira Gitler. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Elmo Hope (pi), John Ore (bs), Willie Jones (dr)

A1. It's A Lovely Day Today
A2. All The Things You Are
A3. Quit It
A4. Lucky Strike
A5. I Don't Stand (A Ghost Of A Chance With You)
A6. Huh
B1. Falling In Love With You
B2. My Heart Stood Still
B3. Elmo's Fire
B4. I'm In The Mood For Love
B5. Blue Mo

Harold Land - West Coast Blues!


“About this new Jazzland recording - This could be billed as one of those ‘East meets West’ affairs, since tenorman Harold Land, trumpeter Joe Gordon and guitarist West Montgomery are all Californians these days, while their brilliant and thoroughly ‘soulful’ rhythm section is East Coast-based. But such an emphasis would be less than fair to the album. For, while so many geographically-mixed ‘meetings’ run into trouble by attempting to mix basically incompatible approaches to jazz, this effort combines six men who decidedly belong with each other musically and celebrates their having a rare opportunity to wail together.

“Harold Land is clearly one of today’s most formidable and fluent tenors. Born in Houston, Texas in December of 1928, but raised in California (San Diego and Los Angeles), he nevertheless developed a notable ‘hard’ sound that led Max Roach and Clifford Brown to add him to their group on first hearing him in ‘54. But he soon gave up the road life to resettle with his family in L.A. There his efforts have tended to be somewhat submerged in the flood of softer sound more generally accepted on the West Coast, as state of affairs that a really cooking LP such as this one might just possibly help to remedy. Land’s equally strong composing talents are also on display here in the surging ‘Terrain’ and ‘Compulsion’, and the richly melodic line entitled ‘Ursula’ that leads off the album. (The title tune is a West Montgomery original; ‘Klactoveedsedstene’ is a hard-charging and rarely performed Charlie Parker number; and finally there is Land’s particularly rich and moody treatment of Billie Holiday’s ‘Don’t Explain’.)

“Montgomery hails from Indianapolis, but has recently relocated to San Francisco. A phenomenal, self-taught guitarist whose incredible solo choruses played in octaves are among the accomplishments that have brought him wild critical acclaim (Ralph Gleason has called him ‘the best thing to happen to the guitar since Charlie Christian!’), he had worked with Land during a most successful stay in San Francisco’s Jazz Workshop late in 1959. Joe Gordon, who combines modern conception with a big tone reminiscent of Roy Eldridge, was born in Boston. He was featured with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, but also has been a Los Angeles citizen for the past several years, working with Shelly Manne - and jamming with such as Land when he feels a need for hard-blowing freedom.

“The wonderfully well-knit combination of Barry Harris, Louis Hayes (both from Detroit), and Sam Jones (of Florida) should be instantly recognisable as also being Cannonball Adderley’s rhythm section. The presence of that remarkable band out West, for a Jazz Workshop booking, made possible this particular recording mixture, with the hard-driving Western ‘team’ blending with what is certainly one of the finest rhythm units in any part of the country - and with the impeccable Mr. Jones and with the lyrical Mr. Harris also contributing some superb solo efforts.” (Orrin Keepnews. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Harold Land (t-sx), Joe Gordon (tp), Wes Montgomery (gt), Barry Harris (pi), Sam Jones (bs), Louis Hayes (dr)

A1. Ursula
A2. Klactoveedsedstene
A3. Don't Explain
B1. West Coast Blues
B2. Terrain
B3. Compulsion

Sunday 7 February 2021

Joe Farrell Quartet


“Joe Farrell was not what you might call an ‘inspired’ artist, but he made up in technique and proficiency what he lacked in subtlety. After playing on some 200 albums as an accomplished sideman on all sorts of reed instruments, he got his first major break when he was signed to the CTI label in 1970. He immediately proceeded to cut his first album, aptly titled ‘The Joe Farrell Quartet’, recorded in July of that year, with Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and John McLaughlin - a lineup that significantly contributed to the interest created by the album.

“In life, Joe was pretty much like his music - down to earth, direct, jovial, somewhat on the heavy side, but simple and affecting. He loved life, and enjoyed what he did to the hilt.

“He was born in December, 1937, in Chicago Heights, Illinois, of Italian parents, and manifested musical inclinations at an early age. By his 11th birthday, he had made up his mind to be a musician, and from that moment on, he set out avidly to play everywhere there was music to be played - at home, with his family; in high school, where he got his first introduction to jazz; and in amateur clubs which were flourishing at the time in and around Chicago. If there was any way in, Joe found it, playing an increasingly wider array of instruments. ‘I just played because I liked to play,’ he later recounted. ‘I practiced hard, but that was easy for me because I had an affinity for music.’

“While in college, Joe, then 19, got his first professional job with a name band - Ralph Marterie’s. For three months, he experienced working with seasoned musicians, and came out of it more convinced than ever to make music his business.

“After graduating, in 1959, Joe embarked on what he himself called ‘a wild summer’. He and a friend, Ira Sullivan, spent their time jamming like maniacs, sometimes spending as much as a whole day and a whole night jumping from club to club, without a break. At the end of the summer, after having literally surveyed the whole club scene in Chicago, Joe decided to go to New York, ‘to see what was happening’.

“As a matter of fact a lot was happening, and with characteristic drive and determination, Joe immediately looked for places where he could jam, the idea being that the sooner his name got around, the faster he would get a steady gig. A recommendation to audition for Maynard Ferguson landed him his first paying job. Within three months of his official debut with the band, he said, ‘I was playing one of the places I had always dreamed about, Birdland…’

“In the ensuing years, Joe’s career went through the usual ‘paying dues’ process, while he tried unsuccessfully to form his own group. The list of players he performed with during these formative years is indicative of the caliber of people he was getting involved with - Tito Rodrigues, Ron Carter, Hank Jones, Kenny Dorham, Paul Chambers, Wynton Kelly, and Thad Jones and Mel Lewis who band he joined in 1965, while keeping another job in the band of the Playboy Club, of course.

“This flurry of activity eventually paid off in the late 1960s, and Joe became a member of the legendary Elvin Jones trio. His tenure with Jones lasted until 1969, and gave him a lot of visibility in musical circles. ‘Farrell amazes with his highly vocalized yet essentially -musical- concept’, a ‘Down Beat’ reviewer wrote of a performance in London, England. ‘One of the troubles of the modern way of playing is the lack of musicality it allows, but Farrell has no problems either in the direction of musicianship or power…’

“True to form, while with Jones, he still managed to play with other bands and to keep a very active schedule of recording sessions with other leaders. It was during one such session that producer Creed Taylor spotted the young saxophone player, and finally signed him to CTI as a solo artist. As a leader, Farrell recorded six albums for the label, and one with Benson as co-leader. Each album was marked by a natural progression from fusion to funk to avant-garde, with a great deal of intensity to punctuate each instant.

“‘Jazz means burning,’ Farrell once said. ‘It’s got to be cooking, I don’t want to do background music, music that suggests something else to me. Jazz is the purest form of music because it comes from within. It’s not my impression of the world… It’s not political. It’s music for music’s sake.’

“After leaving CTI, Joe recorded for other labels, including Warner Bros. Records, and moved to the West Coast where he continued to work as hard as ever.

“He died of leukemia this past summer…” (Didier C. Deutsch, December 1986. From the liner notes to the 1987 CD reissue.)

Performers: Joe Farrell (s/t-sx/fl/ob), John McLaughlin (gt), Chick Corea (pi), Jack DeJohnette (dr)

A1. Follow Your Heart
A2. Collage For Polly
A3. Circle In The Square
B1. Molten Glass
B2. Alter Ego
B3. Song Of The Wind
B4. Motion

Joe Farrell - Outback


“‘Outback’ is the second and finest of Joe Farrell's dates for Creed Taylor's CTI label. Recorded in a quartet setting in 1970, with Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, and Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira, Farrell pushes the envelope not only of his own previous jazz conceptualism, but CTI’s envelope, as well. Outback is not a commercially oriented funk or fusion date, but an adventurous, spacy, tightrope-walking exercise between open-ended composition and improvisation. That said, there is plenty of soul in the playing. Four compositions, all arranged by Farrell, make up the album. The mysterious title track by John Scott opens the set. Staged in a series of minor-key signatures, Farrell primarily uses winds - flutes and piccolos - to weave a spellbinding series of ascending melodies over the extended, contrasting chord voicings by Corea. Jones skitters on his cymbals while playing the snare and tom-toms far more softly than his signature style usually attests. Airto rubs and shimmers on hand drums, going through the beat, climbing on top of it, and playing accents in tandem with Farrell in the solo sections. ‘Sound Down’ is a bit more uptempo and features Farrell playing wonderfully on the soprano. Buster Williams lays down a short staccato bassline that keeps Jones’ bass drum pumping. As Farrell moves from theme/variation/melody to improvisation, he brings in Corea, who vamps off the melody before offering a series of ostinati responses. Corea’s ‘Bleeding Orchid’ is a ballad played with augmented modes and continually shifting intervals, mapped beautifully by Williams’ adherence to the changes, with a series of contrasting pizzicato fills. Farrell’s trills and arpeggiatic exercises combine both jazz classicism and Middle Eastern folk music. On Farrell’s ‘November 68th’, he invokes John Coltrane's version of ‘My Favorite Things’ as he digs deep into the tenor’s middle register for a song-like voicing, played with a gorgeously bluesy sophistication. The other players rally around him and push his sonic flight to near manic intensity. ‘Outback’ is a stunner, as inspired as anything - and perhaps more so - that Farrell ever recorded.” (Review by Thom Jurek for AllMusic. See here.)

Performers: Joe Farrell (t/s-sx/fl/a-fl/pl), Chick Corea (e-pi), Buster Williams (bs), Elvin Jones (dr), Airto Moreira (pc)

A1. November 68th
A2. Bleeding Orchid
B1. Sound Down
B2. Outback

Joe Farrell - Moon Germs


“Recorded in 1972 and released in 1973 with Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke, and Jack DeJohnette, Joe Farrell’s ‘Moon Germs’ was a foray into the electric side of jazz. On the opener, ‘Great George’, Farrell leads off with the hint of a melody before careening into legato streams of thought along striated intervallic paths. DeJohnette is like a machine gun, quadruple-timing the band as Clarke moves against the grain in a series of fours and eights, and Hancock’s attempts to keep the entire thing anchored are almost for naught. On the title track there is more of a funk backdrop, but the complex, angular runs and insane harmonic reaches Farrell attempts on his soprano, crack, falter, and ultimately turn into something else; the sheer busy-ness of the track is dazzling. ‘Bass Folk Song’ by Clarke, is the only thing on the record that actively engages melody rather than harmonic structures. Farrell uses his flute and Hancock strides into the same kind of territory he explored with Miles Davis, chopping up chordal phrases into single lines and feeding them wholesale to the running pair of frontmen - in this case Clarke and Farrell. DeJohnette uses a Latin backdrop to hang his drumming on and pursues a circular, hypnotic groove on the cymbals and toms. It’s a gorgeous piece of music and utilizes an aspect of space within the melodic frame that the rest of these firebrand tunes do not. This is sci-fi Farrell at his creative best.”  (Review by Thom Jurek for AllMusic. See here.)

Performers: Joe Farrell (s-sx/fl), Herbie Hancock (pi), Stanley Clarke (bs), Jack DeJohnette (dr)

A1. Great Gorge
A2. Moon Germs
B1. Time's Lie
B2. Bass Folk Song

Johnny Griffin - Live in Tokyo


“There are certain players who, from the very first note of a solo, charge the air with an infectious, crackling energy that is one of the most satisfying experiences in music. Sidney Bechet was one of them, and so - in quite another vein - was Coleman Hawkins. A powerful contemporary illustration of that kind of force is Johnny Griffin. As Brian Case and Stan Britt put it in their ‘Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz’ (Harmony): ‘His solos are a string of great breaks, cliff-hanging climaxes and startling tonal devices, all held together by his colossal drive.’

“For this writer, Johnny Griffin became a formidable present on the scene in the 1950s - through a series of steaming Blue Note albums, and as one member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers who could be just as overwhelming as the volcanic leader. Then there was a Griffin stretch - and he was stretched - with Thelonious Monk, followed by a musically rambunctious period of touring with Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis. It was amply clear by then that Johnny Griffin was going to be one of those long-distance swingers - an improviser who would be holding and riveting audiences for a long time to come, no matter what new styles or turns jazz took.

“The problem for us turn out to be, however, that this mighty shouter chose to do that swinging outside the States. Starting in 1962, Griffin became an expatriate, working in France with the Kenny Clarke-Francy Bolland big band and moving all over Europe as a free-lancer. In the 1970s Griffin moved his base to Holland, where he even acquired his own farm. The traveling and recording continued, and the albums that were released in the States demonstrated two things: 1) Griffin had kept on growing as a player in terms of conception and time-flexibility, while losing none of the sweeping ardor that had characterized his work at the start; and 2) he had been underestimated during his years here. That is, although Griffin was appreciated for his fire back then, it took his long years away for many of us to recognize how consistently and deeply satisfying a player he is.

“There is a lot more to ‘The Little Giant’, as he came to be known, than the first Roman-candle-like impact he always makes. There is substance, a lot of substance, to those long, spiraling solos. And there is a great deal of musical integrity. Now that we have more than two decades of Griffin on records to assess, it is unmistakably evident that he has created - and continues to create - one of the most durably fulfilling bodies of work in the canon of jazz tenor saxophone.

“At last, in September, 1978, Johnny Griffin came home to remind us natives of how much we had lost when he decided to change continents. Starting at the Monterey Jazz Festival and then moving around the country - at other festivals and at clubs - ‘The Little Giant’ was sure to create a greatly broadened audience for his music and a corollary appetite for his recordings.

“Inner City has already released one hotly distinctive Johnny Griffin set, ‘Blue for Harvey’ (IC 2004), a session recorded in Copenhagen. ‘Down Beat’ gave it five stars, noting that ‘with his big sound, flawless technique and perfect sense of swing, Griffin’s energetic ebullience evokes sheer joy.’

“Now, in your hands, is a two-volume celebration of ‘The Little Giant’s’ prowess - a recording of an April 23, 1976 concert in Tokyo with pianist Horace Parlan, bassist Mads Vinding and drummer Art Taylor.

“First of all there is - throughout these persistently compelling performances - Griffin’s total command of the horn. All registers, from the deep bottom to way on high. Part of that command is the clarity of articulation. There is no fuzziness. Griffin’s attack is clean, clear and unfailingly coherent. He doesn’t blur or coast; and indeed, one of the marvels of his work is that as hard and fast as he drives, his ideas do not flag. He think as swiftly as he swings.

“Furthermore, in the midst of his leaping maturity, Griffin plays with more sensitivity to dynamics than in the past. And with more overall care for nuances - as in his long, unaccompanied passage in ‘All the Things You Are’.

“Another element in Griffin’s work is his depth of emotion - soul, as they used to say. There are players who finger fast and furiously but their emotive content is about an inch thick. Griffin is always ‘saying something’, always telling a story. And the tales, moreover, are not safely predictable. These are true improvisations, and in them, ‘The Little Giant’ continually takes risks. Like Roy Eldridge, whatever fitting idea hits him in mid-flight, he’ll try to incorporate in the narrative, however far-flung the chances he has to take.

“There is also, of course, Johnny Griffin’s pulse. He is one of those players who work, in any context, is the very definition of swinging. But the bigness of his spirit - as shown in his ideas and his tone - leads to a largeness and depth of swinging that is one of the delights of jazz. Add to that a remarkable resiliency of time-sense, and you get instant wonders of the way he plays with the beat in his exchanges with Art Tayor.

“With regard to ballads - as in Griffin’s own graceful, hauntingly affecting ‘When We Were One’ - it is there that ‘Little Giant’s’ essential romanticism becomes clear. He has become a most thoughtful, lyrical and tender spinner of ballad lines; but then, being protean of skills, Griffin roars into the sizzling ‘Wee’. Set at a ferocious tempo, it results in one of the more incandescent performances in recent recorded jazz history.

“One of the reasons Griffin can so hold, and even shake, an audience is the way he -builds- throughout his solos. It is this quality of cohesiveness, fired by ceaseless intensity, that leads the listener through climax after climax. And part of experiencing each climax is the anticipation of the next one. It’s like a kinetic mystery drama, and the way it works is shown with particular vividness in ‘The Man I Love’. But on this track too, there are, as I’ve noted, interludes in which the contours of Griffin’s space change. Long, unaccompanied flights during which the intensity takes on softer colors and cadences. And that shift in mood is also part of the building, part of the constantly unexpected, that accounts for Griffin being able to sustain interest over such long performances as are in this set.

“Yet another dimension of ‘The Little Giant’s’ sensibility is his own ‘Soft & Furry’ - with its wary, cat-like beginning and its ruminative probings of the intriguing, slightly mysterious theme. And once again, Griffin’s solo work has an immediacy, a freshness, that is a fusion of highly personal ideas, sound, and a time that breathes along with each change (harmonic as well as melodic).

“It should also be noted that ‘The Little Giant’, strong and expressively wide-ranging as he is, benefits from superior support in this concert. Horace Parlan, an expatriate since 1973, made a durable mark before he left through his work with Charles Mingus, the Johnny Griffin-Lockjaw Davis hurricane, and Roland Kirk. An acutely attentive accompanist, he is also an incisive soloist and on ballads, a romantic one. Mads Vinding (who is on Griffin’s ‘Blues for Harvey’ album on Inner City) is a bassist with depth. Depth of sound and time. And clarity, as in his arrestingly, serenely structured solo in ‘Soft & Furry’.

“The most valuable sideman here is Art Taylor. Yet another expatriate, and the recent author of unprecedentedly candid interviews with jazz musicians, Taylor for a long time was one of the busiest record session drummers in New York. And during much of that time, I reviews most of the current jazz recordings for ‘Down Beat’. At night, in that period, I also covered the clubs, and Taylor was nearly always working in one of them. Despite all that constant exposure to Art Taylor, I was never less than fascinated by his work, ensemble and solo. He is not only an extraordinarily supple technician, possessed of flawless time, but he also plays with a snap, crispness, wit and just plain excitement that continue to make him one of the front-ranking, world-class jazzmen.

“In fact, those qualities also identify Johnny Griffin, and the two - along with Parlan and Vinding - have created an album that will retain its zest as long as you do yours.” (Nat Hentoff. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Johnny Griffin (t-sx), Horace Parlan (pi), Mads Vinding (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A. All The Things You Are
B1. When We Were One
B2. Wee
C. The Man I Love
D. Soft And Furry

Chick Corea - Is


“Starlight asked Non-Being ‘Master, are you? Or are you not?’

“Since he received no answer whatever, Starlight set himself to watch for Non-Being would put in an appearance.

“He kept his gaze fixed on the deep Void, hoping to catch a glimpse of Non-Being.

“All day long he looked, and he saw nothing. He listened, but heard nothing. He reached out to grasp, and grasped nothing.

“The Starlight exclaimed at last. ‘This is IT!’

“‘This is the furthest yet! Who can reach it? I can comprehend the absence of Being. But who can comprehend the absence of Nothing? If now, on top of all this, Non-Being IS, 

“Who can comprehend it?” (From the liner notes.)

Performers: Chick Corea (pi/e-pi), Woody Shaw (tp), Bennie Maupin (t-sx), Hubert Laws (fl/pl), Dave Holland (bs), Jack DeJohnette/Horace Arnold (dr)

A. Is
B1. Jamala
B2. This
B3. It

Lee Konitz - Satori


“There is nothing mysterious about Lee Konit’s ability to work endlessly new inventions to the standards at the heart of his repertoire. Konitz listens to the ideas of musicians who surround him; and he thinks, drawing fresh ideas of his own to the surface rather than merely rehashing familiar clichés. This approach has served him well for a half-century, and created a typically lucid recital on this 1974 session, the last of four important albums he cut for Milestone. The presence of bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette, formerly the rhythm section of Konitz’s old friend Miles Davis, and the equally iconoclastic French pianist Martial Solal, make Satori a unique title in the saxophonists extensive discography, with the two-keyboard title track (with producer Dick Katz sitting in on electric piano) giving us Konitz’s personal take on a common Seventies practice.” (From the liner notes to the 1997 CD reissue.)

Performer: Lee Konitz (a-sx), Martial Solal (pi/e-pi), Dick Katz (e-pi), Dave Holland (bs), Jack DeJohnette (dr)

A1. Just Friends
A2. On Green Dolphin Street
A3. Satori
B1. Sometime Ago
B2. What's New
B3. Hymn
B4. Free Blues

Miles Davis - Live-Evil


“‘Live-Evil’ is one of Miles Davis’ most confusing and illuminating documents. As a double album, it features very different settings of his band - and indeed two very different bands. The double-LP CD package is an amalgam of a December 19, 1970, gig at the Cellar Door, which featured a band comprised of Miles, bassist Michael Henderson, drummer Jack DeJohnette, guitarist John McLaughlin, saxophonist Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett on organ, and percussionist Airto. These tunes show a septet that grooved hard and fast, touching on the great funkiness that would come on later. But they are also misleading in that McLaughlin only joined the band for this night of a four-night stand; he wasn't really a member of the band at this time. Therefore, as fine and deeply lyrically grooved-out as these tracks are, they feel just a bit stiff - check any edition of this band without him and hear the difference. The other band on these discs was recorded in Columbia’s Studio B and subbed Ron Carter or Dave Holland on bass, added Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock on electric pianos, dropped the guitar on ‘Selim’ and ‘Nem Um Talvez’, and subbed Steve Grossman over Gary Bartz while adding Hermeto Pascoal on percussion and drums in one place (‘Selim’). In fact, these sessions were recorded earlier than the live dates, the previous June in fact, when the three-keyboard band was beginning to fall apart. Why the discs were not issued separately or as a live disc and a studio disc has more to do with Miles’ mind than anything else. As for the performances, the live material is wonderfully immediate and fiery: ‘Sivad’, ‘Funky Tonk’, and ‘What I Say’ all scream with enthusiasm, even if they are a tad unsure of how to accommodate McLaughlin. Of the studio tracks, only ‘Little Red Church’ comes up to that level of excitement, but the other tracks, particularly ‘Gemini/Double Image’, have a winding, whirring kind of dynamic to them that seems to turn them back in on themselves, as if the band was really pushing in a free direction that Miles was trying to rein in. It’s an awesome record, but it’s because of its flaws rather than in spite of them. This is the sound of transition and complexity, and somehow it still grooves wonderfully.”  (Review by Thom Jurek for AllMusic. See here.)

Performers: Miles Davis (e-tp), Steve Grossman (s-sx), Gary Bartz (s-sx/fl), John McLaughlin (gt), Khalil Balakrishna (e-sitar), Herbie Hancock/Chick Corea/Joe Zawinul (e-pi), Keith Jarrett (e-pi/og), Dave Holland (e-bs), Michael Henderson (e-bs), Jack DeJohnette/Billy Cobham (dr), Airto Moreira (pc), Hermeto Pascoal (dr/whistling/vo/e-pi)

A1. Sivad
A2. Little Church
A3. Medley: Gemini/Double Image
B1. What I Say
B2. Nem Um Talvez

C1. Selim
C2. Funky Tonk
D. Inamorata And Narration

Joe Henderson - Black Is the Color


“The original idea for this album was to approach it entirely from the standpoint of having -no- pre-conceived ideas (i.e. melodies, themes, bar lines, etc.) for the musicians to relate to.

“However, after listening to a tape copy of one segment of the original session, I became aware of further possibilities. Making full use of 16-track tape, we could add to and improve upon what had already been recorded by multiple overdubbing of new parts, by myself and others, that would become permanent additions to the track. So I proceeded, after the fact (hence its title ‘Foregone Conclusion’), to create a continuous pattern that would effectively support what had already been laid down.

“As for the other numbers here, with the exception of ‘Vis-a-Vis’ (which somehow manager not to defect from the original non-framework idea), the same concept was used extensively throughout.” (Joe Henderson. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Joe Henderson (t-sx/fl/a-fl/pc), George Wadenius (gt), George Cables (e-pi/pi), Dave Holland (bs), Ron Carter (e-bs), Jack DeJohnette (dr/e-pi)

A1. Terra Firma
A2. Vis-A-Vis
B1. Foregone Conclusion
B2. Black Is The Color (Of My True Love's Mind)
B3. Current Events

Kenny Wheeler - Around 6


“Kenny Wheeler's third ECM album as a leader is most notable for teaming his trumpet with the innovative tenor and soprano of Evan Parker, a brilliant British avant-garde player who is often overlooked in the U.S. With fine playing from trombonist Eje Thelin, vibraphonist Tom Van Der Geld, bassist J.F. Jenny-Clark and drummer Edward Vesala, the sextet performs six Wheeler originals that combine together advanced swinging with fairly free explorations. Stimulating music.” (Review by Scott Yanow for AllMusic. See here.)

Performers: Kenny Wheeler (tp/fl-h), Eje Thelin (tb), Evan Parker (s/t-sx), Tom van der Geld (vibraharp), Jean-François Jenny-Clark (bs), Edward Vesala (dr)

A1. Mai We Go Round
A2. Solo One
A3. May Ride
B1. Follow Down
B2. Riverrun
B3. Lost Woltz

Johnny Griffin - Lady Heavy Bottom's Waltz


“They called him the ‘Little Giant’ long ago in Chicago - they still call him so. In order to understand why ‘little’ you have to see him - it’s enough to hear him to understand why ‘Giant’. But just to listen to him means missing out on so much. ‘I just look at Johnny and feel the power of positive swinging’, the ‘producer’ says.

“Like most small people (let’s not exaggerate the ‘small’ - he’s not exactly a dwarf) Johnny appears to have been blessed with an extra portion of energy. He’s always on the move, it must be torture for him to keep still for five minutes. (A dentist, I imagine, would only be able to treat him by giving him a full narcotic.) When he talks he emphasises his words with quick and expansive gestures which reminds one of the lightning reflexes of Muhammad Ali. And he enjoys talking a lot.

“Maybe it’s this excess of energy which prevents him from taking things too seriously. John Arnold III Griffin, had he not have become a great musician, could easily have succeeded as a clown. He always finds a reason to laugh and to make others laugh.

“He once told a reporter who asked what all reporters sooner or later ask - the question about future plans - that he was going to give a concert with Ben Webster. He followed this up by whispering secretly, ‘We are appearing as father and son!’

“One day in the studio he received his part for a new title to be recorded. He took it in both hands, looked at it for a few minutes over the top of his glasses, screwed up his face and said, ‘Man, I can’t play this, it’s impossible!’ He turned the music upside down and added, ‘It doesn’t any easier this way round’. And he laughed. But then he sat down, ran through the part a couple of times as rehearsal and proceeded to play perfectly the extremely difficult and complicated Boland composition.

“For he does take one thing seriously - his music. The British music critic Valerie Wilmer called Johnny Griffin ‘the aggressive virtuoso’. Griffin played the tenor saxophone aggressively at the time when the expression ‘intensity’ had not been occupied by Free Jazz: hard tone, exciting phrasing locked together with absorbing rhythms.

“Concerning the ‘virtuoso’ - Johnny Griffin is a bit tired of being termed - like trigger happy cowboy - the ‘quickest’. ‘They always talk about my being quick but what is ‘quick’? It’s just my way of expressing myself, that’s all. To be quite honest, the reason for my playing like I do is because I’m so nervous. I just have to take my horn in my hand and it starts to vibrate. I don’t play in order to prove anything, I just play because I enjoy it.’

“Johnny Griffin says that he has become quieter since he has been living in Paris for the past five years. But a European? ‘Oh no, I’m still genuine Chicago.’ (Manfred Miller, tr. John Legg. From the liner notes to the 1970 Young Blood reissue.)

Performers: Johnny Griffin (t-sx), Benny Bailey (tp/fl-h), Åke Persson (tb), Sahib Shihab (br-sx), Jimmy Woode (bs), Kenny Clarke (dr)

A1. Foot Patting
A2. Please Send Me Someone To Love
A3. The Turk's Bolereo
A4. Deep Eight
B1. A Handfull Of Soul
B2. The JAMF's Are Coming
B3. Lady Heavy Bottom's Waltz

Johnny Griffin - A Blowing Session


“In the liner notes for his first Blue Note album (BLP 1533), Johnny Griffin was quoted as saying that he preferred to ‘make it at home’ (home being Chicago). Since the time of that LP’s release, Johnny has changed his mind at the urging of Art Blakey, and, with his presence in the drummer’s Messengers, he has swelled the group to sextet size.

“When the augmented Messengers came to New York, it so happened that several other of the top small groups were also in town, either playing or laying off. Most of the musicians in these combos are friendly with each other and enjoy playing together. When someone like Johnny Griffin comes to town and causes much comment, the others are quite anxious to blow with him. What you hear here is exactly that… a blowing session among the various leading lights of some of the East’s important jazz organizations.

“At the center of the session is the tenor sax triumvirate of Griffin, John Coltrane and Hank Mobley.

“Mobley is the former Messenger star who is now doing his shining with the Horace Silver quintet while Coltrane is the young man who rose to prominence in 1956 with the now disbanded Miles Davis quintet.

“The three have similar backgrounds in many ways. All of them have paid their dues in rhythm and blues bands. They also played with orchestras, Griffin with Lionel Hampton and Coltrane with Dizzy Gillespie. Trane also played with a Gillespie combo as did Mobley. Hank was with Max Roach before that and Griffin spent two fruitful weeks with Thelonious Monk in Chicago.

“Despite the fact that they grew up musically in the same environment and have been influence, in general, by some of the same musicians, the three tenors have very different conceptions, however forceful they may all be.

“Griffin is more extrovert in a raucous manner and his rapid fire delivery stamps him as one of ‘the fastest guns alive’. Mobley has a big, round-edged sound and an even, logical conception. Coltrane is the most unconventional of the three with his vocal tone and very personal idea patterns.

“To add some brass bit to the session comes Lee Morgan, the extremely youthful trumpeter from the Dizzy Gillespie band. Lee is a newcomer, but through his Blue Note records (BLP 1538, 1540, 1541, 1557) and solo appearances in the Gillespie organization he has already carved out a reputation for himself. He comes from the tough, brilliant side of the modern trumpet tree out of Gillespie, Navarro and Clifford Brown.

“Another member of the Gillespie organization who lends his ample talent in both solo and ensemble is pianist Wynton Kelly. Wynton, who has been with the Art Farmer-Gigi Gryce group and accompanist to Dinah Washington, is another of the many modern musicians who made their solo debuts on Blue Note. Here he offers several sparkling solos in the Bud Powell idiom and blends perfectly into the rhythm section sparked by Messenger chieftain Art Blakey and former Miles Davis bassist Paul Chambers.

“Two originals and two standards comprise the raw material for the blowing. As in any session, the standards are those which are familiar to all and facilitate improvisation. The originals are by Griffin.

“Johnny opens a breakneck tempo version of Jerome Kern’s ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ with a chorus of melody before going into three febrile improvisatory cantos. Lee has two swift, brassy one before Hank takes over for one quick chorus. Coltrane comes sailing in for two before Griffin and Art Blakey enter into a heated exchange that highlights each one’s virtuosity. Johnny then carries the theme out with the rhythm section coming to the top for the bridge.

“Coltrane has the first solo on ‘Ball Bearing’ and makes the most of the intriguing harmonic pattern. Morgan follows in a wonderful groove as the rhythm section lays down a straight and wide carpet to walk on. Griffin then has two choruses that will awaken your senses and Mobley continues the excellent mood. All the tenormen are in fine form on this one. Kelly, who has the next solo spot, is no less effective. After a short bit by Blakey, the last part of the theme is restated.

“Another Jerome Kern evergreen, ‘All the Things You Are’, opens side two. Griffin carries the melody chorus again in a medium up setting. He then has three choruses of improvisation, reaching a peak in number three. Coltrane follows with his singular interpretation and Morgan’s trumpet sings a couple before Mobley states his case clearly and emotionally. Kelly’s chorus is a joy both rhythmically and melodically. Chambers than has his first solo of the session before Griffin and Blakey have a brief word or two and Johnny takes it out.

“‘Smoke Stack’, a blue, has an introduction by Kelly followed by its simple line and an immediate catapult into action by Griffin who is both fast and funky. Morgan, cooking hotly, is next followed by eight choruses of Mobley and seven of Coltrane. Kelly has four before four by Chambers. Griffin and Blakey then converse tersely and the theme is riffed to completion.” (Ira Gitler. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Johnny Griffin (t-sx), Lee Morgan (tp), Hank Mobley/John Coltrane (t-sx), Wynton Kelly (pi), Paul Chambers (bs), Art Blakey (dr)

A1. The Way You Look Tonight
A2. Ball Bearing
B1. All The Things You Are
B2. Smoke Stack

Frank Morgan - You Must Believe in Spring


“A ‘92 release by marvelous alto saxophonist Frank Morgan, whose life story and triumph over heroin addiction and imprisonment was one of the ‘80s’ great success tales. Morgan’s biting, yet sensitive and rich alto has rightly been traced to Charlie Parker, but Morgan long ago rid his style of any imitative excesses. He was excellently supported on this program of duets by an amazing lineup of rotating pianists: Kenny Barron, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Roland Hanna, and Hank Jones.” (Review by Ron Wynn for AllMusic. See here.)

Performers: Frank Morgan (a-sx), Kenny Barron/Tommy Flanagan/Barry Harris/Roland Hanna/Hank Jones (pi)

1. Kenny Barron - But Beautiful
2. Frank Morgan & Kenny Barron - You've Changed
3. Tommy Flanagan - With Malice Towards None
4. Frank Morgan & Tommy Flanagan - Something Borrowed, Something Blue
5. Barry Harris - I Should Care
6. Frank Morgan & Barry Harris - Embraceable You
7. Frank Morgan & Barry Harris - While The Gettin's Good Blues
8. Roland Hanna - My Heart Stood Still
9. Frank Morgan & Roland Hanna - Enigma
10. Hank Jones - I Cover The Waterfront
11. Frank Morgan & Hank Jones - You Must Believe In Spring
12. Frank Morgan & Hank Jones - Come Sunday

Dino Valente


Much of what has been written of this album is quick to slate Valente’s voice and style of production (particularly the reverb) on this album, as well as to interpose bland comparisons with his peers without taking the material on its own merits. There is a free-wheeling, honest quality here and several songs that hold one’s interest with the quality of their instrumental and vocal parts as well as with the neurotic, tender expressiveness of the lyrics. While it lacks the completeness and finesse of a complete, commercially viable album there is much to appreciate here for the unpretentious listener who is not the kind of oversaturated, jaded obsessive of 1960s music who typically reviews this sort of material. Among the fascinating songs here 'Something New' and 'Me and My Uncle' are standouts.

A1. Time
A2. Something New
A3. My Friend
A4. Listen To Me
A5. Me And My Uncle
B1. Tomorrow
B2. Children Of The Sun
B3. New Wind Blowing
B4. Everything Is Gonna Be Ok
B5. Test