Quincy Jones: King Road Blues

The original Go West, Man! featured Quincy Jones-managed recording sessions by four trumpets and rhythm, four alto saxophones and rhythm, and three tenor saxes and a bari sax with rhythm. Lennie Niehaus’s “Kings Road Blues” offers, in addition to its inherent merit as a swinging, funky frolic, a rare opportunity to compare and contrast the styles of all-time great Benny Carter and three of the period’s leading West Coast-based altoists.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Woody Herman: Early Autumn

During the 1950s, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz became the most popular of Lester Young's followers. But his breakthrough came as a result of his probing solo on the Woody Herman Orchestra’s 1948 recording of Ralph Burn’s gorgeous ballad “Early Autumn,” which showed off his lovely sound and advanced sense of lyricism. Getz remained popular even after other tenor styles overtook his in fashionability.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Terry Gibbs: Jumpin' at the Woodside

In 1959, Terry Gibbs took leave of his senses and formed a big band. No flight in the face of economic reason could've found a braver test pilot. Ebullient and irrepressible don't do him justice. If you woke T.G. from a deep sleep, stuck mallets in his hands and pointed him towards the vibes, he'd count "One, oo, ee, ah" and swing his butt off. On this flag-waver to do Betsy Ross proud, lead trumpeter Al Porcino blazes, making us rue his ill-advised career switch to play The Godfather's Michael Corleone. (That's not him?) TGIF means Terry Gibbs Is Fabulous.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Raymond Scott: Twilight in Turkey

Despite being co-opted for many long-lived Warner Bros. cartoons, Raymond Scott's late-1930s music has largely been forgotten. Encountering it now is like opening an heirloom music box from which figurines pop up to play a quaintly charming tune. Except as you listen and peer down, you're gradually, irresistibly drawn into this strange tableau. You lean closer. The figurines have come alive! They're more than entertaining. They're your new best friends. And that music! You realize it's neither quaint nor charming. It's completely, utterly, certifiably insane! And you want it never, ever to stop. Welcome to the world of Raymond Scott.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Raymond Scott: The Penguin

Being as flightless as an ostrich, and by comparison a clumsy walker, doesn't deter the Emperor Penguin from maintaining the dignity of a headwaiter whilst wintering in Antarctica. Here one poses imperially for a portrait by the 1930s master of musical obscurantism, Raymond Scott—no kin to British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott. (Obviously, Falcon's a bird of a different feather.) Some listeners mistake Scott's jagged syncopations and goofy disjointedness for a joke. Yet like a tipsy penguin teetering on ice skates, Scott gets where he intended, and in so doing makes the adventure as endearingly loopy as . . . well, an Emperor Penguin.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Raymond Scott: Powerhouse

La beauté folle des machines, Ravel called it—the mad beauty of machines. But beware: artists who investigate such phenomena themselves risk being declared insane. Long after Ravel's death, French neurologists found evidence of cerebral dysfunction, particularly in his mechanistic Boléro (1928), which manifested “the influence of disease on the creative process.” Brooklyn-born Raymond Scott hasn't been dead long enough to be clinically diagnosed, but "Powerhouse" shows similar preoccupation with the automated workings of cylinders, gears, generators, pistons, rods, turbines and valves, all meshing towards a common goal of smoothly motive efficiency. In other words, it swings. Crazy, man, crazy

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Sonny Rollins: Moritat

Rollins's dedication to the Great American Songbook is extended to this German chestnut, by Weill-Brecht, which most of us know as "Mack the Knife." The great Jazz Ambassador, Louis Armstrong, had recorded the tune shortly before Rollins, in September 1955. This is worth noting as context for Rollins’s playing here. To my ears it sounds like he was very familiar with Pops’s vocal. As usual he uses the tune as a starting point and takes his time extending beyond the core material. He’s supported beautifully throughout but the track is a little long for my taste.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Stan Getz: Two Note Samba

This album was recorded about a year after the phenomenal Jazz Samba in an obvious attempt to make lightning strike twice. It didn’t. Reasons include the rather mournful voice of Maria Toledo on six of ten tracks, which suffers in comparison with the light breathiness of Astrud Gilberto (who had become the bossa nova standard). The title “Two Note Samba” may amuse anyone who knows Jobim’s “One Note Samba,” but despite a bridge that makes a clear parallel to the original, Bonfa’s melody lacks the same wit, interest and staying power. Not even Getz’s tenor can make it memorable.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd: O Pato

Everyone associates early-1960s bossa nova with Stan Getz, and rightly so. But Charlie Byrd brought back Brazilian records and scores from his 1961 tour, sketched out the material, shopped the idea and recruited Getz's uniquely romantic instrumental voice to carry the lead. Like a pelican scooping up a school of fish, Byrd did the heavy lifting. Yet what most impresses about this track is how easily six waterfowl swimming together for the first time fit together. The idiom might be new, but there's no trace of experimentation. Just two old ducks named Stan & Charlie quietly, lyrically, sublimely making history.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Steve Swallow: Bite Your Grandmother

Steve Swallow, wise guy. Just check out the spiky arpeggios he used to construct “Bite Your Grandmother.” While Jack DeJohnette and Swallow swing like possessed men (I swear, how Swallow manages to walk the bass this fast and not lose the feel is beyond me), Tom Harrell and Joe Lovano negotiate the leader's jagged (yet somehow funny) musical landscape. This leads into some extended solo passages with plenty of room to move and expound. Mulgrew Miller rounds out the quintet on piano, making for a jazz supergroup that does not disappoint.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd: Samba Triste

This track appeared on the pioneering, hugely successful Jazz Samba album because guitarist Charlie Byrd wanted to include a minor-keyed samba. Stan Getz takes this relatively simple tune and makes it memorable with the aching melancholy of his horn. “Samba Triste” was the first commercial success for its composer, Baden Powell (1937-2000), who is still considered one of Brazil’s greatest guitarists. Like Jobim, Powell wrote songs with the poet Vinicius de Moraes – “Consolao” being one of their most famous – but Powell was more focused on native Brazilian culture and his melodies are darker than Jobim’s.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Marlena Shaw: Go Away Little Boy

Marlena Shaw can do pop and R&B, but her work with the likes of Howard McGhee and Count Basie provides her with solid jazz credentials. Here she belts out a swinging rendition of “Go Away Little Boy” with the gusto and know-how of a Nancy Wilson or Dinah Washington, obviously inspired by the rocking big band arrangements of Richard Evans & Charles Stepney.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Mark Whitfield: OGD (Road Song)

“OGD” is one of the most recognizable songs in Wes Montgomery’s catalogue, and yet Mark Whitfield’s trio, the Groove Masters, owns it here. Mark Whitfield and the Groove Masters is one of the best organ trio recordings to come along in recent years, and “OGD” is its highlight. In one measure Whitfield carefully searches for his notes, and in the next he picks with blazing speed. Dr. Lonnie Smith plays a single bass note for much of the tune, infusing it with a heart-pumping quality, and out of his hands spill some of the most soulful notions ever heard in the Eastern Hemisphere or anywhere else. Drummer Winard Harper doesn’t seek the spotlight, but his constantly changing propulsion is key to the dynamic feeling of the performance.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Madeleine Peyroux: Once in a While

Shortly after it was released, Brandi Carlile praised Peyroux’s efforts in The New York Times for its willingness to embrace imperfections. “I think the temptation to sound polished,” Carlile opined in her peculiar critique, “is exactly what makes things sound immature.” I’m not sure many people rushed out to buy Half the Perfect World based on this ringing endorsement -- which is a shame. Peyroux’s style has nothing to do with accepting flaws. It offers, instead, intimacy and understatement, an attempt to capture the ambiance of a salon or living-room performance – a refreshing reminder of simpler ways in this day of American Idol bombast and football stadium concerts.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Mike Longo: Oasis

Mike Longo spent many years as Dizzy Gillespie’s pianist, arranger and musical director. On an album devoted almost exclusively to his own well-crafted compositions and arrangements, his large New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, comprising some of New York’s finest musicians, performs his medium-groove blues with polish and gusto. Longo’s own improvised solo is appealingly economical and effective.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Julie London: Cry Me a River

After costarring at 18 in a jungle movie with Olympic swimmer Buster Crabbe, Julie London transitioned from fetching ingénue to sultry chanteuse. Her 1955 single "Cry Me a River" (water again) swirled 15 weeks among the Top 50, swept her debut LP into the Top 10, splashed her back onscreen in The Girl Can't Help It, and landed her on Life's cover. Blessed with Barney Kessel's hush-hush backing and a lyric deft enough to use "plebian" unpretentiously, Julie rekindles the intimacy and irony of those smoky, dimly lit, off-the-beaten-track little bars where 1950s jazz sulked too long over a watery drink.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Louis Armstrong: Struttin' With Some Barbecue

If jazz had a Mount Rushmore, everybody knows who would have pride of place. Washington was Father of His County, and Louis Armstrong was Pops of Jazz. Consider as evidence this track made at the end of a two-year span in which Pops defined by example the solo as jazz's principal means of expression. Yet, as luminous as his solo is here, Pops shines brightest while leading the opening and closing ensembles. He is spectacularly authoritative. Just as the U.S. presidency was designed with George Washington in mind, jazz was designed with Louis Armstrong in mind.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Karrin Allyson: Angel Eyes

With her attractive, sultry voice, Karrin Allyson can deliver a song with intelligence and expressiveness while avoiding showy artifice. And she is adept at scat-singing as well. Here, Allyson and her all-star accompanists mine the angst of Matt Dennis’s “Angel Eyes,” one of the most poignant items in the American popular songbook.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

June Christy: Something Cool

In 1953, no longer the '40s flychick scatting "How High the Moon" with Stan Kenton, June Christy turned to dramatic readings of saloon songs. Bill Barnes's "Something Cool" is incisive storytelling, as June enacts the first-person narrative of a self-deluding barfly. Think Blanche DuBois as lounge lizard. Ordinarily, she would decline to drink with a stranger, but relents because she's "so terribly far from home." Citing past triumphs—a house with countless rooms, 15 different beaus, off to Paris in the fall—this gal fools herself more than she impresses the guy who stops to buy her something cool. A remarkable 4-minute drama.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Kenny Burrell: Chitlins Con Carne

Strictly speaking (and we here at Jazz.com are semantic sticklers), "Chitlins Con Carne" is double-talk. Since chitlins are pig guts and carne is meat, "Chitlins Con Carne" means meat with meat. This track, though, is so tasty, we're willing to cut Kenny Burrell some slack. No doubt he was thinking of Blue Note + bossa nova, which Chef Kenny combines to culinary quintessence. Spice with Ray Barretto's conga, simmer over Stanley Turrentine's heated tenor sax, stir frequently with Chef Kenny's funky guitar, and you'll get a mouthwatering stew more delicious than meat with meat. Best served with beer con cerveza.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Bebel Gilberto: Mais Feliz

Tanto Tempo sold more than a million copies, catapulting Bebel Gilberto into world music stardom. The familiar bossa beat, pioneered by Bebel’s father, João Gilberto, 50 years ago, is very much evident in her work. But the daughter has modernized her inheritance, adding subtle electronic effects that clearly helped her reach a younger audience. Gilberto has a soothing, whispery voice, but lacks the brooding introspection that set her father apart from the crowd. At times her songs risk collapsing into a higher quality ambient music, but perhaps that is the niche she is destined to fill. But if placed in more challenging settings, Gilberto might surprise us with recordings that sell well and excite the jazz world.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Bill Frisell: Live to Tell

Bill Frisell's entire career is represented here in a single, 10-minute microcosm. The slowly building melodic concept, the extreme rubato, the Americana, the elongated tones both chiming and distorted. And mostly, the idea that beauty lives in places far away from what's considered 'normal.' Credit must be given to Joey Baron's sensitive percussion work and Kermit Driscoll's knowing bass. The pair manages to keep the piece together as Frisell takes the tune more and more 'out.' For Madonna fans and improvised music aficionados alike.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Ray Charles: Come Rain or Come Shine

In addition to being an iconic rhythm ‘n’ blues vocalist, Ray Charles played jazz piano and alto saxophone. But it was his soulful singing that was held in such high esteem by the jazz community. His heart-wrenching rendering of “Come Rain Or Come Shine,” over a lush Ralph Burns arrangement for an orchestra that included strings, a choir, and Bob Brookmeyer’s earthy valve trombone, may be the most moving version of the song ever recorded.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Katie Melua: Blues in the Night

Melua sold three million copies of Piece by Piece – over one million in the United Kingdom alone. Her biography is a compelling tale of rags to riches. Raised in poverty in Kutaisi in Georgia, she moved (at age 8) with her family to Northern Ireland in the aftermath of civil war, then settled in England at age fourteen. At nineteen she was a star, her debut release, Call of the Search, hitting the top of the UK charts. Success made her into a thrill seeker – she has jumped from airplanes, off a skyscraper, and made her way into the Guinness Book of World Records by giving a concert 300 meters below sea level. If only her voice were as exciting as her life story! True, she could win a Norah Jones impersonating contest, but without the microtonal subtleties of Ms. Jones. She occasionally offers a nice turn of phrase, and her voice has a pleasant, winsome quality. But the smart money bets that her career will have peaked before her 25th birthday.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Bill Bruford: Emotional Shirt

Bill Bruford has always been my choice for most convincing rock-to-jazz crossover drummer. The incredible amount of nuance he brought to both King Crimson and Yes seemed perfect for the world of improvised music. “Emotional Shirt” catches Earthworks at the height of their sublime game. At first, the ear wants to say “fusion!” as the band lurches through a typically syncopated theme. But then all hell breaks loose in the middle section. Free jazz? The urge to pigeonhole becomes irrelevant as you're overwhelmed with the band's ability to simultaneously groove, freakout, and react, all supported by Bruford's extremely musical play.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

J.J. Johnson: Turnpike

Apart from single-handedly inventing the modern jazz trombone and becoming its foremost exponent, being a first-rate composer and arranger, successful bandleader and consummate all-round pro, J.J. Johnson wasn't much of a musician. On this up-tempo romp written by him, J.J. flexes his phenomenal chops atop the Modern Jazz Quartet's rhythm section (including a surprisingly aggressive John Lewis) and following a leadoff star turn by 22-year-old trumpeter Clifford Brown. Nearly three years to the day after recording "Turnpike," Brownie was killed in a car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Makes you wish J.J. had titled this tune "Live Long and Prosper."

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

The Poll Winners: Volare

When covering pop hits of the day, 1950s jazzmen often seemed anxious to hurry past the melody, treating the song as pretext for improvisation that bore no relation to the admittedly often second-rate material. Refreshingly, Barney, Ray & Shelly—billed as the Poll Winners because of their perennial popularity—actually play 1958's #1 hit, "Volare" (Italian for "fly"). Carting out his best tongue-in-cheek impression of a Neapolitan mandolin, Kessel shines on this medium-tempo swinger supported by Ray ("Rock of Gibraltar") Brown and Shelly ("Ears of an Elephant") Manne. Delizioso!

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Pat Metheny & Ornette Coleman: Song X

In what can only be considered a musical perfect storm, Ornette Coleman, Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette and Denardo Coleman crystallized the Ornette aesthetic into this aural diamond. That stellar rhythm section pushes Coleman and Metheny to nearly explosive levels of intensity. The interlocked (yet somehow completely independent) sax and guitar lines argue, collide, and finally cooperate to produce a defining moment in the careers of both men. Highly recommended.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Marcus Roberts: East of the Sun

You have to give Marsalis points for including this trio track -- on which he doesn’t even play -- in the second CD in his Standard Time series. It says something about a man who in the interest of a well-rounded recorded document would step aside and let the band blow some (assuming that is the case!). I love these Standard Time CD’s for their economy and breadth, and this track is a perfect example of it. Roberts has such a classy blues touch and while it’s an overused cliché, you do feel you’re hearing the history of jazz piano in his playing. His compatriots rise to the occasion, as if they could do otherwise, for a beautiful balance.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Billie Holiday: Gloomy Sunday

Darling, I'd Die Without You, among the hoariest songwriting clichés, was never expressed with greater despondency than in this paean to self-destruction, as Billie Holiday contemplates joining a dead lover. The song's original unrelieved Hungarian pessimism was mitigated by an American stanza that contrived to soften the blow by claiming it was all a dream. It didn't work. The song spawned an urban legend about listeners rendered so melancholic they killed themselves. Figuratively, the casualties included Billie her- self, who committed artistic suicide by signing a long-term contract with Decca Records, which dispatched her on a fruitless quest for the almighty buck. Gloomy Money-day.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Billie Holiday: God Bless the Child (1941)

"Them that's got shall get / Them that's not shall lose / So the Bible said." Thus claims Arthur Herzog's purported "swing-spiritual based on an authentic proverb." But good luck finding that in the Bible. The religious allusions cynically camouflage a secular Marxist sermon pitting haves against have-nots and insinuating that parents consumed by capitalistic greed will refuse a child in need ("Mama may have / Papa may have / But God bless the child that's got his own"). Somehow, Billie Holiday overcomes Herzog's pinko propaganda for a typically moving statement. God bless Billie. All others pay cash.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Billie Holiday: I Loves You Porgy

In the 1940s, Billie Holiday had the misfortune (as if she needed any more) of being contracted to Decca Records, which kept saddling her with unsuitable material and inappropriate orchestrations. No ignominy was beneath Decca, which in 1949 went so far as to refashion Billie as a latter-day Bessie Smith for “Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer”—equivalent to casting Paul Robeson as Kingfish in Amos 'n' Andy. Here, left to her own devices, Lady Day proves that an intimate Gershwin song plus four sympathetic musicians made the best backdrop for the unadorned drama of her incomparable voice.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Lyle Mays: Lincoln Reviews His Notes

The title is the only thing quirky about this elegant tune from longtime Pat Metheny collaborator Lyle Mays’ outstanding acoustic trio album Fictionary. The tune opens with a stately, solemn piano melody, and Mays exhibits splendid technique and invention as he escalates it with potent, agile soloing, DeJohnette and Johnson providing inspired support. It’s great to hear Mays step out as a leader, and “Lincoln Reviews His Notes” is a gem that shouldn’t be overlooked.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Mark Murphy: Skylark / You Don't Know What Love Is

How many singers have performed at this high level in their seventies? Aspiring jazz vocalists should not just listen to this recording – they need to study it. There is not a single facile or uninspired phrase in this six-and-a-half minute performance. Murphy floats behind the beat or hurries ahead; he bends the notes both ways, and measures the tolerances in microns. He coos and whispers and even howls, crazy like a loon; sometimes sighing sweetly, like a nightingale serenading the moon. And though you will marvel at the vocal, don’t ignore producer Till Brönner, a trumpeter and flugelhornist of real distinction. Even if (like me) you already own a stack of Murphy CDs, find a place in your collection for this release.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · · · ·

Pat Metheny: (Cross the) Heartland

A fairly early example of the Pat Metheny Group’s genre-inclusive style, this aptly titled track combines a buoyant melody colored by jazz, rock and country elements and a lively, jangly rhythm to create a sense of motion and evoke a trip through wide-open spaces. Cheery and irresistible -- if only all travel could be this joyous!

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Archie Shepp: Hambone (live)

For all you city slickers, "hamboning" is a down-home name for the ancient art of slapping certain body parts as a substitute for drumming. (Honest, Ma, I wasn't doing what you think—I was hamboning!) Here, Archie Shepp hambones live at a landmark 1965 Black Militant benefit concert that might've been billed as Uncle Tom's Exorcism. "These men are dangerous," warned the original liner notes, invoking witchdoctors, juju men, nighttime Mau Mau attacks, and music that "speaks of horrible and frightening things." Although Shepp's playing, speaking of horrible and frightening things, is more commandingly cathartic than actor Max von Sydow's Father Merrin, the exorcism failed. Uncle Tom bedevils us still.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Art Pepper: 'Round Midnight

Due to what the 1950s jazz press euphemistically called "personal problems," the once-prolific Art Pepper made just one recording session between late 1957 and early '59. When his chance came at last for a comeback, Pepper was fortuitously matched with arranger Marty Paich, who believed the chamber orchestral ambience of Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool and Gerry Mulligan's Tentette merited ongoing exploration long after Miles and Mulligan had downsized. Here, Pepper and Paich give Thelonious Monk's oft-recorded "'Round Midnight" one of its most scintillating interpretations. Weaving in and out of Marty's lush backgrounds, Art pours heart and soul into this deeply moving performance.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · · ·

Artie Shaw: Begin the Beguine

"I hate the music business," groused Artie Shaw. "I’m not interested in giving the public what they want." This from a man with eight million-selling singles in the 1930s and '40s. His first such hit, "Begin the Beguine," left him rich, famous and utterly disgusted with the "morons" who insisted he play it at every appearance. Count us among the morons. Cole Porter's song is enchanting. Jerry Gray's arrangement is beguiling. The band's execution is immaculate. Shaw's clarinet is unashamedly romantic. So what's to hate? Jazz's greatest ingrate preferred every cloud to its silver lining. Some guys just can't say thanks.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · · ·

Artie Shaw: Jungle Drums

In the wake of archrival Benny Goodman's hit "Sing, Sing, Sing" (1937), Artie Shaw's own descent into jungle music was inevitable. "Jungle Drums" is Shaw's simulated safari for affluent whites who never strayed closer to the jungle than midtown Manhattan traffic. Bandleaders, in presenting jungle jazz, resembled corporate executives rationalizing environmental pollution because it's profitable. As dance music, "Jungle Drums" seems innocuous enough. But turning jazz into a 1930s Theme Park where the privileged class could reinforce their presumed racial superiority was as socially irresponsible as encouraging children to smoke. "Jungle Drums" should've been titled "Shame, Shame, Shame."

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Arturo Sandoval: I Left This Space for You

After bucking bureaucrats in Castro's Cuba his entire adult life to play Yankee imperialist jazz, 40-year-old trumpeter Arturo Sandoval in 1990 defected, only to encounter equally obstinate U.S. bureaucrats who blocked his naturalization because he'd belonged to Cuba's Communist Party. (Duh!) Somehow, amidst the turmoil and uncertainty before his American citizenship was finally granted in 1998, Sandoval mustered enough concentration for a dazzling tribute album to fellow trumpeter Clifford Brown, concluding with this heartfelt ballad featuring his open flugelhorn and overdubbed Harmon-muted trumpet. Sidemen Kirkland and Moffett are as unconditionally supportive as the INS ought to have been. Gorgeous.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Ornette Coleman: Ramblin'

"He plays all the notes Bird missed," some fool says about a character modeled on Ornette Coleman in Thomas Pynchon's novel V. (1963). Another character then goes "silently through the motions of jamming a broken beer bottle into the speaker's back and twisting." The twisting part is especially satisfying because Coleman was at heart a Texas bluesman, not the second coming of Bebop. "Ramblin'" proves it. Besides Ornette's soulful sax, this lowdown blues features Charlie Haden, whose roots were in country & western, strumming his bass from hog heaven. Forget bebop. This is American folk music at its most convincing.

October 31, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Stan Kenton: Recuerdos

Composer-arranger Johnny Richards’ seven-part suite (the original LP omitted one part for space reasons) for an expanded Stan Kenton Orchestra is one of the band’s most memorable albums. Its six added percussionists provide a compelling Afro-Cuban setting for Richards’ brilliant compositions. The reflective “Recuerdos (Reminiscences)” features especially lyrical solos by altoist Lennie Niehaus, trumpeter Sam Noto, and trombonist Carl Fontana, whose tuneful improvisation is a masterpiece of melodic craftsmanship.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

John Coltrane: My Favorite Things


    John Coltrane, photo by Herb Snitzer

In 1960, adding the soprano saxophone to his bag of tricks, John Coltrane joined the ancient brotherhood of snake charmers. Swami John's hypnotic trance, built around a harmless waltz from Broadway's The Sound of Music, was a cobra's cornucopia of monotonously mesmerizing churning and swirling. Moreover, its surprising popularity promoted the soprano sax from little sister to Big Mama. Neither Sidney Bechet's voluminous vibrato nor Steve Lacy's ascetic modernism had found many followers, but Coltrane made the soprano obligatory, opening the floodgates to wimpy whiners such as Kenny G. Yet while "Songbird" is on a par with undergoing root canal without anesthetic, Trane's "My Favorite Things" is like undergoing root canal without anesthetic while listening to bagpipes on headphones. At least "Songbird" is over in five minutes. "My Favorite Things" drones punishingly on for nearly a quarter of an hour. Admittedly, "MFT" constitutes an important moment in jazz history. But sometimes historical documents need to be sealed in airtight, watertight, soundproof containers—usually for their own protection, but in this case more for ours.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Wes Montgomery: Four on Six

During an era of album-title hyperbole where every tenorman was a Colossus and each new release marked the Change of the Century, Wes Montgomery's Incredible Jazz Guitar was actually justified. After being on and off the scene for over a decade, Wes finally broke through to the hardcore jazz audience. Much was made (rightly) of his innovative octaves technique and distinctive pick-less pizzicato, but Wes's greatest asset was his sense of swing, which was … well, incredible. "Four on Six," based on Gershwin's "Summertime" and given first-rate backing, makes a fitting introduction to this down-to-earth Olympian of jazz guitar.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Shorty Rogers: Popo

As a trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, arranger and bandleader, Shorty Rogers was one of the most important figures in the West Coast jazz of the 1950s. This early recording of a simple riff tune scored for a small band similar to Miles Davis’s earlier Birth of the Cool groups, exhibits an infectious swing and contains inventive solos by Rogers himself, tenorist Jimmy Giuffre, altoist Art Pepper, and pianist Hampton Hawes.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Joe Lovano: I'm All For You

Ever since Coleman Hawkins’ famous Swing Era recording of “Body and Soul,” subsequent tenor saxophonists have considered the tune a test of their mettle. Contemporary tenor star Joe Lovano’s “I’m All For You” is “Body and Soul” without its melody. Instead, Lovano improvises his own melodies over the song’s attractive chord structure. Lovano’s feelingful rendition of the classic is buoyed by the sensitive accompaniment of a top-notch veteran rhythm section, and he passes the test handily.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Lee Konitz & Warne Marsh: Topsy


           Lee Konitz, Miles Davis, Art Blakey and
      Bud Powell at Birdland, photo by Marcel Fleiss

 Beginning in the late 1940s, cool alto saxophonist Lee Konitz earned a reputation as one of the most original improvisers in jazz. While many altoists were imitating Charlie Parker, Konitz was developing a phraseology all his own. On the Count Basie classic “Topsy,” he and two former colleagues from pianist Lennie Tristano’s groups are joined by bebop pioneers Kenny Clarke on drums and Oscar Pettiford on bass. Since Konitz and tenorist Warne Marsh shared similar tonal concepts and improvisatory approaches, they made a highly compatible and successful team.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Kurt Elling: My Foolish Heart

I don’t believe for one moment that Elling has a "foolish heart” – he sings this ballad with such total authority and presence that it tends to undermine the meaning of the lyrics. Yet that is my only caveat on an otherwise remarkable 12-minute performance. I found myself listening to it again and again, marveling at the many interesting twists and turns in the arrangement, which moves through several phases – torch song, incantation, double-tempo climax – with remarkable aplomb. And every great jazz vocalist deservers a musical director with ears as big as Hobgood’s. Elling demands our attention as one of the most impressive vocalists of his generation, and this recording will show you why.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Kurt Elling: Minuano

No vocalist is better skilled than Elling at shaping a song into a satisfying dramatic performance. Pat Metheny’s lilting composition is a perfect vehicle for Elling’s interpretive skills. He opens with an invocation that caresses the melody for almost three minutes before launching into an exultant 6/8 melody. We think we’re reaching the climax of the song, when Elling leaps an octave and pushes the piece into overdrive. Eight minutes of sheer aural pleasure. High marks also to pianist Hobgood (whose acute musical direction is always evident on Elling’s recordings) and saxophonist Wheeler.

October 30, 2007 · 2 comments

Tags: ·

Lee Ritenour: Captain Fingers

With its languid pace, string enhancement and sliding guitar melody, “Dolphin Dreams” glides along as gracefully as, well, a dolphin underwater. Ritenour evokes a dreamy feel on the track that gives way to a dramatic break before returning to its initial tranquility. There are tunes in Ritenour’s catalog that are jazzier than this, but if you’re seeking a gentle, pretty piece of music, perhaps to unwind after a stressful day, this is worth checking out.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Duke Ellington: Wig Wise

He didn’t step away from his orchestra very often, but we are thankful that Duke Ellington took the opportunity to do so in 1962 with bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach. It might seem like an usual teaming of strong personalities, but “Wig Wise” is a rip-roaring affair. Everyone plays with gusto – Roach beats some hard swing out of his kit, Mingus thwacks the hell out of his bass, and Ellington jams his hands right into the ivories. He sticks to the middle and lower end of the keyboard, and allows some interesting pauses to creep into his solos when he’s not on the attack. “Wig Wise” is a thick, hard-charging three minutes, and it makes the highlight reel for each of the three men who created it.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Herbie Nichols: Applejackin'

Herbie Nichols remains one of the most under-recognized figures in jazz history, but luckily his entire output for Blue Note is available as a three-CD set. “Applejackin’” is a lively little piece of music with an almost childlike theme. Much has been made of the unusual structures Nichols’s compositions utilized, but it is worth considering his music apart from its usefulness in music theory courses. Here is a bright little sketch one could imagine coming from Thelonious Monk’s songbook, but Nichols’s style of performing is much different – on beat, in key, totally unselfconscious. He returns again and again to the theme – a skipping, happy phrase played twice before spiraling upward – while fleshing it out with his impromptu thoughts.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Marty Paich: Violets for Your Furs

Art Pepper was a leading West Coast alto saxophonist during the 1950s before personal problems removed him from the scene off and on for years. His beautiful, distinctive tone, highly personal phrasing, and great expressiveness are on full display in Marty Paich’s fine arrangement of "Violets For Your Furs," where Pepper is the featured soloist with Paich’s 13-piece ensemble.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Cannonball Adderley: This Here (Dis Here)

At the beginning of this live performance at San Francisco’s Jazz Workshop, Cannonball Adderley introduces pianist Bobby Timmons’ funky jazz waltz “This Here” as “Dis Here” for “reasons of soul and description.” This early example of so-called soul jazz became quite popular, boosting sales of the album and helping popularize the group itself. Cannonball is at the top of his game here.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Blossom Dearie: They Say It's Spring

Confronted with Blossom Dearie, jazz fans divide faster than a cell undergoing cytokinesis. Either you find her kittenishly enchanting or insufferably coy. Call us pushovers for adorable felines, but we're enchanted. Her wispy voice, which wouldn’t carry without a mike across a cocktail napkin, is deceptive. Far from being baby-chick helpless, this grown chick is a survivor. Her heart's been broken, alright. More than once. But throw in the towel? Fat chance! Listen to Blossom make this tender, little-known song wistfully her own. And when she concludes, "It wasn't spring, 'twas you," it's we whose hearts break. Blossom springs eternal.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Diana Krall: I've Got You Under My Skin

When the 1960s bossa nova craze finally expired, some of us—weary of off-key, ungrammatical Ipanema girls who "looked straight ahead not at he"—breathed a sigh of relief. We figured bossa nova was a passing fad, not a lasting form. Little did we know. Diana Krall, unborn during the tall and tan and young and lovely summer of '64 when Getz & Gilberto's “The Girl From Ipanema” lolled in the Top 10, gives such a literate reading of Cole Porter's timeless love song as to justify Paul Desmond's witty prediction of Bossa Antigua—no longer nova, but still glowing.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Emily Remler: Daahoud

Clifford Brown, said Emily Remler, "was one of my favorite musicians. He was so lyrical." Here she covers Brownie's "Daahoud," a variant of the Arabic name for David (“Beloved”). "I really identify with the trumpet," Emily continued, citing its melodic clarity. "A guitarist can sound like a trumpet player. I try to sometimes." Regrettably, she identified with Brownie's instrument but not his freedom from drugs. Born two years after Charlie Parker's fabulous flameout at 34, dead herself at 32 from a heart attack, Remler was among jazz's second-generation heroin casualties. She was also among jazz's first-tier guitarists. We remember Remler.

Attention Sharp-eyed Shoppers! Amazon.com's MP3 Download department hilariously lists this track as "Daahound"—you know, the canine counterpart of "Daa-Bears"—but it's the same track.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Bobby Hutcherson: For You, Mom and Dad

In the 1980s, NPR's All Things Considered utilized this track habitually to segue between stories. News junkies must've thought NPR was covering a bell-ringers convention. With mallets toward all, Bobby Hutcherson overdubs himself in a tapestry of tintinnabulation involving everything except glockenspiel. At first you think, "Aha, Martin Denny lives." But then you realize this is way more complex than 1950s exotica. Closer to postmodernists Terry Riley, Philip Glass or Steve Reich. Except Hutcherson is a jazz musician who, improvising over nonstop ostinato, leaves us wondering, Why is this so fascinating? Conventioneer Quasimodo de Notre-Dame explains: "It's the bells."

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Dave Grusin & Lee Ritenour: Early A.M. Attitude

Bright and sparkling with a catchy, immediately likable melody, “Early A.M. Attitude” is a contemporary jazz classic that earned. keyboardist Grusin and guitarist Ritenour a Grammy. The two musicians are old friends who have collaborated many times, and this tune reflects their easy accord. This is sure to appeal to fans of contemporary and smooth jazz, although jazz purists may find it a bit poppy for their taste.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

McCoy Tyner: Inception

McCoy Tyner would eventually become one of the most powerful voices in piano jazz, but in 1962 there was no such pressure and certainly no such expectation. He was merely Coltrane’s pianist leading his own date. Tyner’s playing is typically meaty and dense on the burning title track of Inception. Art Davis walks the bass speedily, and powerhouse drummer Elvin Jones gins up a storm of skins and cymbals. After his thick fingers traverse the expanse of keys, Tyner settles into the tune at the 2:20 mark, pounding out some fat chords that lead to a few drum breaks that culminate in a series of ascending chords and finally back to the series of descending chords around which the piece is constructed. Hard to believe all this happens in four minutes.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Brad Mehldau: River Man (trio version, 2000)

Brad Mehldau has made no secret of his affinity for the singer-songwriter Nick Drake and of his tune “River Man” in particular. The version Mehldau’s trio recorded at the Village Vanguard during a three-night stand in 2000 can make one’s hair stand on end. Drake’s chord progression makes the change from minor to major (to turn a phrase on its head), allowing for an unexpected release of tension in the song’s chorus. Larry Grenadier’s bass and Mehldau’s left hand stay fairly true to what Drake composed as the soloing gets under way, but Mehldau’s right hand breaks free of its tether. Seven minutes into the piece, you realize no one is hanging onto the melody any longer but still you feel it’s there. Pay attention; this is a remarkable piece of work. Mehldau’s trio has synthesized the lessons of its forebears – specifically those of Messrs. Evans and Jarrett – and finds its own voice in doing so, as this performance evinces.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Dave Brubeck: Audrey


Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond at Birdland, photo by Marcel Fleiss

 At the 26th Annual Academy Awards in March 1954, Audrey Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar for Roman Holiday (1953). Miss Hepburn had profited from recent exposure as a Time cover subject (9/7/53), as would Dave Brubeck that November. Among her many fans was Paul Desmond, who extemporized this willowy blues in tribute. Desmond’s self-described "dry martini" sound derived partly from Lester Young and partly from the opening high-pitched bassoon in Stravinsky's Le Sacré du Printemps. His lyricism, however, was pure Desmond. Paul's biographer Doug Ramsey reports Miss Hepburn played "Audrey" every night before sleep. She must've had sweet dreams.

October 30, 2007 · 1 comment

Tags:

Dave Brubeck: Stardust

Due in part to its innovative use of classical techniques, the Dave Brubeck Quartet became phenomenally popular in the 1950s. Another factor in its success, however, was the brilliant playing of its alto saxophonist, Paul Desmond. In this performance recorded at Oberlin College, one of many such campus venues the quartet was among the first to utilize, Desmond displays his signature beautiful tone, his ability to swing with ease, and his proclivity for extemporizing highly melodic, unclichéd phrases.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Dave Brubeck: Blue Rondo à la Turk

Using Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca" as a reference point, Brubeck adapts the 9/8 time signature that intrigued him during an Istanbul visit, and creates a driving enclosure for straight-ahead 4/4 blues solos by himself and Desmond. As with "Take Five" (Brubeck's hit 1961 single to which "Blue Rondo" served as flip side), simplification makes the experiment fun. As to what the blues have to do with Turkey, it's long been rumored that during the Turkish War of Independence, W.C. Handy proffered his "St. Louis Blues" as the Republic's national anthem. When Turks wisely chose instead the stirring İstiklâl Marşı (Independence March), Handy's "St. Louis Blues" was made the USA's national anthem, and is now sung perfunctorily before ballgames.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Clifford Brown: Joy Spring

Unlike 16th-century conquistador Ponce de León, Clifford Brown actually found the mythical Fountain of Youth. One swig of Dr. Brown’s Magic Elixir, the aptly titled "Joy Spring," is guaranteed to refresh like a dip in the pool on a summer’s eve. Besides Brownie's invigorating open trumpet, this easygoing tonic delivers salubrious tenorman Harold Land, stimulating pianist Richie Powell and vitamin-enriched smoothie drummer Max Roach. Tragically, after a life free of drugs and alcohol, Clifford Brown died in a car crash four months shy of his 26th birthday. No good deed goes unpunished. Thankfully, through his recorded horn, joy springs eternal.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Chris Connor: Come Back to Sorrento

"I've always wanted to sing with a trio," Chris Connor confided. "I had to fight loud brass for too many years." Surely she didn't mean her 1952-53 stint with Stan Kenton's 20-piece band? Nothing loud about that outfit. I SAID, NOTHING LOUD ABOUT THAT OUTFIT! In any case, Chris's wish came true on her debut album. Reluctant to be pigeonholed in a commercially limited category, Chris declared, "I don't really think of myself as a jazz singer." She then transforms "Come Back To Sorrento" from canzone Napoletana into bopera Americano. If this ain't jazz singing, cancel our flight to Sorrento.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Count Basie: The M Squad Theme


Count Basie, photo by Herb Snitzer

Pound for pound, the toughest 1950s TV cop was Lt. Frank Ballinger of Chicago PD's M Squad. No, the M didn't stand for Lee Marvin, who played Ballinger. M stood for murder. During its first season the show's theme was nondescript. Then the producers sprang for 2½ minutes of mayhem by Count Basie and his mob of heavies blasting away like the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, aided and abetted on the soundtrack by squealing tires and gunfire. Go ahead, listen if you have the guts. Just don't go runnin' your mouth when the coppers pump you. You never heard of me. Got it?

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · · ·

Gil Evans: Straight, No Chaser

Monk's 12-bar blues paraphrasing the opening French horn motif from Richard Strauss’s 1894 tone poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks is translated by Gil Evans into a post-bop romp showcasing trumpeter Johnny Coles, trombonist Curtis Fuller and unsung hero Steve Lacy. Those familiar with Gil's subtle, intricate orchestrations for Miles Davis, assembled with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker, may be surprised by this chart's nonchalance, especially when layered ensemble repetitions of the theme gradually fracture into simultaneous improvisation by the lead players. Yet whether crafting precision timepieces for Miles or playing pranks on Monk, Gil Evans was a straight shot.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Grant Green: Idle Moments

Legend has it (well, actually it's in the liner notes) that due to a misunderstanding of how many bars constituted a chorus, what was supposed to be a 7-minute take ran to 15. Some mistakes are meant to happen. Unfolding at a sauntering, Southern (composer Duke Pearson hailed from Georgia), ain't-got- nuthin'-much-to-do-today tempo, "Idle Moments" is casually momentous. Bluesy guitarist Grant Green never sounded better, and the laid-back lineup behind him is quietly impassioned. Looking for the ideal track to while away an afternoon? Look no further. We'd write more, but we're feelin' kinda lazy. Y'all know how it is.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman: Lush Life

If you know someone who hates jazz, try an experiment. Secure a rope, tie that person to a chair (not too tight) and play "Lush Life" for them. Don’t forget your stopwatch to measure how quickly their expression dissolves from resentment to bliss. The folks at Guinness World Records keep track of such things. Cynics may dismiss this song about "jazz and cocktails" as make-out music, with more atmosphere than oxygen. But it boggles the mind that a youthful Strayhorn could write so profoundly, just as the mature Hartman's romantic baritone boggles the heart. (Hart-man indeed!) "Lush Life" is make-out music for the gods.

October 30, 2007 · 2 comments

Tags: · · ·

Ramsey Lewis: Hang on Sloopy

Recorded live at The Lighthouse in full nightclub party mode, Ramsey Lewis’s cover of “Hang On Sloopy” faced an uphill battle. The McCoys’ original had been four months on the charts, including a week at #1, and was still hanging on. Moreover, Lewis’s preceding cover, “The In Crowd,” was also charting. No way "Sloopy" could dislodge the real McCoys and Ramsey himself. Right? Wrong. “Sloopy” quickly overtook both competitors and spent two months in the Top 100. Sure it was formulaic. But here were actual people actually listening to jazz, and damned if they weren’t actually having actual fun! A revolutionary concept.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Mel Tormé: All I Need is the Girl

Ring-a-Ding singing doesn't get any better than Mel Tormé with the Marty Paich Dek-Tette. Blending the lightness of Gerry Mulligan's pianoless quartet with Birth of the Cool sonorities, Paich shows why he was arranger of choice for with-it vocalists. And nobody was more with-it than Mel Tormé, whose musicianship was as immaculate as his tuxedo (here fitted by drummer Mel "The Tailor" Lewis with additional stitching from tenorman Bill Perkins). Plus, on this track we get Tormé's hilarious hipsterism, seemingly ripped from the pages of the Playboy advisor: "Got a sports car," he inventories. "Nutty Jaguar—like wow!" And how.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Shelly Manne: Summertime

In 1959, Shelly Manne led his L.A.-based Men (why not Menne?) north to Frisco's famed Blackhawk for a multi-album live set. Since their regular pianist couldn’t make it, Victor Feldman filled the piano chair. All temps should be so spectacular. With an architectural sense worthy of Frank Lloyd Wright, Vic's solo here builds from delicacy to powerful flourishes. And as always, Shelly shines. Voters in 1950s jazz popularltiy polls didn’t always make the most informed choices, but they got it right when they voted early and voted often for Shelly Manne. Hizzoner was the blue-collar drummer who carried every precinct.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · · · ·

Modern Jazz Quartet: England's Carol

Ironically, the greatest achievement of Third Stream music, for all its intellectual pretensions, was an update of the traditional English carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." John Lewis first arranged it for the MJQ in 1956, and later added German symphonic backing for what became a surprise hit and perennial Yuletide favorite. It's hard to convey a jazz fan's wonderment at discovering a tip-top Milt Jackson solo swinging across pop radio in the early 1960s. Talk about a gift from Santa! As stocking stuffers go, this remains jolly good, Holmes. Pip-pip and all that. God Rest Ye Modern Jazz Quartet.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Oscar Brown, Jr.: But I Was Cool

His recitative anticipated rap by a decade, but Oscar Brown Jr. was a far more serious artist than the gold-digging, foulmouthed rappers. His songs were erudite minidramas (or, as here, minicomedies), passionately informed by history's injustices to African Americans. What saved them from polemics was his sense of humanity. In writing about the plight of blacks in America, Brown powerfully evoked, as did Tolstoy in writing about individual families, the universal in the particular. In a land of the blind, goes an old saying, the one-eyed man is king. By keeping both eyes wide, Oscar Brown opens ours as well.

October 30, 2007 · 2 comments

Tags:

Billie Holiday: Mean to Me

“I guess I’m not the only one who heard their first good jazz in a whorehouse,” Billie Holiday recalled of a childhood running errands for a Baltimore madam. Billie later turned tricks herself, but didn’t take to the life. Music was her salvation. Here she demonstrates what distinguishes jazz singers from other vocalists. She takes liberties with the melody, but remains true to the song. And her rhythm! In an age of delivery as stilted as a filibuster by Senator Fogbottom, Billie’s is playfully conversational. Her stylistic sophistication is matchless. Madam, nobody ever heard jazz like this in a whorehouse.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Lester Young: I Want a Little Girl

Setting aside his tenor sax, Lester Young switches to his beloved but dilapidated metal clarinet. Upon seeing this pitiful instrument, Benny Goodman gave Pres one of his own fine wooden clarinets. After a polite interval, Lester pawned it. Here his gentle metal ideally complements Buck Clayton's cup-muted trumpet, despite the clunky Swing Era rhythm section, inventing cool jazz long before anyone thought of the term. Eventually a thief made off with Lester's precious metal, and Pres searched in vain for one just like it. How disappointed the culprit must've been! Only Lester Young could coax such glorious sounds out of scrap.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Gene Krupa: Disc Jockey Jump

Gerry Mulligan was 19 when jazz superstar Gene Krupa waxed the lanky kid arranger's "Disc Jockey Jump." Like many panicky postwar big-band leaders, Krupa hoped to salvage his endangered species by hopping on the bop wagon. He was wrong, of course. Mulligan's chart is agreeably boppish and his tune delightfully bouncy, but he couldn't overcome the retro rhythm section, mired like Krupa himself in the Swing Era. Gene's "Sing, Sing, Sing"-style drumming should have been sent up the river to Sing Sing. About Mulligan, though, Krupa was right. Talent will out.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Stan Getz: Here's That Rainy Day

This album was a sequel to the first Getz/Gilberto record, which received nine Grammy nominations as well as great commercial success. But it’s not really #2, since there’s no Jobim or Astrud, and Getz and Gilberto never play together. In fact, this seems like two entirely separate albums -- one strictly jazz, and the other Brazilian; even the liners barely mention Gilberto’s trio. Nestled in this confusion is arguably the most beautiful version of “Rainy Day” that Getz ever recorded: his playing is exceptionally tender, while Burton’s shining vibes are the perfect complement to his velvety tone.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Stan Getz: I'm Late, I'm Late

In 1961, Focus session hadn't acquired today's weasel connotations, but instead described the recording of Eddie Sauter's suite for tenor sax and orchestra. Its sprightly opening reminds highbrows of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936), and to us lowbrows suggests the White Rabbit in Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951). Stan Getz's completely improvised playing on two 4-minute takes proved so remarkable, they were spliced to form a continuous 8-minute track. The violins/viola ensembles are ragged in spots, and Stan's reed balks twice, but Roy Haynes's drumming is superb, and Getz is, as usual, sublime. A very important date.

October 30, 2007 · 1 comment

Tags: · · ·

Antonio Carlos Jobim: Chega de Saudade

This melody swings through a series of upward shifts, conveying optimism and hope. In the original lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes, Jobim’s poet partner, the singer has had enough of “saudade” (sa-oo-DA-dgee), that idiomatic mix of emptiness and longing that roughly equates to “the blues” in English. This was the first Jobim tune that João Gilberto ever recorded, and the title of his 1959 debut album; for many, “Chega de Saudade” marks the true beginning of bossa nova. This instrumental version features Claus Ogerman’s string arrangements; never soppy or overbearing, they provide a lush cushion for Jobim’s one-finger piano.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Antonio Carlos Jobim: Meditation

This Verve album, Jobim’s first as leader, was quickly assembled to capitalize on the meteoric success of “Girl from Ipanema” and “Desafinado.” “Meditation” is a simple but nicely balanced tune; covered by talents as disparate as Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra, and Dexter Gordon and Paul Horn, it long ago moved out of the novelty bossa nova category into designation as a jazz standard. In fact, of the dozen songs on this album, probably ten have achieved that status, forming the core group of Jobim classics. The instrumentation here, especially Jimmy Cleveland’s trombone, is particularly expressive.

October 30, 2007 · 1 comment

Tags:

Herbie Mann: One Note Samba

Aside from the cleverness of a tune “built upon a single note,” this song is notable as one of the few for which Jobim wrote both the music and the English lyrics. He often disliked the translations made from the original Portuguese, and reportedly studied English in order to block the worst of them. Jobim’s homespun singing is more endearing here than usual, since his accent often teeters on Noo Yawkian, but his scatting is seriously jazzy. This might be the best version of “One Note Samba” he ever made, with Herbie Mann providing sweet support.

October 30, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Miles Davis: Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio)


    Miles Davis, photo by Herb Snitzer

Concierto de Aranjuez (1939), directed its composer, “should be only as strong as a butterfly, and as dainty as a veronica.” Twenty years later, butterfly Davis and veronica Evans pollinated the greatest jazz-meets-classical flowering ever. Evans's orchestration is stupendous, but Miles's playing—alternating trumpet (first open, later Harmon-muted) with low-register flugelhorn—transcends even that for hushed, goose-bump drama. "Everybody in the whole studio," participant Elvin Jones recalled, "including engineers, janitors, and everyone else—they were just awed. And it was because Miles rose above himself. It was one of his greatest performances. I thought it was magnificent.” It still is.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Matthew Shipp: Autumn Leaves

Matthew Shipp’s trio absolutely deconstructs “Autumn Leaves.” Shipp, who likes to rumble around on the lower end of the piano, makes no bones about his intentions – he is going to make this well-worn standard his own. And he does. If nothing else, “Autumn Leaves” puts the raw power of his trio on full display. Shipp, William Parker and Susie Ibarra obfuscate and otherwise confuse the melody, and yet the result – for all its blocky chords and unyielding, stick-in-your-eye improvisation – is a thing of ugly beauty. Shipp has tried over the years to remake the piano trio in his image, and with “Autumn Leaves” he demonstrates just how dangerous it can be.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Nat King Cole: The Frim Fram Sauce

The King Cole Trio offered a mid-1940s alternative to the shrillness of bop and the bombast of big bands; their subdued dynamics heralded a kinder, gentler jazz. Vocally and instrumentally, Nat King Cole was Minister of Protocool. As for the squirrelly lyrics of this saucy hit, suffice to say the song's about attitude, as this hepcat (played by Nat) goes into a restaurant, orders fare not on the menu, then gallantly requests a check for the water. Nat King Cool. A jive classic.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Keith Jarrett: Mysteries

A 15-minute piece that never settles into a tempo? Most jazz combos would die a slow, painful death trying to do this. But Jarrett’s group shimmers and floats and bobs and swoons, and holds on to the audience’s interest, even without a finger-snapping rhythm. Of course, Jarrett helps matters considerably by crafting one of his most beautiful melodies. This is not so much a jazz performance as a tone poem. A remarkable recording.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Keith Jarrett: In Front

Here on the opening track of his first solo piano recording, Keith Jarrett announces a new era of jazz keyboard music. Even today, decades later, we can hear the repercussions – from Brad Mehldau to Esbjorn Svensson and beyond – in contemporary piano stylings. Jarrett helped shape a new vocabulary for improvised music, demonstrated the marvels of his conception and touch, and explored novel paths of thematic development – all in the course of a 10-minute performance. My favorite moments: the funky ostinato groove that kicks in right before the four minute mark, and then the shimmering resolution that dawns two minutes later. Jarrett still had his first solo concert records – the edifices of Bremen, Lausanne and Koln -- ahead of him, but here at age 26 he had arrived, no longer the young prodigy of jazz, but a mature artist charting the future.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Keith Jarrett: Everything That Lives Laments (1975 version)

Jarrett had recorded this same piece in 1971, but this version is longer and richer. The opening section, played in a free tempo, takes on a funereal stateliness. The ensemble plays with great control and sensitivity, but the quality of sound Haden extracts from his bass deserves special mention. Then, shortly after the two-minute market, the combo settles into a lilting groove over a quirky six-bar chord pattern, where what sounds like the start of the turnaround (because the listener is expecting an eight bar structure) is actually the return to the top of the form – a clever device that is very effectively employed here. Jarrett would soon leave this band behind, and start afresh with his European quartet, but this recording testifies that his American combo ranked among the finest jazz groups of the mid-1970s.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Keith Jarrett: I Fall in Love Too Easily/The Fire Within

Keith Jarrett’s six-disc set from the Blue Note nightclub in New York is one of the must-haves of the 1990s, and the trio’s medley of the standard “I Fall in Love Too Easily” and Jarrett’s own “The Fire Within” is the pinnacle of that stand from June 1994. The tune builds and builds for more than 24 minutes, as the three musicians give the music lots of space to breathe, letting its melody and then its freedom carry them and the listener along. After several minutes the standard gives way to their free but simple improvisation. Jarrett’s wordless vocalizing, which some people find intrusive, complements the music here, serving as an ad hoc fourth instrument. As for the structure, it’s really just two chords repeated and repeated, but it changes substantively with each measure – a splash of cymbal here, a new bass note there. So simple, so gorgeous.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Abbey Lincoln: A Child is Born

This reading of Thad Jones’s standard has a sedate, introspective quality, and the solos from Johnson and Kendrick are beautifully executed, fully adding to that atmosphere. The underlying presence of the blues in their playing is thrilling, yet does not tarnish the somber tone of the work. The real show here, however, is Lincoln’s singing. I’d never heard Alec Wilder’s words previous to this listening, and I’m not sure they’ve settled in, but the horn-like quality of Lincoln's voice mesmerizes no matter what words come out. Such a unique and precious jazz instrument!

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Bud Powell: Parisian Thoroughfare (trio version)

Bud Powell moans through his trio’s performance of “Parisian Thoroughfare,” but you can forgive him, in light on what he put down on tape before the music abruptly cuts off at 3 minutes and 22 seconds. Yes, it’s something of an incomplete take. But what an incomplete take it is. Max Roach and Curley Russell keep the rhythm churning while Powell tears up the keys, his fingers moving as quickly as his brain can find things to say. And he never stops. And he never hits a note one might consider “wrong.” Amazing Bud Powell indeed.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Bud Powell: Parisian Thoroughfare (solo piano version)

Bud Powell’s solo piano session from early 1951 ranks among his finest dates. At a time when few modern jazz pianists dared to play without bass and drums, Powell proved that he could forge a distinctive style in an unaccompanied format. “Parisian Thoroughfare” is one of his gentlest compositions – “a Schubert tune with a Gershwin touch,'' in the words of a famous Ellington lyric – and his playing takes on an impressionist shimmer, before settling into unadulterated bop for the solo. Later in 1951, Powell would be back in a mental institution, and after his release in 1953 the pianist would only rarely match the sweep and majesty of earlier work. In 1959, Powell would settle in Paris, but ironically none of his work in the City of Lights would capture the Parisian spirit quite as adeptly as this gem he recorded at age 26.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Al Jarreau: Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive

Al Jarreau makes this Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer standard his own with his ebullient delivery and quirky phrasing. The song’s got an irresistible, finger-snappable groove, and saxophonist Keith Anderson serves as a soul-jazzy counterpart to Jarreau’s vocal. The high spirit is palpable and infectious; after hearing this, you will indeed, as the song says, “eliminate the negative.”

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Peggy Lee: Fever

Peggy Lee not only swings you into bad health, she gives you "Fever" to boot. For her signature 1958 hit, Peggy slyly transposed the mood of R&B singer Little Willie John's 1956 original from aggressively raw to suggestively smooth. In contrast to Little Willie's lesson in primal lewdness, Lee leads a postgraduate seminar in hip seduction. The entitlement of Willie's "I know you're gonna treat me right" becomes Peggy's inviting "You know I'm gonna treat you right." With Shelly Manne's clairvoyant support, Miss Peggy Lee raises room temperature and makes sophistication sizzle.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Bela Fleck: Hoedown

Banjoist Fleck and his band the Flecktones demonstrate their trademark eclecticism and versatility by delivering a delightfully idiosyncratic reading of Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown.” Not many bands would give this famous classical composition a funky bass break and articulate the melody with such instruments as penny whistle, tabla, and bassoon, but then not many bands are Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, for whom the unexpected is only to be expected.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Mike Metheny: The Flintstones Theme

They’re getting jazzy in Bedrock as Mike Metheny and his Soundtrek Big Band swing through the theme of the classic cartoon The Flintstones, with Metheny improvising on the well-known melody on muted cornet. An unexpected take on the tune that’s a lot of fun – and just try to keep yourself from shouting, “Yabba dabba doo” when it’s over.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Stan Getz: Insensatez (How Insensitive)

This track is the gleaming gem of an otherwise lackluster album. One of Jobim’s most recorded compositions, this “Insensatez” has a lugubrious Portuguese vocal by Maria Toledo that is saved by Stan Getz’s background commentary. Getz’s solo is dynamic, building to a passionate wailing, while Jobim’s eloquent piano is simplicity itself. The legend goes that since Jobim’s hands were too small to comfortably span an octave, he avoided intricate chording and developed his signature one-fingered style of improvisation. Whatever its origins, this technique makes him the Basie of bossa nova.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Kirk Whalum: In All the Earth

Gospel music was as intrinsic to saxophonist Kirk Whalum’s musical development and musical identity as was jazz, and he deftly blended both on his 1994 album The Gospel According To Jazz. It was a live recording featuring a gospel choir and a stellar band that included keyboardist George Duke and guitarist Paul Jackson, Jr. “In All The Earth” is a rousing outing led by the choir, Whalum’s saxophone providing energetic accompaniment, and the entire ensemble combining to create a joyous proclamation of faith.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Joe Sample & Lalah Hathaway: Fever

On their collaboration album The Song Lives On, pianist Joe Sample and singer Lalah Hathaway (daughter of soul great Donny Hathaway) take on “Fever,” immortalized by Peggy Lee. Where Lee infused the song with a sultry purr, Sample and Hathaway give it a bit more kick; they pick up the tempo slightly while still retaining the song’s sensuous core. The husky-voiced Hathaway offers a seductive vocal of her own, while Kirk Whalum provides plaintive sax punctuation. A captivating take on an indelible standard.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Jim Pepper: Witchi-Tai-To

“Makes me feel glad that I’m not dead,” Pepper sings on this performance of his best known work. But four years later, Pepper would be dead, at age forty. He never achieved the fame in his lifetime that he richly deserved – but more honors and accolades have come his way posthumously. I have a hunch that his reputation will only continue to grow with the passing years, and that he will eventually be acknowledged as one of the jazz greats of his generation. “Witchi-Tai-To,” inspired by chants he heard his grandfather sing, would become the most unlikely of jazz standards, covered by everybody from Oregon to the pop duo Brewer & Shipley (of “One Toke Over the Line” fame). But nobody has performed it with the vigor and poignancy of Pepper himself, who here showcases it in a duet with pianist Kirk Lightsey.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · · ·

Donald Byrd: Here Am I

When the New York Herald Tribune coined the term “hard bop,” it was like saying “wet water.” Bop had always been hard as tempered steel. Musicians could no more play soft bop than a fainthearted Sousa march. Still, the term caught on, perhaps because it provided a contrast to the alleged flaccidity of West Coast jazz. Detroiters Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams were hard-bop standard bearers, and "Here Am I" is a worthy anthem. Nonpareil soundman Rudy Van Gelder brings out both the tonal purity of Byrd's trumpet and the serrated edge of Pepper's pneumatic baritone. Gimme more wet water.

Attention Sharp-eyed Shoppers! Don't be put off by Amazonian dyslexia. Donald Byrd entitled this piece "Here Am I," not "Here I Am." But it's the same track.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Gary Burton: September Song

Gary Burton, 33 years after joining the George Shearing Quintet at age 20, returns to the scene of the chimes. "September Song" recreates the aura and instrumentation that won Shearing fame when Gary was in the first grade. Half a century later, Burton enjoys vastly superior audio quality. Shamefully, Shearing's 1949-51 quintet recordings have never been suitably restored and completely collected for reissue. Thankfully, Burton & Friends lovingly and expertly revive this music from their fathers' era, which is wonderfully affirming. Jazz speaks across generations as it does across languages, cultures and races. With the clarity of a soft kiss.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

Joey DeFrancesco: Sister Sadie

Using Jimmy Smith's classic Hammond B-3 organ trio lineup, Joey DeFrancesco demolishes the myth that Horace Silver tunes work best for horn players. "Sister Sadie" never sounded better, not even Silver's 1959 original. Around 4 minutes in, however, following a rocking solo that interpolates "Rock Around the Clock," DeFrancesco seemingly wraps it up too soon with an out chorus and a sustained chord. But then the guys unexpectedly recommence reboppin' like crazy for another 1½ minutes. The highest compliment we can pay is that this ranks with the most exciting trio recordings of the big kahuna himself, Jimmy Smith. Sister Sadistic!

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: ·

Bud Powell: Bud's Bubble

In 1945, Bud Powell was bopped on the head during a Philly fracas that led to (a) his arrest for disorderly conduct and (b) an urban legend that “racist police” caused the mental illness that haunted Powell for the rest of his life—never mind that Bud was crazy long before Philly. One thing is sure. During moments of lucidity, Powell defined by example the bebop piano trio. In "Bud's Bubble," he tosses off one sparkling chorus after another, conducting a 2½-minute seminar for budding pianists. As noted jazz sleuth Charlie Chan sagely observed, “Madness twin brother of genius.”

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Bud Shank: Casa de Luz

His Latin interest piqued by a 1953 collaboration with guitarist Laurindo Almeida, Bud Shank alighted in "Casa de Luz." While Shank was nominal leader, his fraternal twin in mid-1950s West Coast jazz, Shorty Rogers, is the gravitational center, penning all six tunes for this session and contributing its most distinctive solos. Rogers was a first-rate writer but a nondescript trumpeter until finding his niche with the flugelhorn, where he wisely stuck to the middle register, sporting an attractive tone and melodic solos in lieu of pyrotechnics. Harte's drumming is somewhat stiff, but overall this is quite appealing. Plus Jimmy Rowles!

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags:

The Modern Jazz Quartet: Django

MJQ in Tuxedos

Ceremonially attired, affecting deadpan expressions suitable for illustrations in an embalmer’s manual, the MJQ looked like four stiffs modeling for Madame Tussaud. Their musical charm, however, will live forever. Based on a Bartók piano piece, John Lewis's finest composition is a tribute to the great Gypsy swing guitarist Django Reinhardt, who died a year earlier. "Django" doesn’t sound like Django, but it’s a stately, swinging, multihued masterpiece of modern jazz.

In a famous putdown, Miles Davis likened the MJQ to boxers "fighting in tuxedos." If so, "Django" wins the undisputed world championship for pugilists in evening dress. It's a knockout.

October 29, 2007 · 0 comments

Tags: · ·

Benny Carter: Street Scene

Fade in. Street scene. Big city. Rain slicked. Deserted corner. Wee hours. Neon flashing. Deep shadows. Film noir. Music up. Benny Carter. Silky sax. Oscar Peterson. Tinkling piano. Reeks atmosphere. Lonesome sailor. Shore leave. Slightly tipsy. Strikes match. Lights cigarette. Jaded blonde. High heels. Red dress. Cheap perfume. Glances exchanged. Dim interior. Tawdry hotel. Night clerk. Shabby room. Quick embrace. Lipstick smeared. Torn nylons. Music fades. Door pounding. Jealous lover. Harsh words. Gun produced. Brief scuffle. Shot fired. Distant sirens. Slow dissolve. Street scene. Rain slicked. Deserted corner. Neon doused. Dawn breaks. Music up. Benny Carter. Silky sax. Fade out.