(104)

Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster

Mulligan liked to do these "meets" albums. He did an excellent one with another Ellington sideman, Johnny Hodges, and with Monk--among others. Mel Lewis plays drums. The combination of two distinctive sounds is what makes this album great. Mulligan's joyful, bouncy, and exuberant lilt, played with that baritone fullness, and Webster's whispery wistful attack. Both players have a little raspiness, though of course Mulligan is much "smoother." I don't know that this is the greatest either played, but it's a very tasty outing.

Their version of Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge" is excellent. "In a Mellotone" is also from the Ellington catalogue. "Who's Got Rhythm" is a "Rhythm Changes" tune, taken at a very swinging medium tempo. They also do a version of Cole Porter's "What is this thing called love."

(103)

Rollins. Work Time.

This was recorded in 55 and features Max Roach, Ray Bryant, and George Bryant as the rhythm section. One of the earliest albums I've heard in which Sonny's style and approach to rhythmic phrasing is fully formed. This is one of the Rudy Van Gelder cd reissues, and was originally Prestige PRS 1223.

The propensity to play corny songs like "There's No Business Like Show Business" is already there. There's also a version of Strayhorn's "Rain Check."

(102)

Charnett Moffett. beauty within. (1989)

I've switched to vinyl for my main record purchasing. There's just something about that 12" disk and the physicality of that, plus the adventure of the $2.99 bin at vintage vinyl here in St. Louis and similar stores. The 70 buck turntable I bought from amazon works fine, hooking up directly to some headphones or speakers. Eventually I'll get a decent stereo amp and some better speakers.

I have no interest in converting my vinyl to mp3s. The whole point is to get away from the mp3.

This is an album by bassist Moffett (playing both electric and upright bass) with numerous family members, in a kind of fusion / funk mode. Stanley Jordan, Kenny Garrett, and Kenny Drew play too. The leader, whom I knew mostly through his work with Ornette, wrote all the compositions.

I'll give this 3 and half stars for its sheer obscurity and funkiness. If you see this in the bargain bin, by all means pick it up.

(101)

Sarah Vaughan. How Long Has This Been Going On?

Sarah with Joe Pass, Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson, Louie Bellson--one of those Pablo releases arranged by Norman Granz. Cuts include I've Got the World on a String, Easy Living, Body and Soul... In short, a predictable set of standards.

With Sarah Vaughan, the voice is the first thing. It's not just a great voice, but several different voices, different registers, and several different uses of the voice. Listen to the long notes, how the note has a beginning, an extension during which vibrato might become broader, and an end point where something else might happen.

Then there's the diction--the way a certain vowel or consonant receives a particular inflection, what Barthes called the grain of the voice.

Sometimes the voice overwhelms a trivial lyric. I feel that the raw material could have been better chosen (not on this album though.)

Another aspect is "story telling." In this she is often as good as Sinatra. The voice can get in the way of this, but surprisingly doesn't most of the time.

(100)

Masterpieces by Ellington.

This is an Ellington/Strayhorn album from the fifties with absolutely great arrangement on Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, Solitude, Smada, etc... The arrangements are longer given the new record format that allowed for more than three and a half minute songs. A 15 minute Mood Indigo!

(99)

J.J. Johnson. Bone-o-logy.

Early (late 40s) groups led by trombone great Johnson feature musicians of the caliber of Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Bud Powell,a very young Sonny Rollins. A new player for me is Cecil Payne, heard on alto in the group with Max and Bud on four cuts. Payne plays Lester young type figures, slightly tilted toward a bop idiom, with a wonderfully warm tone and great self-confidence. He would later be better known on Baritone sax, I'm told. Rollins, at age 19, uses a lot of riffs from Parker, but still sounds like Rollins. Kenny Dorham is in one of JJ's groups too. This is what I love about bop: that jerky and exuberant spirit. Bop wants you to be a smart person, hip and alert to the world. Jay Jay is saying that the corny trombone schtick of yesteryear is passé. The bone can be as agile as the trumpet, as legato as the tenor sax.

(97)

Bobby Hutcherson. The Kicker.

This is a very middle of the road and swinging album in the hard bop idiom, with Joe Henderson, Duke Pearson, and Grant Green. I have never heard of Duke Pearson or the drummer here, Al Harewood. The tune "For Duke P" is a very swinging tune, as is the title track.

I'm in the mode of filling in the numerous gaps in my knowledge of jazz, and have subscribed to Rhapsody to deal with the quantity of music I want to assimilate. I try not to pretend to know things I really don't know. I thought I knew the names most of the major drummers of this period, but it turns out I don't. Duke sounds a bit like Sonny Clark or someone of that ilk, with a tasteful blues inflection. Somewhat similar, in fact, to the pianist on the Joe Chambers album reviewed below, George Cables.

(96)

Joe Chambers. Phantom of the City.


I learned about Joe Chambers from an article in Modern Drummer, and heard him first on a Bobby Hutcherson recording. This album features some very tasty piano work by George Cables, and the full bodied tenor sax of Bob Berg. I'm going to have to check out some other albums where Chambers is the leader, cause this one is excellent.

Chambers was a mainstay of the Blue Note scene in the early 60s. He's at the level of fame below Jack DeJohnette, but well worth investigating. He writes many originals.

Unlike other drummer-led albums, this one does not emphasize drum solos, or even a particularly busy drum part. I remember the interviewer for MD called JC's drumming "transparent." I would say it's translucent, dynamically sensitive and pulsating. He doesn't get into the temptation of modulating the beat every six seconds. If you didn't know who the leader was supposed to be you might think it's one of the other players.

(95)

Andrew Hill. Dreams Come True.

This was released in 2008. It has Chico Hamilton on drums with Hill on piano. (Just the two of them.) The first track, Ohho, is rhythmic but not too metrical. The drummer plays motifs rather than a beat. This kind of music can have the tendency to be a little too rambling and inconsequential, but I'm feeling it strong. Unfairly, perhaps, I'm comparing Hill to Cecil Taylor: my tendency to interpret the unknown in terms of the known. His touch is softer than CT; he is less busy and agressive.

The second cut is "Three Notes & a Brush." This one is a little quieter at the onset. Hamilton starts off with some hi hat work. The tune builds intensity gradually toward the half-way point; a pulse is established. Two minutes from the end, at about minute 5, the tempo slows, in a more meditative section.

"Watch that Dream." Another great combination of quiet intensity. He seems to favor that seven to eleven minute length.

"And the Drums Sing." Yes they do. Here Chico moves from cymbals to drums, emphasizing the toms and turning off the snares on the snare drums, while AH accompanies him on the piano.

"Clifford's Gone." A piano solo, with no drums, for about the first two minutes. Then the drums come in with no piano. Toward the end of the drum solo there are a few soft chords, then the drum drops out again. I don't know what to make of this track.

"Shaw Nuff." This one has a more bluesy, intense feeling, with a thicker texture on both drums and piano. An avant-garde tribute to soul jazz? I would have guessed Cecil Taylor on a blindfold test.

There are two other tracks, but I have to go teach.

(94)

Andrew Hill. Passing Ships.

I'm beginning to get a sense of Hill's compositional and orchestral style. He liked those thicker textures of horns, brass and woodwinds, all together, in the Mingus / Ellington tradition. This wasn't released by Blue Note until 1969 but was recorded earlier. Check out Woody Shaw's trumpet work.

(93)

Andrew Hill. Point of Departure.

This has an absolutely classic line up, with Dolphy, Dorham, Henderson on horns and a rhythm section of Hill, Richard Davis, and Tony Williams. Davis, the bass player, is the least well known, maybe, but even he played with Coltrane so he's no slouch. I love the border region between hard bop and avant-garde, which is exactly where this album is located. Ca. 1964 Blue Note was putting out music that still sounds fresh.

(92)

Andrew Hill. The Day the World Stood Still.

A few people have mentioned Andrew Hill to me; Thomas Basboll. and possibly Andrew Shields or John. I'm listening to this one now. I still don't know an awful lot about Hill, but I am very eager to learn. This features him with bass and drums and several horns, in a free jazz mode, but one that would be very listenable to someone not necessarily enamored of free music.

I don't have much of a sense of Hill as a piano player yet, since most of what I've heard does not emphasize the piano per se. I could say that I don't have any IDEAS about him yet, aside from the obvious observation that he leaves space for other players to be heard.

(91)

Cannonball Adderly. Somethin' Else.

This has Miles on trumpet, with a classic rhythm section of Hank Jones, Sam Jones, and Art Blakey. (Sam is no relation to Hank, though of course Hank is the brother of Elvin and Thad.) It was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder. Tracks include Autumn Leaves, Love for Sale, and Somethin' Else.

The 50s was the golden age of the saxophone, with Cannonball, Coltrane, Rollins, Getz, Pepper, Mulligan, Land, Desmond, Stitt, Konitz, Carter, Hodges, Hawkins, all active. That's extraordinary depth, when the sixth or seventh greatest saxophonist alive was someone like Cannonball Adderly!

(90)

Ellington. Never No Lament: The Blanton/Webster Years

This is a three cd set I have been listening to since Christmas and gradually absorbing. I'm not crazy about the vocal numbers. Ivie Anderson anyone? They seem to date faster than the instrumentals, because of their "novelty tune" character. I don't know what the technical definition of a novelty song is; I just think it as a catchy song with a stupid lyric.

This was Ellington's band with bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor sax Ben Webster, but it was also the band that Billy Strayhorn first contributed to, in the early 40s. It represents one of the high points of Ellingtonia, even if you can't stand Tricky Sam Nanton. One of the pleasures is finding lesser known tunes. Everyone's heard "Cottontail" or "Take the A-Train," which are also here.

"Never No Lament" is actually the same tune as "Don't Get Around Much Any More," just like "Concerto for Cootie" is also better known as "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me."

(89)

Billie Holiday. First Issue: The Great American Songbook.

This is a collection produced to commemorate a postage stamp with Billie Holiday on it. The idea is to put together her renditions of some great songs by Ellington, Cole Porter, etc... It's a pretty good place to start if you don't know Billie Holiday--or only have heard "Strange Fruit" and "The Man I Love" and "God Bless the Child."

(88)

Tito Puente. Out of this World

Check out "In Walked Bud" and "S'Wonderful."

(87)

Sarah Vaughan. After Hours.

This is a recent find. Bob mentioned it in a comment to another post in this series, and I checked it out. The song selection is superb here, with mostly classic songs like Sophisticated Lady and In a Sentimental Mood and My Favorite Things. Sarah is in full voice, with the vocal mannerisms present but under control. The accompaniment is just bass and guitar.

(86)

Ornette. Sound Grammar

This was the live recording for which recently Ornette won the Nobel prize for general all-around genius. He has two bass players, a drummer (Denardo Coleman, his son), and himself on alto sax, trumpet, and violin. (Well, at least a Grammy and a Pulitzer). I've listened to it many times: an hour's worth of very worthwhile music.

The first tune is Jordan, a fast number where Ornette on sax plays a very assertive improvisation to begin. Then the basses do their thing. Ornette comes in again at the end.

Sleep Talking is a slow, haunting melody, kind of like Ornette's previous "Lonely Woman." I love this song. The middle is a little bit rambling. You know the joke? A couple is brought into a marriage counselor. They won't talk to each other. Finally the counselor brings in a bass player, because "everyone talks during the bass solo." When two basses are soloing at once, that can be even worse.

Turnaround comes next. A blues with a very simple melody, played medium slow. Ornette is a very bluesy player.

Then Matador, with a Latin feel. A tune similar to Ornette's "Latin Genetics" in some way, though not quite as bouncy.

I recently saw Ornette dissed in Downbeat by Benny Golson, who did not mention him by name but called him bogus. Ornette told Golson he was using the tenor clef to write music. Golson makes the comment to the interviewer that there is no such thing as the tenor clef! Well, I hate to say it, but actually there is such a thing.

Waiting for You is another Ornettian ballad, with a melody not quite so distinctive. I kind of wish he would stick to sax, and leave the violin and trumpet alone.

Call to Duty is a rousing appeal to action, at a rousing tempo. Once Only is slower again. The album concludes with Song X, which reminds me that I saw Ornette on the Song X tour with Pat Matheny, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden, and Denardo, back in the 1980s, in Ithaca, New York. Bob Basil drove down from Buffalo to go to the concert with me and a Cuban friend of mine, Jorge Hernández, who was a grad student at Cornell in Spanish.

(85)

Miles. In a Silent Way.

Miles with Wayne Shorter (soprano sax not tenor), Tony Williams, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Dave Holland, etc... in his first fusion album. The idea that Miles should have stopped in his development at some point, and not gone there, here, is ridiculous. It's not facile, repetitive fusion of the Chuck Magione type. I don't think you can see it as a sell-out either.

(84)

Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers

This 1954 date finds Horace Silver leading the jazz messengers--before it was Art Blakey's jazz messengers, with Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, and Blakey on drums, of course. The set really grooves hard if you like hard bop of this period. Check out Creepin' In and The Preacher.