Archives for July 13, 2005

Perversity

July 13, 2005 by Doug Ramsey

The intellectually tireless arranger, composer, saxophonist, leader and writer Bill Kirchner called to my attention an important essay by Martha Bayles. Under the same artsjournal.com umbrella as Rifftides, Ms. Bayles is the proprietor of Serious Popcorn, a web log devoted to film. Her March 31, 2005 piece titled “The Perverse in the Popular” touches on matters of interest to anyone concerned about the size of the audience for serious art and about the quality of music, movies, television, and … [Read more...]

The Crimson Canary

July 13, 2005 by Doug Ramsey

Speaking of the cinema, Charlie Shoemake, lightning vibraharpist and late-night TV movie browser, sent a message after he read yesterday's posting about the name of our adventure in blogging. Concerning the "Hollywood Stampede' session, tell your readers if (truly out of left field) they should stumble sometime in the wee hours of the morning across a 1945 "B" movie entitled The Crimson Canary (Noah Beery Jr.) to grab onto it because they'll see Coleman Hawkins, Howard McGhee, Oscar Pettiford, … [Read more...]

Monday Recommendation: Ken Peplowski

Ken Peplowski, Enrapture (Capri)

Despite a playlist that seems to represent a grab bag of music, there is nothing scattershot about Ken Peplowski’s eclecticism. The clarinetist and tenor saxophonist with the capacious tone and imagination brings together Duke Ellington’s early-1940s “The Flaming Sword,” Lennon and Ono’s 1970s “Oh, My Love,” Fats Waller’s “Willow Tree,” a twelve tone piece by drummer Peter Erskine, and music from Bernard Hermann’s score for the Hitchcock film Vertigo. There are other songs by Harry Warren, Barry Manilow, Noël Coward, Leslie Bricusse, and the title tune by the daring 1950s pianist and composer Herbie Nichols. Peplowski brings this all together in a program united by his musicianship and humor and his superb rhythm section—pianist Ehud Asherie, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson. You may find yourself going back to Peplowski’s irrepressible clarinet solo in “The Flaming Sword.” It’s addictive.

Monday Recommendation: Shirley Horn

Shirley Horn Live at the 4 Queens (Resonance)

The Resonance label continues its parade of previously unissued recordings with this jewel by Shirley Horn, a supremely gifted pianist and singer (1934-2005). By the time of the 1988 performance in the music room of her favorite Las Vegas hotel, Ms. Horn, bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams had honed themselves into a group of uncommon tightness and empathy. They generated seductive swing at the slowest tempos, as in this album’s vocal versions of Lil Armstrong’s “Just For a Thrill” and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Meditation.” In outright piano trio swing, Horn is at her peak in Randy Weston’s “Hi-Fly,” an extended “Isn’t It Romantic,” “Blues for Big Scotia” by her early piano influence Oscar Peterson, and an amused romp through Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come To.” This is a welcome addition to Horn’s discography.

Monday Recommendation: Kathrine Windfeld

Monday Recommendation: Kathrine Windfeld, Aircraft (Century Music)

The rich history of jazz in Scandinavia began more than a century ago. During the swing and bebop eras Sweden, Denmark and Norway produced major soloists, composers and arrangers. The emergence of Kathrine Windfeld’s big band brings assurance that the region’s new talents have the potential to equal achievements of players like Lars Gullin, Bengt Hallberg, Åke Persson, Jan Johansson, and writers of the stature of Bengt-Arne Wallin, Gösta Theselius and Harry Arnold. The evidence indicates that Ms. Windfeld, a Dane, could establish an equally impressive career. Her band’s first album has the musicianship, joy and drive of their performance at Sweden’s Ystad Jazz Festival a month ago. Ms. Windfeld tightly integrates the sections, but a feeling of looseness prevails. Among memorable solos are those from trombonist Petter Hängsel, trumpeter Andres Bergkrantz, tenor saxophonist Ida Karlsson and the leader at the piano.

Monday Recommendation: Fred Hersch Trio

Fred Hersch Trio, Sunday Night at the Vanguard (Palmetto)

After all their years together, take it for granted that pianist Hersch, bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson listen intently to one another and mesh with elegance on every level. However, taking for granted anything about the Hersch trio can only open you up to surprises. Many of the surprises here involve time. There are no Dave Brubeck excursions into 9/8, Charles Ives flings with 15/16, or other unconventional time signatures. Instead, Hersch, Hébert and McPherson flex the time, vary it, sometimes improvise with it as surely as they do with harmonic content, and never lose forward motion. Hersch’s “Serpentine” is a prime example. The trio’s Village Vanguard playlist contains Thelonious Monk’s “We See,” Jimmy Rowles’ “The Peacocks,” Paul McCartney’s “For No One,” and among several Hersch compositions a delicious solo piano encore, “Valentine.” Close listening to this album brings great rewards.

Monday Recommendation: Toots Thielemans

Toots Thielemans, Yesterday & Today (Out Of The Blue) The loss today of the harmonica virtuoso makes this survey of his career poignant and rewarding. Two CDs with thirty-eight tracks, most previously unreleased, follow Thielemans from 1946, when he was a 23-year-old guitarist with a Belgian swing band, to a 2001 harmonica performance of “What A Wonderful World” with pianist Kenny Werner. In the late 1940s and early ‘50s, when many European musicians were struggling with the style, Thielemans had a firm grasp of bebop. Playing through the decades with George Shearing, Hank Jones, J.J. Johnson, Elis Regina, Mulgrew Miller, Shirley Horn and a few dozen others, Thielemans is astonishing on both instruments, but it’s his harmonica that brings grins of joy.

Monday Recommendation: Bill Charlap Trio

Bill Charlap Trio: Notes From New York (Impulse!)

In Thad Jones’s “Little Rascal On A Rock,” pianist Charlap, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington summon up the dynamics of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big band’s 1976 debut recording of the piece. Their twenty years together have given them sensitivity to one another that allows the strength and subtlety needed for such a feat. Charlap and the Washingtons are masters of a kind of jazz piano trio playing that recalls Ahmad Jamal, Hank Jones and George Shearing at their peaks. With jazz often stuck in place or flailing around, it is encouraging that this trio has high exposure and acceptance. Charlap includes welcome rediscoveries of neglected songs by Harry Warren, Harold Arlen and Burton Lane; a joyous Tiny Grimes blues; and what may be the world’s slowest, most endearing solo piano version of “On The Sunny Side Of The Street.”

More Doug's Picks

Monday Recommendation: Ken Peplowski

Ken Peplowski, Enrapture (Capri) Despite a playlist that seems to represent a grab bag of music, there is nothing scattershot about Ken Peplowski’s eclecticism. The clarinetist and tenor saxophonist with the capacious tone and imagination brings together Duke Ellington’s early-1940s “The Flaming Sword,” Lennon and Ono’s 1970s “Oh, My Love,” Fats Waller’s “Willow Tree,” a […]

Monday Recommendation: Shirley Horn

Shirley Horn Live at the 4 Queens (Resonance) The Resonance label continues its parade of previously unissued recordings with this jewel by Shirley Horn, a supremely gifted pianist and singer (1934-2005). By the time of the 1988 performance in the music room of her favorite Las Vegas hotel, Ms. Horn, bassist Charles Ables and drummer […]

Monday Recommendation: Kathrine Windfeld

Monday Recommendation: Kathrine Windfeld, Aircraft (Century Music) The rich history of jazz in Scandinavia began more than a century ago. During the swing and bebop eras Sweden, Denmark and Norway produced major soloists, composers and arrangers. The emergence of Kathrine Windfeld’s big band brings assurance that the region’s new talents have the potential to equal […]

Monday Recommendation: Fred Hersch Trio

Fred Hersch Trio, Sunday Night at the Vanguard (Palmetto) After all their years together, take it for granted that pianist Hersch, bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson listen intently to one another and mesh with elegance on every level. However, taking for granted anything about the Hersch trio can only open you up to […]

Monday Recommendation: Toots Thielemans

Toots Thielemans, Yesterday & Today (Out Of The Blue) The loss today of the harmonica virtuoso makes this survey of his career poignant and rewarding. Two CDs with thirty-eight tracks, most previously unreleased, follow Thielemans from 1946, when he was a 23-year-old guitarist with a Belgian swing band, to a 2001 harmonica performance of “What […]

Monday Recommendation: Bill Charlap Trio

Bill Charlap Trio: Notes From New York (Impulse!) In Thad Jones’s “Little Rascal On A Rock,” pianist Charlap, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington summon up the dynamics of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big band’s 1976 debut recording of the piece. Their twenty years together have given them sensitivity to one another that allows […]

More Doug's Picks