Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
Trummy Young and Johnny Mercer wrote “Travelin’ Light.” Billie Holiday owned it. This version with an unidentified pianist was made in Paris in 1959, the year she died. It is one of her most affecting treatments of a song that became one of her signature pieces.
For more about Billie and “Travelin’ Light,” including her original recording of the song and an unusual version by Chet Baker, visit Bruno Leicht’s new blog entry.
Ron Miles: Quiver (enja yellow bird)
Miles’s playing on “There Ain’t No Sweet Man Worth the Salt of My Tears” draws 21st century Denver and 1928 Chicago close. Some of his flurries of wildness on this album are as daring as the work of any modern trumpeter, but the Bix Beiderbecke lyricism in Miles’s soul extends into everything he plays. With just Bill Frisell’s guitar and Brian Blade’s drums, Miles may seem to be operating lean. No, there is richness in their harmonic inventiveness and rhythmic compatibility. The nine pieces are not officially a suite, but unity of conception runs through the performances. This is a satisfying album.
Heather Masse And Dick Hyman: Lock My Heart (Red House)
With The Wailin’ Jennys and the Wayfaring Strangers and appearances on radio’s Prairie Home Companion, Heather Masse has attracted a following among folk and bluegrass fans. This album of duets with master pianist Dick Hyman discloses the jazz foundation that has long been evident in her singing. Their treatments of Strayhorn’s “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing” and Buddy Johnson’s “Since I Fell For You” are ballad perfection. In their delightful “I’m Gonna Lock My Heart and Throw Away the Key,” she manages to combine Billie Holiday and Marilyn Monroe. Hyman’s accompaniments and solos are reminders that this 86-year-old wonder is one of the most interesting pianists alive.
Miles Davis Quintet Live In Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 (Columbia/Legacy)
This three-CD, one-DVD set finds the trumpeter fomenting even more dramatic change than usual. The first volume in the so-called bootleg series of Davis concert recordings found his primarily acoustic 1967 quintet already tending toward electronic music and rock. Saxophonist Wayne Shorter remains from that band. Here, the transition intensifies. Electric pianist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette accelerate the shift Davis initiated with In A Silent Way. The repertoire is redolent of Davis’s Bitches Brew period. We hear the headiness, excitement and—sometimes—the aimlessness of newfound freedom. The DVD’s superb sound and picture bring the band alive.
Bill Frisell, The Disfarmer Project (La Huit)
Belgian filmmaker Guillame Dero captures the eclectic guitarist Frisell, violinist Carrie Rodriguez, guitarist Greg Leisz and bassist Viktor Krauss in a live performance set to portraits by the 1950s Arkansas photographer Mike Disfarmer. Some of the music was on a 2009 CD mentioned in this Rifftides post. Hearing it in new versions with Disfarmer’s eccentric and vaguely disturbing photos looming over the band is an adventure. Watching interaction and reaction among the quartet increases the fascination. Frisell salts his original compositions with songs by Hank Williams, Arthur Crudup and Cliff Friend.
Paul de Barros, Shall We Play That One Together? The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland (St. Martin’s Press)
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Band, Santa Monica 1960 (Fresh Sound)
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
My favourite singer in jazz. I have the Columbia box set and not a week goes by that I don’t put one of the CD’s on. After listening to a lot of pop music in the car, it’s like a cleansing of the palette. Her young voice goes straight through me to the soul.
My wife can’t do anything around the house when Billie is singing. There is a quality to her voice that just rivets her attention and she can’t pin it down. I am sure there are many more singers with better talents, stronger voices etc who would come out on top in any other musical measurement. But like Miles, she sends darts to my heart.
One of her most affecting treatments indeed! But then Billie’s last studio sessions that produced the 1959 MGM LP called simply “Billie Holiday” are also grabbers, every one of them. As in the video track, her voice is a shadow of what it once was, but she’s in tune throughout, is in complete control of her performance, she’s doing good tunes that are not part of her repertoire, and her treatment of them is beyond masterful. Like nearly all Billie fans I love her early recordings with Teddy’s band and Prez and the great small group Verve recordings of the 50s, but these 1959 performances are emotionally compelling beyond description. My favorite from these sessions, “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me” pretty much says it all.
“Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me” is included in the box set The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve 1945-1959. The collection is essential to any Holiday completist.
“Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me” has one of the most beautiful (and too short) alto solos of Mr. Gene Quill. I always imagine Bird when I hear this. Alas, it’s indeed very emotional, almost painful to listen to it, and so I rarely play the album. Anyway, will spin it right now, on a real turntable of course.
Quill (1927-1988) was a brilliant member of the generation of alto saxophonists profoundly influenced by Charlie Parker. Like his frequent alto partner Phil Woods, he developed individuality to the point where informed listeners could easily identify him. Yet, he never escaped charges of imitation. An enduring piece of 1950s jazz lore concerns the time a customer in a club approached Quill at the end of a set and said, “You know, all you do is play like Charlie Parker.” Quill unhooked his horn from its strap, handed it to the man and said, “Here, you play like Charlie Parker.”