Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
This just in:
WKCR, the radio station of Columbia University in New York City, will broadcast 24 hours of Paul Motian’s music beginning at midnight tonight (EST). The station is at 89.9 on the FM dial and streams at this site on the internet. To hear it, click under “Live Broadcast” in the upper right corner of the page.
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.
Space sounds here now, with Bill Frisell and Paul Motian. Well, the late 1980′s, early 1990′s are coming back to me when all those great jazz people performed in Cologne.
Anyway, Paul’s sensitive drum (brushes!) work made a trio out of what could have easily become the Evans-LaFaro duo with another, less musical drummer. He completed their lines, he was their heartbeat. — Without Paul that trio wouldn’t have sounded so very free. — It’s so timeless, and I dare to say that this kind of mutual interplay has never been achieved by anyone else afterwards, Bley, Jarrett, Corea, Hancock & Co. included.
Some of their collective improvisations are so complete, so ingeniously composed, that it’s hard to believe that there were no scores (except for the themes): “What Is This Thing Called Love”, “How Deep Is The Ocean”, “Nardis” — It can’t get better.
“Portrait In Jazz”, “Explorations” — Find me similar studio trio sessions with such richness of melody, harmony & rhythm. One has to look very hard. Are there 2nd takes at all? Only a few, if I’m not wrong (I have only the LP’s). — There was a time when I listened to them day in, day out.
Those two albums — well, everybody who is calling himself a jazz fan, or a jazz musician has to have them on his shelves. “The Village Vanguard Sessions”, okay, but they aren’t as concentrated, not as “tight”, or as intimate in my opinion. Too much background noise perhaps?
Okay, okay, ‘live’ is always different. — But ringing spoons in coffee mugs, do we really need ‘em when there was a Paul in motion?
No, we don’t!
A P.S. for anyone who doesn’t know it yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cig92gWnVc
Listen to those like-in-stone-carved lines with the clustering peaks. Sounds like bursting glass. Now, did “the” trio find out what’s this thing? Anyway, there is surely a thing called swing.