Rifftides

Listen To The Bass Player: Part 6, Scott LaFaro

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:05:00 -0800

The Rifftides series of posts on improving hearing by listening to bass lines leads inevitably to Scott LaFaro. It was less LaFaro's virtuosity that made a difference in the role of the bass than the uncanny group thinking and interaction he made possible in the Bill Evans Trio. LaFaro was what Evans had been looking for, dreaming of, a bassist who thought about music, and specifically about time, as the pianist did. There is an invaluable pre-LaFaro Evans album with his friend Don Elliott, the multi-instrumentalist. The CD consists of informal rehearsals at Elliott's house in 1956 and '57. I reviewed it for JazzTimes eight years ago. Here is the applicable section of the review.

In a snippet of conversation at the end of their workout on the changes of "Doxy" (misidentified in the booklet as "Blues #2"), Evans talks about his ideal of group interaction.

Evans: "I like to blow free like that, with no 'four' going, but you know where you're at. It's crazy. If everybody could do that, if the bass could be playing that way --why not-- drums could just..." (he vocalizes in imitation of a drummer playing free).

Elliott: "That's right; doesn't have to help you."

Evans: "Not if everybody feels it, man."

It would be 1959 before Evans put bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian together in a group in which everybody felt his way of playing time. They went on to reform the very idea of the jazz trio, but this glimpse into his thinking tells us that Evans was ready years earlier.

LaFaro may have felt ready when Evans was expressing his vision to Elliott, but he was on the west coast, a 21-year-old still developing. There is precious little of him on record from his Los Angeles days. Two recordings, one with Victor Feldman, the other with Cal Tjader and Stan Getz, provide strong indications of his growing musicality and technical prowess.

There is even less of early LaFaro on film or tape, to my knowledge only two pieces, both from Bobby Troup's Stars of Jazz television program. LaFaro was in tenor saxophonist Richie Kamuca's formidable quintet with Feldman on piano, trombonist Frank Rosolino and drummer Stan Levey. Here are both of those clips, "Cherry" and "Chart of my Heart." The video quality is dreadful and there are audio dropouts, but this is our only option for seeing Scott LaFaro in action. If your speakers have tone controls, turn up the bass setting and you'll find it easier to follow his lines.

There is no video of the Evans trio with LaFaro and Motian. Their primary recorded legacy is in Portrait in Jazz, Explorations and Sunday at the Village Vanguard. The CD titled Waltz for Debby was compiled from the Vanguard date. This is its title tune, decorated with a photo montage courtesy of whoever posted it on YouTube.

That was June 25, 1961. Twelve days later, Scott LaFaro died at the wheel of his automobile when it crashed in upstate New York. He was 25 years old.
It would be inaccurate, but not grossly inaccurate, to say that no jazz bassist who emerged from the 1960s onrward developed free of debt to LaFaro. To the extent that Evans, LaFaro and Motian changed the concept of the piano trio--and that is a considerable extent--LaFaro's influence extends much further than the bass.

Listen To The Bass Player: Part 5, Red Mitchell

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:05:00 -0800

In the first paragraph of Part 3 of this series, it was not by random choice that I included Red Mitchell's name in the short list of important bassists who emerged in the 1940s. He discovered ways of playing the instrument that made a difference in the bass's role in jazz. Bill Crow, the hero of part 3, has kindly agreed to expand on some of the reasons for Mitchell's importance.

In between the Blanton (and Pettiford) soloing styles that were so influential in the 1940s and 50s and the new age that was marked by Scott LaFaro's playing, was Red Mitchell. Red was the first bassist I heard who used a lower action, pressed rather than pulled the strings and used some left-handed plucking articulation. It cut his in-person volume down a lot, but was phenomenal on recordings. And his solo lines were melodic, horn-like, and very original. He opened up the ears of a lot of us to other possibilities of the instrument. I think he may have given Scotty some ideas. And this was all pre-amplification. When Red finally started using pickups, the result was beautifully audible soloing at the highest level.

Bill Crow

In the early 1980s, Mitchell worked frequently in a duo with Bill Mays. In their performance of a Thelonious Monk piece, he demonstrates what Bill Crow emphasizes about his peer's skill and originality.

Listen To The Bass Player: Part 4, Paul Chambers

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:12:29 -0800

For the new segment of our adventure in letting bassists be our guides, author, critic and sometime Rifftides commentator Larry Kart has a fine idea.

May I suggest, for Part 4, Paul Chambers behind Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb on "So What." Like Heath and LaFaro in their various ways, where Chambers puts "one" is a place where no one who's playing with him literally is, but it's a place that all can touch and play off of. I think that's a fairly basic (no play on words intended) general principle.

Good suggestion. The performance is from a 1959 episode of The Robert Herridge Theater on CBS-TV. Herridge introduces the program and the piece. Gil Evans leads the orchestra, whose function in this clip is to set the mood for "So What."

Listen To The Bass Player: Part 3, Bill Crow

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:05:00 -0800

As you may recall from parts 1 and 2, our theme in this series is that by concentrating on the lines played by a good string bassist, you can gain an understanding of the shape and structure of a piece of music, feel its heartbeat, sense its soul. Duke Ellington's Jimmy Blanton in the early 1940s opened the possibilities of the bass as an improvising instrument in modern jazz. Oscar Pettiford followed, then Ray Brown, Charles Mingus, Red Mitchell (this is a limited and selective list) and Scott LaFaro.

From the early 1960s, in great part due to LaFaro's influence, bassists went beyond the instrument's traditional basic function in jazz of supplying swing and harmonic guidance. In many cases for better, in others for worse, virtuosity to the point of acrobatics became a part of standard bass operating procedure.

A consistently satisfying bassist from the pre-gymnastics era of the instrument, still at work, is Bill Crow. A trumpeter, then a drummer, then a valve trombonist, Crow became a bassist in 1950. A very few of the leaders he has worked with are Stan Getz, Claude Thornhill, Terry Gibbs, Clark Terry, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn, Lee Konitz, Marian McPartland and Eddie Condon. I'm showing you a picture of Bill because in the clip that follows, you will get only a glimpse of him behind the front line of the Gerry Mulligan Sextet.

This was Rome in 1956, the same year the picture was taken. The other players are Mulligan, baritone saxophone; Bob Brookmeyer, valve trombone; Zoot Sims, tenor saxophone; Jon Eardley, trumpet; and Dave Bailey drums. The piece is Mulligan's "Walkin' Shoes." The absence of a piano means that the bass is crucial to the harmonic life of the tune. The listener can let it be his guide without a redundancy of chords from a piano. You may notice that the members of the big band in the background are paying rapt attention. No wonder.

Listen To The Bass Player: Part 2, NHØP

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:05:00 -0800

Let us pursue the music appreciation method outlined in Part 1 (see the following exhibit). The theory is that concentrating on the bass lines of superior players can sharpen your perception of the music. Today's lesson is from another great bassist. It's Niels Henning Ørsted-Pedersen in 1971 at the Café Monmartre in Copenhagen. Niels Jørgen Steen is the pianist, Jørn Elniff the drummer, Finn Ziegler the violinist.

NHØP was 25 years old. He had already established himself as the bassist most in demand by American musicians visiting Europe. Concentrate on his notes and you will be rewarded. Shortly after the video begins, Ben Webster and Charlie Shavers, the co-leaders of the band, discuss the premise.

Listen To The Bass Player: Part 1, Percy Heath

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:05:00 -0800

In the days when I was learning to truly listen, Red Kelly gave me a piece of valuable advice. He told me to close my eyes and in my mind isolate and concentrate on the bass player. He said that when I felt and understood what the bassist was doing, the rest of the music would begin to fall into place. It was a coincidence, of course, that Red was a bass player.

As an impoverished student, I had a limited record collection. It consisted of a dozen or so 10-inch LPs, and it happened that Percy Heath was the bassist on about half of them, with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk and the Modern Jazz Quartet, then a new group.

Red's advice was invaluable. To this day, I lock in on the bassist for a blueprint to the shape of a piece, and I am still fascinated by Heath's bass lines. In the following performance by the MJQ of Milt Jackson's blues "Bag's Groove," Percy is in customary form with his spacious but concentrated tone, impeccable note choices and irresistible swing. This is from the Zelt festival in Freiburg, Germany, in 1987. The video producers insert a title misnaming the tune. A German YouTube viewer reacts in the comment section:

"das insert "BACKGROOVE" ist richtig peinlich!"

"Really embarrassing," he says. Well, yes, but not as embarrassing as the director, asleep at the switch, who keeps the camera on John Lewis during all three choruses of Heath's bass solo. Nonetheless, this is a splendid performance. You may as well close your eyes and focus your attention on Percy's notes because you're going to see little of him.

Red Kelly is the bassist on Kenton At The Tropicana, one of the best live albums in Stan Kenton's discography. Backed by the Kenton trombones, Red also appears as featured vocalist on the heartbreaking ballad "You and I and George." In a small group setting on another album, he is with his friend and fellow bassist Red Mitchell and guitarist Jim Hall in the classic Good Friday Blues, now packaged with other Hall recordings in a CD called Blues On The Rocks. Mitchell plays piano and leaves the bass work to Kelly.

Weekend Extra: The Clifford Brown Film

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:05:00 -0800

The television comic Soupy Sales loved jazz, knew its history and many of its leading players. Early in his career, when he had a local show in Detroit, he frequently presented jazz stars as guests. After Sales died on October 22 at the age of 83, many obituaries mentioned that the only known video of Clifford Brown performing is from a kinescope recording of the Sales show. For decades, it was assumed lost, but Sales found the film in his garage in the mid-1990s. Here is the trumpeter in February, 1956, five months before he died at 26 in an auto crash, playing "Lady Be Good" and "Memories of You."

Study in Brown, mentioned by Clifford in the interview, is one of the important albums by the quintet he led with drummer Max Roach. The Dinah Washington jam session with Brown, Roach, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry and Herb Geller--among others--is another basic repertoire item for serious jazz listeners.

Happy November.

Other Places: Doing Monk

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:05:00 -0800

In his blog I Witness, Ed Leimbacher muses about the pervasiveness of Thelonious Monk as a model for or influence on other pianists. In an essay packed with album citations, he acknowledges 18 pianists from Jelly Roll Morton to Keith Jarrett who have made an impact, then writes:

... but I still think that over the last half century Monk has outlasted and out-"performed" the competition. Why? Relatively straightforward numbers like "'Round (about) Midnight" and "Monk's Mood" have entered the playbooks of most Jazz pianists and many small groups, in contrast to his obscurities like "Shuffle Boil" or "Green Chimneys." But even the obscure tunes have their day on some Monk tribute or another (one fan has compiled a list of 60 such albums).

And the irregularity, angularity, repetition, broken tempos, scattered notes, strange chords, surprising melodies--whatever one hears or singles out among Monk's keyboard habits--seem magnetically to attract other pianists' fingers. "Shall I prove I can mock Monk effectively, or shall I offer a new interpretation?" That's the choice facing every pianist (or guitarist, or saxman, or vocalist) contemplating one of his compositions, and all options are to be heard somewhere.

After discussing several pianists and a singer (Carmen McRae), Leimbacher concludes his essay on Monk's sway with a paean to a big band arranger's CD, Brilliant Corners: The Music of Thelonious Monk by Bill Holman. He says that Holman "takes off the gloves, grabs hold of Monk's melodies, pokes and prods and stretches them into new skewed shapes." To read Mr. Leimbacher's piece, go here. To comment, use the link below.

The Art Of Art Farmer

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:05:00 -0800

Reviewing the Art Farmer Jazz Icons DVD the other day stimulated thoughts of his unique place in the pantheon of major jazz soloists. I started to write them, then realized that I already had. Here is an excerpt from the Farmer chapter of my book Jazz Matters.

Even on some of Farmer's first recordings in the early 1950s it was clear that he was a first-rank soloist in the making. By 1956 Farmer's work showed a combination of incisiveness and lyricism that added elegance and style to the bands of leaders as disparate as George Russell, Gerry Mulligan and Horace Silver. Such versatility has long been a matter of inconvenience for writers who need categories like "hard bop" or "cool."

Shortly thereafter, Farmer became one of the few contemporaries of John Coltrane who absorbed, understood, and had the technical and artistic gifts to put to personal use the Coltrane innovations of the "Giant Steps" period of the early 1960s. He is virtually the only trumpeter who did so. Many players were swamped by the Coltrane influence. Farmer integrated it into his style and his lyrical range grew because of it.

At about the same time he took up the flugelhorn, that lovely and demanding instrument. When he added the new horn, and eventually set the trumpet aside, the lovely muted work he had done on trumpet was lost. But the change of instruments accented what critic Richard B. Hadlock called Farmer's "soft edge," the quality that allowed listeners to accept his masterfully played but audacious ideas, passages they would reject as too far out if performed by most other players. He had found the voice that would carry all the impact of his remarkable invention and plumb all the depths of his feeling. And, happily, in a recent collaboration with Jim Hall, Farmer's Harmon mute materialized again after more than fifteen years.

Farmer is a great melodist. He loves and observes the melodies of the songs he plays. They are often surpassed by the melodies he creates. I have rarely heard a Farmer solo sound like the product of reflect processes. In times of flagging inspiration, or in uncongenial circumstances, even the most inventive players fall back on a sort of universal phrase book. But in a recent jazz festival jam session (hardly his preferred context), the clarity and beauty of Farmer's solos remained in memory long after the dissipation of scene-stealing clichés generated by most of the other players. That is artistry.

The chapter from which that came expands on program notes I wrote for a Farmer concert in the Jazz at the Smithsonian series in the early 1980s. Trolling the internet the other day, to my surprise I came upon several pieces of video from that concert. Three of them follow. In the first, he uses a trombone mute that he had a technician alter for use with his flugelhorn. His band has young Fred Hersch on piano, Dennis Irwin on bass and Billy Hart on drums.

"Cherokee Sketches" is faster than fast, with ample evidence of Farmer's absorption of Coltrane harmonic principles into the flugelhornist's bebop foundation. Watch and listen to Hart during Farmer's solo for a living demonstration of what is meant by the term "listening drummer."

Finally, here's Art in brief conversation with the Voice of America's Willis Conover, then playing a classic Duke Pearson ballad. The video is cut before Hersch or Irwin solos, but I'm not sure what they or anyone could have effectively added following Farmer's chorus.

A Tribute To Cannonball

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:05:00 -0800

Washington, DC, correspondent John Birchard ventures into the jazz wilds of the US capital in search of live music and reports to Rifftides readers on what he hears. This time, the event was a tribute concert.

CANNONBALL REVISITED
By John Birchard

It could have been 1962. On Saturday evening at Baird Auditorium at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, a quintet of musicians from the Smithsonian Jazz Master Works Orchestra presented Portrait of Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. The band was headed by the orchestra's lead alto player, Charlie Young, who served as master of ceremonies. Trumpeter Tom Williams played Nat Adderley's parts. The rhythm section was pianist Bob Butta, bassist James King and drummer Ken Kimery.

The program concentrated on Adderley's years at Riverside Records, with which he signed following his stint with Miles Davis, and specifically on 1959 through 1961. The transcribed arrangements came from five LPs ... In San Francisco, Them Dirty Blues, ...At the Lighthouse, ...Quintet Plus and Know What I Mean? The quintet played them as faithful recreations of the charts, but with the present-day musicians' own solos.

This correspondent was a jazz disc jockey during the years in question. I recall the anticipation with which I greeted each new Cannonball Adderley LP. The performances at Baird generated a good measure of the same excitement. Hearing those arrangements again brought back happy memories of the Adderley band. One can argue whether nostalgia is the role jazz should play, but it satisfied the near-capacity crowd of gray-hairs who were no doubt around for the original performances.

The tour of memory lane began with Bobby Timmons's "This Here", the familiar piano intro in ¾ time leading into the equally familiar alto-trumpet blend on the melody. Charlie Young recaptured Julian's overall sound and earthy quality on this and every tune (with one exception) during the evening. The Randy Weston composition "Hi-Fly" came next, followed by Cannonball's own "You Got It", the quintet taking the intricate chart at a blistering tempo. Nat Adderley's popular "Work Song" prompted cheers and applause for the crisp rhythm section work, especially Kimery's drumming. The first half of the concert closed with Adderley bassist Sam Jones's "Del Sasser."

Following intermission, there was a second Bobby Timmons tune - "Dat Dere." Then the quintet explored a couple of pieces from Victor Feldman's time with Adderley, first "Lisa" (from the 1961 recording The Cannonball Adderley Quintet Plus). "Azul Serape" followed. Both incorporated Latin passages enhancing the tunes' attractiveness. From Cannonball's LP Know What I Mean? featuring pianist Bill Evans, Charlie Young played the melancholy Gordon Jenkins' melody "Goodbye." That's when he departed from homage to Cannonball. Young has spent time with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and it's clear that he has listened closely to the great Johnny Hodges. His approach to the old Benny Goodman closing theme was more Hodges than Adderley. Never mind; it was effective, moving ballad playing.

The evening of rhythmic recollection came to a brisk close with the quintet playing Vic Feldman's "Exodus", not to be confused with the movie theme. All the qualities the SJMO quintet brought to the Adderley charts were in evidence - tight, well-rehearsed ensembles, spirited solos and an enthusiasm for the well-crafted compositions and arrangements made famous by the Tampa Cannonball. If this be nostalgia, our vote's in favor. Later in the year, Freddie Hubbard will be remembered in similar fashion by the Smithsonian gang.

As a video footnote to John's review, here's a mid-1960s performance of one of the tunes the Smithsonians chose from the Adderleys' repertoire. It comes from the Jazz Scene USA television program. Cannonball, alto sax; Nat, cornet; Joe Zawinul, piano; Sam Jones, bass; Louis Hayes, drums. Yusef Lateef, a member of the band at the time, sits this one out. Julian introduces the piece.

Correspondence: CD Prices, Spelling

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:40:44 -0800

A few times you've linked to Amazon listings for Venus releases, such as the Charlap/NY Trio disc in your new set of picks. Just a caveat about this, of which you may be aware. These are CD-Rs with reprinted liner booklets and info. Obviously the price reflects this and Amazon and Venus are to be applauded for offering this important music at a more reasonable price stateside. However, I picked up a Kenny Barron CD recently and the inserts listed nothing but the musicians' names and song selections. There was no recording date nor were there composer credits. As something of a fanatic about this sort of information, it was disappointing. Perhaps there was a translation issue involved. In any event, I wanted to mention this to you.

Rich Juliano

(The Charlap CD is also available from Amazon in the US at the import price of $44.98. In Japan, their country of origin, Venus CDs sell for 2,500 yen; at today's exchange rate, $27.40 US. I did not intend to choose for Rifftides readers, but the $30.99 difference between the import and the CD-R may be attractive to some. -- DR)

Just got the new Anita O'Day Jazz Icons DVD. Loved the DVD and enjoyed your notes. By now you've probably noticed that the "editors" - I assume it was the editors, changed your spelling of June Cristy's last name in the notes to "Christie."

Steve Ramm

(I don't know how that happened. I'm willing to accept the blame, especially since the accurate spelling is neither Cristy nor Christie, but Christy. -- DR)

Hear Ye! New Recommendations

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:05:00 -0800

This time around, CDs by Bill Charlap's "other" trio, Miguel Zenón exploring his PR roots and the uncanny Mitchell/Marsh duo. Also: a DVD of Art Farmer in his prime and a book about Scott La Faro. Kindly direct your attention to Doug's Picks in the center column. The Rifftides staff wishes you good listening, viewing and reading.

CD: Bill Charlap

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:05:00 -0800

New York Trio, Always (Venus). This is pianist Charlap's other trio, with bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Bill Stewart rather than his Blue Note companions Peter Washington and Kenny Washington. In his eighth CD for the Japanese label he honors Irving Berlin by lovingly playing the melodies of ten Berlin songs, then improvising on the pieces with inventiveness, harmonic ingenuity and interaction with Leonhart and Stewart. Charlap's keyboard touch and subtle use of dynamics, notable throughout, are captivating in the unaccompanied version of "Russian Lullaby" that ends the album.

CD: Miguel Zenón

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:04:00 -0800

Miguel Zenón, Esta Plena (Marsalis Music). The alto saxophonist and composer illuminates and elevates la plena, the peoples' music of his native Puerto Rico. Zenón augments his quartet with percussionists playing pandero, seguidor and requinto drums to provide the music's rhythmic heart. Zenón's playing further establishes him as one of the most important young soloists in jazz. Pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Henry Cole are impressive throughout. Zenón aids understanding of the music with a scholarly liner essay tracing the history and cultural importance of la plena.

CD: Red Mitchell, Warne Marsh

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:03:00 -0800

Red Mitchell, Warne Marsh, Big Two (Storyville). Bassist Mitchell (1927-1992) and tenor saxophonist Marsh (1927-1987) played as a duo for two nights in 1980 at the Fasching Club in Stockholm. In this intimate recording, Storyville engineer Nils Edström captured the brilliance and inventiveness of their work. Long unavailable, the 2-CD set captures them at the peak of their powers. Among the highlights: Marsh channeling Lester Young's famous "Lady Be Good" solo, then creating a memorable one of his own, and the two romping through Miles Davis's "Little Willie Leaps."