recommendations: August 2006 Archives

Sonny Rollins, Work Time (Prestige). This was recorded more than fifty years ago. It is forever new. At twenty-six, Rollins was full of energy and bursting with ideas. I have never listened to him soar through "There's No Business Like Show Business" and Billy Strayhorn's "Raincheck" without grinning. Max Roach, high on his partnership with Clifford Brown, was at his apogee of drumming. Ray Bryant's gorgeous piano solo on "There Are Such Things" is his best ballad playing on record. The bassist, George Morrow, had been working with Rollins and Roach in the Roach-Brown group and locked powerfully into Rollins' momentum. This is a basic repertoire item.

Brian Lynch, 24/7 (Nagel Heyer). I just caught up with this 2002 album. Lynch teams his trumpet with Miguel Zenon's alto saxophone. The two of them groove with a fine rhythm section of pianist Rick Germanson, bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Neal Smith. Everyone plays well on the originals by band members, but the prize tracks are Jerome Kern's "Nobody Else but Me" Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" and Ellington's barely-known ballad "Azalea." In the Kern, Lynch, using a tight mute, is quick and lyrical (yes, those qualities can go together). In "West End Blues," he nails Armstrong's cadenza opening and observes the original arrangement, then he, Zenon and Germanson (keep an eye on him) play stunning extended solos before wrapping it up with the celebrated 1928 Armstrong tag.

András Schiff, Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Volume II, op. 10 and 13 (ECM). If you are a jazz listener who doesn't cotton to what is often categorized as "classical" music, you have my sympathy because you won't be hearing this brilliant pianist in the second CD of his projected series of the Beethoven sonatas. Consider relenting. Even you can probably relate to the c-minor, the famous "Pathetique," but Schiff's magic with the slow movement of the D-major could just convert you entirely. Lucky you. Schiff is one of the supreme pianists of his generation. His first two volumes of the sonatas suggest that his complete set will rank with Richard Goode's among his contemporaries and Arthur Schnabel's among his predecessors. Aside: I can't help wondering if the classically-canny Bill Evans had the first movement of the D-major in mind when he wrote "Waltz for Debby."

Jazz Shots From The East Coast, Vols. 1-3, Jazz Shots from the West Coast, Vols. 1-3 (EforFilms). The music on these discs is almost uniformly good. The video ranges from TV quality to grainy film, and no wonder; some of these clips are ancient soundies. There are great rewards here, but be warned: the producers provide no information beyond the names of the leaders and the tunes, unless it was superimposed on the original clip. No dates. No sidemen identification. Who was that marvelous alto saxophonist soloing with Duke Ellington on "Sophisticated Lady?" It was Willie Smith, replacing Johnny Hodges for a time in the early 1950s, but if you don't recognize him, you're out of luck. Fortunately, pianist Ronnie Matthews' name appears on the screen in a marvelous performance of "Monk's Dream" by Johnny Griffin, but that is a rarity. Who was East Coast and who was West Coast may have been decided by a toss of the dice. In the course of the series, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, Bill Evans, Phil Woods, Jimmy Smith and Thelonious Monk show up in both categories. But pigeon holes don't matter, music does, and for all of their informational faults, these DVDs deliver plenty of it by some of the best players of the twentieth century.

Vivian Perlis and Libby Van Cleve, Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington (Yale). This is the book that took first place over Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond in the Independent Publishers awards competition. But, no hard feelings, only gratitude for a hefty volume that presents oral history in a readable--and listenable--form. The book includes two CDs with, in many cases, the voices of the composers. Aaron Copland: "Music needn't be so high-falutin' that it becomes abstract and just pure notes, you know." Duke Ellington: "Everything is so highly personalized that you just can't find a category big enough. And 'jazz' certainly isn't big enough." If you wish to know more about Eubie Blake, Mel Powell, Nadia Boulanger, Edgard Varèse or Nicolas Slonimsky, among many others, this is a book for you.