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Coltrane ’58

John Coltrane, Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings (Craft)

Every few years, curators of the great saxophonist John Coltrane’s extensive body of recordings come up with yet another retrospective of his work. Craft Recordings is now the overseer of Coltrane’s massively productive years with the Prestige label. The company has reissued a five-disc album of music that he made in 1958. That was when Coltrane rejoined Miles Davis as part of the classic sextet that also included alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Jones was later succeeded by Jimmy Cobb. It was also a year in which Coltrane—firmly into what critic Ira Gitler indelibly labeled his “sheets of sound” period—was expanding further his technical, harmonic and expressive horizons. This box set is a dramatic exposition of a musician who with Davis, and then in the 1960s with his own groups, became one of the most influential stylists in all of music. Some reasons why are explained in a liner notes quote from a Coltrane successor, saxophonist David Liebman: “Trane’s unique tone during this period (was) full of edge and bite, yet there was a lyrical quality to his phrasing, especially on ballads…and of course the very scalar, legato approach that he was into at the time.” Making “Spring Is Here” an upper-medium-tempo swinger is a demonstration of success in his partnership with trumpeter Wilbur Harden. That combination was not always as rewarding. Coltrane’s initial encounter with the young Freddie Hubbard was more satisfying. Three tracks here bear that out, with his improvisation on “Then I’ll Be Tired Of You” providing an early indication of what the youngster from Indianapolis would achieve. Other guests on these invaluable revisits with Coltrane include guitarist Kenny Burrell, who is impeccable in a hand-in-glove duet with Coltrane on Jerome Kern’s “Why Was I Born.” Two pianists with whom the saxophonist was extraordinarily compatible in the ‘50s stand out: his Davis quintet partner Red Garland, and the elegant Tommy Flanagan. Drummers Cobb. Arthur Taylor and Louis Hayes have their moments as well.

Ashley Kahn’s comprehensive album notes give insights into Coltrane’s continued development at a crucial point in his career, and valuable play-by-play impressions of the performances.

If five Coltrane CDs aren’t enough for you, keep in mind that the 16-disc box of his Prestige recordings is still available. In notes for that 1991 compendium, I wrote,

“To those who worship Trane as a burning prophet, I commend his playing for its humor and humanity; to the instrumentalists who think that music started with Coltrane and that Coltrane started with freedom, for its discipline; and to listeners in search of agony, for its lyricism and beauty.”

True as ever.

 

John Patitucci: Soul Of The Bass

There is no way that Rifftides can keep up with the flood of new jazz albums put on the market by record companies and—in the new world of relatively low production costs—by dozens of independent musicians. The best that we can do is be alert for exceptional releases and bring them to your attention. Sometimes that means brief notices about music of quality that deserves even greater attention. That is the case in today’s catch-up effort about the veteran bassist John Patitucci’s latest album. Born in Brooklyn and with extensive early experience in California, Patitucci has long been a major player of the acoustic and electric versions of the instrument. Celebrated in recent years for his work with Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter and Joshua Redman—to mention a few of his collaborators—Patitucci has become one of the most sought-after bassists alive.

His Soul Of The Bass (Three Faces Records) puts him in a variety of uncrowded settings that demonstrate his flexibility in pieces that range from J.S. Bach’s “Allemande in D-Minor” to several of Patitucci’s own compositions. Among his pieces is the title tune, a riveting unaccompanied performance on acoustic bass. Elsewhere in the collection, Patitucci and drummer Nate Smith lock up in mutual improvisation. The bassist duets with his wife, the cellist Sachi Patitucci, whose arco playing has the presence and depth of a full string section. He also performs with his daughter, the singer Isabella Patitucci, in a vocalese display expanded and enhanced by multi-tracking and dominated by the pure, powerful tone and articulation of her father’s acoustic bass.

Coming soon: Further catching up.

Bill Holman Band To Open Museum Season

If you live in Los Angeles or will be there later this month, here’s good news from the L.A. County Museum Of Art (LACMA). On April 26th The Bill Holman Band will open the museum’s season of summer jazz concerts. Word from the Holman organization is that, inspired by the continuing success of the band’s Brilliant Corners album, the repertoire will include a variety of Thelonious Monk compositions. Holman’s writing for Brilliant Corners won a Grammy that year. He has had fifteen Grammy nominations. A National Endowment For The Arts Jazz Master, Holman has been at the helm of his 16-piece ensemble for 45 years and before that was a key figure as a tenor saxophonist and arranger. He has written extensively for Stan Kenton, Gerry Mulligan, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Shorty Rogers, Maynard Ferguson and Charlie Barnet, among other major leaders. He has written arrangements for singers including Tony Bennett, June Christy, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan and Anita O’Day.

From the Brilliant Corners album, here is Holman’s arrangement of Monk’s “Ruby My Dear.” Bob Summers is the trumpet soloist, Pete Christlieb the tenor saxophonist.

                                         

Further good news: admission to the April 26th Holman concert at LACMA is free.

The New Jazz Heroes

The Jazz Journalists Association has announced its slate of 2019 Jazz Heroes, people who have made significant contributions to the health, well-being and exposure of jazz in their cities and towns. The list includes performing artists, presenters, broadcasters and—well, of course—journalists. In the extensive list you are likely to find someone you know. Click here, scroll down, and meet the 22 new honorees. They are an impressive, hard-workng bunch.

Scott Robinson’s “Tenormore”

A couple of months ago, I mentioned that I had been given the privilege and pleasure of writing the liner notes for Scott Robinson’s new album. Today, he announced that the CD has been released. His notice includes background about the project, a link to a promotional video and a link to the company that is releasing Tenormore. Reading what Scott wrote, you may get the feeling that he’s happy with the results. He should be.

 

Today is the official release day for my new CD, Tenormore. It is my first all-tenor sax album – something that’s been a long time coming – featuring the same 1924 Conn tenor I’ve been playing all these years, that came out of an antique shop in 1975. This is also the first album by my longstanding group with Helen Sung, Martin Wind and Dennis Mackrel. See our little promo video here.

Please help me celebrate my 60th birthday month by checking out this very special project, which has already been rated 4 stars in DownBeat and 4 1/2 stars in All About Jazz. This new album is from Arbors Records (not ScienSonic), and you can pick it up here (trust me, you will be pleasantly surprised at the price!) 

 

An out-and-out plug on Rifftides is rare. This one is an exception we are happy to make.

David Friesen, Bassist And Pianist

David Friesen, My Faith, My Life (Origin)

Friesen’s virtuosity brought him to prominence as a bassist nearly fifty years ago. He has remained one of the instrument’s most adventurous players through a career including associations with Duke Jordan, Marian McPartland, John Handy, Denny Zeitlin, Paul Horn and other major jazz artists. This two-CD album presents him on the first disc playing his compositions on the Homage bass, an instrument he developed. On some tracks in that CD he overdubs on the Japanese bamboo flute known as the shakuhatchi, which gives the music a ghostly exoticism. The CD featuring Friesen on bass has stretches of quietness, but playing his primary instrument, Friesen’s celebrated energy is a major component in such originals as ”Long Trip Home,” “Sitka In The Woods,” “Martin’s Balcony” and, particularly, the album’s extended final track, “Lament For The Lost/Procession.” In that piece he incorporates the bass’s bowing and plucking capabilities along with electronic enhancements that become, in effect, a third voice.

On disc number 2, Friesen plays sixteen more of his original compositions, but on unaccompanied grand piano. Those selections are reflective in keeping with themes suggested by their titles, among them “A Light Shining Through,” “New Hope” and “Another Time, Another Place.” He gives his harmonic imagination full reign throughout that part of the program. The sound of the Ravenscroft grand piano is impressive. Despite a fair amount of online research, it is unclear to me why the Ravenscroft is described on some sites as a “virtual” instrument. It sounds like a full-fledged well-tuned grand.

Recent Listening: Logan Strosahl, Sure

Logan Strosahl, Sure (Sunnyside)

Piping at the high end of the flute’s range, guttural near the tenor sax’s low end, sliding, slurring and sometimes punching notes on alto saxophone, Strosahl is intense and full of surprises with his trio. His music is laced with classical allusions and marinated in jazz feeling. He, bassist Henry Fraser and drummer Allan Mednard create moments in this album in which they come remarkably close to what few groups in the history of improvised music have truly achieved; performing as if the music were the product of a single mind. That is stunningly so in parts of Strosahl’s “Three” and it is the case with the rhythmic interaction in a short version of Thelonious Monk’s “Coming On The Hudson.” Strosahl’s music has amusing moments and relaxing ones, but that is not to say that it’s easily accessible. The rewards—and there are many—come to those who listen closely. Fraser’s bass draws the listener inside in the opening moments of Billy Strayhorn’s “Isfahan,” and Strosahl’s alto sax caresses that precious melody with allusions to the style of Johnny Hodges, who made the piece a bulwark of the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s repertoire. The three inject Mel Stitzel’s “The Chant” with New Orleans parade-beat feeling, and Strosahl ends the album with a masterful, beautifully contained, solo that is occasionally out-and-out funny even before the abrupt ending.

Recent Listening, In Brief

Albums are arriving for consideration in batches that have my poor postlady groaning down the sidewalk toward the mailbox. Today’s review is intended to be the start of the latest Rifftides attempt to catch up. (If the jazz record business is dying, it has a funny way of showing it.)

Daniel Szabo, Visionary (Fuzzy Music)

The liner essay in pianist and composer Szabo’s album, and the publicity surrounding its release, stress the music’s eclecticism. It is true that Szabo’s work reflects influences of jazz, classical and modern European music. But more striking is that the music has coherence and—for lack of a more exact term—a distinct personality. Szabo combines his piano, a woodwind sextet and a string quartet in scores that have consistent spirit and a point of view. The voicings across and within the horn and string sections, and the variety of rhythmic displacements, are advanced by a rhythm section sparked by the remarkable drummer Peter Erskine. Erskine’s cymbal splashes and brush work in the final extension of the Szabo composition “Floating” are at once compelling and relaxing. That is just one instance of his ability to imbue the character of a performance. Among the other stars in Szabo’s galaxy are saxophonist Kim Richmond, who shines on soprano sax in “Cosmic” and on alto in Szabo’s arrangement of Wayne Shorter’s “Infant Eyes,” the only composition in the album not by Szabo. Another Los Angeles veteran reedman, Bob Sheppard, solos with notable spirit elsewhere in the album on both flute and tenor saxophone. Sara Andon’s flute is an essential lead voice in several pieces, stunningly in the album’s closing piece, “Underwater.” Szabo (pictured right) discloses in his liner information that his “Cosmic” was “Inspired by the adagio movement of Bela Bartok’s 2nd Piano concerto. That is an acknowledgement of the importance in Szabo’s life of the Hungarian homeland where he began his musical journey. He studied in the US at the New England Conservatory. His doctorate in music is from the University of Southern California. Now a thoroughgoing Californian, he teaches at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.

Monday Recommendation: Dominic Miller

Dominic Miller Absinthe (ECM)

Guitarist and composer Miller delivers power and subtlety in equal measure. Abetted by producer Manfred Eicher’s canny guidance and ECM’s flawless sound and studio presence, Miller draws on inspiration from painters of France’s impressionist period. His liner essay emphasizes the importance to his musical conception of works by Cezanne, Renoir, Lautrec, Monet and other impressionist painters. He credits, “the American imagination and vision itself,” for initially recognizing the importance of the French impressionism that began to flower in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the French themselves had yet to recognize the genius and revolutionary nature of the movement. As for the album title, Miller writes, “Sharp light and witchy mistrals, combined with strong alcohol and intense hangovers must have driven some of these artists toward insanity.”

There is no suggestion of drunkenness or insanity in Miller’s music. Rather, he manages with his quintet partners to create music that, for all its exoticism, is stimulating and relaxing. Could that account for “Mixed Blessing” being the title of one of his pieces? It is relaxing music; yes, but chords from Miller’s guitar introduce edginess that contrasts with the floating elegance of Santiago Arias’s bandoneon, that enchanting concertina-like instrument from the South American pampas. The brilliant brushwork-and-cymbals drumming of Manu Katché flows beneath, in and around the solo expressions of Miller, keyboardist Mike Lindup and Nicolas Fiszman, a bassist who fashions his supporting lines as if he had tailored them to order for each of the other four. Fiszman’s power throughout is remarkable, particularly so on Miller’s “Ténebrès” and the closing “Saint Vincent.”

When this album showed up, I intended to give it a quick listen. The quick listen became five times in a row.

The Latest From Ed Partyka

 

The power and imagination in his composing and arranging have made Ed Partyka a major contributor to the European big band scene. A trombonist from Chicago, Partyka leads a formidable big band and chairs the Jazz Institute at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. Mentored by the late Bob Brookmeyer, Partyka uses in his teaching and his writing much of what he learned from Brookmeyer. Having absorbed that influence, he developed his own unique and identifiable orchestral style. The Ed Partyka Jazz Orchestra’s two most recent albums reflect a distinct musical personality and, often, his relaxed and refreshing approach to serious music. In this, video from a recent concert, Partyka’s bilingual introduction to one of his compositions contains both aspects.

                 

The trumpet soloist was Jakob Helling. A performance of that piece featuring Benny Brown on trumpet  and Reinhold Schmölzer on Drums is the lead track in Partyka’s album Kopfkino (Mons Records). The second recent release by his orchestra is In The Tradition (Neu Klang Records). Both albums feature the talented young singer Julia Oschewsky.

[Read more…]

More From The Late Ed Bickert With Paul Desmond


Following yesterday’s announcement about the loss of the brilliant Canadian guitarist Ed Bickert, here is a piece from the 1975 Paul Desmond Quartet album Live, recorded at Bourbon Street in Toronto in 1975. We hear Bickert and Desmond with bassist Don Thompson and drummer Jerry Fuller. They play Desmond’s composition “Wendy,”

           

Desmond based “Wendy” on the chord structure of one of his favorite ballads, “For All We Know.” He named the piece for a woman who was a romantic interest. That was after a few title changes. In an interview for my Desmond biography, bassist Thompson traced the final change to the tune’s name.

“What I do know,” Thompson told me, “is that it waffled between ‘Pittsburgh’ and ‘Wendy’ for a long time. It was ‘Pittsburgh’ for quite a while, actually, then one night he came in and said, ‘I think it might not be ‘Pittsburgh.’ It might be ‘Wendy.’ Then when we went to San Francisco to play the El Matador, he came in with this young girl with dark hair. That’s all I remember about her. When he introduced her to me, he said, ‘Don, I want you to meet Pittsburgh.’ I broke up because this was the Wendy whom nobody knew until then.”

In another piece by Bickert with Desmond from the Pure Desmond album (1974), Ron Carter is the bassist, Connie Kay the drummer in Fats Waller’s “Just Squeeze Me.”

It turns out that YouTube will not allow that piece to be embedded. If we can get them to change that policy, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, you can go here to listen to it.

Ed Bickert, RIP

Weekend Extra: A Lester Young Story

Long ago, Billie Holiday dubbed Lester Young the President of The Tenor Saxophone. The title long since morphed into “Prez.” Young was beloved among his fellow musicians for his influential playing. He also won admirers for the subtlety and understatement of his way of expressing himself when he was away from his horn. Many of his turns of spoken phrase are alive in the language sixty years following his death.

Mosaic Records’ Sunday website feature today includes a youtube clip of Monica (Mrs. Stan) Getz recalling a bus ride with Young and the hyperkinetic alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt. It includes her memory of a classic instance of Prezidential rhetoric.

                  

To see all of Mosaic’s Sunday Gazette, go here.

Michel Legrand, 1932-2019

Michel Legrand, the pianist, arranger and prolific composer of film scores, died today at his home in France. He was 86. Dozens of Legrand’s melodies became popular hits, among them “The Windmills Of Your Mind,” “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” and “Watch What Happens.” The wide range of performers who collaborated with him includes such diverse stars as Miles Davis, Barbara Streisand and Kiri Te Kanawa. Early on, Legrand was the piano accompanist for Sarah Vaughan and Lena Horne, among others.

Legrand’s ability as an arranger was on full display in his 1958 album Legrand Jazz. In it he created extensive settings for jazz artists who were at their peaks in the 1950s. Among them were Davis, Bill Evans and John Coltrane when they were all in Davis’s sextet. Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Jimmy Cleveland and Donald Byrd are also featured in the album. For Earl Hines’s “Rosetta,” Legrand made an arrangement that featured trombonists Frank Rehak, Billy Byers, Jimmy Cleveland and Eddie Bert. Tenor saxophonist Ben Webster follows the trombone fiesta with a solo that amounts to a two-chorus reduction of his powerful, incomparable style. Unfortunately, Columbia Records, or someone with a claim to control of the video, has made it unavailable. To see the album and hear “Rosetta,” go here and enjoy Big Ben and a marvelous Legrand arrangement.

For an article tracing Legrand’s career, see John Anderson’s thorough obituary in today’s New York Times.

Michel Legrand, RIP

Helen Sung And Dana Gioia: A Fine Joint Effort

Helen Sung: Sung With Words (Stricker Street Records)

In this poetry and jazz collection Helen Sung further validates her position as one of the most accomplished pianists In the New York jazz community, which has an abundance of fine pianists. The quintet supporting Sung thrives on her arrangements and accompaniments as she improvises on themes suggested by seven poems of poet Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and—not so coincidentally—the brother of jazz writer and influential blogger Ted Gioia. Sung’s improvisation on “Too Bad,” is one instance of her solo excellence. Another is her instrumental “Lament For Kalief Browder.“ inspired by the case of a young black man from the Bronx who was charged with theft, spent three years in oppressive custody on Rikers Island, then committed suicide. Despite the sadness and injustice of Browder’s story, Sung’s arrangement, the harmonic purity she gives the female vocal backing, John Ellis’s bass clarinet interlude and the energy of drummer Kendrick Scott’s interjections create a kind of stark beauty. Ellis is equally impressive in his tenor and soprano saxophone appearances.

The high quality of the instrumentalists and singers who support Sung makes this what might fairly be called an all-star album. Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen is at the top of her game, soloing with fluidity and daring into the highest register of the horn. Drummer Scott, bassist Reuben Rogers and percussionist Samuel Torres are solid and supportive throughout. Christie Sashiell has the vocal on Sung’s mysterious “Touch.” She, Jean Baylor, Carolyn Leonhart and Charnee Wade—sometimes singly, sometimes combined—are guest vocalists. Their work gives the album atmospheres that help to account for its variety and spirit. Sashiell and Wade collaborate on the amusing “Mean What You Say,” Gioa’s and Sung’s wry social commentary closing a challenging and rewarding album.

Recent Listening: Jazz Is Of The World

Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren, Mare Nostrum III (ACT)

This third outing by Mare Nostrum continues the international trio’s close collaboration in a series of albums that has enjoyed considerable success. With three exceptions, the compositions in this installment are by the members of Mare Nostrum. It opens with one the French accordionist Galliano titled “”Blues sur Seine” for the storied river that flows through Paris.

Among the pleasures of the album, which in toto is a pleasure, are the Sardindian trumpeter Fresu’s “Human Requiem, which he managed to make as hopeful as it is somber, and pianist Lundgren’s “Ronneby,” named for the town on Sweden’s Baltic shore where he grew up, and did so happily, if this piece is evidence. “Ronneby’s” intriguingly Nordic harmonic departures help to make it a track to which the listener (this one, at any rate) keeps going back.

Galliano occasionally replaces the accordion by playing with equal eloquence on the bandoneon, the accordion’s close relative, popular in Uruguay and Argentina. Nonetheless, it is on the accordion that he performs his touching “Letter To My Mother.”

The three musicians are as expressive, interactive and playful in Michel Legrand’s “The Windmills Of Your Mind, Eduardo DiCapua’s and Alfredo Mazzucchi’s “I’te murria vasà” and Quincy Jones’s “Love Theme From ‘The Getaway’” as they are in their own pieces. For all the lyricism and solemnity in some tracks, this album—beautifully engineered by Lars Nilsson in Gothenburg, Sweden—exudes feelings of discovery and the joy of collaboration. Here, Mare Nostrum plays Lundgren’s “Love Land.” Video courtesy of The ACT Company.

 

Misha Tsiganov, Playing With The Wind (Criss Cross)

Pianist Tsiganov won the All-Russia Jazz Competition in 1990 and came to the US from St. Petersbug, Russia, to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to New York in 1993 and has been a busy member of the city’s jazz community ever since, working with a wide variety of musicians including Wynton Marsalis and others in the Jazz At Lincoln Center orbit and a number of artists in New York’s Latin scene.

The sidemen on his third album for Criss Cross are a fellow Russian, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Dan Weiss. Tsiganov’s penchant for Wayne Shorter compositions is reflected in “Virgo” and “Witch Hunt,” Shorter pieces that by now may as well be called jazz standards. Tsiganov’s fleet soloing on both is impressive. He reaches into his Russian heritage for the folk song “To Ne Veter Vetku Klonit” (“No, It’s Not A Branch Bowing To The Wind.”) Whatever the traditional rhythmic treatment of the piece may be in his homeland, Tsiganov has made it a metric fiesta involving 3/4/, 7/4 and 5/4 time signatures. The arrangement results in all of that flowing naturally and encouraging logical, however adventurous, solos from all hands. Sipiagin’s solo is particularly daring, incorporating astonishing fluidity and a stratospheric climax. The album ends with Ray Noble’s “The Very Thought Of You,” taken in slow 4/4 time with, according to quote from Tsiganov in the liner notes, “no mixed meters, no rhythmic tricks, a lot of new chords.” It’s a peaceful ending to a stimulating album.

Randy Brecker & Mats Holmquist Together with UMO Jazz Orchestra (MAMA)

Trumpeter Brecker teams with the powerful Finnish big band the UMO Jazz Orchestra and Mats Holmquist, a star arranger since he was graduated from the University of North Texas, where he got his second masters degree in composition in 1991. He already had one from from the Royal College Of Music in Stockholm. Holmquist is a major figure in modern Scandinavian music. The album contain ingenious, demanding original compositions by Holmquist. It also has his arrangements of three Chick Corea pieces and new works based on standard songs including Victor Young’s “Stella By Starlight” and Jerome Kern’s “All The Things You Are.” Holmquist’s reworking of the Kern song is listed as “All My Things” and described by Holmquist as “a conceptual piece.” Some concept.

Here is a video version, taped in concert at around the time of the studio recording.

Brecker was the trumpet soloist. The soprano saxophone solo was by Ville Vannemaa. We should mention that the audio recording has several piano solos by Seppo Kantonen, playing at his customary high level. If you are curious about the UMO Jazz Orchestra but unfamiliar with it, here is a list of its members:

Woodwinds: Ville Vannemaa, Mikko Mäkinen, Teemu Salminen, Max Zenger, Pertti Pävivinen. Trumpets: Teemu Mattsson, Timo Paasonen, Mikko Pettinen, Tero Saarti. Trombones: Heikki Tuhkanen, Mikko Mustonen, Juho Vilijanen, Mikael Lanbacka. piano, Seppo Kantonen; bass, Juho Kivivuori; drums;  guitar, Mikel Ulferg.

Monday Recommendation: Thelonious Monk’s Works In Full

Kimbrough, Robinson, Reid, Drummond: Monk’s Dreams(Sunnyside)

The subtitle of this invaluable 6-CD set is The Complete Compositions Of Thelonious Sphere Monk. By complete, Sunnyside means that the box contains six CDs with 70 tunes that Monk wrote beginning in the early years when his music was generally assumed to be an eccentric offshoot of bebop, to the time of his death in 1982.

By the end of his career, Monk was venerated and adored in music circles. He has become even more respected and better known in the decades since. After he made the cover of Time magazine in 1964 he said, “I’m famous. Ain’t that a bitch?” In the decades since, he has become even more celebrated. His music is embraced despite—perhaps even because of—its eccentricities. It is in the mainstream via reissued performances by Monk’s own groups and countless “covers” by other musicians including some born long after he died.

A friend of pianist Frank Kimbrough, Mait Jones, suggested the comprehensive project. Kimbrough liked the idea and hired multiple brass and reed instrumentalist Scott Robinson, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Billy Drummond for what turned out to be a trial run at aNew York club, Jazz Standard. Intrigued by the idea, veteran producer Matt Balistaris offered to be the producer. He recorded the group at his storied Maggie’s Farm studio in Pennsylvania. The sessions went on for days. Sound quality, balance and depth are flawless.

The claim of completeness may or may not hold up under close examination by Monk specialists. It is unlikely that anyone knows of everything that Monk wrote. For instance, he recorded “Chordially” for Black Lion in Paris in 1954, but it can be argued that the piece was a spontaneous invention and that he did not “write” it per se. Previous efforts to record complete album of Monk tunes have fallen victim to compromises, among them drastically short tracks and the incorporation of partial pieces into medleys. Here, we have a complete take of every piece.

Kimbrough has a long discography of his own, though he is perhaps best known of late for his extensive work with Maria Schneider’s orchestra. Here, he plays under Monk’s spell without ploys that could be mistaken for parody or stabs at comic effect. The box set is a major addition to his body of work. I am particularly taken with the measured thoughtfulness of Kimbrough’s solo on “Ugly Beauty” and his puckishness in “Little Rootie Tootie.”

Kimbrough, Reid and Drummond are among the most seasoned rhythm section players of the day. The evidence of the six Monk CDs suggests that they had an absolute understanding of the spirit of the project. On all of his horns, but notably on the tenor saxophone, Robinson further establishes his preeminence as one of the most imaginative, and daring tenor players at work today. That observation by no means downgrades his effectiveness  on trumpet, bass saxophone or the formidable contrabass sarusaphone, which has a sound so low that it might be coming from the bowels of the earth. However, the tenor sax comment leads to a tip that is only slightly self-serving: watch for the Robinson album Tenormore, due out soon from Arbors. Writing the notes for it, I basked in repeated exposure to his imagination, rhythmic drive and—not so incidentally—humor, on tenor. In the Monk box, all of that is present in abundance.

Anyone ready for renewed familiarity with the extent of Thelonious Monk’s accomplishment as a composer will welcome this collection—and its superb playing from four seasoned improvisers.

Recent Listening: Way North

Way North: Fearless And Kind (M A P L)

Way North’s three Canadians and a New Yorker are reminiscent of the kind of ensemble you might find playing on a corner in the French Quarter of New Orleans. For all of their sophisticated musicianship, that’s the kind of jovial feeling the quartet summons in tenor saxophonist Petr Cancura’s “Boll Weevil,” trumpeter Rebecca Hennessy’s “Fearless And Kind” and several other rollicking pieces in this carefree collection. The title track maintains the feel-good atmosphere while at the same time giving the proceeding an almost (but not quite) somber cast. That is also true of Way North’s approach to a brief exposition of Jelly Roll Morton’s “Buddy Bolden’s Blues,” which includes growls by Hennessy that seem to be inherited more or less directly from Bolden’s trumpet successor King Oliver. Solemnity dissolves when they move into their second Morton tune, “King Porter Stomp.” Bassist Michael Herring and drummer Richie Barshay—the American member—generate enthusiastic swing as they collaborate behind Cancura’s and Hennessy’s solos on “Porter.” Herring’s solos on that piece and on Hennessy’s “Inchworm” are highlights of those tracks. Hennessy’s trumpet work throughout further illuminates why she is enjoying growing regard in Canadian jazz circles. She is one to keep an ear on.

For Rifftides reviews of other recent recordings from Canada, go here.

 

Urbie Green, 1926-2018

 

We learned today that trombonist Urbie Green died last Monday, December 31, in the Poconos mountain region that he called home for many years. He was 92. A musician idolized by his contemporaries—and particularly by fellow players of the trombone—Green’s earliest big band years included stretches with Frankie Carle and Gene Krupa. His work with Woody Herman in the early 1950s brought him widespread attention and frequent mention in jazz polls and surveys. Green was a member of the all-star band that played at the White House at an elaborate party that President Richard Nixon gave Duke Ellington in 1969 on Ellington’s 70th birthday. Much of the music that night was captured for Blue Note Records. Ufortunately, someone–presumably Blue Note–has blocked us from embedding videos containing that performance and others. We see Green on the right above, on that occasion with fellow trombonist J.J. Johnson. To hear them collaborating—raucously—on a solo in Gerry Mulligan’s vigorous arrangement of Ellington’s “Prelude To A Kiss,” click here

Green solos at that White House occasion on another Ellington standard, “I Got It Bad.” Click here for the audio.

Urbie Green—reminding us why he continues to inspire trombonists around the world, and is likely to do so for decades. RIP.

Thomas And Groenewald: A Fine Togetherness

Jay Thomas With The Oliver Groenewald Newnet: I Always Knew (Origin)

Thomas, a veteran master of brass and reed instruments, teams with Groenewald, the man he describes in his liner notes as “the perfect fit for me as an arranger.” With a band that includes ten of the Pacific Northwest’s major jazz artists, the two explore the possibilities in a dozen ballads from the past nine decades. In the five years or so that the German-born Groenewald has lived near Seattle on an island in Puget Sound, he and Thomas (pictured right) have developed a personal and artistic relationship whose closeness expresses itself in Thomas’s soloing in, through and around Groenewald’s writing. On alto, tenor and soprano saxophones as well as trumpet and flugelhorn, Thomas’s imagination thrives on the scores fashioned with muscularity and delicacy by Groenewald. He interleaves those contrasting attributes on rarely performed post-bebop pieces like Lee Morgan’s “Yama,” Chick Corea’s “October Ballad,” as well as on modern classics including Duke Ellington’s “Blue Serge,” Tadd Dameron’s “Soultrane” and Billy Strayhorn’s “Ballad For The Very Tired And Very Sad Lotus Eaters.” Groenewald (pictured left) is a member of the Newnet’s brass section.

Groenewald’s originals “Mrs. Goodnight,” with its fluid Thomas trumpet solo, and the title tune, “I Always Knew” could well become part of the rarified company they keep here with such established repertoire items as Mel Tormé’s “Born To Be Blue” and Lucky Thompson’s “Deep Passion.” Not all of the choices have the staying power of “You Don’t Know What Love Is” and “Stardust,” the pieces that close the album. But then, few compositions in jazz history have. The point in recommending this album is not familiarity, except in the sense of the relaxation, friendship and musicianship with which Thomas and Groenewald inform the music.

(In the current edition of All About Jazz  online, Paul Rauch has a seven-part history of Jay Thomas with details of his long, influential career.)