{"id":9549,"date":"2018-05-12T13:01:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9549"},"modified":"2018-05-12T14:59:48","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T21:59:48","slug":"recent-listening-in-brief-hersch-davis-coltrane-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/05\/recent-listening-in-brief-hersch-davis-coltrane-hamilton\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening In Brief: Hersch, Davis-Coltrane & Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fred Hersch<\/strong> Trio, Live In Europe<\/a> (Palmetto)<\/p>\n

\"\"Hersch opens his new trio album with Thelonious Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We See\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and closes it with an unaccompanied performance of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue Monk.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A longtime source of inspiration for the pianist, bassist John H\u00c3\u00a9bert and drummer Eric McPherson, Monk seems to trigger renewed stimulation and interaction whenever they play his compositions. In \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We See,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hersch maintains a flow of stimulating ideas even as he fragments the melody line that he develops so brilliantly. Hersch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Newklypso,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a tribute to Sonny Rollins, builds on the saxophonist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s devotion to the calypso music of his Caribbean ancestry. Hersch dedicates \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bristol Fog\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the late British pianist John Taylor, and the languorous, quirky, blues \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Easy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to New Orleans writer Tom Piazza. The album was recorded in concert in Brussels, Belgium. Six Hirsch compositions and two Wayne Shorter pieces, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Miyako\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Black Nile,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d complete the collection and help make it one of the trio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most satisfying in their nine years together.<\/p>\n

Miles Davis & John Coltrane<\/strong>, The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6<\/em><\/a> (Columbia Legacy)<\/p>\n

The music on this album was tenor saxophonist John Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1960 farewell to the Miles\"\" DavisQuintet, and whatever you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard about it is probably true. Yes, Coltrane was breaking away from Davis conceptually, headed toward his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Giant Steps\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reinvention of himself. Yes, at times he indulges his every random musical thought in displays of concentrated energy, perhaps even unto the anger his”\u00a0critics accused him of during this transition (Coltrane denied using his music to express anger). Yes, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb are at a peak of the heated swing that made them the gold standard of mainstream rhythm sections in the late 1950s and early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc60s. Yes, these concerts in Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm radiate the tension generated by Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disgruntlement with Davis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music and, no doubt, with his inability, under the circumstances, to find his own way.<\/p>\n

In the Paris \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bye Bye Blackbird,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coltrane adopts Davis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lyricism before moving into complexity just short of indecipherability. In the Copenhagen and Stockholm performances of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Blues,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fluidity is remarkable even as\u00e2\u20ac\u201dparticularly in Stockholm\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhe cranks up the intensity before yielding to Kelly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vision of pure beauty. Through all four CDs in the package, it is rewarding to hear Kelly, Cobb and Chambers as individuals and in the surging undercurrents they develop as a section. This is one of the great small bands in all of music. Davis himself does some of his most affecting playing, and it is gripping to hear Coltrane finding his way through the transition to his next phase.<\/p>\n

Scott Hamilton<\/strong>, Swedish Ballads\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6& More<\/em><\/a> (Charleston Square)<\/p>\n

\"\"When so many albums arrive for possible review, there is always the possibility that a worthy one”\u00a0will end up in a music room nook or cranny, only to be rediscovered much later. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happened to this 2012 gem. Tenor saxophonist Hamilton teamed with a world-class Scandinavian rhythm section”\u00a0for a collection of seven Swedish songs. It begins with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ack V\u00c3\u00a4rmeland Du Skona,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d long known outside of Sweden as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dear Old Stockholm,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thanks to recordings by Stan Getz and Miles Davis. Hamilton also makes his unruffled way through, among other pieces, Ulf Sandstr\u00c3\u00b6m\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Be In Love With A Dream,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ole Adolphson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Trubbel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the Quincy Jones classic \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stockholm Sweetnin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which has Hamilton at his most vigorous. Pianist Jan Lundgren, bassist Jesper Lundgaard and drummer Kristian Leth support him with great sensitivity and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dno surprise\u00e2\u20ac\u201dauthenticity. Hamilton gives a tender reading to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Min soldat\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Soldier\u00e2\u20ac\u009d), a song popular in Sweden in the 1940s and revived in the 1970s when it was used in a TV series. The late Swedish pianist Jan Johansson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blues i oktaver\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wraps up the album. It includes a terrific solo by Lundgren, then a witty exchange of phrases between Hamilton and Lundgren, who is an admirer of and successor to Johansson. Lundgren contributes helpful liner notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fred Hersch Trio, Live In Europe (Palmetto) Hersch opens his new trio album with Thelonious Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We See\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and closes it with an unaccompanied performance of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue Monk.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A longtime source of inspiration for the pianist, bassist John H\u00c3\u00a9bert and drummer Eric McPherson, Monk seems to trigger renewed stimulation and interaction whenever they play his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}