If You Don't Know Jack (DeJohnette)

Drummer Jack DeJohnette shows up in a lot of jazz in my collection, playing alongside many of my heroes.  I confess that I was not familiar until today with his work as leader.  That has been remedied.  ECM has released a box set of four albums that DeJohnette recorded under the group title Special Edition.  Jack DeJohnette: Special Edition is the kind of treasure I value very highly: a good slice of an artist's work, offering you several fine albums for a very reasonable price ($27.09 for the MP3 download).  In addition, a number of musicians that I have invested in are featured, including David Murray, Arthur Blythe, and Chico Freeman. 

The four albums are:

1. Special Edition
2. Album Album
3. Tin Can Alley
4. Inflation Blues

The last of these has not been released on CD before now.  Special Edition presents a lot of edgy avant garde compositions, but it is reasonable accessible over all.  DeJohnette's leadership and the brilliance of his co-conspirators is everywhere evident.  There is a lot of slithering horn on many of the pieces and I am a big fan of the low horns.  One thing that the four albums demonstrate is DeJohnette's command of a number of basic realms in jazz space.  

I am playing 'I know' from Tin Can Alley. This might be my favorite cut from the collection, a delicious walking blues with lots of screaming over guttural horn lines.  

• Baritone Saxophone, Alto Saxophone – John Purcell
• Bass Clarinet, Flute, Tenor Saxophone – Chico Freeman
• Double Bass, Cello – Peter Warren
• Drums, Piano, Vocals – Jack DeJohnette

I'm playing 'Monk's Mood' from Album Album.  This has a nice big band sound, putting Monk back into the contexts from which he drew his brilliant melodies.  There is a nice pastel feel to the solos by Murray and Johnson. 

• Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – Rufus Reid
• Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – John Purcell
• Drums, Keyboards, Producer, Liner Notes – Jack DeJohnette
• Tenor Saxophone – David Murray
• Tuba, Baritone Saxophone – Howard Johnson (3)

 From Inflation Blues, I am playing 'Starburst'. 

• Bass – Rufus Reid
• Clarinet [Bass], Saxophone [Soprano, Tenor] – Chico Freeman
• Composed By, Clavinet, Drums, Piano, Vocals – Jack DeJohnette
• Flute, Saxophone [Alto, Barritone], Clarinet – John Purcell

This one reminds me of some of Miles Davis' spacy second quintet recordings, except for the marvelous bass clarinet.  

Finally, I offer 'India' from Special Edition. 

• Alto Saxophone – Arthur Blythe
• Bass – Peter Warren
• Drums, Piano, Melodica, Producer – Jack DeJohnette
• Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – David Murray

This great adventure story by John Coltrane is a very fine example of why I love Murray and Blythe and why I have now fallen for DeJohnette.  Be sure to take your passport for this one.  

It could be said that DeJohnette is only covering ground already explored by other intrepid jazz men, but boy does he cover it well.  The Special Edition box is a great buy.  This is one fine jazz man. 

Meanwhile, I am adding 'Meaning of the Blues' from Standards Vol. 1, by Keith Jarrett.  DeJohnette plays drums and Gary Peacock is on bass.  Enjoy.  

ps.  check out the video clips at DeJohnette's home page.  

Cecil Taylor 4 pennies Updated

Right this moment eMusic is selling a wonderful 4-CD set of Cecil Taylor recordings for the Candid label: The Complete Nat Henthof sessions for less than six bucks.  

This box set contains material released as  

1. Air, 
2. Jumpin' Pumpkins,  
3. The World of Cecil Taylor,  
4. Cell Walk for Celeste, and 
5. New York City R&B, 
6. Mixed (tracks 1-3).

plus a wealth of outtakes.

I paid eMusic $5.84 for the whole thing in spite of the fact that I have three of the six original albums.  I just couldn't pass up all the extra material at that price of a single album.  If you don't have the albums, this is an incredible buy.  The box of CDs costs almost $50 at Amazon.  I don't expect the price will last, so if you are reading this blog as I post, go for it quick.  

I am playing 'Johnny Came Lately', one of the bonus tracks recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival 1957.  It is a showcase for Steve Lacy's soprano sax.  I am also playing 'Things Ain't What They Used to Be', and 'Air'.  Both are out takes, not available on the original albums. 

CD 1 & CD 2 [1-6]:
ARCHIE SHEPP tenor sax (on Air and Lazy Afternoon only)
CECIL TAYLOR piano
BUELL NEIDLINGER bass
DENNIS CHARLES drums
SUNNY MURRAY drums (replaces Charles on CD 1 [2-3] only
New York, October 12 & 13, 1960.

CD 2 [7-10] & CD 3 [1-4]:
Same personnel as above.
DENNIS CHARLES (drums) on all tracks.
CECIL TAYLOR plays celeste on CD 3 [1-3]
ARCHIE SHEPP out on CD 2 [9-10].
New York, January 9, 1961.

CD 3 [5-8] & CD 4 [1-4]:
CLARK TERRYRRY trumpet
ROSWELL RUDD trombone
STEVE LACY soprano sax
ARCHIE SHEPP tenor sax
CHARLES DAVIS baritone sax
CECIL TAYLOR piano
BUELL NEIDLINGER bass
BILLY HIGGINS drums.
New York, January 10, 1961.

BONUS TRACKS:

CD 4 [4-6]:
Ted Curson (tp on 6 only), Roswell Rudd (tb on 6 only),
Jimmy Lyons (as), Archie Shepp (ts),
Cecil Taylor (p), Henry Grimes (b),
Sunny Murray (d), Gil Evans (cond).
Englewood Cliffs, N.J., October 10, 1961.

CD 4 [7-9]:
Steve Lacy (sop), Cecil Taylor (p),
Buell Neidlinger (b), Dennis Charles (d).
Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, Rhode Island,
afternoon, July 6, 1957.

I found this information at http://www.jazzmessengers.com/all-cd-albums/CECIL-TAYLOR-SOLAR-RECORDS-THE-COMPLETE-NAT-HENTOFF-SESSIONS-100076.

 Update: I have added to the list of recordings where this material appeared earlier.  The cuts 'Bulbs', 'Pots', and 'Mixed' were released on an LP entitled Mixed along with several cuts without Cecil Taylor. 

I am playing 'Pots' and 'O.P.'

Trane Box 1

I am listening to John Coltrane tonight.  Prestige issued three marvelous box sets: Fearless Leader, Interplay, and Sidesteps.  They are reasonably priced and if you've got 'em you have got a lot of Trane.  I am playing some cuts from Sidesteps.  'Witch's Pit' was released on Dakar. 

• Baritone Saxophone – Cecil Payne, Pepper Adams
• Bass – Doug Watkins
• Drums – Art Taylor
• Piano – Mal Waldron

'Minor Mishap' has been one of my favorite cuts for decades.  It was released on The Cats.  

• Bass – Doug Watkins
• Drums – Louis Hayes
• Guitar – Kenny Burrell
• Piano – Tommy Flanagan
• Tenor Saxophone – John Coltrane
• Trumpet – Idrees Sulieman

Miles Davis in a Box

I need to get back in  touch with my masthead.  Miles Davis is at the center of it all, I announce.  Well, why?  The great Miles Davis box sets have the answer.  I began my serious jazz recording with the first Miles Davis Quintet.  Workin', Cookin', Steamin' and Relaxin'.  I still think that this is one of the most successful bodies of work in modern jazz.  

All four recordings and a lot of extra stuff is included in the Legendary Prestige Quintet Recordings.   This is a box you want next to the stereo.  I am playing my single favorite cut from the box: 'My Funny Valentine.'  The Quintet includes Miles and John Coltrane, along with the most famous rhythm section in modern jazz: Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.  

I'll be posting more on Miles.  Enjoy. 

A Mountain of Monk 4 a Molehill of Money

Happy Birthday Greg Osby!  

I have been enjoying a lot of newly acquired jazz lately.  Today the UPS guy brought me a marvelous little package containing a small Columbia box: Thelonious Monk: Original Album Classics.  I paid about $18 for it.  It is not a new document, as many box sets are.  It simply repackages five original Monk albums.  Each album comes in a little cardboard sleeve with the original front and back printed on it.  As it happened, I had not one of the five, so this was quite a pickup.  The albums are:

1. Straight, No Chaser
2. Underground
3. Criss-Cross
4. Monk's Dream
5. Solo Monk

 I have been dancing to all of them (along with my beagle, Bella, who is a big Monk fan) and each is worth a lot more than three dollars and sixty cents.  The first four albums feature Monk's sax man, Charlie Rouse.  The first two feature Larry Gales on bass and Ben Riley on drums.  The third and fourth, John Ore on bass and Frankie Dunlop on drums. 

Monk's corpus is well served by some brilliant saxophone players.  John Coltrane obviously stands out, but I have sung the praises of Johnny Griffin more than once.  His work on the Five Spot albums (Thelonious in Action and Misterioso) and on the Jazz Messengers/Monk album, is brilliant.  

Charlie Rouse, who was Monk's handpicked sideman on many recordings, might be Monk's most perfect partner.  His playing is exquisite on its own.  He doesn't play with Monk so much as channel Monk's genius through his horn.  Rouse is one of the unsung heroes of modern jazz.  

Here is a sample: Rouses' solo on 'Monk's Dream'.  My excerpt includes the beginning and the solo.  For Monk's brilliant reply, pony up and get the box.  

Thelonious Monk Quartet/Monk's Dream/Monk's Dream (excerpt)

ps.  While I was writing this post, I was listening to the recording.  It just got to 'Bye-ya'.  Wow, what a piece of composing.  So, well inspired, I give you this cut of another version of the song.  Steve Lacy plays soprano and Mal Waldron piano.  I am too lazy right now to look up the rest of the band.  You get a taste here of the Lacy and Waldron's solos.  

Steve Lacy/Bye-Ya/Steve Lacy Plays Thelonious Monk (excerpt)

Don't miss this stuff.  It's what you want to hear.

Ps.  On his way to deliver my Monk, the UPS guy was stung by two hornets.  Don't let his sacrifice go in vain. 

Kenneth Caldwell Blanchard Sr. 1923-2010

My father passed away on January 27th.  As a practitioner of  Zen Buddhism, I suppose I will have to begin celebrating that day in the future, as that is what Buddhists generally do.  There is a kind of appealing symmetry in replacing the birthday with the day of passing.  

My father had enormous reserves of good humor, love, and devotion.  He served in the Pacific in World War II, along with three of his brothers.  One of these heroes of the Republic, my Uncle Bill, did not make it back.  Dad lived life on his own terms.  He was one of those people who genuinely liked nearly everyone he met, and as a result everyone who knew him was better off for it.  Dad was not a jazz fan.  In fact, he had a tin ear.  But he would have been amused to know that I am eulogizing him on this blog.  

It only occurred to me tonight that Dad was born a couple of months after the great bop piano player Red Garland.  So I decided to offer this post on Garland and John Coltrane in my father's honor.  Garland was part of one of the most famous rhythm sections in modern jazz, playing behind Miles Davis and John Coltrane in Miles' first great quintet.  He recorded a number of fine albums as leader, including four with Coltrane: High Pressure, Dig It!, Soul Junction, and All Morning Long. 

Here is a sample from the last in the list.  Donald Byrd plays trumpet, George Joyner bass, and Art Taylor drums.  It is a bit longer than the samples I usually include, but this is a special post. This recording was made, as it happens, a few months after yours truly arrived on the scene. 

Red Garland Quintet/All Morning Long

My readers will know that I offer these samples to illustrate my criticism and to encourage them to obtain the recordings.  My old file sharing service, drop.io, expired without warning and I have switched to a new one, dropbox.  Unfortunately, all the older links are now useless.  

But here is a very useful tip: the above recordings are part of a box set of Coltrane recordings, Side Steps.  You can get this collection of Trane's work as a sideman very cheaply from two sources.  One is eMusic.  The other is Hastings, which is letting it go for $19.99.  That is a steal. Pick it up at Hastings.  You get the booklet and photos. 

And here is another offering from a Coltrane box set: The Classic Quartet: The Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings.   It is from the album First Meditations, recorded in 1965 (John Coltrane (ss, ts) McCoy Tyner (p) Jimmy Garrison (b) Elvin Jones (d)).  Again, in my Father's honor:

Love

So the Zen patriarch was watching a flock of ducks fly overhead.  After they were gone he turned to a monk and asked: "What happened to the flippin' ducks?"  The monk answered "they have flown away."  The patriarch reached over and twisted the monk's nose good and hard.  "Shit!," he cried, "why did you do that?"  The old man replied: "how could they possibly have flown away?"  

Commentary: the only ducks that there ever are are the ducks that are here.  There is no such thing as a duck that has flown away. 

The Passions of a Mingus CENSORED

Note: due to objections from the music industry, the music samples have been removed.  

I have been listening my way through the 41 tracks on Charlie Mingus' Passions of a Man.  I am thinking that is not only the definitive Mingus collection, but one of the great treasures of modern jazz.  Mingus clearly had that genius that most distinguishes jazz: the ability to dig deeply into the veins of various musical traditions, pull out the ore, and melt and mix it into jewels worthy of any crown.  I also suspect that Mingus rates as the second greatest small group leader, surpassed only by Miles Davis.  So what if he was nuts? 

Another reason this collection is priceless is that it includes so many great jazz masters.  I have almost everything Eric Dolphy recorded under his own name.  Now I have more Dolphy.  Good.  In addition, there is Jackie McLean, Pepper Adams, Mal Waldron, Horace Parlan, and Bud Powell.

Passions of a Man includes  

1. Pithecanthropus Erectus,  
2. The Clown,  
3. Blues and Roots,  
4. Mingus at Antibes,  
5. Oh Yeah, and  
6. Tonight at Noon.  

All of them are good, but numbers 1 and 4  are worth their weight in gold.  Mingus at Antibes is one of the finest live jazz recordings.  Ted Curson (tp) Eric Dolphy (as, bcl) Booker Ervin (ts -1/4,6) Bud Powell (p -6) Charles Mingus (b, p -1/5, b -6) Dannie Richmond (d).  Here is a sample:

Prayer for Passive Resistance

And on the recording Oh Yeah, there is Booker Ervin and Roland Kirk.  I have pushed Booker Ervin pretty hard on this blog.  I think he is one of the most under-appreciated geniuses in the business.  Roland Kirk is better appreciated, but I have pushed him as well. Also on the album are Jimmy Knepper on trombone, Doug Watkins on bass, and Dannie Richmond on drums.  Here is a sample:

Hog Calling Blues

This is a long post, but I am not out of steam yet.  A second box set of Mingus available is The Complete 1959 Columbia Recordings.  This is a three disc set with Mingus' magnum opus, Mingus Ah Um, Mingus Dynasty, and a third disc with alternative takes from the first two.  If you don't have the first two, this is a reasonable purchase from eMusic (28 credits).  If you do have them, you can always download the third disc.

Mingus Ah Um is one of the core recordings in any good jazz library.  Mingus Dynasty is almost as toe-curling good.  The band: Richard Williams (tp) Jimmy Knepper (tb) Jerome Richardson (fl, bars) John Handy (as) Booker Ervin, Benny Golson (ts) Teddy Charles (vib -1/5) Roland Hanna (p -1/5) Nico Bunick (p -6) Charles Mingus (b) Dannie Richmond (d, timp).  Booker Ervin again, and Roland Hanna!  Here is one last delicious sample:

Censored

Well, that's a pretty good bunch of Mingus.  I can't resist mentioning another album available from eMusic.  The Town Hall Concert (1964) consists of two very long, very fine recordings.  eMusic has it for, well, two credits.  More Eric Dolphy.  More brilliant jazz.

Okay, that's enough work for one Friday night.  Here in the Dakotas, ice and snow are coming in.  Mingus is keeping me warm.  If you like what I am doing, drop me a line. 

The Box Set Problematic

If you are a jazz collector, you are confronted with a problematic over box sets. Last summer I purchased John Coltrane: Fearless Leader, a collection of all the sets Trane recorded as leader in 1957-58. This kind of collection looks irresistible to a jazz fan, at least until he or she buys it. In the first place, you get a lot of music for your dollar. Fearless Leader included about a dozen Coltrane albums that I don't have to look for anymore and only one that I already had. Second, a box set typically includes a lot of previously unreleased material: alternate takes, etc. Third, it documents a period of time in a distinguished career and fourth,and most important of all, the material in jazz box sets is usually arranged by recording session. A single recording session is a lot like a single malt scotch: it is not necessarily better, but it does have its own unique character and allows the connoisseur to taste that.

On the other hand, box sets tend to gather dust on the shelf and remain unplayed on the iPod. Because the box is such a big lump of material, it's hard to remember what you listened to last. I solved the problem with Fearless Leader by replacing the disc 1, disc 2 album identification with recording session info., and tagging each song with the album title it was released on. That has made it easier to slowly listen my way through the material. But that was a lot of work, and the work is maintained only on my home desk top and my iPod.

I was recently tempted by two more box sets. One of them was Coltrane's European Tours. This represents the classic quartet: McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, Elvin Jones on drums. But I had to ask myself: do I really need four versions of Naima? It is a great composition, one of the best standards in jazz. But how many live versions is enough? I passed, and picked out three of the individual albums on EMusic: Bye, Bye, Blackbird and The Paris Concert (62), and Afro Blue Impressions (63). All three are excellent examples of the quartet in this period, but the last is superb and ranks with almost anything Trane put out. Naima is there, along with My Favorite Things. The polish of each performance and the interplay between the four makes it look like they wanted this to be their legacy.

But I did acquire Herbie Hancock's Complete Blue Note Sixties Sessions. This is a priceless collection, including seven complete albums. Two of them, Maiden Voyage and Empyrean Isles, I already had, but most of the rest of the material was to die for. Taken as a whole, it documents a jazz master and brilliant composer coming into his own. The above mentioned albums are essential items in any core jazz collection. Each composition has the colors of the sea-voyage theme woven into its fabric, and one can almost smell the salt air.

The collection is also interesting for including Inventions and Dimensions, a very experimental work that, well, doesn't quite work out. Hancock gave his side men nothing more than time signatures and some general indications to go on. That's cutting edge! As Mark Twain said of Wagner's music, "it's not as bad as it sounds." The sixties would be the decade when a lot of jazz giants succumbed to the general disintegration of the culture. This material is worth listening to at least once. Everything else on the Blue Note box is worth listening to over and over. Hancock's work for Blue Note in the early sixties is one more reason any American has to be proud of her country.