The Low Down on Frank Lowe

Frank Lowe didn’t like the studio system much and so didn’t leave behind the kind of legacy that he deserved.  He was an avant garde jazzman to his core but, as is often the case, there were deep streaks of tradition in his locks.  I have been listening today to a new acquisition: Decision in Paradise (1985).  All the comments on the recording I have read describe it as “conservative”.  It is in fact a genuine exploration of the bop sentiment.  In many ways, this is my favorite kind of jazz recording: an avant garde revolutionary trying out the old whiskey. 

I chose the album mostly for the band.  Don Cherry on trumpet suggests wild, but the suggestion goes wide of the mark.  Grachan Moncur III on trombone also misleads.  But I am a big fan of Moncur.  Geri Allen on piano, well, what’s not to like?  Charnette Moffett plays bass and Charles Moffett beats the skins. 

I am playing the title cut and ‘You Dig!’  This is one album that you will dig.  It’s available from Amazon for about $5.  Get it and dig it. 

I am also playing a cut from The Flam (1976), a more characteristic Lowe recording, I suspect, and a flamboyant avant garde document.  Joseph Bowie plays a spitting trumpet, Leo Smith draws from a quiver of horns, Alex Blake is on bass and Charles Bobo Shaw is on drums.  Lowe’s tenor is squelching and screechy, in a Charles Gaye sort of way.  Let it run. 

Happy New Year to Jazz Fans (and everyone else) Update!

I am working on a new show, and I plan to produce a podcast to go with it.  The next show will feature some insufficiently sung side men: Marion Brown, Andrew Cyrille, and Reggie Workman.  That's as far as I have thought it through.  

Update!  I have a playlist completed now.  In  addition to the artists mentioned above, you will hear some Grachan Moncur III and Booker Ervin.  Again: Happy New Year! 

The Way Ahead

Okay, there it was.  Sitting in the top left hand corner of my blessed Penguin Guide.  Page one thousand, one hundred, and something.  Archie Shepp's The Way Ahead.  I can't say why I ignored it until now.  I have Shepp's famous 1964 recordings: Four for Trane, The New York Contemporary Five, and some others.  This one from 1968 is close to ground zero.  

Well, I have it now.  It is vintage Shepp, raw, wild, and uncompromising, like someone trying to punch his way out of jail cell.  If you the 64 recordings and would fight to give them up, you'll want this one too.  If you think that Shepp is all about noise, you will still want to hear the opening number.  It is so spectacularly good that this one number would suffice to demonstrate Shepp's genius.  Here it is:

Archie Shepp/Damn if I Know/The Way Ahead

And here is the lineup, courtesy of the Jazz Discography:

Jimmy Owens (tp) Grachan Moncur III (tb) Archie Shepp (ts) Walter Davis Jr. (p) Ron Carter (b) Roy Haynes (d -1,4) Beaver Harris (d -2,4)

Now I admit that one think that caught my eye was the presence of Grachan Moncur III.  I have been paying a lot of attention to this trombone wizard lately.  Well, it is Father's Day, and I had a few bucks to spend.  So I spent them on Shepp's album and on Moncur's Exploration.  

At least two numbers on the latter were worth whatever you have to pay.  'Love and Hate' is one of the pieces that stops you in your tracks.  What am I listening to?  How can I possibly get more of it?  If you want to hear it, sorry.  You'll have to pony up for the recording.  It's on eMusic, and you can get it from Amazon.  

But here is a piece from the album, a composition that also appears on the Shepp album.  It will give you some idea what this is worth.  

Grachan Moncur III Octet/Frankenstein/Exploration

 Go for it. 

Lee Morgan

For some reason I am in a Lee Morgan mood tonight.  I have mentioned Morgan occasionally, but I don't think I have devoted a post to him.  High time, squire!  I got to know Morgan mostly from his work with the Jazz Messengers.  I am very fond of his most popular album, Sidewinder, but I have said that Search for the New Land was his magnum opus.  The Gigolo, an attempt to repeat the commercial success of Sidewinder, is worth a listen, as is Candy.  I can also recommend The Young Lions. 

Whenever I think of Morgan, I think of two things.  One is that he recommend Wayne Shorter as a replacement for Benny Golson when Golson left the Messengers.  That, I think, was a great contribution to modern jazz.  The second thing is that Morgan's girlfriend/wife shot him through the heart at Slugg's jazz club in NYC in 1972.  Morgan was 33.  I wonder if she ever had any idea what she was putting a bullet into the heart of?  

Morgan was a bit frustrated about his great success with Sidewinder.  He thought his best work at the time was on Grachan Moncur III's Evolution.  I concur.  I blogged about Moncur recently.  Having listened to a lot of Morgan tonight, his work on Evolution is more serious.  Here is a sample:

Grachan Moncur III/Air Raid/Evolution.

And here is a sample from Morgan's 1957 album.  

Lee Morgan/Since I For You/Candy

 Enjoy.  Purchase. 

Grachan Moncur III & the Electric Fetus

I spent my birthday this year watching my beloved Minnesota Twins get beat twice by the New York Yankees.  Well, at least it weren't the White Sox.  There might still be a God.  While I was enjoying the Twin Cities, I stopped at the Electric Fetus.  The Fetus is one of the last great Hippie record stores.  Lots of incense on sale, and a pretty good selection of CDs.  

Their jazz row is not large, but it beats the snot out of Barnes and Noble.  I picked up four nice discs.  One was Grant Green/The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark.  It's a core collection item in the Penguin Guide, for good reason.  I'll probably post on it after I can give it a better listen.  Another was Ornette Coleman's The Complete Science Fiction Sessions.  If Ken Laster likes it, it must be good.  

Most intriguing to me were two recordings by trombone player Grachan Moncur III.  I didn't have anything by Moncur, nor did I have more than the vaguest idea what he was.  I bought the two CDs on the basis of their sidemen.  Evolution (1963) had Lee Morgan on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto sax, Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Tony Williams on drums.  That is one impressive lineup.  Some Other Stuff had Wayne Shorter on tenor, Herbie Hancock on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Williams again on drums. 

Standing there in the stacks, I did a little Sherlock Holmes mojo.  The recordings come at about the same time as Tony Williams' magnificent Life Time.  That suggested an adventurous orientation.  That was supported by the presence of Shorter and Hancock, who were just at that moment joining Miles Davis' second great quintet.  There is also the fact that I have recently been interested in Bobby Hutcherson.  I have to confess that the Blue Note covers have a language all their own, and these spoke to me. 

Besides all that, one can't have too much Lee Morgan or Jackie McLean.   Last but not least, I think the trombone is under-utilized in modern jazz.  Elementary, my dear Watson.  Well, what I got was exactly what I was looking for: edgy jazz with an avant garde orientation at about the pitch of Miles Davis' mid-sixties albums.  

In honor of Minnesota's ball team, in which I still steadfastly believe, here is a sample.  It features nice solos by Moncur, Shorter, and Hancock, and a really nice Hancock/McBee dialogue. 

Grachan Moncur III/The Twins/Some Other Stuff

Moncur disappear after the seventies, but has recently resurfaced.  Give this guy a listen.