Red Garland & Paul Chambers

 

Pianist Red Garland shares at least one honor with John Coltrane, besides often playing behind Trane.  Both were fired by Miles Davis.  I finally got around to adding Red Garland Revisited to my collection.  The cause in both cases was heroin.  

Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones were often referred to simply as the rhythm section.  That is mostly due to their work as the platform for Davis and Trane in Miles' first great quintet.  You can find Garland and Chambers on a lot of seminal albums in the late fifties. 

I finally got around to adding Red Garland Revisited to my collection.  It is a superb showcase for Garland's talent and also features some fine work by guitarist Kenny Burrell.  I am playing the two cuts with Burrell on them, both Miles Davis standards: 'Walkin' and 'Four'.  Chambers plays bass and Art Taylor is on drums.  

I bought the album on the recommendation of the Penguin Jazz Guide 1001.  Shortly after the entry on the above disc, I read one on Paul Chambers Bass On Top.  Had to have it.  Burrell shows up again, as does Art Taylor.  Hank Jones plays piano.  This is a great one for bass fans, especially if you like jazz bass played with a bow.  I am playing another piece from the Davis playlist: 'The Theme'. 

Kenny Dorham Comes To Mind

A little bit of exquisite hard bop from the golden period of exquisite hard bop: Kenny Dorham: 'Round Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia (1956).  I noticed a review of this recording in the latest incarnation of the Penguin Jazz Guide and realized with a shock that, although I bought a copy of Vol. 1 decades ago, it somehow wasn't in my iTunes library.  Well, I fixed that. 

Cafe Bohemia is one of the great Blue Note live recordings.  It has distinctly Jazz Messengers sound, what with Dorham and Bobby Timmons on piano.  I have the title cut playing on my L365 station.  It will make your day.  

Here is the lineup:

• Bass – Sam Jones
• Drums – Arthur Edgehill
• Guitar – Kenny Burrell
• Piano – Bobby Timmons
• Tenor Saxophone – J.R. Monterose
• Trumpet – Kenny Dorham

Being in a Dorham mood, I also posted the title cut from Una Mas (1963).  It's a very nice, slightly Latin bop.  Here is the lineup:

• Bass – Butch Warren
• Drums – Anthony Williams
• Piano – Herbie Hancock
• Tenor Saxophone – Joe Henderson
• Trumpet – Kenny Dorham

You can't beat that group.  Anything with Tony Williams on it is a treasure.  Dorham's playing is superb all the way through. 

Finally, I added a cut from one of those Sonny Rollins recordings that might be easily overlooked: Rollins Plays for Bird (1956), which has the subtitle: Sonny Rollins Quintet with Kenny Dorham and Max Roach.  The cut is 'Kids Know'. 

• Bass – George Morrow
• Drums – Max Roach
• Piano – Wade Legge
• Tenor Saxophone – Sonny Rollins
• Trumpet – Kenny Dorham

Roach is Roach and Rollins is Rollins.  Dorham is luminous. 

Some New Music on Live365

I've been swamped lately.  One of these days I'm going to get things right.  Or so says Mose Allison.  I have added an hour of music to my Live365 channel.  I started with a Mose Allison gem.  The rest are from albums that I purchased when I first began buying jazz records.  Here is a playlist:

1. Mose Allison/Days Like This/The Word from Mose Allison
2. Bill Evans Trio/Pensativa/Crosscurrents
3. Warne Marsh/Blues in G Flat/The Unissued Copenhagen Studio Session
4. Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane/Freight Trane/Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane
5. Kenny Burrell/ Midnight Blue/Midnight Blue
6. Zoot Sims/Jitterbug Waltz/Warm Tenor
7. Zoot Sims/You Go To My Head/Warm Tenor
8. Wes Montgomery/Come Rain or Shine/The Complete Riverside Recordings
9. Bill Evans/The Days of Wine and Roses/Affinity
10. Bill Evans/Blue and Green/Affinity

The Allison piece speaks for itself.  Crosscurrents, with Warne Marsh  Lee Konitz backing the Bill Evans Trio (Eddi Gomez on bass and Eliot Zigmund on drums), was one of the albums that hooked me into jazz.  I follow it with Warne Marsh from an unissued recording that got issued.  

I bought a bunch of albums with Kenny Burrell on them after I saw Burrell in concert in Southern California.  Burrell and Trane is a great example.  But I think that Midnight Blue is one of those albums that ought to be at the top of the list.  The recording is superb, and the playing is transcendental.  From Discogs.com:

Bass - Major Holley  Congas - Ray Barretto  Drums - Bill English Tenor Saxophone - Stanley Turrentine

Zoot Sims' Warm Tenor was one of my first purchases, back in Jonesboro Arkansas when I was still mowing my parent's lawn.  That is about as revealing an album title as ever I saw.  From the All Music Guide: This quartet set with pianist Jimmy Rowles, bassist George Mraz and drummer Mousie Alexander.  

I had a double album by Wes Montgomery.  I don't know for sure if this piece was on it, but it is a good sample of what I fell in love with.  If Zoot's horn was warm, Wes had about as warm a line as any guitar jazz man. Now that I think about it, I am sure that this was on the original album because I recorded it and played on the stereo at the liquor store where I worked.  My boss complained. 

I added a couple of pieces from Affinity, with Bill Evans and Toots Thielemans on harmonica.  Same trio as above, with Larry Schneider on horns.  This is just exquisite jazz. 

Coltrane's Interplay Box

The three box sets of John's Coltrane's Prestige recordings are treasure troves for jazz fans.  The largest and best by far is Fearless Leader.  If you have that one, you have most of Trane's early albums as leader.  Side Steps and Interplay contain Trane's work as a side man and double listed albums, respectively. 

Tonight I have been listening to Interplay, which just arrived in the mail.  Two of the sessions included in the box were one that I have been long familiar with.  I had a double LP that included Cats, with Tommy Flanagan as leader, and Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane.  I think that the former, like Flanagan's piano, has always been unfairly reviewed.  Flanagan was all heart, and he was a great partner behind a lot of Kenny Burrell recordings.  Here is one that has long been a favorite of mine. Burrell is here, along with Idrees Sulieman on trumpet, Doug Watkins on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums.  It was recorded in 1959, which might have been the single most magnificent year in the history of jazz. 

Minor Mishap

A recording I didn't have was Cattin' with Coltrane and Quinichette.  I don't know Paul Quinichette.  I think that the interplay between the two tenors is well worth listening to.  The incomparable Mal Waldron is on piano, Julian Euell on bass, and Ed Thigpen on drums.  Here is a sample:

Vodka

It is interesting to note something about the metaphysics of jazz criticism.  Both of these recordings are solid jazz, and if they had been recorded by some minor league daimon of jazz, they would be justly praised.  But because Trane is playing on them they get compared to the Genesis and Romans of his old and new testaments, and are found wanting.  There is nothing wrong with that, it's just interesting.  If you are a Coltranist, as I surely am, you want to know the whole Bible. 

I am thinking about listening to the Trane corpus chronologically, and posting on that experience.  No promises, but if I do it you can read about it here. 

Merry Christmas

Maybe light blogging ahead.  It's hard to tell.  I am on my way down south to see my favorite hero of the Republic, my father.  Here is a sample from an album I tried to find years ago and failed.  Kenny Burrell's Stormy Monday.  All things considered, Burrell is probably my favorite jazz guitar player.

This is Burrell's version of a recently featured song.  Burrell is less interested in the mood of the song and more in it's musical architecture than Wes Montgomery was.  Enjoy the comparison.

Kenny Burrell/One for my baby/Stormy Monday

From the All Music Guide:

[Burrell is] joined by pianist Richard Wyands, bassist John Heard, and drummer Lenny McBrowne

 And here is something else:

Barney Kessel Kenny Burrel Grant Green _Blue mist
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Close Your Eyes

I mentioned the album Bean Bags, and the number "Close Your Eyes," in my last post. I have had vinyl copy for more than twenty years, but I only snagged the digital copy this week as a result of hearing the same song on the Jarrett Blue Note Album. For a very long time, whenever I thought of jazz, I thought of this one recording.

"Close Your Eyes" was written by Bernice Petkere in 1932. Joe Young wrote lyrics for it. It was first recorded a year later by Ray Noble. I won't offer the lyrics here. They don't really go with the melody, which is rather darker and more moody. It's close your eyes and I'll be gone, not close your eyes and I'll kiss you. It has been recorded many times by many greats, including Jarrett, but I can't imagine a more brilliant interpretation than the one on Bean Bags.

In addition to Coleman Hawkins gorgeous tenor, and Milt Jackson's vibes, two other of my early jazz heroes were on the album: Kenny Burrell and Tommy Flanagan. I think Burrell might be better at dialectic exchange than any other jazz guitarist. He is in perfect form here. But if Burrell is justly famous, Tommy Flanagan never got the respect he deserves. I just think his accompaniment is exquisite. Eddie Jones plays bass, and Connie Kay is on drums.

Flanagan opens with a marvelous invitation to the main melody, and then Hawkins and Jackson immediately open up a dialogue, with Burrell and Flanagan playing their own secondary dialogue just beneath the central conversation. After that Bags takes off with his dialogue over the piano, bass and drums. Hawkins ups the energy level with smeary notes that contrast nicely with the previous precision of the vibes. Then Burrell, bluesy and swinging as always, does the third and I think best solo of the piece. Flanagan goes next, shifting a bit from intense to pensive. Finally everyone comes back on board, reversing the beginning.

All the album is good, but I won't cheat you. Here is perfect bop:

Coleman Hawkins & Milt Jackson/Close Your Eyes/Bean Bags

These are magic bean stalk beans. Get 'em and plant 'em, and go after the golden goose. Did I really write that?

Albert Ayler vs. Kenny Burrell

I have been listening to a lot of avant garde jazz lately, and maybe it's a sign of spiritual progress and maybe it's a sign of brain damage, but I am getting to like it. There are moments when a coherent tune starts to bore me, and I long for a spooky, twisting, what the Hell was that? line to keep life interesting. I confess that I even picked up an Albert Ayler disc from eMusic.

I first encountered Ayler after reading a short piece in Rolling Stone (I think!) by Patti Smith. I bought an Ayler LP and couldn't make heads or tails of it, even when I was stoned. That may have been thirty years ago. So it was with some trepidation that I downloaded Spiritual Unity, by the Albert Ayler Trio. Apparently my ear is getting to the level of consciousness that Patti Smith reached when I was a very young man. The recording is very well made, with every tone and echo evident. But it is pure Page Four jazz: no listener could hum the tune, for there is no tune, and I doubt that the most seasoned player could accurately reproduce it after a single hearing. When you are alone with Albert Ayler, you are really alone.

I have loaded Ghosts, from Spiritual Unity, to Drop.io. Give it a listen, to see what Avant Garde is all about. Gary Peacock is on bass, and Sunny Murray on drums. Ayler carves out a cavenerous space, and fills it with bits of traditional melody, and then smears them across the board.

But then compare it with Kenny Burrell's Chitlins Con Carne, from Midnight Blue. The latter was one of the first jazz CDs I purchased, from Rhino Records in Claremont California. It was a remainder, if I remember right, so I got it cheap. Midnight Blue is one of the best recorded jazz discs I have ever heard. Every buzz and thump and exhale is on the tracks. Stanley Turrentine plays tenor, Ray Baretto plays congo (a great idea!), Major Holley plays bass, and Bill English is on drums. This is so damn good it makes your toes curl. It's pure Page Three Jazz: a theme stated, and then milked for all its worth. Burrell and Turrentine engage in a platonic dialogue. The congo is the wheels the cart runs on, while Burrell and Turrentine dance on the flatbed. The bluesy heart beats across the action.

NPR has a short piece on the recording, with a couple of tunes available (including, unfortunately, the one I have on Drop.io. See NPR Jazz Library.

It's okay to have angels hovering about the top of the picture. That's the space for avant garde. But the manger scene has to have a baby, straw, and goats. That, and all the smells and colors of real life. Ayler's job is to decorate the upper arches, Burrell is the center piece. You can sample both at by Drop.io link. If you like what you hear, buy the discs.