John Lindberg

I have had admired bassist John Lindberg's work for some time, but I haven't listened to it recently.  What a pleasure!  Lindberg recorded three albums in the early 90's with Albert Mangelsdorff on trombone and Eric Watson on piano: Dodging Bullets, Quartet Afterstorm, and Resurrection of a Dormant Soul.  The latter two included Ed Thigpen on drums.  Together, the three make for a very fine document of a brilliant jazz leader and bass player.  Sitting down and listening to the three together will be one powerful jazz experience. 

Lindberg's sentimentality certainly tilts to the avant garde.  These albums keep close, however, to the hard bop taste.  I can't think that any jazz fan will not find something here to treasure.

I am playing the title cuts from the first two albums and 'E.t.p.' from the last.  I would note that Eric Watson's playing on the last album is channeling Thelonious Monk.  Listen to it, if you are a Monk fan and tell me you don't wonder if master's ghost is in the keys. 

This is wonderful music. 

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

For me, this is the composition that keeps on giving. All these years after I first heard it on John McLaughlin's album (see my earlier post), it still raises the hairs on the back of neck. Charlie Mingus' incomparable homage to Lester Young is my favorite jazz melody. It's been given lyrics at least a couple of times. I can't listen to it without remembering Joni Mitchell's words:

When Charlie
speaks of Lester,
You know someone
great has gone.
That swingin'
sweetest music man,
had a Porky Pig Hat on.

This blog, which I started with the idea of building a library of comments around Miles Davis, has wandered a bit. I have focused on a lot of avant garde recordings, and some pretty obscure and challenging ones at that. There was a time when I was contemptuous of such things. No more. This last week I acquired a duet album with Steve Lacy on soprano sax and Eric Watson on piano. It's classic Lacy: melancholy and ponderous. But I can't tear myself away from it. And it has a haunting interpretation of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. The disc isn't easy to come by, but they have it on eMusic. Here it is:

Steve Lacy & Eric Watson/Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/Spirit of Mingus

This is a jazz gourmet tasting a splendid meal. I love the way the horn and piano divide the melody up, with Lacy stating it twice in different moods, and the Watson moving on to the second movement. Check out the whole thing.

Here is the original recording from Mingus Ah Um. Booker Ervin, whom I have celebrated frequently on these pages, plays tenor on the album.

Charles Mingus/Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/Mingus Ah Um

Mingus produced a magnificent album. He doesn't hog the stage. You'd be hard put, if you didn't know, that the bass was in charge. The horns are all elvish magic. If this isn't in your library, you don't have a library.

Here is another take, from YouTube. Mingus on bass, Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax. Montreux, 1975.