Don Cherry

Many avant garde jazz men have attempted compositions on the scale and of the form of the great classical composers.  Don Cherry is a fine example.  The two CD set The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Don Cherry presents this work.  It is very hard, very compelling music.  You can find part of this music on Cherry's recording Complete Communion. 

I am playing the title cut from that album.  Here is the lineup: 

• Bass – Henry Grimes, J.-F. Jenny-Clark (tracks: 1-3, 2-1)
• Cornet – Don Cherry
• Drums – Edward Blackwell*
• Tenor Saxophone – Leandro "Gato" Barbieri* (tracks: 1-1 to 2-1)
• Tenor Saxophone, Piccolo Flute – Pharoah Sanders (tracks: 1-3 to 2-6)
• Vibraphone, Piano – Karl Berger (tracks: 1-3, 2-1) 

'Complete Communion' is a marvelous articulation of the soul of jazz along a number of traditional dimensions.  Like a lot of Cherry's music, it is drum heavy, but everyone gets their time here.  I really dig this music.

Many jazz fans will know Cherry only from his album with Coltrane: The Avant Garde.   I am playing 'Bemsha Swing', a great Monk tune, and 'Focus on Sanity', an Ornette Coleman composition.  Here is the lineup from that recording:

• Bass – Charlie Haden (tracks: 1, 3), Percy Heath (tracks: 2, 4, 5)
• Drums – Ed Blackwell
• Soprano Saxophone – John Coltrane (tracks: 3)
• Tenor Saxophone – John Coltrane (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 5)
• Trumpet – Don Cherry

More Trane

I think that the most essential Coltrane issue is the The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings.   That collection is the heart of John Coltrane.  Less well known is Live At the Village Vanguard Again!  It's no rival to the former, but it is still full of unstable genius bursting forth in all directions.  I am playing 'Naima'.  Here is the band:

• Bass – Jimmy Garrison
• Drums – Rashied Ali
• Percussion – Emanuel Rahim
• Piano – Alice Coltrane
• Tenor Saxophone, Flute – Pharoah Sanders
• Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – John Coltrane

The cut features a long, leathered  solo by Sanders.  I like it, like it or not.  There is Trane enough for everyone here. 

I am also playing the same composition from the 1961 recordings.  This is the live one.  Here is a marvelously complete list of the personnel: 

• Double Bass – Jimmy Garrison (tracks: 1.1, 1.3, 2.3, 3.1, 3.3, 3.6, 4.1, 4.3, 4.4), Reggie Workman (tracks: 1.1, 1.2, 1.4 to 2.5, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 4.1 to 4.5)
• Drums – Elvin Jones (tracks: 1.1 to 2.1, 2.3 to 4.5), Roy Haynes (tracks: 2.2)
• Oboe, Bassoon [Contra] – Garvin Bushell (tracks: 2.3, 2.4, 4.4, 4.5)
• Oud – Ahmed Abdul-Malik (tracks: 1.1, 2.3, 4.1)
• Piano – McCoy Tyner (tracks: 1.1, 1.3 to 1.6, 2.3 to 2.5, 3.2 to 4.5)
• Saxophone [Alto], Clarinet [Bass] – Eric Dolphy (tracks: 1.1 to 2.4, 3.3 to 3.5, 4.1, 4.3 to 4.5)
• Saxophone [Soprano, Tenor] – John Coltrane 

The cut I am playing is 1.6.  Eric Dolphy has something to say here, as does Tyner.  

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, Trane, & Stitt

One Miles box set that doesn't get nearly the recognition it deserves is Miles Davis in Stockholm 1960 Complete with John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt.  This covers two concerts, several months apart.  I am playing 'All Blues' from the first disc.  A lot of the commentary focuses on the contrast between Coltrane and Stitt.  Guess who wins? 

Anyway, I think that this is the most penetrating and compelling version of the composition that I have heard.  The Trio behind the horns is Wynton Kelley on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. 

A little piece of Coltrane

Almost every note Coltrane played into a microphone has been issued under his name, with the exception of course of his recordings with Miles Davis.  I think I have all the Trane box sets, except for Side Steps.  I haven't ponied up for that one because I have almost everything that is on it.  Today I picked up another puzzle piece at the Last Stop CD Shop in Sioux Falls.  

Mating Call, with pianist Tadd Dameron as leader, is not an essential Coltrane recording.  It is a solid document from Trane's 1950's work.   It was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio on November 30th 1956, with John Simmons on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.  I haven't heard anything else by Dameron, and I am guessing, neither have you.  What I heard on this recording is enough to get me looking.  

Here is a sample:

Tadd Dameron/Romas/Mating Call

Coltrane 57

On the last day of May, 1957, John Coltrane recorded his first session as leader. Six out of the seven takes were released as Coltrane, not to be confused with the 1962 album of the same title.  The last cut, 'I hear a Rhapsody,' would wind up on the hodgepodge Lush Life. Here's the line-up and song list, from the essential Jazz Discography Project. 

Johnny Splawn (tp -1/4) John Coltrane (ts) Sahib Shihab (bars -1,3,4) Mal Waldron (p -1/3) Red Garland (p -4/7) Paul Chambers (b) Albert Heath (d) Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, May 31, 1957

1.	Straight Street
2.	While My Lady Sleeps
3.	Chronic Blues
4.	Bakai
5.	Violets For Your Furs
6.	Time Was
7.	I Hear A Rhapsody

The great Prestige session with the Davis Quintet were behind him, but he probably looked to everyone like a great sideman with a chance to come into his own.  Coltrane was not yet his moment, but it is very solid hard bop and Trane's brilliant sound, all his own, is on fully display here.  There is just no other horn in jazz that ever opened up the same space or achieved the same velvety rich emotional texture.  

Mal Waldron plays on the first three numbers, and Red Garland thereafter.  Waldron would prove to be the genius, but I think that Garland's work on this album is superior.  

The highlight of the album, and what sets is apart from rest of the work in the Fearless Leader Box, is Sahib Shihab on  baritone sax.  Trane would later deploy a lot of low horns, especially on his Africa Brass Sessions.  I wish he had done more of that here, for the effect is electrifying.  This is especially evident on 'Bakai'.  

But here is the best cut from the May 31st session.  It is a straightforward blues, and Shihab lets it rip with his opening solo.  Trane follows, his notes climbing on top of one another in contrast to Shihab's serial blows on the baritone.  Splawn's solo is the least impressive.  He plays as if he thinks he's supposed to be keeping some kind of secret, but that's not so bad for by then the secret is out.  Waldron turns the dial back up by dissecting the melody into chunks, and the chunks into individual notes.  Each little section rings like a sweet bell tone.  I love this cut, if you can't tell. 

Chronic Blues

Coltrane 57 is well worth having your Trane set.  If you don't have it, I highly recommend the Fearless Leader box.  It is the best presentation of Coltrane' s work before he really comes into his own with Giant Steps.  The single recording is also available from eMusic for 6 credits.  

Enjoy.  Purchase.  Drop me a line. 

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. 

Stephen Brown on Kind of Blue

I have been listening to Cecil Taylor today, and had intended to post something on his wonderfully challenging music, when I happened to glance at a copy of the Times Literary Supplement, my single favorite book review publication, and found "Finished Sketches," a review by Stephen Brown of Richard Williams' The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue" and the remaking of modern music. A review of a book about an album had the hair standing up on the back of my neck. Find a copy of this review and read it. It's the best short piece I have seen on KOB. Here is a sample from the article, transcribed by sight:

Listen to "Blue in Green". It's five-and-a-half minutes long. Coltrane doesn't even know he's supposed to be playing on the tune until Davis decides to include him right as the tape starts to roll. "Producer: Just you four guys on this, Miles? Miles: Five . . . (to Coltrane) No, you play." And then they play and improvise over an unusual ten-bar form which doesn't properly close but loops back on itself --with such beautiful ideas and exquisite control that you wonder why the piece hasn't entered into the classical repertory. I don't mean the tune -- I means this improvised performance of it. It should be copied note for note, nuance for nuance, and played in concert. It is one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century music.

I have written in praise of Evan's composition, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful songs in all of modern jazz. Brown speaks with more musical authority than I ever will, and with apparently as much love. It was delicious to get that little bit of information. That Trane plays into the subtlest fibers of the melody's heart with no preparation at other than hearing the beginning, that he didn't even know he was to put his horn in his mouth, that may constitute an argument for the existence of God that trumps a thousand years of philosophy and theology. Who or what but God could make a Coltrane? Or an Evans? I would add Miles, but Miles probably thought that God had stolen his seat.

I expect that many or most of my readers are well familiar with this album. But just in case someone isn't, or maybe doesn't have it handy right at this moment, here is the number. Listen to it now, knowing what we both know.

Miles Davis/Blue in Green/Kind of Blue

If you don't have the recording, by all means rush out and get it. Shove people out of the way if you have to. No, don't, but think about doing it. KOB is easy to get for pennies. I got mine years ago by joining a record club.

ps. If you click on the picture above, you will get a lot more. It includes Evans along with Trane, Cannonball, and Miles. It makes a good background image for my laptop. Oh, and it is taken at a 1958 date, a recording of '58 Miles.

More Miles at Stockholm

What a splendid chunk of jazz the Miles Quintet at Stockholm box has turned out to be. I listened to disc 1, with Trane playing, while driving around town today. I believe it is the March 22, 1960 concert. Two of the numbers are from Kind of Blue: 'So What', and 'All Blues.' They come closer to the perfection of KOB than any live versions of these songs I have heard. I sat in my car at the supermarket tapping the steering wheel for a long time before I persuaded myself to shut it off and go in.

Here is a sample from disc 1. Miles is brilliant. Trane is transcendent. Wynton Kelly is great enough for me.

All Blues/Miles Davis with John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt/In Stockholm Complete 1960

Coltrane does this marvelous restrained squealing thing with his horn that scratches itches I didn't know I had. Kelly's solo rises to the occasion, keeping the solid shuffle solid all the way to the end. You just gotta get this one.

ps. I remain hungry for comments! I am feeding you. Feed me!

Miles Davis Quintet Stockholm 1960

I have posted on the advantages and disadvantages of the boxed set. There is really only one drawback, but it's significant. It's just harder to remember what you have and have not listened to recently, and that often means that a lot of the box goes unappreciated for long stretches. But packaged sets are a necessity for even a moderately serious collector like myself.

Milesophiles have a lot to be thankful for on this count. At least three box sets are worth their weight in gold:

1. Miles in Person at the Blackhawk,
2. The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel, and
3. Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall.

The first two are treasures both for the volume and the virtue of the contents. The Plugged Nickel recordings cover eight CDs.

To these I would add a couple more:

4. The Legendary Prestige Quintet Recordings

This box contains the famous four recordings: Workin', Cookin', Relaxin', and Steamin'. If you haven't already got these, the box is cost effective. It also has a lot of unreleased odds and ends, including a full disc of unreleased material. Most valuable are a couple of snippet of Steve Allen introducing Miles on the Tonight Show. I love how Allen, who I greatly admire, apologizes for the complexity of the music. "It's not just blowing notes, as my grandmother says."

I recently obtained another box: Miles recordings in 1960 with Sonny Stitt and John Coltrane. Coming a year after Kind of Blue, it's very interesting. Trane is present on six of twenty-three numbers, but there is a brief interview with him. Gotta love that. The rhythm section is Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. I am still workin' my way through it, but I think it's superb. It verifies the masthead to this blog: at the center of it all is Miles Davis.

Here is a sample of a piece where the horns sit out, and you get a good taste for Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb.

Softly as in a Morning Sunrise/Miles Davis Quintet with John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt

That is a haunting interpretation of a haunting melody. Now here's a sample with Miles and Stitt on display. This one makes my toes curl.

Round Midnight/Miles Davis Quintet with John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt

Put this one on your Christmas list. Every note is pregnant with Miles' genius, no matter who blows, strums, taps, or beats it out. It is the kind of music that makes you think that God was onto something when he decided to create this world.