Recent Live365 Program

My Live365 program has about ten hours of jazz on it now.  I haven't had the time/energy to post a complete play list here, but I will try to list new stuff as I add it.  Here is what went up this week:

1. William Parker/Sunday Morning March/Scrapbook
2. Thelonious Monk/Misterioso/Misterioso
3. Steve Lacy and Eric Watson/Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/Spirit of Mingus
4. Rob Garcia Quartet/Perennial/Perennial
5. Joe Henderson/Y Todavia La Quiero/Relaxin' at Camarillo
6. David Murray/India/Octet Plays Trane
7. Chico Freeman/Infant Eyes/The Unspoken Word

That's a pretty good slice of music.  Most of it is relatively unknown.  The William Parker album is a "violin trio" with Parker on bass, Hamid Drake on drums, and Billy Bang on violin.  It gives the album a classical touch but the arrangements are a range of African American roots music.   The Steve Lacy/Eric Watson album is what you get when you get a Steve Lacy duet.  

I am still rather possessed by the DKV Trio albums I posted about earlier.  This is certainly the most captivating free jazz I have ever heard. 

Jazz Note 4: Thankgiving

Here's a playlist of the current show, which debuts at 9pm Central tonight, Saturday, November 27th.  Tonight's show is a mixed bag of more accessible music from mostly less accessible albums.  Something to cut the taste of turkey and give your digestion something to work with.  You'll find roaring blues and sad romance, spiritual highs and entertaining shadows.  Give it a listen and let me know what you think. 

1. Thanksgiving Suite/John Lindberg/A Tree Frog Tonality
2. Mikuro's Blues/David S. Ware Quartet/Live In The World
3. Ghosts/Albert Ayler/Spiritual Unity
4. Red Car/David Murray/I Want To Talk About You
5. Odin/David Murray/Body and Soul
6. Crossing the Sudan/Chico Freeman/Destiny's Dance
7. Stratusphunk/George Russell/Stratusphunk
8. O'Neal's Porch/William Parker/O'Neal's Porch
9. Contemplation/Mal Waldron and Marion Brown/Songs of Love and Regret
10. Sonny's Dream/Sonny Criss/Sonny's Dream
11. The Wane/Steve Lacy Trio/The Holy La
12. Both Sides/The Vandermark Five/Airports For Light

Update: Mikuro's Blues played at half speed.  I stopped the show and replaced the track.  I hope it works this time.  Of course, with avant garde jazz you can't always tell. 

Voodoo Drums & Ghostly Horns

Not exactly a Fourth of July theme, but then I am writing at 40 minutes into the new day.  After a wonderful day of cooking ribs and cleaning house, followed by eating ribs and drinking beer with friends, I am in the mood for something less wholesome and a lot less fattening.  

Here it surely is.  I've been listening to Birth and Rebirth, a duet album by drummer Max Roach and horn player and "philosopher" Anthony Braxton.  Wow, does Braxton have spooky eyes.  It is an odd meeting between the mainstream and the jet stream.  It is pretty dry, overall, but good in the way that a dry martini is good.  You can hear and appreciate everything these two jazz genies conjure up.  Here is a sample:

Max Roach and Anthony Braxton/Spirit Possession/Birth and Rebirth

If that is not enough to cut the fat in your bloodstream, try this one from one of my beloved Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy duets.  It's sad romance, but pairs the emotion down to something not much more complicated than a beating heart and a sigh.  

Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron/A Flower is a Lovesome Thing/Sempre Amore

Sempre Amore is one of those albums that nobody but me seems to listen to.  Well, suddenly I am in the mood for something a little richer, with the same mood.  So here is a cut from my latest Sonny Criss acquisition.  Would you ever have expected a brilliant jazz interpretation of this song?  Criss, whose flag I have long been flying, managed to wield all his hard bop magic without ever losing the original sad mood of the Beatles' hit.  God, but I love Sonny Criss. 

Sonny Criss/Eleanor Rigby/Rockin' in Rhythm

Well, that's all for tonight.  Pick up these recordings.  That's an order. 

Steve Lacy, Herb Ellis, & the Copyright Cop Blues

I just had another post taken down by the "authorities".  Oddly enough, this one was an old post on Ike Quebec, with the link long since ineffective.  I found a copy of the original notice, and my blog appears in a long list of offenders.  I suspect that this is a largely automated process.  

Anyway, and while I am still in business, I picked up a bunch of great jazz at the wonderful Jazz Record Mart in Chicago.  One was a disc I have been searching for: Five Facings, by Steve Lacy.  This is a series of duets with Lacy on Soprano Sax of course, and different piano players.  If you know Lacy's music at all, well, this is more Lacy.  With just a piano and sax, it is very laconic music.  I find it exquisite: pure musical ideas laid out for all to hear.  

Five Facings is apparently out of print.  You can find it online, but only for the price of a new DVD player.  I was delighted to find it at the Jazz Mart.  Here is a sample.  It won't be here long.  

Steve Lacy/Ruby My Dear/Five Facings

I had planned to do a more extensive post in honor of Herb Ellis' passing.  I ain't got around to it yet, but I did pick up a beautiful double album, with Nothing But the Blues & Herb Ellis Meets Jimmy Giuffre.  It is quite a find, if you like Herb's lovely lines.  I think the latter is the real prize.  Jimmy Giuffre is easy to miss.  He looked and dressed like Lawrence Whelk, but played like he was from outer space.  On this album, he sounds more like Lawrence Whelk.  But the music is rockin' good jazz.  Here is a sample:

Herb Ellis/Remember  

You can get the double album at a reasonable price from Amazon.  If you like jazz guitar, you won't be sorry you read this post. 

Monk, Solos, Duos, Avant Garde, Hard Bop, and Martinis

It's stream of consciousness time here at Jazz Note.  I am digesting a little new music by Noah Preminger, John Surman, Dave King, and Tom Varner.  But I am not ready to post on any of that.  Instead, I feel like returning to a handful of occasional them and letting them bleed into one another.  

First: jazz solos and duets.  Solo albums are the jazz version of a dry martini joke.  Pour in the gin, whisper "vermouth," over the angled glass and push it across the mahogany.  If a jazz man isn't playing the piano or recording multiple tracks, it's hard to lay down anything for the listener to glide on.  Only the raw ideas are expressed, leaving the listener to supply his or her own blues and swing.  For that reason the solo recording can be as rewarding as it is demanding.  You ain't gonna make it rich that way.  

Here's an example of Steve Lacy playing Monk's 'Evidence'.  Lacy is an avant garde master who was devoted to the soprano sax exclusively and Monk, well, a whole lot.  The recording is from a relatively obscure album, the obscurity being no mystery.  But I think you will dig it if you give it a chance.  You are nowhere but in the horn on this one. 

Steve Lacy/Evidence/5 X Monk 5 X Lacy

The duet can be as laconic as the solo even when a piano is included, especially if the piano player is Mal Waldron.  Lacy and Waldron recorded a lot of records together and everyone of them is a work of dynamic genius.  

Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron/Epistrophy/At the Bimhuis 1982

This is distilled love: Lacy and Waldron for one another and both for Monk.  Waldron plays with a percussive style, just as Monk did; but no one would mistake Waldron for Monk here.  I love how the piano's insistent beating constantly invites the next note from Lacy's horn.  

Another horn/piano duet that probably isn't on your iPod is Chris Potter and Kenny Werner's album.  I don't know Werner, but I don't think of avant garde when I think of Chris Potter.  This treatment of the same song as above is altogether different: faster and fuller in sound.  I like it a lot.  

Chris Potter and Kenny Werner/Epistrophy/Concord Duo Series, Vol. 10

All of that gives you a pretty good idea of what a jazz solo and duo can do with a Monk tune.  But I can't let this one go without a fuller treatment for contrast.  In 1964 Monk recorded a live album at the It Club in San Francisco.  I only picked it up recently, but it is a four star document.  Charlie Rouse plays tenor, Larry Gales bass, and Ben Riley drums.  Wow is this double CD good! 

Thelonious Monk/Evidence/Live at the It Club

And here is a little inside information from yours truly.  Over the course of several decades I have majored in philosophy and minored in jazz.  Both of these courses of study have allowed me to fall in love with other men, with no exchange of bodily fluids.  Infection nonetheless occurred.  I have been in love with Plato for a long time, and with Thelonious Monk for a good ten years.  Listening to the It Club recording meant falling in love all over again. 

Just Another Joe

Joe Lovano is just another Joe, if the other Joes are Joes like Henderson or Pass. In January of 2008 I was lucky enough to see Lovano in the Orpheum Theater in Sioux Falls, hosted by the SF Jazz and Blues Society. You can find a short review here, from when my Jazz Notes were still appearing on the South Dakota Politics website.

I was thinking about Lovano the last couple of days, after I saw a note that he has a new album coming out, Folk Art. I gather the new work breaks some new ground, and I thought I would keep my readers up to date on what ground has been covered so far (at least as far as I know it).

What I have sampled of Lovano's discography suggests awesome strength along three dimensions of jazz. The early works under his own name are mostly in the page four range: avant garde or free jazz. But it's the kind of page four jazz that keeps its feet firmly planted on planet bop. A good comparison would be with Jackie McLean's magnificient experiment in the new thing, Let Freedom Ring. I have acquired three of Lovano's recordings, all done in the first two years of the 90's: Landmarks, Sounds of Joy, and From the Soul. The latter is probably the best and indeed, some consider it to be Lovano's best album. But they are all very fine works of jazz artistry.

Landmarks is richly inventive with a very fresh and shiny sound. Even when it is only Lovano's horn, Marc Johnson's bass, and Bill Stewart's drums, it sounds very full. John Abercrombie's gives the album a slightly fusionesque tint, and Kenny Werner's viscous piano playing pulls the album further in the direction of avant garde.

Sounds of Joy, recorded a few months later, is a very different kettle of fish. The feel of the album is explained by the title of one cut: 'This One's for Lacy.' Reduced to a trio (Anthony Cox b, Ed Blackwell d) Lovano's early 90's sound certainly does resonate with anyone has heard the siren call of Steve Lacy's soprano. But the difference is also instructive. Lovano is nowhere near as abstract as Lacy. Lacy not only abstracts from musical themes, he drastically restricts the emotional range from which he constructs his abstractions (see The Holy La). Joe Lovano always paints with a full pallet of passions, even if he doing modern art.

From the Soul is simply superb. It contains one of the most compelling interpretations of 'Body and Soul' I have ever heard. But on the next number you are back in the part of the museum with the Jackson Pollocks and giant plastic spoons.

A second dimension of jazz that Lovano explores is what I am calling now, for lack of a better term, fusionesque. Most jazz fusion seems to me to be rock music pretending to be jazz (not that there's anything wrong with that!). Fusionesque jazz is hard bop adopting the moods and textures of fusion. Lovano's work with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell is a good example of this. See my previous post on Motian, and listen to the Misterioso clip. That is fusionesque.

Finally, Lovano can do straight ahead twentyfour karot hard bop like nobody's business. Joyous Encounter, with Hank Jones on piano, George Mraz on bass, and Paul Motian on drums, is everything the title promises. The quartet's working of Trane's 'Crescent' is not to be missed. Not quite so compelling, but still well worth investing in, is Kids: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. A duet with Hank Jones, it will brighten up any Saturday morning.

Lovano is the real thing. When his next album comes out, buy it. Meanwhile, here are some samples to whet your appetite:

Joe Lovano/Crescent/Joyous Encounter

Joe Lovano/This One's For Lacy/Sounds of Joy

Joe Lovano/From the Soul/Body and Soul

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.

Evidence of Genius

I find it curious that Thelonious Monk's middle name was Sphere. What was that about? Perhaps no composer in the history of jazz has so often or so accurately been described as "angular." Monk always seems to be coming at the melody from an obscure, if not noneuclidean angle. Monk was one of the founding fathers of bop, and he remained within the compass of that music. But he was the greatest inspiration for the Avant Garde movement, which just couldn't get enough of Monk compositions. The link may be found precisely in his angularity. Avant Garde is distinct from Bop essentially in its abstraction. Every line in a bop number stands for some complex human passion. Avant garde abstracts from the passions to isolate the musical forms. I think Bop remains the greater music, but the jazz catalog would be poorer without the new thing.

Here is an interesting comparison. First, a recording of Monk's 'Evidence' from one of my favorite sets. Behind Monk is Johnny Griffin on tenor, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums. The setting is the Five Spot.

Thelonious Monk/Evidence/Thelonious In Action

I think that displays all the virtues and passion of bop. Now compare it with this cut by Steve Lacy with Don Cherry (trumpet), Carl Brown on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums.

Steve Lacy with Don Cherry/Evidence/Evidence

Everything I say will be confirmed, whether it is true or not.

Page Three Odds & Ends

Roswell Rudd's ruddy trombone is a big part of the Avant Garde scene, or so I gather. I only recently discovered him, while crawling along the discography of Steve Lacy. I picked up Regeneration, a very interesting album with a very interesting cast. With Lacy's soprano sax on board, you would be expecting Page Four jazz. What you get is pretty straight Page Three bop. It's avant garde only in the squeaky, circus clown orchestra cum Thelonious monk sound of the instruments. I listened to it this afternoon while making out a test for my Constitutional Law students. It's very good jazz. There's a nice interview with Rudd at All About Jazz.

Here is a cut:

Roswell Rudd/2300 Skiddoo/Regeneration

In addition to Rudd and Lacy, the album features Misha Mengelberg on piano (really good piano), Kent Carter on bass, and Han Bennink on drums. Strong Dutch accent. The music is Monk and Herbie Nichols. Nichols, I gather, was a contemporary of Monk's.

As I said, this music is p3 jazz, more akin to actual Monk hardbop than to the free jazz for which these guys are known. For a lark, compare it to this piece by Miles Davis. This is one of Mile's albums that never got the recognition it deserves. Coltrane and Hank Mobley play tenor sax on the disc, with Wynton Kelley on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and both Jimmy Cobb and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

Miles Davis/Teo/Someday My Prince Will Come

Enjoy, and if you do, leave a comment and go on and buy the music. Regeneration is available on eMusic. The Miles disc is easy to come by.

What strikes me is the similar way the two bands explore the music, while doing so with very different sounds and moods.