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.  

Greg Osby @ the Vanguard

I have exactly one Greg Osby recording.  Banned in New York.  I am guessing that the title is a lie.  It's fine jazz.  Page four to be certain: long lines that aren't much concerned with any narrative.  Yet the horn keeps you entranced.  I am listening to it  now because Osby is featured on the NPR Live at the Village Vanguard series.  He turned fifty last week.  Even jazz masters aren't exempt.  You can hear the concert recorded on his birthday at the NPR site.  

Here is a very short excerpt from the above recording.  You won't wonder what he can do after you hear it.  

Greg Osby/Big Foot (excerpt)/Banned In New York

The NPR concert is something rather different, but don't miss it.  Marc Copland on piano is worth the hour. 

Wayne Escoffery Live @ the Village Vangard

I thoroughly approve of NPR's Village Vanguard series.  I have directed a lot of attention to it on these pages.  Tomorrow night (Wednesday, June 9th) Wayne Escoffery debuts at the Vanguard.  I don't know this tenor player, except by his album Intuition.  Another Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings recommendation.  The album is kick ass, rich cloth bop.  I downloaded it from eMusic partially on the PG recommendation, and also because of Jeremy Pelt plays his trumpet.  I recently acquired a Pelt recording Men of Honor, which I really should post about.  It's Pelt channeling Miles Davis. 

Anyway, Intuition is a fine album.  In addition to Escoffery and Pelt, Rick Germanson plays piano, Gerald Cannon bass, Rickey Peterson drums, and Carolyn Leonhart (Escoffery's wife) on vocal.  Here is a sample:

Wayne Escoffery/The First One/Intuition

This number strikes me as an obvious tribute to another Wayne: Wayne Shorter.  Both the tenor playing and the piano remind me of Shorter's great sixties recordings.  Suddenly I feel all tingly.

I expect that Wednesday's concert will be available for download.  It would be worth catching live.  Escoffery seems to know what he is doing. 

Dave Douglas Live @ the Village Vanguard

I was turned on to trumpet man Dave Douglas by a former student and fellow jazz fan.  Douglas is prolific.  If you don't like his most recent album, come back after lunch and listen to his next one.  His jazz is very much in the avant garde category, but like a lot of AG jazzmen, he communicates the old bop language. 

I am still trying to decide whether I like his music.  It surely has caught my ear!  NPR has a Village Vanguard concert by Douglas available for download.  I listened to it this afternoon while grading Philosophy of Religion papers.  It kind of worked, in an existential way.  The Vanguard concert seemed pretty accessible, and so it might be a good place to start for jazz fans who want to know what Douglas is all about. 

I have been listening to Mountain Passages.  It moves me in a mountain path sort of way.  I have spent many days backpacking along mountain trails, and this music seems to recall the granite walls and pines shrouded in mist that I remember.  That's no small achievement.  Here is a sample:

Dave Douglas/Gumshoe/Mountain Passages

J.D. Allen Live @ The Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard concert series is selling a lot of CDs, to me at least.  I have shelled out for two discs from each of the artists I have posted on, including the J.D. Allen Trio.  The Trio's Vanguard date isn't available as a download, alas.  But I have listened to the whole thing and it is exquisite. 

With bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston, the trio invites inevitable comparisons to the Sonny Rollins Vanguard recordings.  The sax/bass/drum trio focuses ones attention on the warmth and sparkle of the horn.  I think this might be the single most powerful setting for the saxophone, which is my favorite horn and jazz's favorite horn.   But for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, it wasn't Rollins I thought of as I listened to Allen's tenor, but John Coltrane.  The J.D. Allen Trio has two recent recordings: I Am I Am, and Shine.  Both of them are gems.  

Here is a short sample.

JD Allen Trio/Shine/Shine

Now: get the recording.  And leave a note. 

Bill McHenry @ The Village Vanguard

This is another of NPR's Village Vanguard concerts. However, whereas I liked the Billy Hart Quartet better on the recording I sampled than on the Vanguard concert I linked to, with the Bill McHenry Quintet is quite the opposite. The McHenry Quintet Vanguard concert, with McHenry's tenor backed by Duane Eubanks on trumpet, Andrew D'Angelo on alto sax and bass clarinet, Ben Street (again) on bass, and the wonderful Paul Motian on drums, is astoundingly good. Every note is compelling, and the sound is so jazz house real it makes my toes curl.

These guys should figure out some way to get this recording released as a CD. There is more than two hours of jazz here. It is edgy, but accessible, just a bit over the line to page four jazz. But best of all, it has that heart, that feeling. Some of it had the hair standing up on the back of my neck. The whole thing is available for download in MP3, so you can put it on your iPod, keep it on your hard drive, and burn the darn thing on a CD for your next road trip. You won't be sorry you hit this blog if it leads you to this session.

Here is a sample from a recent release. Ben Monder plays guitar, giving the album a slightly fusion feel. Reid Anderson is on bass, and Paul Motian on drums.

Bill McHenry Quartet/Alfronbra Magica/Bill McHenry Quartet

Billy Hart Quartet @ The Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard is surely the single most important venue in the history of modern jazz. Coltrane's famous recording there would almost be enough to confirm that. But then you add (roughly in order) Bill Evans last recording with Scott LaFaro, Sonny Rollins pianoless, Promethean trio, and Art Pepper's sprawling, nine disc collection of exquisite jazz punctuated by nervous chatter, and you have a lot of immortal genius pouring out of one fountain. You could survive an island exile for a long time with that, if they let you charge up your iPod.

The Vanguard is still at it. If you go to the NPR sponsored Vanguard site you will find a series of live recordings that are an hour plus in length. The most recent are available in MP3 format for free download, so you can add them to your permanent collection. All of the concerts, I believe, can be listened to in Real Player format. They also include MP3 files of interviews with the major players. Some of the artists featured there include Tom Harrell, Terence Blanchard (no kin, so far as I know, darn it), Cedar Walton, Chris Potter and Kenny Baron. That's a powerful lot of jazz to sample and enjoy free. I have long believed that giving away a lot of stuff is the best way to sell a lot more stuff. If you don't believe me, ask Microsoft.

Case in point is the most recent addition: The Billy Hart Quartet. Hart (b. 1940) has played his drums behind a lot of giants, including Miles Davis. The Quartet includes two players I have become interested in: Ethan Iverson on piano, and Mark Turner on tenor saxophone. Ben Street, whom I don't know yet, plays bass. The concert may not achieve immortality, but it includes a lot of very bold jazz composition. I suspect that Iverson is a driving force in the quartet. My reasons for thinking so, and for thinking that Iverson is the real thing, can be found at my earlier post on this fine keyboard player. But Mark Turner, whose Yam Yam I posted briefly on, dominates the sound.

Listening to that live recording encouraged me to shell out for The Billy Hart Quartet, with the same lineup. This is a very solid recording, inventive and provocative, but very accessible. The opening number, Mellow B, is an Iverson composition, and it is the kind of arrangement that makes the music seem suddenly new even to someone who swims in it daily. Hart is obviously worshipful of John Coltrane, as comes out on the Vanguard date. This album is another act of worship.

Here is a sample, a tribute to the pianist penned by Mark Turner. It also has the most compelling drum work from Hart. His cymbals talk to me here. Give it a listen, and don't let the disc get away from you.

Billy Hart/Iverson's Odyssey/The Billy Hart Quartet

My comments sections are like empty tombs right now. Leave me a few words, when you have the time.

ps. There is a great photo collection, including a shot of the Vanguard front.

Tom Harrell @ The Village Vanguard

It is a strange time for music. The industry is slowly adapting to new technologies, and that involves a lot of pain. I understand that classical music is in crisis. A shrinking audience means fewer contracts for upcoming stars. I don't know what the situation is for upcoming jazz artists. I do know that more music is available to jazz fans than has ever been available before.

Case in point: NPR Music: Live at the Village Vanguard. The Village Vanguard is the undisputed center of live jazz, and it is a survivor. A considerable number of essential recordings were made there: John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, each produced immortal music at that venue. I have never been to New York, so I can only dream. But this club is surely the geographic center of jazz.

The NPR show features a lot of big name jazz artists appearing recently at the VV. Terence Blanchard (I keep hoping, against all indications, for a family connection), the Cedar Walton Trio, Ravi Coltrane, Chris Potter, and Kenny Baron all have concerts that you can listen to at the above link. Oh, and Paul Motian, Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano also have a VV concert you can hear at that site. I really should have mentioned that when I posted on Lovano and Motian. But tonight I am listening to the Tom Harrell Quintet, live at the VV on April 8th of this year. It is a delicious session. Here is NPR's description of the band backing Harrell's trumpet:

On stage, he was backed by a band of first-call New York sidemen who all lead their own touring bands: saxophonist Wayne Escoffery and pianist Danny Grissett had plenty of time to stretch out for themselves, and bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Johnathan Blake buoyed the band in both its hairiest and calmest moments.

This is a group to keep one's eyes on. Especially Escoffery and Grissett. The dialogue between the three is rich beyond all expectation. It is available at eMusic.

Oh, and if you like this post, please leave a comment. I get lonely.

Hot Pepper @ The Village Vanguard

It might be the most famous venue in modern Jazz. John Coltrane recorded his most important live album there, as did Bill Evans. NPR has a concert series based at the Vanguard. I am behind on my listening, but they have a recent concert featuring Cedar Walton. That is something to look forward to.

Some time ago I acquired Art Pepper: The Complete Village Vanguard Sessions. It's pricey to be sure, at over a hundred bucks. But when you have it, you have Pepper. Art Pepper was a mess. His recording career was punctuated by about four prison terms, all due to his heroin addiction. Photos of Pepper at this date remind me of Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows.

Still, Pepper managed to leave behind a series of immortal recordings. The Vanguard recordings give you nine discs of everything that Pepper put into the microphones during his stint at the club. That means a lot of versions of the same numbers.

It also means you get to hear his voice, a lot, as he schmoozes the crowd. Pepper clearly wanted the crowd to know that they were present for something important. They were.

Backing Pepper George Cables played piano, George Mraz played bass, and Elvin Jones was on drums. They were up to the occasion. Here is a sample from the nine disc collection:

Art Pepper/Live at the Vanguard/Live at the Village Vanguard

This one will make you glad to be alive. Seek out the rest of the recordings, and shell out some dough. One of these days you will raise a glass to me.