The Gerry Hemingway Quartet

From time to time as I explore the Penguin Guide to Jazz (may it be praised) I find an artist who reminds me of what all this jazz is about.  Tonight it was the Gerry Hemingway Quartet.  Hemingway is a drummer largely devoted to avant garde.  He has played with Anthony Braxton and appears, I believe, on one of the Reggie Workman albums that I frequently feature. 

I am playing 'Back Again Some Time' from Devil's Paradise.  This album blends the avant garde sensibility to solid, bluesy melodies in a way that will move you way past the red line.  Here is the lineup:

• Double Bass – Mark Dresser
• Drums – Gerry Hemingway
• Saxophone – Ellery Eskelin
• Trombone – Ray Anderson

You might think that Mark Dresser is a warning sign.  Don't worry.  This is no space music experience.  It is a digging down to the mother lode of jazz flavor.

I am also playing 'Waitin', from The Whimbler.  

• Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – Mark Helias
• Drums, Producer [Recording], Composed By – Gerry Hemingway
• Tenor Saxophone – Ellery Eskelin
• Trumpet – Herb Robertson

 The horn work on both albums is glowing.  I especially liked Anderson's trombone. 

A little Trane

I have added some Coltrane to my L365 station.  I finally got around to purchasing Interstellar Space (1974).  I believe it was Trane's last studio album.  It's a duet with  Rashied Ali on drums.  It is very avant garde in spirit, but any Coltrane fan will appreciate it.  I am playing 'Venus'.

I also added 'The Believer' from the box set Fearless Leader.   This is from an album released ten years earlier but was recorded in 1958.  That was the title cut.  I am adding another cut from the same sparse album 'Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful'.  The Believer featured the great rhythm section of Garland, Chambers, and Taylor.   This was the heroic period in jazz. 

• Bass – Paul Chambers (3)
• Drums – Arthur Taylor* (tracks: B2), Louis Hayes
• Piano – Red Garland
• Tenor Saxophone – John Coltrane
• Trumpet – Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard (tracks: B2)