I had a request for this from Wayfaerer (who is a contributor to an interesting blog here) and actually found it quicker than I thought I would do... after another move a few months ago I've still got boxes stacked up and unsorted but the gods guided my hand swiftly... so, this is a quartet, Cecil Taylor, Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Tony Oxley, playing 'Last.' Recorded in Berlin on September 26th, 1990, I wrote at length about this track here in 2006 so... that's it...
Cecil Taylor Quartet
Cecil Taylor (p) Evan Parker (ss, ts) Barry Guy (b) Tony Oxley (d)
Last
Download
Buy
Showing posts with label Cecil Taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cecil Taylor. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The music returns... Cecil Taylor... Anthony Braxton... Ornette Coleman...
A slow and easy squeeze back into the mp3 game - I had a request for these three tracks from an old post so have re-upped them. The original post is here... 'Womb waters scent of the burning armadillo shell' has to be one of my all-time favourite titles...
Cecil Taylor
(Rashied Bakr, drums, voice · Karen Borca, bassoon, voice · Günther Hämpel, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, vibraphone, voice · Jimmy Lyons, alto saxophone, voice · Andre Martinez, drums, percussion, voice · William Parker, bass, voice · Enrico Rava, trumpet, voice · Tomasz Stanko, trumpet, voice · Cecil Taylor, piano, voice · John Tchicai, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, voice . Frank Wright, tenor saxophone, voice)
Womb Waters Scent Of The Burning Armadillo Shell
Download
Buy
Anthony Braxton
(Anthony Braxton, clarinet, alto, soprano, sopranino and C-melody saxophones, flute (collective instrumentation for the album) Adelhard Roidinger (b) Tony Oxley (d))
Compositions 40J & 110A (+108B + 69J)
Download
Buy
Ornette Coleman
(Ornette Coleman (as) Gregory Cohen, Tony Falanga (b) Denardo Coleman (d))
SleepTalking
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
(Rashied Bakr, drums, voice · Karen Borca, bassoon, voice · Günther Hämpel, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, vibraphone, voice · Jimmy Lyons, alto saxophone, voice · Andre Martinez, drums, percussion, voice · William Parker, bass, voice · Enrico Rava, trumpet, voice · Tomasz Stanko, trumpet, voice · Cecil Taylor, piano, voice · John Tchicai, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, voice . Frank Wright, tenor saxophone, voice)
Womb Waters Scent Of The Burning Armadillo Shell
Download
Buy
Anthony Braxton
(Anthony Braxton, clarinet, alto, soprano, sopranino and C-melody saxophones, flute (collective instrumentation for the album) Adelhard Roidinger (b) Tony Oxley (d))
Compositions 40J & 110A (+108B + 69J)
Download
Buy
Ornette Coleman
(Ornette Coleman (as) Gregory Cohen, Tony Falanga (b) Denardo Coleman (d))
SleepTalking
Download
Buy
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Booker Little/Booker Ervin... Cecil Taylor... Lee Morgan... John Coltrane
Bookends – Booker Little, with Booker Ervin beside him in the frontline on a 1960 session, originally issued under the leadership of Teddy Charles. Recorded at the Museum of Modern Art, some fiery blowing here. The track: 'Scoochie.' Ushered in by a sharp burst of drums from Eddie Shaughnessy, who drives the band on throughout. Booker Little takes the first solo, twisting a sure-footed elegance into his lines. Ervin leaps in directly just as he finishes, full-throated tenor spurred on by the drummer's interjections. Mal Waldron follows, utilising his trademark phrase-worrying to good effect. Teddy Charles adds splashes of vibes throughout but takes no solo unfortunately...
I always check 'Destination Out' before I post – apart from it being a great jazz blog, on several occasions a weird synchronicity has come into play and a track that I have prepared for upload has already been featured by them in the same week. This particular selection is an example – I sidelined it a couple of years back for that reason. But: just been over there and we are ok and I figure two years is not a clash in the making. So...
There are times during this performance of 'Winged Serpent' when one fears for the piano's health as Cecil Taylor smashes out vast clustered eruptions with the ferocity of a lambeg drummer on an Orange parade in Belfast. This is the pianist leading an 11 piece ensemble mixed between American and European participants – his 'Orchestra of Two Continents,' recorded in 1984. Held together by fragments of melody, the soloists emerge from the boiling maelstrom thrown up by two drummers and the ever-dominant Taylor piano which chases and harries the front line towards a higher glory. Then Cecil solos – a wild violence perpetrated on the piano, as mentioned above. The ensemble assemble again, taking up the minimal theme, before suddenly dropping into a slow fall. Exhilarating...
Lee Morgan in 1957 on a classic Blue Note date – also noted for tenor player George Coleman's debut recording. 'City Lights,' the title track – opening on see-saw bowed bass and horns before moving effortlessly into a kicking hard bop swing. Coleman out the gate first, then Curtis Fuller, a little four square perhaps but his usual pleasing gruffness. Then Morgan, sounding older than his years, superb trumpet. Ray Bryant takes some bluesy lines before Paul Chambers displays his arco technique. Morgan returns to trade with Art Taylor. Shortish solos all round give this track a compressed and pithy texture.
One for Obama... I don't comment on the politics of other countries and, as an ageing anarchist, my experience in life has led me to mistrust all politicians, whatever the angle they come from. But it would be churlish not to wish the U.S.A. well on this deeply historic Inauguration Day. As we sink further into the mire here in the U.K., in the spirit of a wider sense of hope I offer this late track by the mighty John Coltrane. Recorded at Temple University in 1966 (for radio – there is an annoying bit where the commentator comes in), this is 'Naima.' The theme is barely hinted at before the roller-coaster ride begins. Looking at the tracks uploaded here and the collective intelligence, fire and beauty on display - if only politics was as uplifting as music...
Teddy Charles (vibes); Mal Waldron (p); Booker Little (tpt); Booker Ervin (ts); Addison Farmer (b); Eddie Shaughnessy (dr)
Scoochie
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stanko (t) Jimmy Lyons (as) Frank Wright, John Tchicai (ts) Gunter Hampel (bs, b-cl) Karen Borca (bss) Cecil Taylor (p) William Parker (b) Raschied Bakr, Andre Martinez (d)
Winged Serpent
Download
Buy
Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan (t) George Coleman (ts) Curtis Fuller (tr) Ray Bryant (p) Paul Chambers (b) Art Taylor (d)
City Lights
Download
Buy
John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders (ts) Alice Coltrane (p) prob. Sonny Johnson or Jimmy Garrison (b) Rashied Ali dr unknown perc
Naima
Download
Buy – you might have to hunt for this...
I always check 'Destination Out' before I post – apart from it being a great jazz blog, on several occasions a weird synchronicity has come into play and a track that I have prepared for upload has already been featured by them in the same week. This particular selection is an example – I sidelined it a couple of years back for that reason. But: just been over there and we are ok and I figure two years is not a clash in the making. So...
There are times during this performance of 'Winged Serpent' when one fears for the piano's health as Cecil Taylor smashes out vast clustered eruptions with the ferocity of a lambeg drummer on an Orange parade in Belfast. This is the pianist leading an 11 piece ensemble mixed between American and European participants – his 'Orchestra of Two Continents,' recorded in 1984. Held together by fragments of melody, the soloists emerge from the boiling maelstrom thrown up by two drummers and the ever-dominant Taylor piano which chases and harries the front line towards a higher glory. Then Cecil solos – a wild violence perpetrated on the piano, as mentioned above. The ensemble assemble again, taking up the minimal theme, before suddenly dropping into a slow fall. Exhilarating...
Lee Morgan in 1957 on a classic Blue Note date – also noted for tenor player George Coleman's debut recording. 'City Lights,' the title track – opening on see-saw bowed bass and horns before moving effortlessly into a kicking hard bop swing. Coleman out the gate first, then Curtis Fuller, a little four square perhaps but his usual pleasing gruffness. Then Morgan, sounding older than his years, superb trumpet. Ray Bryant takes some bluesy lines before Paul Chambers displays his arco technique. Morgan returns to trade with Art Taylor. Shortish solos all round give this track a compressed and pithy texture.
One for Obama... I don't comment on the politics of other countries and, as an ageing anarchist, my experience in life has led me to mistrust all politicians, whatever the angle they come from. But it would be churlish not to wish the U.S.A. well on this deeply historic Inauguration Day. As we sink further into the mire here in the U.K., in the spirit of a wider sense of hope I offer this late track by the mighty John Coltrane. Recorded at Temple University in 1966 (for radio – there is an annoying bit where the commentator comes in), this is 'Naima.' The theme is barely hinted at before the roller-coaster ride begins. Looking at the tracks uploaded here and the collective intelligence, fire and beauty on display - if only politics was as uplifting as music...
Teddy Charles (vibes); Mal Waldron (p); Booker Little (tpt); Booker Ervin (ts); Addison Farmer (b); Eddie Shaughnessy (dr)
Scoochie
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stanko (t) Jimmy Lyons (as) Frank Wright, John Tchicai (ts) Gunter Hampel (bs, b-cl) Karen Borca (bss) Cecil Taylor (p) William Parker (b) Raschied Bakr, Andre Martinez (d)
Winged Serpent
Download
Buy
Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan (t) George Coleman (ts) Curtis Fuller (tr) Ray Bryant (p) Paul Chambers (b) Art Taylor (d)
City Lights
Download
Buy
John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders (ts) Alice Coltrane (p) prob. Sonny Johnson or Jimmy Garrison (b) Rashied Ali dr unknown perc
Naima
Download
Buy – you might have to hunt for this...
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Clusone Trio... Mance Lipscomb... Herbie Hancock... John Coltrane/Milt Jackson... Cecil Taylor... Tito Puente...
Finally, after all the excitement and exhaustion – back to the music. So we beat on, boats against the current... whatever...
The Clusone Trio give the Herbie Nichols tune, '117th Street,' an outing. Always an element of drollery lurking when Bennink is involved – those crazy Dutch, eh? This swings in lightly over crisp old-school drumming as Moore states the theme and take the first solo – a limpid performance that builds through some more complex swirls into earthier smears. Reisjeger picks his cello through his turn before Moore returns for a brief passage then back in to the theme. Bennink throughout is in homage to earlier drummers mode. An odd mix of the old and disguised hints of the new, filtered through a wash of post-modernism, done with some affection...
Mance Lipscomb – a 'songster' whose material ranged far from the blues into many other areas – through 'folk' and beyond. The lines are never as straight as purists would have you believe - Lipscomb was indeed a river into which many streams flowed:
'Lipscomb represented one of the last remnants of the nineteenth-century songster tradition, which predated the development of the blues. Though songsters might incorporate blues into their repertoires, as did Lipscomb, they performed a wide variety of material in diverse styles, much of it common to both black and white traditions in the South, including ballads, rags, dance pieces (breakdowns, waltzes, one and two steps, slow drags, reels, ballin' the jack, the buzzard lope, hop scop, buck and wing, heel and toe polka), and popular, sacred, and secular songs. Lipscomb himself insisted that he was a songster, not a guitarist or "blues singer," since he played "all kinds of music." His eclectic repertoire has been reported to have contained 350 pieces spanning two centuries.' (Ibid).
(The 'buzzard lope' looks intriguing... may well describe my dance moves...).
This is 'Joe Turner killed a man' which builds a narrative out of a collection of familiar 'floating' verses over a thumping monotonic bass and slashes of slide (bottleneck/knifeblade?) that root it more in the blues.
Herbie Hancock from his bustout album 'Future Shock,' a track called 'Rough.' (Which matches the way I feel today – red wine too late at night!). Yeah, sure, it's a little dated but fun all the same... Ah, the outrage of the day from the jazz community... Play that funky music...
More blues – from the coupling of John Coltrane and Milt Jackson for a 1959 recording date. This is 'Blues Legacy,' a riffed-out twelve bar. Jackson up first to roll out a dazzling line, subtle yet blues-drenched as his playing always was. Coltrane takes it up, the relaxed tempo giving him plenty of ruminative space, yet unleashing those blinding flurries occasionally to spur things along. Connie Kay, somewhat surprisingly perhaps, gives out a solid if sedate backbeat throughout. Paul Chambers paces underneath like a velvet panther. Hank Jones solos, his single note strings echoing Jackson's vibes-induced linearity. Trane returns to spell out the theme. You would have thought that Kay was an odd choice for this gig, given the powerhouse drummers Coltrane was used to playing with, yet his simplified two and four here – almost r and b-ish – lets the bass take a supple role – one that Chambers was used to supplying anyway with his bandmate in the Miles Davis group. Maybe Jackson invited him – they were, of course, long-time partners in the Modern jazz Quartet.
Cecil Taylor – from his 1973 solo album recorded in Japan, this is the first track 'Choral of voice (Elision).' Not sure where I got this from – it's not one of mine, I found it buried amongst a collection of mp3s that I was searching for someone else - so homage to original up-loader. Amid the usual dense piano hurly burly, some more reflective passages. Cecil's solo work is probably the most accessible way into his unique sound world – although presenting formidable problems to the first-time listener, perhaps. But the format offers a chance to follow his logic a little more clearly...
The sun is shining here in God's Little Acre, for the moment at least, so here is some Latin fire - Tito Puente and band roaring through 'Para Los Rumberos.' A mighty sound... they cheer me up, anyway... as I do the buzzard lope round the room...
Clusone Trio
Michael Moore (as, cl, mel) Ernst Reijseger (cel, el-cel) Han Bennink (d, perc)
117th Street
Download
Buy
Mance Lipscomb (v, g)
Joe Turner killed a man
Download
Buy
Herbie Hancock, Michael Beinhorn (keys) Bill Laswell (el-b)
Rough
Download
Buy
John Coltrane/Milt Jackson
John Coltrane (ts) Milt Jackson (vib) Hank Jones (p) Paul Chambers (b) Connie Kay (d).
Blues Legacy
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p)
Choral of Voice (Elision)
Download
Buy
Tito Puente
Tito Puente (vib, mar, tim) Charlie Palmieri (p, org) Mario Rivera (fl, bs) Santos Colon (v) Jose Madera (quiro, perc) Johnny (Dandy) Rodriguez (bongos) Jimmy Frisaura (t, b-t) Yayo El Indio (v) Roy Burroughs, Tony Cofrezi (t) Michael 'Mike' Collazo (d) Dick Meza (ts) Israel 'Izzy' Feliu (b-g) Pete Fanelli (as) Don 'El Barbito' Palmer (fl, as) Jose Merino (t)
Para los rumberos
Download
Buy
The Clusone Trio give the Herbie Nichols tune, '117th Street,' an outing. Always an element of drollery lurking when Bennink is involved – those crazy Dutch, eh? This swings in lightly over crisp old-school drumming as Moore states the theme and take the first solo – a limpid performance that builds through some more complex swirls into earthier smears. Reisjeger picks his cello through his turn before Moore returns for a brief passage then back in to the theme. Bennink throughout is in homage to earlier drummers mode. An odd mix of the old and disguised hints of the new, filtered through a wash of post-modernism, done with some affection...
Mance Lipscomb – a 'songster' whose material ranged far from the blues into many other areas – through 'folk' and beyond. The lines are never as straight as purists would have you believe - Lipscomb was indeed a river into which many streams flowed:
'Lipscomb represented one of the last remnants of the nineteenth-century songster tradition, which predated the development of the blues. Though songsters might incorporate blues into their repertoires, as did Lipscomb, they performed a wide variety of material in diverse styles, much of it common to both black and white traditions in the South, including ballads, rags, dance pieces (breakdowns, waltzes, one and two steps, slow drags, reels, ballin' the jack, the buzzard lope, hop scop, buck and wing, heel and toe polka), and popular, sacred, and secular songs. Lipscomb himself insisted that he was a songster, not a guitarist or "blues singer," since he played "all kinds of music." His eclectic repertoire has been reported to have contained 350 pieces spanning two centuries.' (Ibid).
(The 'buzzard lope' looks intriguing... may well describe my dance moves...).
This is 'Joe Turner killed a man' which builds a narrative out of a collection of familiar 'floating' verses over a thumping monotonic bass and slashes of slide (bottleneck/knifeblade?) that root it more in the blues.
Herbie Hancock from his bustout album 'Future Shock,' a track called 'Rough.' (Which matches the way I feel today – red wine too late at night!). Yeah, sure, it's a little dated but fun all the same... Ah, the outrage of the day from the jazz community... Play that funky music...
More blues – from the coupling of John Coltrane and Milt Jackson for a 1959 recording date. This is 'Blues Legacy,' a riffed-out twelve bar. Jackson up first to roll out a dazzling line, subtle yet blues-drenched as his playing always was. Coltrane takes it up, the relaxed tempo giving him plenty of ruminative space, yet unleashing those blinding flurries occasionally to spur things along. Connie Kay, somewhat surprisingly perhaps, gives out a solid if sedate backbeat throughout. Paul Chambers paces underneath like a velvet panther. Hank Jones solos, his single note strings echoing Jackson's vibes-induced linearity. Trane returns to spell out the theme. You would have thought that Kay was an odd choice for this gig, given the powerhouse drummers Coltrane was used to playing with, yet his simplified two and four here – almost r and b-ish – lets the bass take a supple role – one that Chambers was used to supplying anyway with his bandmate in the Miles Davis group. Maybe Jackson invited him – they were, of course, long-time partners in the Modern jazz Quartet.
Cecil Taylor – from his 1973 solo album recorded in Japan, this is the first track 'Choral of voice (Elision).' Not sure where I got this from – it's not one of mine, I found it buried amongst a collection of mp3s that I was searching for someone else - so homage to original up-loader. Amid the usual dense piano hurly burly, some more reflective passages. Cecil's solo work is probably the most accessible way into his unique sound world – although presenting formidable problems to the first-time listener, perhaps. But the format offers a chance to follow his logic a little more clearly...
The sun is shining here in God's Little Acre, for the moment at least, so here is some Latin fire - Tito Puente and band roaring through 'Para Los Rumberos.' A mighty sound... they cheer me up, anyway... as I do the buzzard lope round the room...
Clusone Trio
Michael Moore (as, cl, mel) Ernst Reijseger (cel, el-cel) Han Bennink (d, perc)
117th Street
Download
Buy
Mance Lipscomb (v, g)
Joe Turner killed a man
Download
Buy
Herbie Hancock, Michael Beinhorn (keys) Bill Laswell (el-b)
Rough
Download
Buy
John Coltrane/Milt Jackson
John Coltrane (ts) Milt Jackson (vib) Hank Jones (p) Paul Chambers (b) Connie Kay (d).
Blues Legacy
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p)
Choral of Voice (Elision)
Download
Buy
Tito Puente
Tito Puente (vib, mar, tim) Charlie Palmieri (p, org) Mario Rivera (fl, bs) Santos Colon (v) Jose Madera (quiro, perc) Johnny (Dandy) Rodriguez (bongos) Jimmy Frisaura (t, b-t) Yayo El Indio (v) Roy Burroughs, Tony Cofrezi (t) Michael 'Mike' Collazo (d) Dick Meza (ts) Israel 'Izzy' Feliu (b-g) Pete Fanelli (as) Don 'El Barbito' Palmer (fl, as) Jose Merino (t)
Para los rumberos
Download
Buy
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Birthday... Cecil Taylor... Coleman Hawkins/Ben Webster... Annette Peacock... Rickie Lee Jones... Charles Gayle/John Tchicai...
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me... etc... Wouldn't have thought to make 61, to be honest. But every day is a blessing... Some music, then...
Cecil of course, on this day... From the infamous Victoriaville concert in 2002 – with Tony Oxley and Bill Dixon. This is 'T/CxB.' Nate Dorward, whose criticism reflected many others, hated Dixon's contribution: 'the trumpeter’s playing solipsistic, even weirdly infantile, in its regression to the sounds of gurgling, breathing and farting, its indifference to line, shape or direction, and its inability to enter into meaningful dialogue.' It's certainly a little different... Mind you, I thought Dixon was fascinating at the London concert a couple of years back, sculpting sound from his electronics... Not many shared my enthusiasm, it has to be said... à chacun son goût...
Two giants of the tenor saxophone playing 'It never entered my mind,' led in carefully by Oscar Peterson. Ben Webster swooshing through, master of the ballad, sprung on a tight rhythm section. Tenor as sonic painting rather than pyrotechnics – Webster reminds me of a deeper version of Johnny Hodges – whom he sat next to in the Ellington sax section in earlier years. To bounce off something Albert Ayler once said, this isn't about the notes – its about the sound and emotions. Hawk – a harder edge, the fountainhead of jazz tenor saxophone. Timeless.
Annette Peacock does Elvis – 'Love me tender.' From her record, 'I'm the one.' Elvis never a favourite singer of mine -I was always a Jerry Lee man... This is much better... IMHO...
Rickie Lee Jones I have always liked... This is the last track from her album 'Sermon on Exposition Boulevard,' 'I was there.'
Charles Gayle partnered up with John Tchicai for this 1988 date – from which I've taken the last cut, 'Then offer all.' One of the highspots of last year was seeing Gayle live in the U.K. twice and he's one of my totally favourite musicians. Nothing abstract about these truths...
Happy birthday to me... Onwards - Berlin in ten days! But today - lunch with my tribe... guess who's paying...
Cecil Taylor (p) Bill Dixon (t, bugle) Tony Oxley (d)
T/CxB
Download
Buy
Coleman Hawkins/Ben Webster
Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster (ts) Oscar Peterson (p) Herb Ellis (g) Ray Brown (b) Alvin Stoller (d)
It never entered my mind
Download
Buy
Annette Peacock
Tom Cosgrove (g) Stu Woods (b) Rick Morotta (d) Barry Altschul, Airto Moreira, Orestes Vilato, Domun Romao (perc) Annette Peacock - composer (music & words), arranger, producer, singer, electric vocals, pianos (acoustic & electric), synthesizers, electric vibraphone)
Love me tender
Download
Buy – you'll have to search for this one...
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones (v, g, dul, keys, Moog syn, xyl, b- g, perc) Peter Atanasoff (g, oud, background v) Bernie Larsen (gr, d); Pete Thomas, Rob Schnapf (ac- g) Joey Maramba (b-g) Jay Bellerose (d) Lee Cantelon (background v)
I was there
Download
Buy
Charles Gayle
Charles Gayle (ts) John Tchicai (ts, ss) Sirone (b) Reggie Nicholson (d)
Then offer all
Download
Buy
Cecil of course, on this day... From the infamous Victoriaville concert in 2002 – with Tony Oxley and Bill Dixon. This is 'T/CxB.' Nate Dorward, whose criticism reflected many others, hated Dixon's contribution: 'the trumpeter’s playing solipsistic, even weirdly infantile, in its regression to the sounds of gurgling, breathing and farting, its indifference to line, shape or direction, and its inability to enter into meaningful dialogue.' It's certainly a little different... Mind you, I thought Dixon was fascinating at the London concert a couple of years back, sculpting sound from his electronics... Not many shared my enthusiasm, it has to be said... à chacun son goût...
Two giants of the tenor saxophone playing 'It never entered my mind,' led in carefully by Oscar Peterson. Ben Webster swooshing through, master of the ballad, sprung on a tight rhythm section. Tenor as sonic painting rather than pyrotechnics – Webster reminds me of a deeper version of Johnny Hodges – whom he sat next to in the Ellington sax section in earlier years. To bounce off something Albert Ayler once said, this isn't about the notes – its about the sound and emotions. Hawk – a harder edge, the fountainhead of jazz tenor saxophone. Timeless.
Annette Peacock does Elvis – 'Love me tender.' From her record, 'I'm the one.' Elvis never a favourite singer of mine -I was always a Jerry Lee man... This is much better... IMHO...
Rickie Lee Jones I have always liked... This is the last track from her album 'Sermon on Exposition Boulevard,' 'I was there.'
Charles Gayle partnered up with John Tchicai for this 1988 date – from which I've taken the last cut, 'Then offer all.' One of the highspots of last year was seeing Gayle live in the U.K. twice and he's one of my totally favourite musicians. Nothing abstract about these truths...
Happy birthday to me... Onwards - Berlin in ten days! But today - lunch with my tribe... guess who's paying...
Cecil Taylor (p) Bill Dixon (t, bugle) Tony Oxley (d)
T/CxB
Download
Buy
Coleman Hawkins/Ben Webster
Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster (ts) Oscar Peterson (p) Herb Ellis (g) Ray Brown (b) Alvin Stoller (d)
It never entered my mind
Download
Buy
Annette Peacock
Tom Cosgrove (g) Stu Woods (b) Rick Morotta (d) Barry Altschul, Airto Moreira, Orestes Vilato, Domun Romao (perc) Annette Peacock - composer (music & words), arranger, producer, singer, electric vocals, pianos (acoustic & electric), synthesizers, electric vibraphone)
Love me tender
Download
Buy – you'll have to search for this one...
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones (v, g, dul, keys, Moog syn, xyl, b- g, perc) Peter Atanasoff (g, oud, background v) Bernie Larsen (gr, d); Pete Thomas, Rob Schnapf (ac- g) Joey Maramba (b-g) Jay Bellerose (d) Lee Cantelon (background v)
I was there
Download
Buy
Charles Gayle
Charles Gayle (ts) John Tchicai (ts, ss) Sirone (b) Reggie Nicholson (d)
Then offer all
Download
Buy
Friday, March 28, 2008
Charlie Parker/Dizzie Gillespie... Horace Silver/Jazz Messengers... Jim Hall/Bill Evans... Cecil Taylor
To be or not to bop (with apologies to Babs Gonzales...)
Bird and Diz at Carnegie Hall, 1947... Bop in the joy spring of its years... This is 'Confirmation' – of their greatness (I know - but - couldn't resist). Opening on drums, then the familiar theme in unison at a sprightly tempo. Bird up first, sounding relaxed, sudden flurries of notes breaking the line. Tone drenched in the blues, such a human sound. The double-tempo he frequently launches into and stays in for long stretches is stunning. Yet the tune is never far away – this is not just virtuoso playing over the changes. Gillespie next – soaring upwards to descend in rapid runs, brash, brassy and beautiful. John Lewis takes a solo from somewhere upstate by the muffled sound of it – way off-mike. Bass up briefly then theme and out. Rapturous applause etc... and rightly so. Glory Days.
Bop – to the birth of hard bop. Returning to the blues as grounding (although Bird was never more than a flicker away from them). Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers. Their first incarnation as a small group - Silver was to leave and Art Blakey take over the leadership. From 1955, playing his composition the ever-catchy 'Doodlin.' Silver takes the first solo, funky figures, a facet of his style that perhaps Bobby Timmons would inherit when he joined the band in 1958. Think Moanin' etc... Much dropping of 'g's, I'm thinkin'... Tenor next, Hank Mobley, sounding calm, a little detached almost, although spiking his passage with blues figures. Kenny Dorham then, as Silver plays an almost boogie woogie train figure underneath for the first chorus and a few bars into the second. Elegant and spacious trumpet. Blakey takes a piece, some hard hitting on and off the beat as his cymbals mark the movement through. Funky.
Onwards a few years – back to the cool, say, in 1962. Jim Hall and Bill Evans take a look at 'I'm getting sentimental over you.' Slow yet supple, weaving round each other in an intricate coupling, seamlessly moving between accompaniment and solo – blurring the partition, actually while not getting in each other's way - guitar and piano can create a muddy sound if the participants are not very careful. Here? Two hearts beating as one... well, I'm in a sentimental mood myself today... Intelligent and moving.
Cecil Taylor at the old johanna live and solo from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974, this is 'After All (Fifth Movement).' Repeating an opening chordal figure to suddenly spray a higher flash of notes across the deeper contrast. More complex harmonic terrain than above – yet still you find a bluesy snatch here and there that links to the tradition. Behind it all, however abstracted or disguised, the rhythms of jazz. European conservatory meets the Afro-American tradition (Cecil uses call and response as a major performative vehicle). Towards the end, thoughtful, rhapsodic and perhaps not so far removed from Bill Evans above...
A final thought on criticism - what it should be, as opposed to what it frequently has been and is, in all disciplines:
'Admit what you can’t conceal,' [Randall] Jarrell concludes in "The Age of Criticism," 'that criticism is no more than (and no less than) the helpful remarks and the thoughtful and disinterested judgment of a reader, a loving and experienced and able reader, but only a reader. . . . Remember that you can never be more than the staircase to the monument, the guide to the gallery, the telescope through which the children see the stars. At your best you make people see what they might never have seen without you; but they must always forget you in what they see.' (From here... ).
Not sure about the 'experienced and able' (or 'disinterested' - music is too intense an experience for me) but certainly 'loving' in my own case... and hopefully 'helpful' occasionally... I love the image of 'the staircase to the monument.' As a renegade from academe, how true those words are and how many critical 'monuments' exist, that should be knocked down for 'staircases.'
Oo-pop-a-da - to end where we started, with Babs Gonzales...
Charlie Parker (as) Dizzie Gillespie (t) John Lewis (p) Al McKibbon (b) Joe Harris (d)
Confirmation
Download
Buy
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
Horace Silver (p) Kenny Dorham (t) Hank Mobley (ts) Doug Watkins (b) Art Blakey (d)
Doodlin'
Download
Buy
Jim Hall (g) Bill Evans (p)
I'm getting sentimental over you
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p)
After All (Fifth Movement)
Download
Buy
Bird and Diz at Carnegie Hall, 1947... Bop in the joy spring of its years... This is 'Confirmation' – of their greatness (I know - but - couldn't resist). Opening on drums, then the familiar theme in unison at a sprightly tempo. Bird up first, sounding relaxed, sudden flurries of notes breaking the line. Tone drenched in the blues, such a human sound. The double-tempo he frequently launches into and stays in for long stretches is stunning. Yet the tune is never far away – this is not just virtuoso playing over the changes. Gillespie next – soaring upwards to descend in rapid runs, brash, brassy and beautiful. John Lewis takes a solo from somewhere upstate by the muffled sound of it – way off-mike. Bass up briefly then theme and out. Rapturous applause etc... and rightly so. Glory Days.
Bop – to the birth of hard bop. Returning to the blues as grounding (although Bird was never more than a flicker away from them). Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers. Their first incarnation as a small group - Silver was to leave and Art Blakey take over the leadership. From 1955, playing his composition the ever-catchy 'Doodlin.' Silver takes the first solo, funky figures, a facet of his style that perhaps Bobby Timmons would inherit when he joined the band in 1958. Think Moanin' etc... Much dropping of 'g's, I'm thinkin'... Tenor next, Hank Mobley, sounding calm, a little detached almost, although spiking his passage with blues figures. Kenny Dorham then, as Silver plays an almost boogie woogie train figure underneath for the first chorus and a few bars into the second. Elegant and spacious trumpet. Blakey takes a piece, some hard hitting on and off the beat as his cymbals mark the movement through. Funky.
Onwards a few years – back to the cool, say, in 1962. Jim Hall and Bill Evans take a look at 'I'm getting sentimental over you.' Slow yet supple, weaving round each other in an intricate coupling, seamlessly moving between accompaniment and solo – blurring the partition, actually while not getting in each other's way - guitar and piano can create a muddy sound if the participants are not very careful. Here? Two hearts beating as one... well, I'm in a sentimental mood myself today... Intelligent and moving.
Cecil Taylor at the old johanna live and solo from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974, this is 'After All (Fifth Movement).' Repeating an opening chordal figure to suddenly spray a higher flash of notes across the deeper contrast. More complex harmonic terrain than above – yet still you find a bluesy snatch here and there that links to the tradition. Behind it all, however abstracted or disguised, the rhythms of jazz. European conservatory meets the Afro-American tradition (Cecil uses call and response as a major performative vehicle). Towards the end, thoughtful, rhapsodic and perhaps not so far removed from Bill Evans above...
A final thought on criticism - what it should be, as opposed to what it frequently has been and is, in all disciplines:
'Admit what you can’t conceal,' [Randall] Jarrell concludes in "The Age of Criticism," 'that criticism is no more than (and no less than) the helpful remarks and the thoughtful and disinterested judgment of a reader, a loving and experienced and able reader, but only a reader. . . . Remember that you can never be more than the staircase to the monument, the guide to the gallery, the telescope through which the children see the stars. At your best you make people see what they might never have seen without you; but they must always forget you in what they see.' (From here... ).
Not sure about the 'experienced and able' (or 'disinterested' - music is too intense an experience for me) but certainly 'loving' in my own case... and hopefully 'helpful' occasionally... I love the image of 'the staircase to the monument.' As a renegade from academe, how true those words are and how many critical 'monuments' exist, that should be knocked down for 'staircases.'
Oo-pop-a-da - to end where we started, with Babs Gonzales...
Charlie Parker (as) Dizzie Gillespie (t) John Lewis (p) Al McKibbon (b) Joe Harris (d)
Confirmation
Download
Buy
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
Horace Silver (p) Kenny Dorham (t) Hank Mobley (ts) Doug Watkins (b) Art Blakey (d)
Doodlin'
Download
Buy
Jim Hall (g) Bill Evans (p)
I'm getting sentimental over you
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p)
After All (Fifth Movement)
Download
Buy
Friday, February 08, 2008
Cecil Taylor... Ornette Coleman... George Clinton/Funkadelic...
A quick three - time has run away with me this week, embroiled in editing down a lot of our music and plotting for the launch of our cd/download label... coming soon, fingers crossed...
'Things ain't what they used to be.' They certainly weren't after Cecil Taylor had exploded onto the scene... despite the years of initial obscurity, he laid down some powerful markers. The old Ellington tune, here worked out by an octet in 1961, five horns, including Clark Terry – an old Ellingtonian (1951-59). Regarding Cecil's piano playing, Gary Giddins remarked that:
'...Taylor is almost like a tabula rasa in the sense that listeners read into him whatever they happen to know about music. People with a classical background will hear everything from Ravel to Messiaen or Mozart to Brahms, and those with a jazz background tend to talk about Bud Powell, Lennie Tristano, Horace Silver or Dave Brubeck, and so forth.' (from here - scroll down)
The brilliantly astringent diagonal comping and asides on this track remind me of Monk and Duke, to add two more perceived influences. Interesting to compare one of the Ellington band's versions of this tune on this vid with Johnny Hodges soaring free. Taking the tune at a fair lick compared to the more sedate tempo employed here. I can hear this congregation as a distant echo of one of the Dukal small band tracks - and Duke's piano playing did not pigeon hole easily into period...Although, as Giddins qualifies:
'While people always seem to hear references to the music that they know, at the same time, whether you love Taylor or not, he doesn't really sound like anybody else. That is the great paradox, that he is so much an original, yet he calls to mind so much of western music and so much of piano music.' (Ibid).
Shepp comments querulously over the ensemble as they state the theme. Cecil takes the first solo, pecking, hacking and surging up and down the keyboard over a pretty straight rhythm from Neidlinger. Shepp emerges next – although it sounds as if Taylor's accompaniment is a continuation of his own solo. Squally, bending and slurring tenor – in places sounding like Ben Webster in an alternative universe, to continue that Ellington analogy. Then Clark Terry – poised, taking his time – I doubt that he was ever ruffled by much – sneaking in a quote from 'It ain't necessarily so.' Brief bass interlude - then Roswell Rudd follows, sounding like he's having fun - some wry trombone rips. Taylor back for some spaced out chords that accompany the bass coming through for a couple of choruses. Lacy then – entering on a high long held note. Higgins getting more assertive on the drums as the ensemble join in on a collective improv. An odd look at Taylor playing on a conventional structure – here, a twelve bar blues. A track positioned on the hinge of history, old and new joined in a raggedly exhilarating mash - or something...
Swacking guitars, rambling riffing bass, thumping beat, that swirly theme – the first track of Ornette Coleman's ''Dancing in your head,' 'Theme from a Symphony, Part One.' Ornette taking collective improvisation to a different place – his own sax used as much rhythmically as melodically – alternatively gliding over and bouncing off the surging boil of the music. Harmolodics, anyone? Definitions? We'll get there in the end – a concept you understand intuitively rather than logically, perhaps... fascinating to try and follow the different lines weaving in and out, the beat never quite as solid as you think it is, moving like an unpredictable wave down the beach, powered up by the mighty Ronald Shannon Jackson. Recorded in 1975, this was the first outing for his electric line-up, soon to become known as Prime Time.
One of the links between Ornette's electric bands and Miles Davis's voodoo jazz rock may well be George Clinton's Funkadelic. From the wild and wacky album 'Maggot Brain,' here is 'Wars of Armageddon.' Everything AND the kitchen sink chucked into this. The great Eddie Hazell rises occasionally out of the bongo_ridden swamp like a wah wah God but this is wacky collage in the main over an infectious driving rhythm. Love the cuckoo clock... More pussy to the power, y'all... Etc... Apologies to the thought police... not...
I'm hoping to get more tracks up this weekend... energy (and Armageddon) permitting. Vaya con dios...
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor (p) Steve Lacy (ss) Roswell Rudd (tr) Archie Shepp (ts) Charles Davis (bs) Clark Terry (t) Buell Neidlinger(b) Billy Higgins (d)
Things ain't what they used to be
Download
Buy
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman (as) Robert Palmer (cl) Bern Nix, Charles Ellerbee (g) Jamaaladeen Tacuma (b) Ronald Shannon Jackson (d)
Theme from a Symphony Part One
Download
Buy
Funkadelic
Eddie Hazel,Tawl Ross (g) Bernie Worrell (key) Billy Nelson (b) Tiki Fulwood (d) Parliament, Gary Shider, Bernie Worrell, Tawl Ross (v)
Wars of Armageddon
Download
Buy
'Things ain't what they used to be.' They certainly weren't after Cecil Taylor had exploded onto the scene... despite the years of initial obscurity, he laid down some powerful markers. The old Ellington tune, here worked out by an octet in 1961, five horns, including Clark Terry – an old Ellingtonian (1951-59). Regarding Cecil's piano playing, Gary Giddins remarked that:
'...Taylor is almost like a tabula rasa in the sense that listeners read into him whatever they happen to know about music. People with a classical background will hear everything from Ravel to Messiaen or Mozart to Brahms, and those with a jazz background tend to talk about Bud Powell, Lennie Tristano, Horace Silver or Dave Brubeck, and so forth.' (from here - scroll down)
The brilliantly astringent diagonal comping and asides on this track remind me of Monk and Duke, to add two more perceived influences. Interesting to compare one of the Ellington band's versions of this tune on this vid with Johnny Hodges soaring free. Taking the tune at a fair lick compared to the more sedate tempo employed here. I can hear this congregation as a distant echo of one of the Dukal small band tracks - and Duke's piano playing did not pigeon hole easily into period...Although, as Giddins qualifies:
'While people always seem to hear references to the music that they know, at the same time, whether you love Taylor or not, he doesn't really sound like anybody else. That is the great paradox, that he is so much an original, yet he calls to mind so much of western music and so much of piano music.' (Ibid).
Shepp comments querulously over the ensemble as they state the theme. Cecil takes the first solo, pecking, hacking and surging up and down the keyboard over a pretty straight rhythm from Neidlinger. Shepp emerges next – although it sounds as if Taylor's accompaniment is a continuation of his own solo. Squally, bending and slurring tenor – in places sounding like Ben Webster in an alternative universe, to continue that Ellington analogy. Then Clark Terry – poised, taking his time – I doubt that he was ever ruffled by much – sneaking in a quote from 'It ain't necessarily so.' Brief bass interlude - then Roswell Rudd follows, sounding like he's having fun - some wry trombone rips. Taylor back for some spaced out chords that accompany the bass coming through for a couple of choruses. Lacy then – entering on a high long held note. Higgins getting more assertive on the drums as the ensemble join in on a collective improv. An odd look at Taylor playing on a conventional structure – here, a twelve bar blues. A track positioned on the hinge of history, old and new joined in a raggedly exhilarating mash - or something...
Swacking guitars, rambling riffing bass, thumping beat, that swirly theme – the first track of Ornette Coleman's ''Dancing in your head,' 'Theme from a Symphony, Part One.' Ornette taking collective improvisation to a different place – his own sax used as much rhythmically as melodically – alternatively gliding over and bouncing off the surging boil of the music. Harmolodics, anyone? Definitions? We'll get there in the end – a concept you understand intuitively rather than logically, perhaps... fascinating to try and follow the different lines weaving in and out, the beat never quite as solid as you think it is, moving like an unpredictable wave down the beach, powered up by the mighty Ronald Shannon Jackson. Recorded in 1975, this was the first outing for his electric line-up, soon to become known as Prime Time.
One of the links between Ornette's electric bands and Miles Davis's voodoo jazz rock may well be George Clinton's Funkadelic. From the wild and wacky album 'Maggot Brain,' here is 'Wars of Armageddon.' Everything AND the kitchen sink chucked into this. The great Eddie Hazell rises occasionally out of the bongo_ridden swamp like a wah wah God but this is wacky collage in the main over an infectious driving rhythm. Love the cuckoo clock... More pussy to the power, y'all... Etc... Apologies to the thought police... not...
I'm hoping to get more tracks up this weekend... energy (and Armageddon) permitting. Vaya con dios...
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor (p) Steve Lacy (ss) Roswell Rudd (tr) Archie Shepp (ts) Charles Davis (bs) Clark Terry (t) Buell Neidlinger(b) Billy Higgins (d)
Things ain't what they used to be
Download
Buy
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman (as) Robert Palmer (cl) Bern Nix, Charles Ellerbee (g) Jamaaladeen Tacuma (b) Ronald Shannon Jackson (d)
Theme from a Symphony Part One
Download
Buy
Funkadelic
Eddie Hazel,Tawl Ross (g) Bernie Worrell (key) Billy Nelson (b) Tiki Fulwood (d) Parliament, Gary Shider, Bernie Worrell, Tawl Ross (v)
Wars of Armageddon
Download
Buy
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Barry Altschul... Shelley Manne... Cecil Taylor... Al Cohn/Bob Brookmeyer... Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee
Barry Altschul, from 1977, the title track of the album 'You can't name your own tune.' Starts off brisk and busy, then Muhal comes through quickly for a solo, single line and swirl, horn riffs bridging this and Lewis's trombone, borne along on a strong tide that floods most of the sonic space, not allowing Lewis much room in the mix, that ebbs slightly then dies off for Dave Holland to come through and solo. Ending on a fast walk to bring in Rivers. Interesting – more space now opening than for the other horn as the piano drops out and the drummer holds off. Ensemble return to finish. A strange track, somehow, in its combination of tight writing and free solos that do not, however, stray too far from camp. As what was not often the case in earlier recordings, the bass is very up in the mix here – which blocks the trombone perhaps, muddying things a tad here and there as the bustling hyper-hustle of the drummer covers much of the canvas. Still – you can't have everything. Fascinating stuff...
Shelley Manne was doing some interesting work in 1954... His drums open on 'Abstract No 1,' followed by tenor and trumpet, an integral part of the three lined movement through this precursor of free jazz in the melodic/sonic way he intertwines with the horns, messing up the then-accepted (although increasingly fragile) jazz givens of rhythm/melody/harmony. Giuffre switches to clarinet and his inimitable bucolic tone adds another colour to the palette – back to baritone at the end. A sure-footed step into new areas – exploring sound, colour and texture, a long ways from bebop but not as dry as much of the third stream would become.
Cecil Taylor... 'I forgot,' take one. This is early on in his recorded career and the more fascinating because of that. He first recorded in that epochal Death of Bird year, 1955 – 'Jazz Advance,' the album, but this is from the marathon Candid sessions of 1961. The young Archie Shepp, who sometimes seemed to be floundering on some tracks (understandably), here contributes well to the sombre mood of this slow, smoky performance. Two sections - Taylor thoughtful, calm, dropping occasional astringencies into the proceedings but nothing like his usual galloping energy. Neidlinger adding deep arco bass as Shepp wanders through with almost dreamlike tenor. A pause - then the drummer gives spasmodic cymbals, Taylor enters on floating, distant piano, spartan drifting figures. Charles gives restrained cymbal splashes like breaths before bass, tenor and then piano return. A sudden rush, falling away. The whole, like a slow fragmented episodic blur, riffing on the elusiveness of memory - 'I Forgot?' And similar to the Shelley Manne piece in its handling of colours and mood...
To measure the distance travelled, the spaces laid out in new mapping... A 1957 date from Al Cohn and Bob Brookmeyer, from which comes this track, 'Lazy Man Stomp.' A fast yet frothy romp – you could imagine people jiving to this. Cohn was a pretty good sax player, one of the original 'Four Brothers' in Woody Herman's Second Herd, (I think he followed Herbie Steward into the section -who is, according to the link, the only surviving member of that illustrious fraternal grouping) whose arranging/composing skills took over his career, although he kept up a long-term sporadic partnership with other Brother Zoot Sims. A Brookmeyer composition – the title might give that away, perhaps, evocative of an earlier era in jazz that the trombonist always kept a foot and a large piece of his heart in. Good solos all round - including a crystal clear Mose Allison, playing a sideman's role here, rocked along nicely by some punchy drumming from Nick Stabulas and Teddy Kotick's masterfully sprung bass. To say this is solidly swinging and satisfying would be to under-praise it (in a wreckless splash of unintentionally Miltonic sibilance - hissing 'like Medusa's head in wrath' indeed as James Russell Lowell says here... [long scroll down]). The interest for me in selecting these tracks is that, given the haphazard way I pick them, how fascinating it is to let them bounce off each other in such a spontaneous way. I can't help but compare 'Lazy Man Stomp' to the Altschul piece above, given the similar ensemble - trombone and tenor plus rhythm section - this is much clearer, oddly more space allowed for the music, much as I like the other recording. And the drumming is equally as forceful here...
Sonny and Brownie – 'Stranger Blues.' That fine-sprung bounce of Brownie's guitar leads them in after a brief spoken delineation, with Terry's harmonica running across like an effervescent hound dog in the breaks between their matched vocals, also punctuated by Sonny's high woops. By the time this was recorded in the sixties they had fine-honed their style – but it works so well. I saw them a couple of years later in London, headlining a big blues show and they were wonderful. And in Dublin on what was their last European tour together, must have been in the late seventies. They were still great...
Barry Altshul
Barry Altshul (d) Sam Rivers (ts) George Lewis (tr) Muhal Richard Abrams (p) Dave Holland (b)
You can't name your own tune
Buy
Shelley Manne
Shelley Manne (d) Shorty Rogers (t) Jimmy Guiffre (ts, cl, bs)
Abstract No 1
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
Archie Shepp (ts) Cecil Taylor (p, cel) Buell Neidlinger (b) Denis Charles (d)
I forgot take one
Download
Buy
Al Cohn/Bob Brookmeyer
Al Cohn (ts) Bob Brookmeyer (tr) Mose Allison (p) Teddy Kotick (b) Nick Stabulas (d)
Lazy Man Stomp
Download
Buy
Sonny Terry (v, hca) Brownie McGhee (g, v)
Stranger Blues
Download
Buy
Shelley Manne was doing some interesting work in 1954... His drums open on 'Abstract No 1,' followed by tenor and trumpet, an integral part of the three lined movement through this precursor of free jazz in the melodic/sonic way he intertwines with the horns, messing up the then-accepted (although increasingly fragile) jazz givens of rhythm/melody/harmony. Giuffre switches to clarinet and his inimitable bucolic tone adds another colour to the palette – back to baritone at the end. A sure-footed step into new areas – exploring sound, colour and texture, a long ways from bebop but not as dry as much of the third stream would become.
Cecil Taylor... 'I forgot,' take one. This is early on in his recorded career and the more fascinating because of that. He first recorded in that epochal Death of Bird year, 1955 – 'Jazz Advance,' the album, but this is from the marathon Candid sessions of 1961. The young Archie Shepp, who sometimes seemed to be floundering on some tracks (understandably), here contributes well to the sombre mood of this slow, smoky performance. Two sections - Taylor thoughtful, calm, dropping occasional astringencies into the proceedings but nothing like his usual galloping energy. Neidlinger adding deep arco bass as Shepp wanders through with almost dreamlike tenor. A pause - then the drummer gives spasmodic cymbals, Taylor enters on floating, distant piano, spartan drifting figures. Charles gives restrained cymbal splashes like breaths before bass, tenor and then piano return. A sudden rush, falling away. The whole, like a slow fragmented episodic blur, riffing on the elusiveness of memory - 'I Forgot?' And similar to the Shelley Manne piece in its handling of colours and mood...
To measure the distance travelled, the spaces laid out in new mapping... A 1957 date from Al Cohn and Bob Brookmeyer, from which comes this track, 'Lazy Man Stomp.' A fast yet frothy romp – you could imagine people jiving to this. Cohn was a pretty good sax player, one of the original 'Four Brothers' in Woody Herman's Second Herd, (I think he followed Herbie Steward into the section -who is, according to the link, the only surviving member of that illustrious fraternal grouping) whose arranging/composing skills took over his career, although he kept up a long-term sporadic partnership with other Brother Zoot Sims. A Brookmeyer composition – the title might give that away, perhaps, evocative of an earlier era in jazz that the trombonist always kept a foot and a large piece of his heart in. Good solos all round - including a crystal clear Mose Allison, playing a sideman's role here, rocked along nicely by some punchy drumming from Nick Stabulas and Teddy Kotick's masterfully sprung bass. To say this is solidly swinging and satisfying would be to under-praise it (in a wreckless splash of unintentionally Miltonic sibilance - hissing 'like Medusa's head in wrath' indeed as James Russell Lowell says here... [long scroll down]). The interest for me in selecting these tracks is that, given the haphazard way I pick them, how fascinating it is to let them bounce off each other in such a spontaneous way. I can't help but compare 'Lazy Man Stomp' to the Altschul piece above, given the similar ensemble - trombone and tenor plus rhythm section - this is much clearer, oddly more space allowed for the music, much as I like the other recording. And the drumming is equally as forceful here...
Sonny and Brownie – 'Stranger Blues.' That fine-sprung bounce of Brownie's guitar leads them in after a brief spoken delineation, with Terry's harmonica running across like an effervescent hound dog in the breaks between their matched vocals, also punctuated by Sonny's high woops. By the time this was recorded in the sixties they had fine-honed their style – but it works so well. I saw them a couple of years later in London, headlining a big blues show and they were wonderful. And in Dublin on what was their last European tour together, must have been in the late seventies. They were still great...
Barry Altshul
Barry Altshul (d) Sam Rivers (ts) George Lewis (tr) Muhal Richard Abrams (p) Dave Holland (b)
You can't name your own tune
Buy
Shelley Manne
Shelley Manne (d) Shorty Rogers (t) Jimmy Guiffre (ts, cl, bs)
Abstract No 1
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
Archie Shepp (ts) Cecil Taylor (p, cel) Buell Neidlinger (b) Denis Charles (d)
I forgot take one
Download
Buy
Al Cohn/Bob Brookmeyer
Al Cohn (ts) Bob Brookmeyer (tr) Mose Allison (p) Teddy Kotick (b) Nick Stabulas (d)
Lazy Man Stomp
Download
Buy
Sonny Terry (v, hca) Brownie McGhee (g, v)
Stranger Blues
Download
Buy
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Mix 3/Cecil Taylor/ Plexus/ Horace Tapscott/Martin Carthy/Cyril Tawney/Sinatra/Mal Waldron/Charles Mingus/Harlan T. Bobo/Pet Shop Boys/Tubby Hayes
Early in the morning of Sunday... a strange Christmas – quiet and much confinement to barracks due to chest infection in a combo with the usual physical crap that lays me down frequently. But you use these periods – reading and listening – and plotting. And maybe drinking too much – but that's the traditional hazard of the season's turn – somewhat enthusiastically embraced, maybe, to counteract the stuttering of the body's clumsy passing through this time continuum. We still aim towards the light, to transcend that downdrag...
I hope everyone has had the Christmas they wanted – here's another mix...
1.Cecil Taylor – an encore...
2.Plexus – extract from 23 September – suite 4
3.Horace Tapscott – A Dress for Renee
4.Martin Carthy – Scarborough Fair
5.Cyril Tawney – Sally free and easy
6.Frank Sinatra – Last night when I was young
7.Mal Waldron – You don't know what love is
8.Charles Mingus – Solo Dancer (First track from 'Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.').
9.Harlan T. Bobo – Bottle and Hotel
10.Pet Shop Boys – King's Cross
11.Tubby Hayes Orchestra – The Killers of W.1
I was watching John Huston's last movie, 'The Dead,' earlier... which I haven't seen for a long time.
It raised a lot of memories... 'Lass of Loughrim' especially – I'd forgotten where I first heard that song... bittersweet stuff...
But we move on... 2008 looms...
WordsandmusicXmasMix3
Download
I hope everyone has had the Christmas they wanted – here's another mix...
1.Cecil Taylor – an encore...
2.Plexus – extract from 23 September – suite 4
3.Horace Tapscott – A Dress for Renee
4.Martin Carthy – Scarborough Fair
5.Cyril Tawney – Sally free and easy
6.Frank Sinatra – Last night when I was young
7.Mal Waldron – You don't know what love is
8.Charles Mingus – Solo Dancer (First track from 'Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.').
9.Harlan T. Bobo – Bottle and Hotel
10.Pet Shop Boys – King's Cross
11.Tubby Hayes Orchestra – The Killers of W.1
I was watching John Huston's last movie, 'The Dead,' earlier... which I haven't seen for a long time.
It raised a lot of memories... 'Lass of Loughrim' especially – I'd forgotten where I first heard that song... bittersweet stuff...
But we move on... 2008 looms...
WordsandmusicXmasMix3
Download
Monday, December 24, 2007
Xmas mix - Whitedog... Charles Ives... Bill Evans... Cecil Taylor... Peter Brotzmann...Guy Clark... Judee Sill... Second Zion 4... Roland Kirk
Christmas greetings to everyone... this is the first of two mixes I have done for the festive season, tracklisting below...
1.Whitedog – Budapest 4 a.m.
2.Charles Ives First Symphony – Adagio molto (sustenuto)
3.Bill Evans/Lee Konitz/Warner Marsh – Night and Day
4.Cecil Taylor – 11-52 (From 3 Phasis)
5.Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet – Aziz
6.Guy Clark – Let him roll
7.Judee Sill – The lamb ran away with the crown
8.Second Zion Four – Praise him shining angels
9.Roland Kirk – We free kings
An odd mixture, perhaps... stuff I like... the Kirk is a bit of a seasonal favourite – but it's always worth a runout. Who knows – for the same reasons, I may even whack the MJQ's version of 'God rest ye merry gentlemen' up tomorrow as part of the Christmas day mix...
Beware - this is a relatively large file if uploading, over 70mb... Number two tomorrow, alcohol/fun permitting...
The Wordsand musicXmasMix1
Download
Peace...
1.Whitedog – Budapest 4 a.m.
2.Charles Ives First Symphony – Adagio molto (sustenuto)
3.Bill Evans/Lee Konitz/Warner Marsh – Night and Day
4.Cecil Taylor – 11-52 (From 3 Phasis)
5.Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet – Aziz
6.Guy Clark – Let him roll
7.Judee Sill – The lamb ran away with the crown
8.Second Zion Four – Praise him shining angels
9.Roland Kirk – We free kings
An odd mixture, perhaps... stuff I like... the Kirk is a bit of a seasonal favourite – but it's always worth a runout. Who knows – for the same reasons, I may even whack the MJQ's version of 'God rest ye merry gentlemen' up tomorrow as part of the Christmas day mix...
Beware - this is a relatively large file if uploading, over 70mb... Number two tomorrow, alcohol/fun permitting...
The Wordsand musicXmasMix1
Download
Peace...
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Charles Mingus... Tal Farlow... Cecil Taylor... Sonny Rollins
Mingus in 1960. A stunning quartet sans piano, bravura stuff all round:
'This ensemble featured the same instruments as Coleman's quartet, and is often regarded as Mingus rising to the challenging new standard established by Coleman.' (From here...)
'What love' begins as slow meditation before the impeccable Ted Curson takes a long solo, starting mournful – a flamenco/spanish edge to it - becoming more jaunty with wonderful spiralling runs, over changing rhythms. Mingus next up, fast runs and pauses, a single note poked at several times – this is like eavesdropping on someone's private thoughts. Dolphy sidles in with low sinister bass clarinet before engaging in conversation with the leader. Richmond's cymbals join them then drums as the rhythm sort of staggers out – start stop start stop. One of the defining characteristics of 'jazz' was/is the manner in which instrumental tone was 'vocalised.' Here, you can hear them talking to each other, Dolphy especially hilarious as he imitates the rise and fall of a quizzical speech cadence. Answered by Mingus. They sound like a bickering couple. Funny and thought-provokingly brilliant – Mingus always painted on a broad canvas.
Linked to Mingus by his time with the Red Norvo trio, just before he branched out on his own, Talmadge Holt Farlow, a genius of modern jazz guitar, was something of an enigma. At the height of his fame, he dropped out of the profession and returned to his original career as sign-painter. Although he surfaced in later years (and sadly died of cancer in 1998), that return to small-town life has probably taken him off the radar for many. Listen to his blistering runs and odd phrases on 'Just one of those things.' It wasn't, believe me... Classic small combo modern jazz - he's well-supported by Red Mitchell and Stan Levy. Claude Williamson takes a matchingly fleet solo.
Cecil Taylor again. I like him... From his first album 'Jazz Advance,' and boy, it certainly was, 'Song,' featuring Steve Lacy on soprano saxophone. Now, this was recorded in 1956, the bass is solid, the drums unobtrusive, not stretched into the new pulses and time continua to come. Yet Taylor takes off in places to hint at what was not far round the corner. His piano fairly romps and stomps in places, blatting out clusters and dense runs. Lacy is cool, holding his own ground, seemingly unfazed by the surrounding furore.To have stepped out of Dixieland into this music was an interesting manoevre, to say the least. There is a wonderful freshness to this track, still retaining the virginal energies of its conception as new territories were joyfully explored. Hearing old masters still playing with youthful fire has been a special privilege the last couple of years - yet how much more thrilling must it have been for those who caught it the first time round...
Finally... Sonny Rollins. 'We kiss in a shadow,' taken from the ever-fascinating album 'East Broadway Rundown' that he recorded with Coltrane's rhythm section. (Freddy Hubbard was also on the session but only for one track). Contrast and compare time... Rollins, despite his own undeniable brilliance, lived so much in the shadow of Coltrane, despite out-living him and becoming a celebrated elder stateman of the tenor – perhaps we should consider these musicians more in the spirit of 'both/and' rather than 'either/or.' Partisanship is fine – and I am a stone archetypal fan in the sense of fanatic for a variety of musics. But it can get out of hand and lead to neglect of important contributors... Certainly in jazz... I'm thinking about figures like Jimmy Giuffre perhaps, or Lennie Tristano – or the sombre reality of being a genius unrecognised and unrewarded as in the case of the trombonist/free improvisor Paul Rutherford, who died earlier this week. Some bitter irony in the coverage of his death – I just noticed this extensive obit in the Guardian today by Richard Williams – as compared to the obscurity of much of his recent life, which poses many questions about how such cases of economic and artistic neglect can be dealt with – if at all... Ending on a sombre note – but it's a sad tale...
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus (b) Eric Dolphy (b-cl) Ted Curson (t) Danny Richmond (d)
What Love
Download
Buy
Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow (g) Claude Williamson (p) Red Mitchell (b) Stan Levy (d)
Just one of those things
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor (p) Steve Lacy (ss) Buell Neidlinger (b) Dennis Charles (d)
Song
Download
Buy
Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Jimmy Garrison (b) Elvin Jones (d)
We kiss in a shadow
Download
Buy
'This ensemble featured the same instruments as Coleman's quartet, and is often regarded as Mingus rising to the challenging new standard established by Coleman.' (From here...)
'What love' begins as slow meditation before the impeccable Ted Curson takes a long solo, starting mournful – a flamenco/spanish edge to it - becoming more jaunty with wonderful spiralling runs, over changing rhythms. Mingus next up, fast runs and pauses, a single note poked at several times – this is like eavesdropping on someone's private thoughts. Dolphy sidles in with low sinister bass clarinet before engaging in conversation with the leader. Richmond's cymbals join them then drums as the rhythm sort of staggers out – start stop start stop. One of the defining characteristics of 'jazz' was/is the manner in which instrumental tone was 'vocalised.' Here, you can hear them talking to each other, Dolphy especially hilarious as he imitates the rise and fall of a quizzical speech cadence. Answered by Mingus. They sound like a bickering couple. Funny and thought-provokingly brilliant – Mingus always painted on a broad canvas.
Linked to Mingus by his time with the Red Norvo trio, just before he branched out on his own, Talmadge Holt Farlow, a genius of modern jazz guitar, was something of an enigma. At the height of his fame, he dropped out of the profession and returned to his original career as sign-painter. Although he surfaced in later years (and sadly died of cancer in 1998), that return to small-town life has probably taken him off the radar for many. Listen to his blistering runs and odd phrases on 'Just one of those things.' It wasn't, believe me... Classic small combo modern jazz - he's well-supported by Red Mitchell and Stan Levy. Claude Williamson takes a matchingly fleet solo.
Cecil Taylor again. I like him... From his first album 'Jazz Advance,' and boy, it certainly was, 'Song,' featuring Steve Lacy on soprano saxophone. Now, this was recorded in 1956, the bass is solid, the drums unobtrusive, not stretched into the new pulses and time continua to come. Yet Taylor takes off in places to hint at what was not far round the corner. His piano fairly romps and stomps in places, blatting out clusters and dense runs. Lacy is cool, holding his own ground, seemingly unfazed by the surrounding furore.To have stepped out of Dixieland into this music was an interesting manoevre, to say the least. There is a wonderful freshness to this track, still retaining the virginal energies of its conception as new territories were joyfully explored. Hearing old masters still playing with youthful fire has been a special privilege the last couple of years - yet how much more thrilling must it have been for those who caught it the first time round...
Finally... Sonny Rollins. 'We kiss in a shadow,' taken from the ever-fascinating album 'East Broadway Rundown' that he recorded with Coltrane's rhythm section. (Freddy Hubbard was also on the session but only for one track). Contrast and compare time... Rollins, despite his own undeniable brilliance, lived so much in the shadow of Coltrane, despite out-living him and becoming a celebrated elder stateman of the tenor – perhaps we should consider these musicians more in the spirit of 'both/and' rather than 'either/or.' Partisanship is fine – and I am a stone archetypal fan in the sense of fanatic for a variety of musics. But it can get out of hand and lead to neglect of important contributors... Certainly in jazz... I'm thinking about figures like Jimmy Giuffre perhaps, or Lennie Tristano – or the sombre reality of being a genius unrecognised and unrewarded as in the case of the trombonist/free improvisor Paul Rutherford, who died earlier this week. Some bitter irony in the coverage of his death – I just noticed this extensive obit in the Guardian today by Richard Williams – as compared to the obscurity of much of his recent life, which poses many questions about how such cases of economic and artistic neglect can be dealt with – if at all... Ending on a sombre note – but it's a sad tale...
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus (b) Eric Dolphy (b-cl) Ted Curson (t) Danny Richmond (d)
What Love
Download
Buy
Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow (g) Claude Williamson (p) Red Mitchell (b) Stan Levy (d)
Just one of those things
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor (p) Steve Lacy (ss) Buell Neidlinger (b) Dennis Charles (d)
Song
Download
Buy
Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins (ts) Jimmy Garrison (b) Elvin Jones (d)
We kiss in a shadow
Download
Buy
Friday, July 13, 2007
In Celebration: Cecil Taylor... Anthony Braxton... Ornette Coleman...
Back home in God's Little Acre, pondering the music from the last few days... interestingly, on Night after Night, a commenter (scroll down) said that he thought the Taylor/Braxton show was boring... Maybe I am mad... But each to his or her own. Here's Anthony Hawkin's review for another angle. Thanks to be.jazz for these links (and the one to my review). I'm off to see the Pet Shop Boys at Newmarket racecourse in a couple of weeks with my friend Rachel – who feels the way about them that I do about Cecil – whom I suspect she would hate... It goes round...
As a small celebration – here are tracks from Taylor, Braxton and Ornette. Without much chat – I am on the clock today. First: I offer the gloriously titled 'Womb Waters Scent of the Burning Armadillo Shell.' Played by an 11 piece in 1985, this is Cecil leading the way with a raucously beautiful performance. Begins on a stabbing repeated bluesy figure and proceeds into a dense, multilayered extravaganza... on a wet friday morning, this lights the fires in the head, heart and soul... an all-star line-up...
Second: Anthony Braxton with Tony Oxley and Adelhard Roidinger. Opens on clarinet...
Last: Ornette from his recent album 'Sound Grammar,' which I have been listening to a lot recently. This is 'Sleep Talking.' If you check out the Youtube video links below – it is fascinating where he says that he originally wanted to be an architect – then a brain surgeon. But due to lack of money – he became a musician. Who's to say that he didn't achieve both of those goals with his music?
Do not forget – the Cecil Taylor gig was recorded and will be put out by BBC Radio 3 on Friday... available as a repeat throughout the week...
In the Videodrome...
Cecil Taylor with the Italian Instabile Orchestra... taking no prisoners...
Anthony Braxton at Woodstock...
Ornette' musical journey and here...
Ira Cohen in conversation
Cecil Taylor
Rashied Bakr, drums, voice · Karen Borca, bassoon, voice · Günther Hämpel, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, vibraphone, voice · Jimmy Lyons, alto saxophone, voice · Andre Martinez, drums, percussion, voice · William Parker, bass, voice · Enrico Rava, trumpet, voice · Tomasz Stanko, trumpet, voice · Cecil Taylor, piano, voice · John Tchicai, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, voice . Frank Wright, tenor saxophone, voice
Womb Waters Scent Of The Burning Armadillo Shell
Download
Buy
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton, clarinet, alto, soprano, sopranino and C-melody saxophones, flute (collective instrumentation for the album) Adelhard Roidinger (b) Tony Oxley (d)
Compositions 40J & 110A (+108B + 69J)
Download
Buy
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman (as) Gregory Cohen, Tony Falanga (b) Denardo Coleman (d)
SleepTalking
Download
Buy
As a small celebration – here are tracks from Taylor, Braxton and Ornette. Without much chat – I am on the clock today. First: I offer the gloriously titled 'Womb Waters Scent of the Burning Armadillo Shell.' Played by an 11 piece in 1985, this is Cecil leading the way with a raucously beautiful performance. Begins on a stabbing repeated bluesy figure and proceeds into a dense, multilayered extravaganza... on a wet friday morning, this lights the fires in the head, heart and soul... an all-star line-up...
Second: Anthony Braxton with Tony Oxley and Adelhard Roidinger. Opens on clarinet...
Last: Ornette from his recent album 'Sound Grammar,' which I have been listening to a lot recently. This is 'Sleep Talking.' If you check out the Youtube video links below – it is fascinating where he says that he originally wanted to be an architect – then a brain surgeon. But due to lack of money – he became a musician. Who's to say that he didn't achieve both of those goals with his music?
Do not forget – the Cecil Taylor gig was recorded and will be put out by BBC Radio 3 on Friday... available as a repeat throughout the week...
In the Videodrome...
Cecil Taylor with the Italian Instabile Orchestra... taking no prisoners...
Anthony Braxton at Woodstock...
Ornette' musical journey and here...
Ira Cohen in conversation
Cecil Taylor
Rashied Bakr, drums, voice · Karen Borca, bassoon, voice · Günther Hämpel, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, vibraphone, voice · Jimmy Lyons, alto saxophone, voice · Andre Martinez, drums, percussion, voice · William Parker, bass, voice · Enrico Rava, trumpet, voice · Tomasz Stanko, trumpet, voice · Cecil Taylor, piano, voice · John Tchicai, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, voice . Frank Wright, tenor saxophone, voice
Womb Waters Scent Of The Burning Armadillo Shell
Download
Buy
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton, clarinet, alto, soprano, sopranino and C-melody saxophones, flute (collective instrumentation for the album) Adelhard Roidinger (b) Tony Oxley (d)
Compositions 40J & 110A (+108B + 69J)
Download
Buy
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman (as) Gregory Cohen, Tony Falanga (b) Denardo Coleman (d)
SleepTalking
Download
Buy
Monday, July 09, 2007
Royal Festival Hall, 8th July, 2007... Cecil Taylor... Anthony Braxton, William Parker... Tony Oxley...
The first half opening act were a bit of a surprise – Polar Bear. Uncharitably, after a few minutes I thought they were a pub group, better suited to one of those once-smoky back rooms beloved of the scene. An interesting line-up – two tenors, bass drums and Leafcutter John on electronics, looking absurdly young – much of his created loops spurred the action and he had the best of it, I thought. But reliance on overstated back beat – ok in other contexts – strapped it all in, for me. Tonight of all nights, one would have expected a local band somewhere nearer to the stature – and sound world/conceptions? - of the main act. We have some, after all... There were a few times when they let go – especially on the last number which gave a strong hint of further potential– but I wondered whether they have worked out the integration of electronics properly yet – as I know myself, it's sometimes difficult for a laptop to respond in live performance at the speed of the other instruments – so they are to a certain extent reliant on the laptop to point the way – here Leafcutter started with bowed cymbal which he bent into intriguing looping sonorities and towards the end of the set a balloon! You had to be there... But the tunes didn't seem to go anywhere much, the soloing constrained apart from a couple of skronk-outs – Lockjaw Davis and Johnny Griffin this wasn't. Maybe that was the point I missed – that they weren't just a blowing jazz group out of the bebop family or the free improv lineage but were trying something new. In which case the rhythm was too rigid for me. A consequence of the loops? – that they forced that backbeat – although when they got away from the straight four, it loosened up and pointed towards further interesting areas... Or just an attempt to reach a wider audience... nothing wrong with that - I'd go see them live again, to be fair... But somehow... time and place?
Maybe it was all about contrast. Which there by God certainly was... The second half opened theatrically with the lights down and Tony Oxley striding onstage to position himself eventually behind his kit – like a character out of a Beckett play almost. Then Cecil – live miked offstage or recorded - recited something relating to African myth, eventually to dance lightly onstage with bells rattling (ridiculously lithe for his age – I couldn't do it!)– some kind of invocation, opening the ritual. He took his place at the piano – and they proceeded to play a set separated into sections by Cecil stopping occasionally and peering at his sheet music to select another page. Was this stuff written down? It seems unlikely... guidelines, maybe, because how the hell could you notate it? To compare his playing with an element, water, would perhaps give something of the delicate tinkling touches, like a fresh stream say, that emptied into a river where the rhythmic current gets stronger, the melodies fluidly stretched – until you were being swept out onto the ocean, through storms and wild sunrises. He moved through all of those areas, analogically, closely followed by the incomparable Oxley, an old playing chum who knows the pianist's mercurial moves well. He has a distinct drum/percussion sound, crashy cymbals with a rough timbre that seem far from the light and crisp hiss of conventional jazz drumming. Sharp fast-decaying sounds, snare flatter in resonance than one would expect, higher pitched from other small instruments and a bongo-y timbre, only using the bass drum sparingly – possibly in deference to the sheer crashing power of Taylor when he forays into the lower registers – you feared for the piano at times... This way, perhaps, his insistent pattering and snapping collaboration cut through cleanly. A thought: anyone who figured that Taylor has strayed far from 'jazz' piano would surely have been confounded tonight, if they had the ears to hear... his harmonic language can be dense, much of it coming from the 'european' twentieth century tradition - but is is embedded in a fierce rhythmic/melodic sense that flows from jazz (and beyond in his cultural heritage) - call and response building up simple patterns into wild complexities, many shards of almost bluesy figures jumping out at you. An exhilarating ride – but this was just the foreplay... They ended to wild applause – the town was waiting for them with great anticipation it seems.
Next up, the rather wonderful William Parker who took a bass solo as his cohorts departed the stage. Arco in the main, with chorded stopping playing a mournful elegaic lament, with east-european overtones at times. A masterclass – he let loose dazzling runs and swooning, swooping glissandos fired by both arco and pizzicato technique.
The band re-formed – with the addition of Anthony Braxton – who got a great cheer. Rightly so – I was at the last gig he played here on the same bill as Cecil T – and he stole the show... What followed pretty much defies my powers of description. I felt I was privileged to be present at a rare meeting of truly GREAT musical minds. Opening on a sound exploration worthy of the AACM (where Braxton originally sprang from), a four way conversation with Taylor inside the piano, Oxley dragging out his chains to rub against various parts of his kit and William Parker using two bows at times to extract as much as he could from his bass – was anyone expecting this? Braxton on contrabass(?) clarinet, an abstracted exercise in squawked sonorities. He swapped horns throughout, going from the deep murk of the large clarinet to the high piping freedoms of the sopranino sax, via soprano and his alto – this last at first having problems cutting through – the sound was dense and complex, covering the registers. Oxley dropped out a couple of times, sitting with hands folded in obvious enjoyment as Braxton and Taylor took the music further and higher, tracked by the solid bass of Parker. Braxton went from sparse, repeated notes, honked and bent frequently, to chitteringly hoarse runs to long fluid reels of notes. Eyes were on Cecil and him, I suppose, for this unique meeting – yet what combat there was occurred under good-natured rivalry – better to see it as a high-powered collaboration. Cecil can be overwhelming, after all – but Braxton was equal to the game, pausing occasionally to wipe his sweating face and his fogged-up glasses before changing horns, having a quick listen before plunging back in, towards the end rocking on his feet, almost dancing in an odd sort of skipping hop. And throughout the concert Cecil used light and shade and a large and subtle dynamic range, not just blasting out for the sake of it. At times, I felt that they had truly gone beyond the beyond , to echo Albert Ayler's famous phrase about his music, that it was about feelings not notes. A mighty, mighty performance from all four constituents. Like I said, I felt privileged to be there – a transcendental experience. But, hey, I'm a fan...
And Ornette tonight...
Written on the run - wifi at the Travelodge in Farringdon - with someone playing some nifty jazz guitar on acoustic a couple of tables from me... a nice start to the day...
Maybe it was all about contrast. Which there by God certainly was... The second half opened theatrically with the lights down and Tony Oxley striding onstage to position himself eventually behind his kit – like a character out of a Beckett play almost. Then Cecil – live miked offstage or recorded - recited something relating to African myth, eventually to dance lightly onstage with bells rattling (ridiculously lithe for his age – I couldn't do it!)– some kind of invocation, opening the ritual. He took his place at the piano – and they proceeded to play a set separated into sections by Cecil stopping occasionally and peering at his sheet music to select another page. Was this stuff written down? It seems unlikely... guidelines, maybe, because how the hell could you notate it? To compare his playing with an element, water, would perhaps give something of the delicate tinkling touches, like a fresh stream say, that emptied into a river where the rhythmic current gets stronger, the melodies fluidly stretched – until you were being swept out onto the ocean, through storms and wild sunrises. He moved through all of those areas, analogically, closely followed by the incomparable Oxley, an old playing chum who knows the pianist's mercurial moves well. He has a distinct drum/percussion sound, crashy cymbals with a rough timbre that seem far from the light and crisp hiss of conventional jazz drumming. Sharp fast-decaying sounds, snare flatter in resonance than one would expect, higher pitched from other small instruments and a bongo-y timbre, only using the bass drum sparingly – possibly in deference to the sheer crashing power of Taylor when he forays into the lower registers – you feared for the piano at times... This way, perhaps, his insistent pattering and snapping collaboration cut through cleanly. A thought: anyone who figured that Taylor has strayed far from 'jazz' piano would surely have been confounded tonight, if they had the ears to hear... his harmonic language can be dense, much of it coming from the 'european' twentieth century tradition - but is is embedded in a fierce rhythmic/melodic sense that flows from jazz (and beyond in his cultural heritage) - call and response building up simple patterns into wild complexities, many shards of almost bluesy figures jumping out at you. An exhilarating ride – but this was just the foreplay... They ended to wild applause – the town was waiting for them with great anticipation it seems.
Next up, the rather wonderful William Parker who took a bass solo as his cohorts departed the stage. Arco in the main, with chorded stopping playing a mournful elegaic lament, with east-european overtones at times. A masterclass – he let loose dazzling runs and swooning, swooping glissandos fired by both arco and pizzicato technique.
The band re-formed – with the addition of Anthony Braxton – who got a great cheer. Rightly so – I was at the last gig he played here on the same bill as Cecil T – and he stole the show... What followed pretty much defies my powers of description. I felt I was privileged to be present at a rare meeting of truly GREAT musical minds. Opening on a sound exploration worthy of the AACM (where Braxton originally sprang from), a four way conversation with Taylor inside the piano, Oxley dragging out his chains to rub against various parts of his kit and William Parker using two bows at times to extract as much as he could from his bass – was anyone expecting this? Braxton on contrabass(?) clarinet, an abstracted exercise in squawked sonorities. He swapped horns throughout, going from the deep murk of the large clarinet to the high piping freedoms of the sopranino sax, via soprano and his alto – this last at first having problems cutting through – the sound was dense and complex, covering the registers. Oxley dropped out a couple of times, sitting with hands folded in obvious enjoyment as Braxton and Taylor took the music further and higher, tracked by the solid bass of Parker. Braxton went from sparse, repeated notes, honked and bent frequently, to chitteringly hoarse runs to long fluid reels of notes. Eyes were on Cecil and him, I suppose, for this unique meeting – yet what combat there was occurred under good-natured rivalry – better to see it as a high-powered collaboration. Cecil can be overwhelming, after all – but Braxton was equal to the game, pausing occasionally to wipe his sweating face and his fogged-up glasses before changing horns, having a quick listen before plunging back in, towards the end rocking on his feet, almost dancing in an odd sort of skipping hop. And throughout the concert Cecil used light and shade and a large and subtle dynamic range, not just blasting out for the sake of it. At times, I felt that they had truly gone beyond the beyond , to echo Albert Ayler's famous phrase about his music, that it was about feelings not notes. A mighty, mighty performance from all four constituents. Like I said, I felt privileged to be there – a transcendental experience. But, hey, I'm a fan...
And Ornette tonight...
Written on the run - wifi at the Travelodge in Farringdon - with someone playing some nifty jazz guitar on acoustic a couple of tables from me... a nice start to the day...
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Anthony Braxton... Jimmy Reed - straight and chopped... Lightnin' Hopkins... DJ Screw/2Pac... Ben Webster/Coleman Hawkins...Cecil Taylor...
'This mammoth document of the final year of the famous Braxton Quartet shows exactly why that group finally split: they had reached a creative apex as a group that -- arguably -- could not be furthered.' (Thom Jurek from a very good introduction to these recordings here...).
Track one from the Willisau Quartet recordings – studio and live – 1991.
Commencing in a rather stately way, the cool tones of Braxton's clarinet giving his music even more of a European edge than usual, perhaps... I like this quote on the BBC web site: 'the missing link between Charlie Parker and John Cage.' Mark Dresser takes a solo and shows his mastery - the gamut of scrapes and scratches and bouncing the bow off the strings to rapid-fire arco sawing, ending on swooning figures as piano and clarinet return. Hemingway rejoins the trio, the drum/tom tom figures reminding you of the music's jazz origins - although the implied rhythms of the participants are another grounding that takes the classical ethos and bends it to Braxton's imperious compositional and improvisational will. The title refers, I gather, to three Braxton compositions... this compounding and blending of the notated sources in performance on the fly adds another layer of complexity to his music... what the thirdstream should have sounded like but rarely did in the balance of technique,genres - and emotion...
Back to the blues... Jimmy Reed was very popular in the UK during the r and b boom years. Yes, his music is a bit formulaic – but there was always something appealing about that shuffle beat of his. Not so heavy on the emotional freight, perhaps – without the shattering power of the Wolf or Muddy Waters, for example – maybe that was one reason for his popularity – social blues for dancing and drinking. And I'm going to New York sometime soon...
Some more Lightnin'... 'West Texas Blues.' Mr Hopkins on his own from the 1960's, stinging guitar tracking the voice, the amplification taking the country blues to somewhere different – able to hold its own in a crowded bar or club better than an acoustic performance yet retaining some degree of intimacy as played solo - when he uses a drummer it gives a different, more extroverted feel... it can be easy to forget that this music was played in more rowdy atmospheres and venues than would seem evident from its arrival on the festival and concert stages when it was taken up by a white audience...
Today's hard blues in Houston – chopped and screwed via the late lamented DJ Screw. Here is his version of 2Pac's 'So Many Tears.' The slowed down track gives a weird combination of menace, poignancy and despair: 'Lord, I suffered through the years, and shed so many tears..
Lord, I lost so many peers, and shed so many tears .' A ghostly harmonica(?) wafts in and out – ghost of older bluesmen... Unable to source this as it's from an old mixtape...
One plays one's games: I wondered what would happen if I took the Jimmy Reed track and slowed it down... get the syrup out, boys and girls...
More from the Hawk and Ben: By the time this session was recorded they were venerable tenor statesmen – the soloing is as much about texture, nuance and rhythm than the usual tenor speed lines. A thoughtful piano intro then Webster takes the tune: 'It never entered my mind.' It suddenly came to me listening to the slurs and bends he employs that there is some Johnny Hodges here, translated to the tenor – well, they sat in the same section for some time... although that after-note vibrato swoosh is classic Webster. Hawk comes in and follows the mood, his tone with that slightly harder edge, staying down and dark for much of his solo. Distilled essence of jazz saxophone... Webster returns for more swoosh... the band frame the two front-liners admirably – Peterson especially restrained and sympathetic.
Cecil Taylor, from the album 'Into the Hot' that went out under Gil Evan's name and showcased Johnny Carisi and the pianist, a side each. This is 'Mixed,' introduced by the horns, starting on a repeated 4 note melody – some nice muted trumpet from Curson. A piercing alto entry from Lyons – the breath of the Bird very much in evidence here. Taylor takes a section – almost rhapsodic as Lyons joins him. Then it starts to cook... churning ensemble and fiery piano taking the foreground, supported by Murray (a little drowned in the mix but his accents and rhythmic concepts come through despite the murk). A strange mutated riff sets up which echoes back into the history as well as pointing forward – the evidence for continuity was always there... The harmonic textures evoke the conservatory – the fire and passion and timbres channel the blues... I must put up some of the Carisi as a contrast – interesting music but conceptually a long way from Taylor's vision...
Great news that Ornette Coleman has received a Pulitzer - I'll put up a tribute asap - so glad I bought my tickets for his London concert (and Cecil - and Braxton - July looking good...). Straight No Chaser has a good piece on this and also a track from 'Sound Grammar.'
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton (as, cl, cbcl, fl, sss), Marilyn Crispell (p), Marc Dresser (b),
Gerry Hemingway (d, mba)
Composition 160(+5) (+40J)
Download
Buy
Jimmy Reed
Going to New York
Download
Buy
Lightnin' Hopkins
West Texas Blues
Download
Buy
DJ Screw/2Pac
So many tears
Download
Jimmy Reed
Going to New York/Slow
Download
Coleman Hawkins/Ben Webster
Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster (ts) Oscar Peterson (p) Herb Ellis (g) Ray Brown (b) Alvin Stoller (d)
You'd be so nice to come home to
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor
(Cecil Taylor (p) Jimmy Lyons (as) Archie Shepp (ts) Ted Curson (t) Roswell Rudd (tr) Henry Grimes (b) Sunny Murray (d)
Mixed
Download
Buy
Monday, March 19, 2007
Four pianists... Bud Powell... Keith Jarrett... Thelonious Monk... Cecil Taylor...
Four pianists – five tracks – leading a variety of groups...
To start somewhere near the beginning of modern jazz piano as we know it... here's the sublime Bud Powell, playing one of his own compositions 'The Fruit.' Apparently a defiant retalition to a frequent insult – embraced and turned back on the insulter... diamond sharp playing, a joyful feel to theme and the variations that flow from it. Bebop piano – but because he is playing solo, more left hand than usual which sounds an echo of the earlier tradition.
Keith Jarrett, with bass and drums, from a live date at the Blue Note, playing 'How Deep is the Ocean?' A pensive, slow beginning, floating the notes out... to be joined by bass down deep and lightly accenting drums, soft but complex flurries from the brushes... A couple of minutes in and they hit a strong groove – cymbals and bass locking it up as Jarrett starts to extend his line, accompanied by the usual sighs and grunts. Peacock takes it up, skidding into a rapid-fire solo.
Thelonious Monk at Newport in 1955 – with Pee Wee Russell, another odd-ball who did not fit into the box assigned to him. A dream band for someone like myself who tries to track the continuities as well as the disruptions. I have been listening to a ridiculous amount of Monk recently – a frequent binge – and discovered anew a lot of tracks I'd forgotten about... Thus is one of them... Charlies Rouse leads off on the solos. Monk comps strongly – full chords, stabbing accents and leading fragments until he drops out to let Rouse have his head (doing the Monk dance round the piano, maybe?). Then Pee Wee – Monk back at the keyboard. He worries at a phrase like a terrier with a rat... playing high which suits sonically as the chalumeau register might get buried in this mix, although he dips down lower occasionally when Monk again drops out. Pee Wee does not seem remotely fazed by the tune or the company, displaying a wonderfully diagonal approach to melody that chimes with the leader's conceptions. Then Monk... bending and stretching the theme, chucking in the patented down-keyboard runs, the glorious asymmetry of it all – and swinging so strongly. Bass up next, spinning off the theme as the piano prods sporadically before leaving the field once more – then Buggin's turn for Dunlop – a strong drummer who gives us his thoughts in crisp fashion. A great shame that Russell never recorded a whole album with Monk...
And because of the Monk orgy - here's another one...
'Ugly Beauty' wasn't the only waltz that Monk recorded - he had performed a wonderful jolting version of 'Carolina Moon' in 6/4 in the forties for Blue Note – but I think it is the only one he wrote – a late composition taken into the studios for the 'Monk Underground' album released in 1968. Monk opens it up then the horns join for the rather stately theme... which has echoes of some of his other compositions... Rouse solos as Monk lays some thick, ringing verticality... Monk comes out after him in a rushing spill of notes... the bass double times in – some intricate games here between drums and piano. Saxophone again, then bass - deep and slow this time as Riley shimmers in the background. Then sax again before the theme returns...
Cecil Taylor from 1960 – playing the Richard Rogers song, 'This nearly was mine.' Another waltz... etched delicately to begin with in the treble as Neidlinger slowly moves underneath... the melody slowly peeking out – with a sudden lurching crashed chord, movement now in the low piano register and the drums emerge to spell the rhythm. Taylor leaves acres of space here – unusually, perhaps – fragments of melody in between sharp, biting harmonies, slowly filling up the sonic area with wild runs and thumping chords, then receding. Putting the ballad/song form on notice while dancing round it, widening the circle... this is Taylor in wonderful transition, on the cusp of abandoning the old forms altogether, showing glimpses of what was to come. I have always thought that the avant-garde of the fifties had to wait to be liberated by the drums - this is on the edge of that freedom – Charles keeps the three four going but lightly enough for Taylor to allow his pianistic/improvisational conception to come through without undue strain - yet wider, more expansive forms were looming, underpinned by the revolutions of Sunny Murray et al... two broad directions to follow – dump the piano, like Ornette had already – or embrace it, like Cecil did and explode the conventional jazz sound world with clusters, atonality in rhythm and melody and surging rhythmic smashes and grabs at the unfettered essence of what 'jazz' piano was truly capable of... but this is a beautiful version of a beautiful song, Cecil showing a tenderness that was not always so naked...
Also: on this rather excellent site there are a couple of stimulating and thought provoking posts that refer to and comment on other blogs that have been engaged in recent debate about the jazz avant-garde and the balance of musicians and innovators on the Afro-American and the white and European scenes. Plus a link to a recent Cecil Taylor interview... here also... scroll down
Bud Powell
The Fruit
Download
Buy
Keith Jarrett (p) Gary Peacock (b) Jack DeJohnette (d)
How deep is the ocean?
Download
Buy
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Charlie Rouse (ts) Pee Wee Russell (cl) Butch Warren (b) Frankie Dunlop (d)
Nutty
Download
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Charlie Rouse (ts) Larry Gayles (b) Ben Riley (d)
Ugly Beauty
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p) Buell Neidlinger (b) Dennis Charles (d)
This nearly was mine
Download
Buy
To start somewhere near the beginning of modern jazz piano as we know it... here's the sublime Bud Powell, playing one of his own compositions 'The Fruit.' Apparently a defiant retalition to a frequent insult – embraced and turned back on the insulter... diamond sharp playing, a joyful feel to theme and the variations that flow from it. Bebop piano – but because he is playing solo, more left hand than usual which sounds an echo of the earlier tradition.
Keith Jarrett, with bass and drums, from a live date at the Blue Note, playing 'How Deep is the Ocean?' A pensive, slow beginning, floating the notes out... to be joined by bass down deep and lightly accenting drums, soft but complex flurries from the brushes... A couple of minutes in and they hit a strong groove – cymbals and bass locking it up as Jarrett starts to extend his line, accompanied by the usual sighs and grunts. Peacock takes it up, skidding into a rapid-fire solo.
Thelonious Monk at Newport in 1955 – with Pee Wee Russell, another odd-ball who did not fit into the box assigned to him. A dream band for someone like myself who tries to track the continuities as well as the disruptions. I have been listening to a ridiculous amount of Monk recently – a frequent binge – and discovered anew a lot of tracks I'd forgotten about... Thus is one of them... Charlies Rouse leads off on the solos. Monk comps strongly – full chords, stabbing accents and leading fragments until he drops out to let Rouse have his head (doing the Monk dance round the piano, maybe?). Then Pee Wee – Monk back at the keyboard. He worries at a phrase like a terrier with a rat... playing high which suits sonically as the chalumeau register might get buried in this mix, although he dips down lower occasionally when Monk again drops out. Pee Wee does not seem remotely fazed by the tune or the company, displaying a wonderfully diagonal approach to melody that chimes with the leader's conceptions. Then Monk... bending and stretching the theme, chucking in the patented down-keyboard runs, the glorious asymmetry of it all – and swinging so strongly. Bass up next, spinning off the theme as the piano prods sporadically before leaving the field once more – then Buggin's turn for Dunlop – a strong drummer who gives us his thoughts in crisp fashion. A great shame that Russell never recorded a whole album with Monk...
And because of the Monk orgy - here's another one...
'Ugly Beauty' wasn't the only waltz that Monk recorded - he had performed a wonderful jolting version of 'Carolina Moon' in 6/4 in the forties for Blue Note – but I think it is the only one he wrote – a late composition taken into the studios for the 'Monk Underground' album released in 1968. Monk opens it up then the horns join for the rather stately theme... which has echoes of some of his other compositions... Rouse solos as Monk lays some thick, ringing verticality... Monk comes out after him in a rushing spill of notes... the bass double times in – some intricate games here between drums and piano. Saxophone again, then bass - deep and slow this time as Riley shimmers in the background. Then sax again before the theme returns...
Cecil Taylor from 1960 – playing the Richard Rogers song, 'This nearly was mine.' Another waltz... etched delicately to begin with in the treble as Neidlinger slowly moves underneath... the melody slowly peeking out – with a sudden lurching crashed chord, movement now in the low piano register and the drums emerge to spell the rhythm. Taylor leaves acres of space here – unusually, perhaps – fragments of melody in between sharp, biting harmonies, slowly filling up the sonic area with wild runs and thumping chords, then receding. Putting the ballad/song form on notice while dancing round it, widening the circle... this is Taylor in wonderful transition, on the cusp of abandoning the old forms altogether, showing glimpses of what was to come. I have always thought that the avant-garde of the fifties had to wait to be liberated by the drums - this is on the edge of that freedom – Charles keeps the three four going but lightly enough for Taylor to allow his pianistic/improvisational conception to come through without undue strain - yet wider, more expansive forms were looming, underpinned by the revolutions of Sunny Murray et al... two broad directions to follow – dump the piano, like Ornette had already – or embrace it, like Cecil did and explode the conventional jazz sound world with clusters, atonality in rhythm and melody and surging rhythmic smashes and grabs at the unfettered essence of what 'jazz' piano was truly capable of... but this is a beautiful version of a beautiful song, Cecil showing a tenderness that was not always so naked...
Also: on this rather excellent site there are a couple of stimulating and thought provoking posts that refer to and comment on other blogs that have been engaged in recent debate about the jazz avant-garde and the balance of musicians and innovators on the Afro-American and the white and European scenes. Plus a link to a recent Cecil Taylor interview... here also... scroll down
Bud Powell
The Fruit
Download
Buy
Keith Jarrett (p) Gary Peacock (b) Jack DeJohnette (d)
How deep is the ocean?
Download
Buy
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Charlie Rouse (ts) Pee Wee Russell (cl) Butch Warren (b) Frankie Dunlop (d)
Nutty
Download
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Charlie Rouse (ts) Larry Gayles (b) Ben Riley (d)
Ugly Beauty
Download
Buy
Cecil Taylor (p) Buell Neidlinger (b) Dennis Charles (d)
This nearly was mine
Download
Buy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
