© -Steven
Cerra , copyright protected; all rights reserved.
"This is the stuff
collectors dream of. The numbers induce salivating: a literal trove of
never-before-released live jazz recordings dating back to 1947, some 3.000
hours of music. In all, there are 1.600 well-preserved, German-made audio
recordings and 350 TV broadcasts by more than 400 artists and groups... That's
three down, 1,597 to go. Bring 'em on!"
- Jeff Tamarkin, JazzTimes
With the October
30, 2012 JazzHaus release of 3 more performances from the archives of the
Südwestrundfunk [a regional public broadcasting company based in southwestern
Germany], I think this may have brought the Jeff Tarmarkin’s yet-to-go number
down to 1,594, but who’s counting!
Michael Bloom, a
long-time friend of Jazz whose firm is handling the media relations on behalf
of the US distributors for the series - Naxos of America, Inc. – caringly
referred to these previously unreleased treasures from the Südwestrundfunk
vaults “… an embarrassment of riches.”
Michael went on to
say: “I met the JazzHaus guys at a Naxos sales conference this summer and got a peek at the future releases
– Whoa!”
Perhaps it is just
as well that these recordings are being periodically released in small batches as
each contains so much great Jazz that it takes multiple listening sessions to
absorb it all.
Here’s a closer
look at the recordings in the latest series.
The Lost Tapes: Zoot Sims in Baden-Baden
This concert
recording lay long forgotten and lost to Jazz enthusiasts. A pressing issued in
1988 was flawed and of relatively poor quality. That alone was reason enough
for allowing Zoot Sims and others one more opportunity to be heard.
What you get with
Zoot Sims in Baden-Baden June 23, 1958 , is a single jam session with each number
featuring a different line-up and instrumentation:
Zoot Sims (as, ts,
cl), Hans Koller (as, ts, cl), Willie Dennis (tb), Adi Feuerstein (fl), Gerd
Husemann (fl), Helmut Brandt (fl, bs), Hans Hammerschmid (p), Peter Trunk (b),
Kenny Clarke (dr).
© -Ulli Pfau/JazzHaus, copyright protected;
all rights reserved.
OPEN THE DOOR!
“In 1958 Sims
played with Benny Goodman at Expo '58 in Brussels Europe 's coolest tenor sax. Two years earlier
Sims had made a Blue Note recording with the German pianist Jutta Hipp and he
was keen to meet other European jazz musicians. So Joachim-Ernst Berendt, head
of the jazz department at the then SWF, invited the two to a studio concert,
supplementing the horn section with Adi Feuerstein and Gerd Husemann, Willie
Dennis and Helmut Brandt. The ensemble also featured Hans Hammerschmid on
piano, Peter Trunk on bass and on drums Kenny Clarke, who had quit the Modern
Jazz Quartet and moved to Paris
What you get with
Zoot Sims in Baden-Baden
Legends Live: The Albert Mangelsdorff
Quintet [JazzHaus #101706]
Recorded live at Freiburg on June 22,1964 with Albert Mangelsdorff (tb), Heinz Sauer
(ts, ss), Gunter Kronberg (as), Gunter Lenz (b), Ralf Hiibner (dr)
© -Ulli Pfau/JazzHaus, copyright protected;
all rights reserved.
“It is hard to
believe this concert lay all but forgotten in the archives for almost 50 years
- particularly as it marks the breakthrough of Albert Mangelsdorff as Germany Asia in 1964. Nobody had reckoned on concert
sell-outs, a frenzied media circus, and prestigious honors. Back home and
swinging from their encounters with Asian folk and dance music, the Quintet
guested in Freiburg with a performance of pure avant-garde: a
tense, frantic bop, shifting playfully between musical styles from Mali Thailand Japan
For five soloists
at the top of their game the formula was a simple one: Heinz Sauer's tenor is
Trane-like in quality (Theme from Father
Panchali)-, Glinter Kronberg's alto (Set
'em Up) develops rugged, edgy figures in the style of a young Wayne
Shorter; Gtinter Lenz on bass and Ralf Hiibner on drums combine to form a
heart-lung machine that provides oxygen for the horns and oceans of space for
improvisation. This material later gave rise to Now Jazz Ramwong, the quintet's best known recording. It would
launch the ensemble to the top of the "downbeat" polls (Talent
Deserving Wider Recognition). It also assured Albert Mangelsdorff a place in
the pantheon of jazz greats.”
Legends Live: The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet [JazzHaus #101711]
Recorded live at Stuttgart November 27, 1961 and Frankfurt November 29, 1961 with Dizzy Gillespie [tp], Leo Wright
[as/fl], Lalo Schifrin [p], Bob Cunningham [b] and Mel Lewis [d].
The biggest
surprise here is Mel Lewis, who supposedly, at the time, was a scion of the
more laid back “West Coast” style of drumming, making these gigs with Dizzy and
playing his backside off.
Taking nothing
away from Kenny Clarke and Charlie Persip, who always did a magnificent job of
booting Dizzy Big Bands along in the 1940’s and 1950’s, respectively, I always
wondered what Mel, whom many consider to have been the ultimate big band
drummer, would have done with that band.
Thanks to the
addition of Argentinean pianist Lalo Schifrin, who also composed and arranged
Dizzy’s masterful Gillespiana around this time, Dizzy is once again playing with
fire and brio during these concerts.
© -Karl Lippegaus/JazzHaus, copyright
protected; all rights reserved.
To Be or Not To Bop!
“The Mooche was written by Duke Ellington
in 1928 for the trumpeter Bubber Miley. In his long version, performed in Stuttgart Buenos Aires
The trumpeter
loved the open form above an Afro-Cuban rhythm, such as in Con Alma, the number he had composed back in 1956. He engaged the
versatile saxophonist and flautist Leo Wright after a sensational concert at
the Monterey Festival. Willow Weep For Me
provides a reminder of his enormous talent on flute. Dizzy's hipster
contribution is Oops-Shoo-Be-Doo-Be,
a humorous pastiche on scat, from which Dizzy launches his solo like a fountain
gushing skywards. In I Can't Get Started
he throws in quotes and saunters through the upper registers as if it were
child's play. The Frankfurt versions of Kush and Con
Alma demonstrate how the Quintet is able to inject new life even into these
familiar themes. The manner in which a muted Dizzy, without piano accompaniment,
dances with bass (Bob Cunningham) and drums (Mel Lewis) in Kush remains an audio adventure even today.”
The holiday gift
season is right-around-the-corner; perhaps you can add one or more of these new
JazzHaus CD’s to your Wish List?
