Wednesday, September 30, 2020

ARTEMIS - Frida

‘Artemis’ Review: An All-Female Septet With Steady Aim by Larry Blumenfeld

 Larry Blumenfeld is an keen observer of the elements influencing today’s Jazz scene and it’s a privilege to have his writing grace these pages. We’ve also scheduled his review on “Monk Goes to School,” the Verve/Impulse recently released Thelonious CD, to post to the blog on Monday, October 5, 2020.



‘Artemis’ Review: An All-Female Septet With Steady Aim

The group’s self-titled debut album moves gracefully through various jazz styles.


By Larry Blumenfeld

Appeared in the September 21, 2020, print edition as 'Steady Aim From an All-Female Septet.'

Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

“Back in December at Carnegie Hall, as members of the ensemble Artemis traded solos with bluesy conviction while performing Billie Holiday’s “Fine and Mellow” as an encore, many audience members rose to their feet in raucous response. Each of these seven musicians—pianist Renee Rosnes, clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller and vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant—has earned individual acclaim as a bandleader, composer or sought-after partner. Together, under Ms. Rosnes’s musical direction, they revealed a shared intensity and suggested something alluring and new.

The group’s debut release, “Artemis” (Blue Note), delivers on that promise. It begins with “Goddess of the Hunt,” a piece built on an insistent pulse and featuring several unexpected harmonic detours. Ms. Miller composed it to evoke the Greek mythological figure Artemis—the paragon of female power and compassion, keen focus and steady aim for which this group is named. The following track, “Frida,” is a tense but lovely piece composed by Ms. Aldana and named for the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, whose struggles to assert herself in an arena dominated by men inspired Ms. Aldana’s 2019 album “Visions.”

Such allusions to gender dynamics are both unavoidable and meaningful. The rich history of all-female jazz groups includes, in the 1940s, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and, more recently, a remarkable trio of pianist Geri Allen, bassist Esperanza Spalding and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, as well as the big band Diva, in which some Artemis members have played. There is also a new context for such legacies, given recently increased opportunities for female leaders on jazz stages, more widespread recognition of their accomplishments in general, and a growing awareness of bias and inequity along gender lines. In truth, perhaps the least remarkable aspect of this group is that all of its members are female. One could argue that the demographic shift best represented by its personnel relates to jazz’s global reach: Ms. Rosnes and Ms. Jensen were born in Canada; Ms. Cohen, in Israel; Ms. Aldana, Chile; Ms. Ueda, Japan; and Ms. Salvant and Ms. Miller hail from the U.S.

The real headline here is this ensemble’s cohesion, its ability to move gracefully through various styles and moods and to sound, by turns, authoritative and playful, locked-in or loose-limbed. In the tradition of drummer Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Artemis crafts an identifiable band sound rooted in sturdy yet flexible rhythms (which here owe greatly to Ms. Miller’s blend of propulsion and understated details) and presents an open invitation for members to compose (five of these musicians are represented by original pieces here). “Nocturno,” composed by Ms. Cohen, floats gently over a simple bass figure, its melody expressed through unison lines from clarinet, saxophone and trumpet that sometimes break apart or interlace. Ms. Ueda’s “Step Forward” is a sprightly jazz waltz in which the rhythm section calibrates its accompaniment to reed and horn solos with noteworthy sensitivity. The album’s most striking piece, Ms. Rosnes’s “Big Top,” is both challenging and funny in the manner that Charles Mingus once combined such characteristics. Ms. Jensen’s arrangement of the Lennon-McCartney classic “The Fool on the Hill” loosens the joints that bind that song’s familiar melody enough to create a more open-ended structure and darkens its mood through harmonies that occasionally dissolve into tendrils of collective improvisation.

The particular spell cast by these distinctive instrumental arrangements gets broken somewhat when Ms. Salvant sings a majestic yet relatively straightforward version of the Stevie Wonder ballad “If It’s Magic.” Nevertheless, Ms. Salvant is such a commanding and musical a presence, and Mr. Wonder’s tune so lovely in the first place, that such disruption ends up as rewarding. Better still is her knowing and bittersweet delivery on “Cry, Buttercup, Cry,” which was popularized by Maxine Sullivan in the 1940s, here complemented by glowing muted trumpet tones, moaning clarinet and throaty tenor-sax figures.

A closing version of Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder” doesn’t dig in hard to the song’s funky rhythm. Rather, it slithers. Meanwhile, the familiar theme is cloaked in layers of shifting close-knit harmony. Artemis means to upend expectations, gently and yet with force. Its music comes off like a nuanced argument for a fresh point of view.”

—Mr. Blumenfeld writes about jazz for the Journal.

Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Appeared in the September 21, 2020, print edition as 'Steady Aim From an All-Female Septet.'


Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Verve Presents: Monk Goes To School

Monk Goes to School

 The media release company Crossroads sent this promotional material to me and I thought it would be nice to share it - “as is” - with the readers of this blog. The podcast features T.S. Monk and Danny Scher talking about how it all came to be.


If you do not have one of the subscription services offered through each link, click on the YouTube icon to hear the podcast, et al.


New Podcast Tells Story of Thelonious Monk’s 1968 Visit to Palo Alto

 

featuring, T.S. Monk, Danny Scher, and Grandmixer DXT.

 

Verve Presents: Monk Goes To School

Listen Here: https://theloniousmonk.lnk.to/monkgoestoschoolPR

 

 

Verve/Impulse! Records and podcast creative studio PopCult are pleased to announce Verve Presents: Monk Goes To School, an innovative podcast that tells the story of Thelonious Monk’s storied visit, concert, and subsequent recording at Palo Alto High School in 1968. The Podcast is available on all major platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, and more. Listen to the podcast HERE.

 

The album Palo Alto was released on September 18 and is available here: https://theloniousmonk.lnk.to/paloaltoPR

 

In the fall of 1968, a sixteen-year old high school student named Danny Scher had a dream to invite legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and his all-star quartet to perform a concert at his local high school in Palo Alto, CA. In a series of twists and turns, against a backdrop of racial tension and political volatility, that concert was recorded by the school’s janitor and finally released in 2020.

 

Verve Presents: Monk Goes To School tells this story in innovative detail, interweaving the voices of Danny Scher, Thelonius Monk’s son T.S. Monk, monk biographer Robin D.G. Kelley and engineer/mixer Grandmixer DXT with narrator Anthony Valadez from KCRW.

 

The podcast is unique in that there is no hosted interview segment – it takes the listener on an immersive journey featuring the voices of the cast, sound design and music clips from the record throughout.

 

PopCult Founder/Creative Director Dennis Scheyer says, “Once we heard the story of how the record came to be we felt that it deserved more than the usual ‘interview-based’ portrayal. It’s the kind of show we created our company to produce, and Verve fully supported us.”

 

Recorded entirely “at home” with high-quality microphones across the United States, this podcast deftly weaves through multiple voices, telling this story of Thelonious Monk, the unexpected concert, and of course, uses the music to illustrate this important part of musical history.

 

EVP of Verve/Impulse! Jamie Krents says, “We’re thrilled to collaborate with PopCult on Monk Goes to School. This podcast brilliantly captures the real story of the Palo Alto recording, and puts it in historical context with brilliant narration from all the key players.  Impulse! and Verve Records have such a rich history of music that we’re very excited to continue to illustrate in partnership with PopCult.”

 

PopCult Partner, Strategy and Marketing Lars Murray says, “We were excited to help Verve establish a leadership position among labels by creating a high-quality narrative podcast that integrates their music seamlessly and tells a great story about a landmark release. Verve demonstrated that a label's access to licensed music is a huge advantage in podcasting.”

 

Palo Alto – Thelonious Monk

  1. Ruby, My Dear

  2. Well, You Needn’t

  3. Don’t Blame Me

  4. Blue Monk

  5. Epistrophy

  6. I Love You Sweetheart of All My Dreams

 

About Impulse! Records:

For nearly sixty years, Impulse! Records has stood as a label of musical integrity and lasting cultural significance. Known as the “house that Trane built” in honor of its best-selling artist John Coltrane, the label produced music exciting in its experimental charge, and spiritual in its priority. Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Max Roach, Ray Charles, Alice Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, and Pharoah Sanders were but a few of the legendary musicians who helped define the label's sound and message. To this day, Impulse! continues to proudly wear its distinctive orange-and-black color scheme, and be home to the new vanguard of creative musicians including Shabaka Hutchings and his groups Sons of Kemet, Shabaka & the Ancestors, and the psychedelic jazz trio The Comet Is Coming. 


Monday, September 28, 2020

What Kind of Bird Is This? - The Eric Ineke JazzXpress featuring Tineke Postma

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.


“... History fosters temporal illusions, fractured perspectives. Time, like jazz, speeds up, slows down, and circles back on itself. Growing up, I thought westerns depicted an ancient epoch until I learned that Wyatt Earp was alive to hear Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven and read about Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic. In short, Parker is our contemporary. You can speak to people who spoke to him; not nearly as many as when I wrote this book, but quite a few. Age and custom have not dimmed the brilliance of his art, which, forged virtually in secret, illumined a panicky postwar world. Charlie Parker and his peers, shoulders to the wheel, inspiration through the roof, created the bedrock of modern jazz, its aspirations and language. We hear him more than we know.”

- Gary Giddins, Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker, Rev Ed. [2013; emphasis mine]


And now thanks to the recent release of What Kind of Bird Is This? - The JazzXpress featuring Tineke Postma [Challenge CR73512] we get to hear drummer Eric Ineke and alto saxophonist Tineke Postma in the company of a group of excellent musicians based in The Netherlands render their interpretation of Bird’s music as part of an international celebration of the 100th anniversary of Charlie Parker’s birth in 1920.


In addition to Eric and Tineke and JazzXpress regular members Sjoerd Dijkhuizen and bassist Marius Beets, newcomer Ian Cleaver takes on the trumpet chair and piano duties in the quintet are shared by three stalwarts of the straight-ahead Jazz scene in Holland: Peter Beets, Rein de Graaff, and Rob Agerbeek.


Of the 12 tracks on the album, seven are Parker compositions and the other five are comprised of two Jazz standards closely identified with Bird - Lover Man and Just Friends - two originals composed by Marius and trumpeter Howard McGhee’s Stupendous, a title which serves as a fitting tribute to the size of the footprint that Parker left on the development of modern Jazz in the second half of the 20th century.


The two standards are played straight-up while the remaining tracks are all arranged by either Marius Beets or Sjoerd Dijkhuizen with pianist Rob van Bavel, a long time member of previous JazzXpress quintets, doing the arranging honors on the opening cut - Relaxin’ at Camarillo.


In case you're wondering how a group of musicians so far removed - both chronologically and geographically - could do justice to the music of a Jazz Giant whose career ended with his death so long ago [1955] - start with alto saxophonist Tinke Postma rendering of Lover Man backed only by Marius on bass and Eric on drums and all your concerns about the continuity of the Parker tradition in a 21st century setting will be allayed. Bird’s gotta be up there smiling at Tineke’s marvelous reimagining of the song displays all of the risk-taking so closely associated with Bird’s soloing and the cadenza she uses to close the trio’s interpretation is as technically astute as it is heartfelt.


A lot of work went into the making of this recording; it wasn’t just slapped together and shoved into the market to capitalize on the centenary of Bird’s birth. What also helps to establish its uniqueness is the fact that:


“ ...Eric Ineke has passed by Parker's most popular tunes, like Now's The Time, Scrapple From The Apple and Bitiie's Bounce, choosing instead themes that are rarely played today such as Bongo Beep, Merry Go Round and Steeplechase.


Two of the pieces are composed by Marius Beets. Birdie Num Num is his variation on Charlie Parker's classic Confirmation. The title tune What Kinda Bird Is This? is a playful exercise in Parkeriana. The intro alludes to Moose the Mooche, but after that the performance switches to the chord changes of Cole Porter's What Is This Thing Called Love, which in turn formed the basis of Tadd Darmeron's Hot House, a linchpin in the Parker repertory.” - Bert Vuijsje, insert notes]



As one has come to expect with all JazzXpress albums, Marius Beets is the central element linking all aspects of the recording: from the driving bass lines which are essential in support of Eric central axiom for the quintet’s music - “it must always swing” - to the clever arrangements he provides for half of the tracks on the album as well as writing two original take offs on Bird tunes including the title track, to serving as the recording and mastering engineer for the project. The word “indispensable” comes to mind when one considers Marius' efforts on behalf of What Kind of Bird Is This? - The JazzXpress featuring Tineke Postma.  


If Marius is a constant presence in the JazzXpress, it was nice hear the arrival of some new faces in the group in the form of trumpeter Ian Cleaver and alto saxophonist Tineke Postma, the latter in part added to bring an E-flat sonority to the project in the form of an alto saxophone - Parker’s instrument of choice.


However, it should be stressed that Tineke is no newcomer to the Dutch Jazz scene in general. Born in 1978, she started playing saxophone, flute and piano at age of 9 and was immediately attracted to Jazz and Pop music. After finishing her Bachelor’s degree in Jazz music, she graduated cum laude in June 2003 from the Masters program at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. During her work on her Masters, Tineke received two scholarships to study at the Manhattan School of Music where she worked with Dick Oatts, Dave Lieberman, Chris Potter and Gary Dial.


Tineke’s debut album First Avenue was released at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2004. For The Rhythm followed in 2005 and featured her with Edoardo Righini [guitar], Rob van Bavel [piano], Darryl Hall [bass] and Teri Lynn Carrington [drums]. 


I first heard her on a 2004 Dutch FM radio broadcast with The Metropole Orchestra under the direction of Dick Bakker on which she performed arrangements written by Jeff Beale, Mike Abene, Henk Meutgeert and Vince Mendoza on both soprano and alto saxophone. This was followed by Dutch FM radio broadcasts of her performances at The Bimhuis in Amsterdam in 2005 with some of the cream-of-the-crop of Jazz musicians based in The Netherlands including trombonist Ilja Reijngoud, guitarist Martijn van Iterson, pianist Ron van Bavel, bassist Jeroen Vierdag, and drummer Marcel Serierse.


What’s especially fun about listening to Tineke on this disc is hearing her improvise on bebop changes in a straight-ahead setting as she usually plays in a freer format and style similar at times to that employed by Jane Ira Bloom when she’s on soprano sax.


Another unexpected “plus” is that in the absence of Rob van Bavel from his usual place on the piano bench, Eric brought in three [!] alternating pianists: Peter Beets, Rob Agerbeek and Rein De Graaff [with whom he has worked as a member of his trio for over 50 years backing notable Jazz musicians performing at concert and club venues throughout Holland and Europe].


Peter’s approach to piano is technically in line with that of Oscar Peterson while Rein’s take on the instrument is more of a blend of the approach favored by Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan and Hank Jones. Rob Agerbeek is featured on only one track and he lays down some soulful funk on Marius’ playful arrangement of Bongo Beep.


And then there’s Sjoerd Dijkhuizen who’s big, boastful tenor sax sound brings up memories of Al Cohn with more than a little Zoot Sims swing to lift each of the ten tracks that he plays on to exciting levels of intensity. Sjoerd is reminiscent of those big horn guys who just “plant their feet and bring it;” there's no holding back with Sjoerd.


Keeping it all together and swinging it from beginning to end is drummer Eric Ineke who personifies the drummer as accompanist. He lifts, drives, propels, pushes, supports and kicks the music forward unrelentingly in a manner that brings to mind the drummers that played with Charlie Parker including Kenny Clarke, Stan Levey, Joe Harris, Art Blakey, Shadow Wilson, Max Roach, and Roy Haynes.


Although you’ve probably heard Parker tunes such as Relaxin’ at Camarillo, Steeplechase and Ah-Leu-Cha on many occasions, the intriguing and artful arrangements by Marius, Rob and Sjoerd give them a freshness and a clarity that makes Parker’s music sound vital and vigorous once again in these interpretations by Eric Ineke’s JazzXpress.


Every aspect of this recording represents what Jazz in its best form should be - melodic, harmonic and rhythmic exploration - seeking new ways to interpret familiar tunes and songs as a basis for expressing new improvisations. Bird’s music may be the catalyst, but Eric Ineke’s band - the Jazz Express featuring Tineke Postma - puts its own mark, very distinctive on his music.


As I have previously noted, during a particularly difficult time for performing artists, it’s nice to have the opportunity to help support them by purchasing their recordings. Everyone stays safe and all of those concerned with making the recording pick up some schimolies while enriching your soul with their artistry. Maybe it’s our small way of becoming a “patron of the arts.”


In closing, a word of appreciation should also be expressed to the fine folks at Challenge Records for their continuing support of Eric and the musicians, past and present, who make up the JazzXpress. If I’m not mistaken, this is their seventh album together. 


Tineke has her own website which you can visit by going here and Eric’s URL can be located here.






Saturday, September 26, 2020

Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray - The Chase

Remembering Wardell Gray [1921-1955] - Part 1 - The Ira Gitler Prestige Notes

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.



SIDEMAN BLUES


He played in Vegas. Then he died there--his body found at the edge of the desert with a broken neck and a bloodstream full of smack. Now, thirty-seven years later, Evan Horne is looking into the death of tenor sax player Wardell Gray, a sharp-dressing sideman who rubbed someone very wrong.


Moonlighting from his job playing piano at the Fashion Show Mall - -his first gig since a debilitating hand injury -- Horne was doing a favor for a scholar by asking questions about Wardell Gray. Then the heat, glitz, and payback of Vegas came down hard, bringing Horne up against a former dancer with a sizzling secret in her past, a mobster whose hobby is dollhouses, and the little-known history of a 1950s black jazz club--a disturbing truth that still has the power to swing, smoke, and kill....

Death of a Tenor Man, [Book 2 of 7] in Bill Moody’s Evan Horne Jazz mystery series


“Nineteen fifty five will be remembered in the jazz world as a year which took a heavy toll of its musicians.  During its course men of different styles, from Charlie Parker to Cow Cow Davenport, died leaving behind the memory of their work in the form of gramophone records. Parker, whose passing was one of the greatest single losses in the entire history of our music, died after a heart attack which came as a delayed-action culmination to a protracted period of ill health; pianist Dick Twardzick died in Paris as a result of an excessive self-administered shot of heroin, white baritone saxist Bob Gordon was killed in a California car accident as he was travelling to fulfil a concert engagement. Both of these latter deaths serve as grim reminders of the internal and external hazards facing today's musicians.


On the 26th of May the most mysterious death came to light when tenor man Wardell Gray's body was discovered on some waste ground outside Las Vegas. He had died from a broken neck and injuries sustained to the head inflicted by an unidentified weapon.”

-Alun Morgan, Wardell Gray in Jazz Monthly, i/12, 1956


Sometimes Jazz musicians are as ethereal as the music itself - here one minute and gone the next.


The setting for the music - which was usually full of booze, gangsters and assorted vices - was hardly conducive to economic stability, good health and longevity.


Not surprisingly then, Jazz has more than its share of tragic falls from grace and one of the saddest of these stories is tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray who had the makings of a brilliant career when he suddenly disappeared into the Las Vegas desert and was found dead under circumstances that remain as mysterious as they are unsolved.


But as Ira Gitler reminds us in the following excerpts from his notes to the Prestige Records Memorial albums:


“The death of Wardell Gray has not been completely cleared up but it is not for us to attempt to solve any mysteries here. …. His life, rather than his death, is what concerns us.


Whatever he played swung, for primarily Wardell was a swinger. Moving along at up-tempo, he would still exhort the rhythm section to ‘bear down.’


Although one would imagine that there’s not much to write about in the life of a thirty-three year old Jazz musician, there are a number of fine pieces about him in Jazz literature.


The editorial staff at JazzProfiles has put together an initial effort to help remember and commemorate Wardell Gray on these pages. More pieces will follow in other blog features about him and the musical settings in which he performed.


To begin, here’s more from Ira’s notes to Wardell Gray Memorial Vols. 1 & 2 [Prestige LP 7008/7009; OJCCD -050-2; 051-2


Born in Oklahoma City in 1921, Wardell moved to Detroit where he studied music at Cass Tech High. After playing with the local bands of Jimmy Rachel and Benny Carew, he did his first name band work with Earl Hines, doubling on tenor and clarinet from 1943 to 1945. Then he was with Billy Eckstine's big band for a short spell before joining Benny Carter in 1946, Carter has always had great admiration for Wardell's playing and Benny is not lavish with praise for many of the modern jazzmen. With Carter, Wardell went out to the West Coast and decided to remain for a while, 1947 found him participating in many of the jazz concerts so popular there at that time. Through these appearances and recordings, he began to be more widely known.


The Lester Young style he had shown with Hines was still in evidence, a pure-toned driving style which underwent change in the following year. When Wardell came to New York in 1948 to become part of the Benny Goodman Sextet you could hear the shift to Charlie Parker's influence. Later that year he appeared at the Royal Roost with Tadd Dameron's group and Count Basie's band. In 1949 it was back to Goodman, this time the big band. By the time he had finished an engagement at the Orchid Club (the old Onyx) on 52nd Street with Sonny Stitt in early 1950, Wardell's style had changed completely over to the harder sound and crisper attack.


He returned to Detroit and spent several months there with his own quartet. When Count Basie formed a small band, Wardell answered his call. Until the end of 1951 when he settled in California, he played intermittently with Count in both small and large groups. We never saw him in the East after that. Outside of a few recording sessions (two of which are included in these volumes) he wasn't heard from. The West Coast may have been booming but not for all.”


Wardell is also referenced in Ira’s Jazz Masters of the 1940s in association with tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon:


“After playing in Hawaii with Cee Pee Johnson, Gordon settled in Los Angeles again. It was here that he and the late Wardell Gray became a team. It started at an after-hours place called Jack's Basket and at other weekly sessions. "There'd be a lot of cats on the stand, but by the end of the session, it would wind up with Wardell and myself," Gordon recalled. "The Chase grew out of this. Wardell was a very good saxophonist who knew his instrument very well. His playing was very fluid, very clean. Although his sound wasn't overwhelming, he always managed to make everything very interesting, very musical. I always enjoyed playing with him. He had a lot of drive and a profusion of ideas. He was stimulating to me."


Trumpeter Art Farmer has told me that at these sessions, Gordon and Gray would generate such excitement as they exchanged musical ideas that people would wind up standing on tables and chairs.”


In their chapter The Spreading Flame: New York and the West Coast in the Mid-Forties [Modern Jazz: A Survey of Development Since 1939 [Greenwood Press, 1956], Alun Morgan and Raymond Horricks] offer this overview:


“Wardell had been a member of the Earl Hines band and had worked alongside Charlie Parker for a short time. After engagements with Billy Eckstine, Benny Carter and Vernon Alley he settled in Hollywood to play in small groups. He was a heavily featured soloist at the Gene Norman concerts and a very popular musician at any musical gathering. He played in the amalgamated Charlie Parker-Lester Young style with a superb and consistent tone. 


He possessed an unruffled temperament which made him at home either in the recording studio or on the concert platform and he could never be accused of descending to the depths of crowd-rousing showmanship. So often the bugbear of the tenor and trumpet soloist is this playing to the gallery. Warden's sense of swing was literally unrivalled anywhere in the world of modern jazz, yet despite all these attributes he gained neither publicity nor the respect accorded to lesser musicians. 


He played on Parker's Relaxin' at Camarillo date and recorded a tenor chase under the title The Chase with the somewhat similarly styled Dexter Gordon. He worked with the Benny Goodman band at the end of 1948 and the beginning of 1949 and Benny was so impressed with his playing and sense of musicianship allied to his-high-grade jazz creation that he made him deputy leader. Wardell was more at home with Basie, whose band he joined after the Goodman engagement, and the Count featured him on his recording of Little Pony


The spring of 1955 witnessed the tragic death of Wardell under somewhat mysterious circumstances.”


Wardell’s career and style of playing are a bit more fleshed out in the following insert notes to Wardell Gray Quintet: Live at The Haig 1952 [Fresh Sound FSRCD 157] by Mike Baille:


“Gray was born in Oklahoma City in 1921, but actually grew up in Detroit where he studied clarinet at the celebrated Cass Tech, switching later to the alto saxophone. It was as an alto man that he joined the band of Earl Mines in '43, but after a couple of years he was playing the tenor saxophone. Like many others, he'd come under the spell of Lester Young. From Earl Mines he moved on to the Billy Eckstine band, and by '46, now living in California, he found regular work with Benny Carter, Dexter Gordon, Erroll Garner and Gene Norman. The latter was a highly successful promoter of jazz concerts in the Los Angeles area in the late 40's, who frequently featured Wardell Gray as a front line soloist, and because of that Gray came to the attention of Benny Goodman. Thus the years '48-'51 saw Gray based in New York and continually moving back and forth between the bands of Goodman and Count Basie, both leaders frequently in competition for his services.


He returned to California in '51, where he was held in very high esteem by fellow musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Hampton Hawes and Art Farmer, who considered the thin and bespectacled Gray something of an intellectual. (It was said he carried around with him the works of the French existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre.) Gray was also known to be against the use of drugs, yet he himself fell into the same abyss, his dead body being found in Las Vegas in very obscure circumstances. 


Gray is perhaps the Missing Link between Swing and Bop, for in his early days he played very much like Young (all of whose solos he knew note for note, according to Dexter Gordon) — then, by following Charlie Parker's musical thinking, he found his own style. He was certainly no copyist, and, blessed with a superb technique plus a fertile imagination he cruised effortlessly through the changes with a logical ease, producing consistently melodic music with an incredible swing, allied to a lovely warm tone. 


His solos were invariably beautifully rounded, moving inexorably from one climax to the next, and not necessarily with any change in volume — climaxes produced simply by the notes selected. He possessed a melodic conception second to none, an unrivalled sense of swing, plus there existed a certain kind of elegance in those long smooth swinging phrases. 


He appeared serene, with a rare grace and beauty in his playing that only a master musician is capable of producing. During his time in New York he made a considerable impression on 52nd St playing with Sonny Stitt in 1950, then later with Miles Davis and Bud Powell. And, of course, some excellent recordings were made with the bands of Basie and Goodman. 


But it was the West Coast where he became really prominent and universally known. There were some momentous concerts under the supervision of Gene Norman, in which his marathon tenor “battles” with Dexter Gordon became a talking point for both musicians and fans alike. These musical joustings with Dexter Gordon brought both tenor saxophonists national and international recognition, for each man would gleefully challenge the other in “combat”, and their recording of The Chase was a big seller.


The cream of the West Coast jazz scene of the time was certainly assembled one evening in September 1952 at The Haig, a small Los Angeles club run by John Bennet. And, thanks to Bob Andrews, who was there with his recording equipment, some of the music played that night has been preserved.


Bernie's tune swings at medium tempo and gets the album off to a fine start. Gray is at total ease with the changes, and Manne's brushwork really punctuates the proceedings, particularly behind Hawes' funky solo. Tadd Dameron's The Squirrel follows, with more smooth sailing from Gray, who builds a solo of compelling swing. Art Farmer is in something of a Milesian mode here, while Hawes brings a highly rhythmic and percussive colouring to his solo statement before a brilliant series of exchanges between the two horns closes the piece. Pennies from heaven and Taking a chance on love both feature Wardell Gray's tenor with just the rhythm section, and he floats gently through both numbers in a laid-back manner very reminiscent of Lester Young, enhancing each melody with his original variations. 


In between the two standards is a furious version of Donna Lee where Gray demonstrates that he can play just as immaculately at fast tempo, as does Hampton Hawes in his very articulate solo. Manne's cymbals positively sizzle on this one. Jackie is a blues, with some fine trumpet playing by Art Farmer, and some surprising Shearing-like block chording from composer Hampton Hawes. Get happy is exactly that — optimistic and bright — with Wardell Gray quite superb and Hawes playing some pure bebop piano. Shelly Manne shines on brushes behind Gray on Keen and Peachy where the guitar of Howard Roberts is added, and Hawes is absolutely brilliant in his solo spot. Roberts is still there for the final number, another Dameron opus — Ladybird — and the unknown Amos Trice takes over the piano chair from Hawes. For Art Farmer these were formative times, and on all the tracks where he is featured one can see an emerging style, with plenty of his own ideas coming through in that economical and unforced way of his.


However, there is no doubt who is the dominant voice in these important live recordings — Wardell Gray. He seems very much the leader here, always taking the first solo on every track, and by doing so setting the feel and the tone for the other musicians who follow — yet he somehow manages to be both self-effacing and authoritative at one and the same time. It's poignant to consider what might have been had Gray not died in May 1955, at the early age of thirty-one. An untimely death, and a most terrible loss to the jazz world. It wasn't only Wardell Gray's luck that ran out that fateful day in Las Vegas.”


Wardell is also one of the subjects in Michael James, Ten Modern Jazzmen: An Appraisal of the Recorded Work of Ten Modern Jazzmen [London: 1960]; Alun Morgan, Wardell; Gray in Jazz Monthly, i/12, 1956; H. Butterfield, Wardell Gray in Jazz Journal, xiv/10, 1961; Max Harrison, Backlog Ten: Wardell Gray in Jazz Monthly, viii/3 1962. He is also the focus of a discography by C. Schlouch published in Marseilles, France in 1983. These references are cited in Barry Kernfeld, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz which also contains an overview of Wardell’s career, a list of selected recordings and a bibliography as compiled by Lawrence Koch.


The editorial staff at JazzProfiles is in the process of acquiring copies of these chapters, articles and reviews  about Wardell and his music and will published them individually in future features on Wardell in order to establish a comprehensive online catalogue of materials about this extremely talented, but somewhat obscure, “Missing Link” between Swing Era and Bebop Era tenor saxophone styles. 



Friday, September 25, 2020

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Outakes

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Many visitors to these pages are great fans of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and I thought you might want to know about this new recording which will be available on December 4, 2020.

''Time OutTakes'' is Previously Unreleased Takes from the Original 1959 Sessions master tapes. Never before released.

These newly discovered recordings feature wonderful performances that are every bit as compelling as those on the original Time Out. We discovered that during the original 1959 sessions the Quartet also recorded ''I'm In a Dancing Mood'' and an unlisted trio jam with a major drum solo that included snatches of the melody from ''Watusi Drums.'' Two tracks from Time Out, ''Pick Up Sticks'' and ''Everybody's Jumpin,'' were achieved in one take so no alternates exist to include here. These 7 new performances (and bonus track) are fascinating finds.
-Chris Brubeck

We've all heard Dave Brubeck's Time Out - but never quite like this. You'll hear Dave Brubeck's signature pieces afresh and anew. Listening to this album will make you rediscover why you fell in love with The Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Paul Desmond, Joe Morello and Eugene Wright. This is mesmerizing music.
- Kabir Sehgal, Grammy Award Winning Producer
Once the Dave Brubeck Quartet released Time Out in 1959, the world of jazz was never the same. Every note of the seven original compositions soared with wild originality and trained musical genius. ''Take Five'' became the best-selling jazz single of the twentieth century. I've often wondered how this work of genius came to fruition in the studio? How did Brubeck develop such chemistry with alto-saxophonist Paul Desmond? Now the mysteries are solved with the historic release of Time OutTakes T(alternative takes to the masterpiece that blew the hinges off the doors of jazz). What a high privilege it is to be able to be in the studio with the quartet as they innovate using 9/8, 5/4 and 2 bars of 3/4 alternating with 2 bars of 4/4 on such classics as ''Blue Rondo a la Turk'' and ''Three to Get Ready.'' All listeners of Time OutTakes will experience the Cold War era jazz revolution as it unfolded. What joyous music for the ages!
- Douglas Brinkley, CNN historian and Grammy-winning jazz producer.

Track List:
1 Blue Rondo a la Turk
2 Strange Meadowlark
3 Take Five
4 Three To Get Ready
5 Cathy's Waltz
6 I'm In A Dancing Mood
7 Watusi Jam
8 Band Banter from the 1959 Recording Sessions

Review

“''Take Five,'' a 1959 track by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, was always a musical oddity: a swinging, instantly catchy jazz piece written in the uncommon time signature of 5/4. But it was also a huge hit and the first platinum-selling single in jazz history.

Roughly 61 years after the release of ''Take Five'' on Brubeck's Time Out album, the late pianist s estate will release TimeOutTakes, a new album of previously unreleased alternate versions of pieces from the iconic LP...

On the alternate version, you can hear how the band is still acclimating to the feel of the piece's 5/4 rhythm. They play the tune faster than on the familiar take and drummer Joe Morello hadn't yet settled into the famously relaxed beat that made the five-beat structure feel so natural. You can also hear alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, who composed ''Take Five,'' getting used to improvising on the tune. In his drum solo, Morello sticks close to the rhythm of Brubeck's ''1, 2, 3; 1, 2'' piano vamp, slowly building up density and excitement as he goes. Whereas on the final, Brubeck and bassist Eugene Wright play behind Morello's feature, here the drummer takes the spotlight alone.

''It's fascinating to hear on this track that the iconic drum beat wasn't set yet and Joe Morello was playing a very syncopated Latin beat,'' said multi-instrumentalist Chris Brubeck, one of the pianist's sons and musical collaborators, in a release of the early ''Take Five.'' ''Even alto saxophonist Paul Desmond had not yet settled on a consistent melody,'' he added.

The tapes that make up Time OutTakes originally came to light while author Philip Clark was researching A Life in Time, a biography of Brubeck released this past February in honor of the pianist's centennial year. The record will be released on December 4th, two days before the 100th anniversary of Brubeck's birth.

Along with the alternate ''Take Five,'' Time OutTakes will feature previously unreleased versions of several other pieces from the original Time Out LP, including ''Blue Rondo à la Turk,'' a piece inspired by a rhythm that Brubeck heard a street musician playing in Turkey while on a State Department tour. It also includes two tunes not heard on the original album: ''I m in a Dancing Mood,'' a piece from the Thirties musical This'll Make You Whistle, and ''Watusi Jam,'' a trio performance sans Desmond based on the piece ''Watusi Drums,'' heard on the 1958 live album The Dave Brubeck Quartet in Europe.”

By Hank Shteamer --Rolling Stone, September 23, 2020