Cedar Walton and Eastern Rebellion

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

“Most live CDs are made of a series of separate "highlights" - usually taken from different sets of performance and involving several nights of recording, the final product subject to the producer's personal choices. Listening to the consistent level of intensity in the music performed by the Cedar Walton Quartet this particular evening at Copenhagen's Jazzhus Montmartre. producer Nils Winther, however, decided to ignore the usual procedure and put out the music the way pianist/leader Walton had thought it out set-by-set.” 

- Jørgen Frigård, insert notes

From the mid 1970s to the mid 1990’s, pianist Cedar Walton led a quartet [later a quintet] which regularly performed and recorded under the name - “Eastern Rebellion.”

There was from time-to-time lots of wild speculation about the derivation of the name of the band.

Of course, it probably didn’t help that the group’s initial Timeless album cover featured a huge red sun emblematic of "the land of the rising sun” and the Japanese Flag.

As Ben Markley explains in his Cedar: The Life and Music of Cedar Walton [2023]: “Cedar's contract with RCA Victor prevented him from recording as a leader for other labels. European concert promoter Wim Wigt approached Cedar to record for his new label Timeless. To skirt the name issue. Cedar came up with the name Eastern Rebellion for the group.” 

In an undated WBGO radio broadcast with host Rhonda Hamilton, Cedar gave this explanation as to the title of the group’s origins:

RH: Tell me about Eastern Rebellion. This is a band that you founded in the mid-'70s. So it's been around for about 20 years now. Was there a particular concept behind it and does the name relate to that at all? A lot of people wonder if Eastern Rebellion refers to the East Coast or what?

CW: Part of the meaning is referring to the Eastern [East Coast] way of playing bebop. You might say an acoustic traditional approach to playing which is of course my approach. It just so happened that at the time that we had a chance to record this group, I was under contract. The group then consisted of George Coleman on tenor, the late Sam Jones on bass as well as me and Billy. We had an opportunity to record on the brand-new label from Holland named Timeless. We were the first group to record on that label. I was under contract with RCA Victor doing a bit of fusion, which I didn't have any remorse about. It was fun to me, it was like a big electronic game. You could go in there and do what you wanted to and then go later and piece it together and try to come up with something. I did some of what I considered failure; it just didn't work converting some of Thelonious Monk's and John Coltrane compositions into a so-called quote unquote fusion.

And I couldn't record again [for another label], Rhonda, so we had to get a group name. So I [was] actually rebelling against myself in a way. [laughs] We all lived in the east of the United States and Easter Rebellion [titled Shake Hands with the Devil, came out] somewhere back in my movie going days. It was a movie that had James Cagney in it with these Irish rebels and they called themselves Easter Rebellion, so I put an "n" on it and it worked out for me. And so it's not that terribly interesting, Rhonda, but that is the story.”

The initial formation of the group included Clifford Jordan. This group toured Europe in 1975, but no commercial recordings were made. 

In 1975, tenor saxophonist George Coleman replaced Jordan. On December 10, 1975, Eastern Rebellion was recorded. The recording included two Cedar originals: "Mode for Joe," which was previously recorded with Joe Henderson, and a new composition, "Bolivia." The album also included "Bittersweet" by Sam Jones, and "5/4 Thing" by George Coleman. John Coltrane's "Naima" rounded out the album.

George Coleman was a member of Eastern Rebellion for a little over a year. Tenor saxophonist Bob Berg replaced Coleman. The group recorded its second album for Timeless titled Eastern Rebellion 2 in 1977. Berg and the Magic Triangle (Clifford Jordan’s nickname for the trio of Cedar, Sam Jones and Billy Higgins) were joined by trombonist and Cedar's former Messengers bandmate Curtis Fuller. This album featured all Cedar originals, including "Fantasy in D," "The Maestro," "Ojos de Rojo," "Sunday Suite," "Clockwise," and "Firm Roots."" With Berg. 

Cedar and Eastern Rebellion would record several times under the Eastern Rebellion band name and on recordings lead by Sam Jones (Something in Common), Billy Higgins (Soweto, The Soldier, Once More), as well as with Cedar as the leader. Berg stayed with Cedar and Eastern Rebellion until 1983. The following year. Berg would join Miles Davis. After Berg left the band. Eastern Rebellion did not record again until 1992 with tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore.

One of Eastern Rebellion’s first gig’s with tenor saxophonist Bob Berg and “The Magic Triangle” took place at Montmartre in Copenhagen, Denmark in October 1977 and was recorded in performance and later released on three CD’s on Nils Winter Steeplechase label [First Set, SCCD 31085, Second Set 31113,Third Set 31179].

Richard Cook and Brian Morton had this to say about these recording in The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed.:

“This was a vintage period for Walton, who was beginning to shake off a tendency to blend with his surroundings. This is the band that went out as Eastern Rebellion, documented on Timeless and elsewhere, though these discs seem to be credited to Walton alone. His European gigs were models of tough contemporary bop and, though the incidence of covers is higher than one might expect, given the strength of his writing, the standard of performance is consistently high, and for once Steeplechase's exhaustive documentation seems justified. Berg, who replaced George Coleman in the group, turns in an excellent performance of Coltrane's 'Blue Train' on Second Set, avoiding the usual pastiche of Trane's lonesome solo and turning the theme into something altogether tougher and more locomotive. There are several good Monk performances, but the opening 'Off Minor' on First Set is the most dynamic. There certainly wasn't enough strong material for three discs, and these sessions suggest an obvious occasion for editing and repackaging.”

If you are not a player, it’s difficult to describe what it's like to get on stage and play three sets of music before an audience of club goers. Sustaining the energy and concentration required to consistently play Jazz at the highest level depends on so many variables both personal and mechanical in terms of technique. Some tunes are easier to play on than others; some tempos work better for some musicians in the band rather than others; attentiveness may wane due to a drop in energy levels; unexpected developments while performing a tune may cause problems - the variables involved are never ending.

Ultimately, it’s rare that each member of the group “nails it” [is skillful and successful] in performing each piece of music and playing each solo, so in this regard, I agree with Cook/Morton when they comment about the unevenness of the material on these three discs.

On the other hand, it’s not often that an evening’s worth of music from a club date is released on CD in its entirety and I think most Jazz fans would find it interesting and fun to parse through three 40+ minute sets to vicariously live the experience of “being there” while listening to four master Jazz musicians go about their business. 

For me, this was my first opportunity to really dig deep into tenor saxophonist Bob Berg and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know his playing - another benefit of so much music all in one place.

Perhaps, the following explanation can serve as another response to the Cook/Morton point-of-view

“Most live CDs are made of a series of separate "highlights" - usually taken from different sets of performance and involving several nights of recording, the final product subject to the producer's personal choices. Listening to the consistent level of intensity in the music performed by the Cedar Walton Quartet this particular evening at Copenhagen's Jazzhus Montmartre. producer Nils Winther, however, decided to ignore the usual procedure and put out the music the way pianist/leader Walton had thought it out set-by-set.” 

- Jørgen Frigård, insert notes

Jørgen Frigård offers more perspectives and perceptions about the music performed at Montmartre by the band on October 1, 1977 in the following insert notes.

Cedar Walton First Set, [Steeplechase, SCCD 31085]

Cedar Walton's Quartet was in a Monkish mood this evening at Jazzhus Montmartre, opening their first set with a long, but driving workout on Off Minor (and continuing their incursion into Monkville with two probing versions of Rhythm-A-Ning and Blue Monk later in the evening).

Without trying to read Walton's motives in choosing the opener — the dramatic effect of that first number, however, was obvious to anyone present. Thirty years have passed since Thelonious Monk recorded his first version of Off Minor, but in terms of the harmonic, melodic and rhythmic demands that face the players approaching his compositions, it represents as much a challenge today as it did in the early 60's when every other modern jazz musician seemed to be into-Monk's music. There are no shortcuts through this music, and Cedar Walton, Bob Berg, Sam Jones and Billy Higgins approach it head on — with an emotional and rhythmic thrust that appeared, in effect, almost therapeutic, or as young Bob Berg expressed it — “leaving you with a feeling of being ready and able to play anything after that.”

Cedar Walton, the pianist, composer and leader, has come a long way since his early playing experiences with J. J Johnson, Art Farmer, Benny Golson. Dinah Washington and Art Blakey. “The first time I played Copenhagen,” he told Ib Skovgaard at Denmark's Radio, "I was the young piano player with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Bud Powell was appearing every night at the Montmartre, but although I tried very hard to make an impression here, I didn't have my music together in the way that some of the other young players in Blakey's group, Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard, had. And I don't think my playing made much of a dent at the time.”

The dents came later —in recent years most often in close rapport with his two long-time friends, drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Sam Jones, whose musical attitude and unusually responsive playing (dig Higgins' swift and delightfully crisp drumming throughout the album) have brought out the most exciting aspects of Walton's talent, both as a pianist and a very personal writer. On Off Minor he doesn't try to approximate the idiosyncrasies of Monk's own piano style (no one really could), and yet the percussive quality of the music informs Walton's very fleet and energetic playing. For an exciting combination of the two “styles” — listen to his long solo on the fast and exhilarating Ojos De Rojo.

Following Off Minor (the succession of tunes has been maintained as played at the club, covering the entire first set — the remaining music from this evening to be issued in a later volume) tenor saxophonist Bob Berg introduces the verse of For All We Know. Through its years Montmartre has seen some very heavy ballad playing, at various times being the musical home of Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster, and 25-year old Berg's strong reading of For All We Know follows that line. The youngest member of the quartet. Berg joined Walton in early 1977 after having worked with pianist Horace Silver's quintet. "Working with Cedar, Sam and Billy” he noted, "is like realizing a dream or a long-held ambition. They are all giants in their fields, and they all listen as much as they play, even when the music is all up. The music is so strong, you feel it physically.-

The the second half of the first set! is devoted to Walton's own writing — the catchy, gospel-flavoured Holy Land with its unusual exposition and refreshing round of solos, the deliciously funky I'm Not So Sure (note Walton's authority and sureness as a band-pianist) and the fast, Spanish-tinged and almost fanfare-like Ojos De Rojo on which both Walton and the daring, driving Berg really stretch out. But what is perhaps the most surprising feature of the quartet, is its overall sound as a unit — considering the traditional instrumentation of tenor saxophone, piano, bass and drums. Compared with two other recent Steeplechase releases that feature the same instrumentation, and like this one recorded “live,” Dexter Gordon's Swiss Nights (Steeplechase SCS-1050) and Stan Getz's -Live At The Montmartre (Steeplechase SCCD-31073 and SCCD-31074) — the sound of the Walton quartet is almost like one of four different instruments.

What else to say about a thoroughly enjoyable album like this? Listening to the quartet's intense performance on Monk's Off Minor and then tuning to the playful drive on, say. Walton's own Holy Land, I was somehow reminded of an Ellington recording session that I happened to attend in the early 60’s.

The Band had been through a selection from one of Ellington's extended works, and the leader was in the control booth enjoying the playback, performing his own little dance to the music, when someone from the New York media approached him about the social and/or political significance of that specific piece of music. Normally a most articulate speaker, Ellington was not in a talkative mood, however, and nodding towards the empty piano bench in the studio he excused himself to the inquirer with a courtly “Man, right now I just feel like playing! Upon which he re-entered the studio and for the next twenty minutes or so proceeded to lay down some of the most funky, down home and dirty piano blues to be caught anywhere.”

Cedar Walton Second Set, [Steeplechase, SCCD 31113]

“Most live CDs are made of a series of separate "highlights" - usually taken from different sets of performance and involving several nights of recording, the final product subject to the producer's personal choices. Listening to the consistent level of intensity in the music performed by the Cedar Walton Quartet this particular evening at Copenhagen's Jazzhus Montmartre. producer Nils Winther, however, decided to ignore the usual procedure and put out the music the way pianist/leader Walton had thought it out set-by-set.” 

And thus we find Walton, Bob Berg, Sam Jones and Billy Higgins here opening their Second Set of the evening -building up new steam and getting the wheels turning on John Coltrane's now classic blues Blue Trane. One of the remarkable things about this quartet, and there is no room for second-set coasting here, is the way in which its four players seem to be constantly recharging their powers through the act of playing (and through the musical challenges set up by navigator Walton). As young tenorist Bob Berg, the group's newest member, described it in the notes to First Set, SteepleChase SCCD 31085; "Cedar, Sam and Billy listen as much as they play, and their music is so strong that, even when you 're tired, you feel it physically - you get new strength just through playing. "

Also, Walton has come a long way in broadening the emotional scope of his music since his early playing jobs with such leaders as J. J. Johnson, Art Blakey, Benny Golson and Art Farmer. Following the stark and highly charged re-working of Blue Train, a performance that transcends all the fashionable, but overdone funky cliches of the day, his introduction to the standard I Didn't Know What Time It Was is almost jolly with its hints of the stride-piano tradition. The track allows Walton, Berg (note his passionate re-lineation of the melody, getting into the far corners of the song, in his first two choruses) and bassist San Jones to stretch out and build their individual statements. And, certainly, drummer Billy Higgins, a master of rhythmic space, knew "What time it was" - his playing once again reminding us of Dexter Gordon's appraisal: "Billy feels so good to play with, so happy back there. Everything is okay, so loose. I love to play with him. "

As on the widely acclaimed First Set, the second side is devoted to Walton's own writing - in this case the long and kaleidoscopic, but also most stimulating Sunday Suite with its alternating lyrical, driving and catchy parts that really brings out the "four-as-one" quality of Walton, Berg, Jones and Higgins. The suite opens and closes with Walton's cheerful, slightly carribean-flavoured piece of theme with a sort of great-gettin-up-morning feeling (some way to get up on a Sunday) about it. But perhaps the most emotional and moving part is the middle-section following Walton's unaccompanied piano excursion (Berg: "Cedar was hearing things ") with the somber, almost work-song-like melody played and further explored with utter grace by young Bob Berg.

Listening to the drive and total dedication of these four players made me somehow think of the philosophical remark that the late Duke Ellington used to preface his own playing with, announcing that "now I'll sit down and see if I 'm in tune with the piano. " It is hard to think of anyone more in tune with each other and the music than these four men. How about you?”

Jørgen Frigård March 1979

Opportunities to catch a magnificent quartet in performance with master players the likes of Cedar Walton, Sam Jones, Billy Higgins and Bob Berg playing almost three hours of music don’t come along very often.

Performance Jazz usually winds up in The Ether.

But thanks to Nils Winter, these performances can nestle very nicely onto your CD changer for your enjoyment in perpetuity.