Well, just back from the Department Christmas dinner, I find myself filled with the festive spirit (or more, accurately, wine) so I thought I’d share a seasonal piece of music. As regular readers of this blog (both of them) will know, I listen to quite a lot of jazz. In the course of doing that it has often struck me that there can hardly be a tune that’s ever been written – however unpromising – that some jazz musician somewhere hasn’t taken a fancy to and done their own version. Louis Armstrong turned any amount of base metal into gold during his long career, but here’s a record I could scarcely imagine before hearing it. It’s Santa Claus is coming Town recorded in 1964 by the great Bill Evans on piano in a trio with Gary Peacock on bass and Paul Motian on drums. As far as I know this is the only Christmas tune that Bill Evans ever recorded, but I think it’s great. Enjoy!
Archive for the Jazz Category
Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Bill Evans
Posted in Jazz with tags Bill Evans, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian, Santa Claus is Coming to Town on December 13, 2024 by telescoperSixty Years of A Love Supreme
Posted in Jazz with tags A Love Supreme, Acknowledgement, Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Psalm, Pursuance, Resolution, Rudy Van Gelder on December 9, 2024 by telescoperOn 9th December 1964 – exactly 60 years ago to the day – John Coltrane (ts), McCoy Tyner (p), Jimmy Garrison (b) and Elvin Jones (d) got together to record at Rudy Van Gelder’s Studio in New Jersey. In a single session they created what is probably Coltrane’s masterpiece, A Love Supreme, an album that proved immediately popular and influential when it was released in 1965.
A Love Supreme represents a sort of musical culmination of everything this quartet had achieved and it’s not surprising that they abruptly changed direction soon after making this record. They had said everything they could say in this format. Coltrane’s next great album, Meditations, recorded in 1965, features the same musicians (with the addition of Pharaoh Sanders on tenor sax and a second drummer, Rashied Ali), but it’s much freer in style.
A Love Supreme consists of four sections: Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance and Psalm. As you might imagine from the titles, it’s a deeply spiritual piece. Acknowledgement is based on an 8-bar theme underpinned by a four-note phrase played on the bass that fits the phrase “a love supreme”. Coltrane impovises rather meditatively on this theme, then the group chants “a love supreme” in unison while Elvin Jones elaborates the rhythm in complex double-time. The second movement, Resolution, is based on a different 8-bar theme and Coltrane’s playing and interplay with Jones is much more agitated but it’s in Pursuance that he pulls out all the stops. Harmonically, Pursuance is a blues but it’s taken at a fast tempo and Coltrane plays with the harsh, strangulated tone he had developed by this time. After all this frantic activity he imbues the final section, Psalm, with a radiant solemnity, as he pours out an incredibly beautiful solo, with Elvin Jones providing a perfectly judged accompaniment, the rise and fall of his drum rolls showing wonderful control.
Anyway, these are just words. It’s much better just to listen to the music, as I have done twice already this evening. Enjoy!
This Year’s Kisses
Posted in Jazz with tags Billie Holiday, Lester Young, This Year's Kisses on December 6, 2024 by telescoperI’ve been out all day on a secret mission so, in lieu of a proper post, I thought I’d share this classic record by Billie Holiday and Lester Young.
100 Years of Paul Desmond
Posted in Jazz with tags alto saxophone, Dave Brubeck, Jazz, Koto Song, music, Paul Desmond on November 25, 2024 by telescoperThis evening I happened across a reminder that today is the centenary of the birth of saxophonist and composer Paul Desmond, who was born on November 25th 1924. Paul Desmond is best known for his work with Dave Brubeck’s quartet from 1951 to 1967, and particularly as composer of their smash hit Take Five. He didn’t only work with Brubeck, though. He made fine recordings with Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan amongst others. His gentle tone and lyrical phrasing on alto saxophone were instantly recognizeable and very typical of the West Coast style of cool jazz, and on alto saxophone was instantly recognizeable. Never a speed merchant in the Charlie Parker tradition, Desmond fell out with Brubeck’s drummer Joe Morello who would often set the tempo, especially on Take Five, too fast in live performances, so I thought I’d pay my little tribute by playing a less familiar number, the Japanese-influenced Koto Song on which Paul Desmond plays very beautifully.
R.I.P. Roy Haynes (1925-2024)
Posted in Jazz, R.I.P. with tags Anthropology, bebop, Boris Rose, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, I Got Rhythm, Rhythm Changes, Roy Haynes, Tommy Potter on November 13, 2024 by telescoperI was very sad to hear of the death yesterday (12th November) at the age of 99 of legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes, one of the last survivors of the bebop era of the 1940s. Roy Haynes had a career that was not only exceptionally long but also exceptionally prolific: just look at the discography on his Wikipedia page! If I can add a personal note, he features on the first ever Charlie Parker LP I bought when I was about 15 and which I still have. I bought it on impulse, not really knowing who Charlie Parker was, was this record that turned me onto his music and I’ve never turned off.
No information is provided on Youtube, but the sleeve note reveals that the track was recorded from a radio broadcast live from Birdland in New York City on March 31st 1951 using a primitive disc recording machine by an amateur recording buff called Boris Rose. The sound quality isn’t great, but he deserves much greater recognition for capturing this and so many other classic performances and preserving them for posterity.
The personnel consists of Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Bud Powell (piano), Tommy Potter (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums).
Here’s what the sleevenote (written by Gary Giddens) says about this track:
“Anthropology is an “I Got Rhythm” variation which originally appeared, in a slightly different form, as “Thriving on a Riff” on Parker’s first session as leader. The tempo is insanely fast; the performance is stunning. Bird has plenty of ideas in his first chorus, but he builds the second and third around a succession of quotations: “Tenderly”, “High Society”, “Temptation.” Gillespie’s second chorus is especially fine – only Fats Navarro had comparable control among the trumpeters who worked with Bird. His blazing high notes tend to set his lyrical phrases in bold relief. Bud, the ultimate bop pianist (and much more), jumps in for two note-gobbling choruses: no quotes, though, it’s all Powell. The four bar exchanges that follow demonstrate Haynes’s precision.
It’s a very exciting track not least because of the contributions of Roy Haynes, not only in the chase sequence mentioned in that quote but throughout the track where he demonstrates tremendous energy and imagination as well as control at such a high tempo.
Rest in peace, Roy Haynes (1925-2024), one of the greatest of all jazz drummers.
Blues Walk
Posted in Jazz with tags 1958, Blues Walk, Dizzy Gillespie, Loose Walk, Sonny Stitt on November 4, 2024 by telescoperI couldn’t resist sharing this piece I found on YouTube a while ago and have listened to many times. It’s amazing how many of my favourite jazz performances date from 1958, and here’s another. It’s the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet of that year featuring the great Sonny Stitt on tenor saxophone, given plenty of space by leader Dizzy Gillespie who takes the second solo on trumpet. The tune is called Blues Walk, although it is sometimes known by the alternative title Loose Walk and as such appeared on the classic film Jazz on a Summer’s Day which also featured Stitt on tenor, though with a quite different band. Note the presence of the great Ray Brown on bass and Lou Levy on piano. The drummer, Gus Johnson, is much less well known but plays very well on this.
If anyone could claim to be a direct musical descendant of Charlie Parker then it was Sonny Stitt, who demonstrates his amazing drive and technical ability in a tremendous solo on this tune, the last number performed at a concert in Belgium. Listen to the chorus that starts about 1:30. Wow! They don’t call this style “hard bop” for nothing!
A Century of See See Rider
Posted in Jazz with tags Blues, Fletcher Henderson, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Jazz, Louis Armstrong, Ma Rainey, music, See See Rider on October 16, 2024 by telescoperBack in 2023 I posted an item marking the first appearance of Louis Armstrong on record with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band back in 1923. Now it’s time to mark another jazz centenary which also involves Satchmo but in a different setting. King Oliver’s band split up at the end of 1923 over a disagreement about a planned nationwide tour and in 1924 Louis Armstrong moved to New York. He was soon snapped up by Fletcher Henderson and spent a glorious year as star trumpet soloist with Henderson’s big band. During that time he also made records with various small bands, including a number with the great vocalist and “Mother of the Blues” Gertrude “Ma” Rainey.
One of the tracks recorded by Ma Rainey in the Paramount studio in New York was called See See Rider. Although not released until 1925, the very first recording of this number was made exactly one hundred years ago today, on 16th October 1924, by “Ma Rainey and her Georgia Jazz Band”, the supporting musicians being Charlie Dixon (Banjo), Buster Bailey (Clarinet), Charlie Green (Trombone), Fletcher Henderson (Piano) and Louis Armstrong (Cornet). The origins of this blues song are lost in the mists of time but it has been recorded a huge number of times, not only by jazz and blues musicians but also by the likes of Elvis Presley; I posted a great version by Peggy Lee here.
Unusually for the time, two takes were made of which the following was the first. Notice that there is an introduction in the form of a verse, which is quite unusual: most blues performances involve only a chorus. Despite the limitations of recording technology at the time you can hear what a tremendously soulful voice Ma Rainey had, and the muted cornet work by Louis Armstrong is unmistakable.
The sound quality may not be great, but it’s a priceless piece of music history.
Quasar – The Jimmy Giuffre 4
Posted in Jazz with tags Four Brothers, Jazz, Jimmy Giuffre, quasar, The Train and the River on August 19, 2024 by telescoperJimmy Giuffre (1921-2008) was an immensely gifted saxophonist and clarinet player who was also an accomplished arranger and composer who worked for many big bands. His most famous piece as an arranger was Four Brothers which he wrote for Woody Herman’s fantastic saxophone section of Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloff and Herb Steward. My first encounter with Giuffre as an instrumentalist was in the opening track of the 1958 film Jazz on a Summer’s Day playing a tune called The Train and the River which has been a favourite of mine for many years. Back then he had a quite accessible style that blended jazz with folk elements, but he later developed a freer and more “modern” approach, including the use of electronic instruments and elements of jazz/rock fusion. I recently read a biographical article about him and – for obvious reasons – was intrigued that in 1985 he made an album called Quasar so I thought I’d share the title track here. Giuffre is on soprano sax on this one.
Ben Webster in Copenhagen
Posted in Jazz with tags Assistens Kirkegård, Ben Webster, Copenhagen, Kenny Drew, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Someone to Watch Over Me on July 9, 2024 by telescoperThe great tenor saxophonist Ben Webster moved to Europe in 1964 and spent much of the rest of his life in Denmark until he passed away in 1973. After his cremation, his ashes were interred in the Assistens Kirkegård in Copenhagen; I visited his grave many moons ago:
That’s a bit of context for a beautiful clip I just stumbled across and couldn’t resist sharing here. It was filmed in Copenhagen in 1965 in the intimate surroundings of the apartment of Danish bass player Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (who plays on the track), with Ole Steenberg on drums and Kenny Drew on piano. Kenny Drew is also buried in the Assistens Kirkegård, in a grave not far from Ben Webster’s.
This is a fine demonstration of Webster’s beautifully tender way of playing ballads, in this case George Gershwin’s Someone to Watch Over Me.
In the Dark 