The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz (27 page)

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Authors: Tom Piazza

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BOOK: The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz
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Page 82
Finger Poppin'
(Blue Note 84008) is a very good set, a true cooker, especially on the exciting "Cookin' at the Continental," featuring the same band that recorded
Blowin' the Blues Away. Horace-Scope
(Blue Note 84042), with the
Doin' the Thing
band, is likewise excellent and includes the fine Latin-flavored Silver standard "Nica's Dream."
The Cape Verdean Blues
(Blue Note 84220) features the 1965 band, with Woody Shaw on trumpet and Joe Henderson on tenor and with trombonist J. J. Johnson as guest artist on three tracks. Like
Song for My Father
, much of the album's material is written in simple phrases over vamps.
MJQ
Obviously, the mid-1950s was a kind of golden age for small-group jazz, but we haven't even looked at some of the most important of these ensembles yet. The Miles Davis quintet and sextet of the late 1950s and 1960s is discussed under the trumpeter's name in the Soloists section. The great quintets that percussionist Max Roach led in the late 1950s, first with trumpeter Clifford Brown, then, after Brown's untimely death in 1956, with Kenny Dorham and Booker Little, are discussed in the sections on trumpet players.
One group that formed in the mid-1950s and that enjoyed great longevity and popularity was the Modern Jazz Quartet, commonly known as the MJQ. Led by pianist-composer John Lewis and including vibraharp master Milt Jackson, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Connie Kay, the MJQ stood above all for an attention to order, organized group interplay, and control.
Partly this had to do with the lack of horns in the instrumentation, in which the vibes and the sober right hand of leader Lewis often engaged in Bach-like counterpoint over the rolling bass of Heath and the nonexplosive drums of Kay. Partly this had to do with a compositional conception that didn't place the highest premium on swinging; everything is very careful in their records, Lewis is in total control of the conception. But, to me, the music is just not very compelling.
Still, the group features Percy Heath's buoyant bass and the blues-drenched playing of Milt Jackson who, if he ever played an unswinging phrase, did it in private. When they wanted to, the MJQ could generate considerable momentum. One recording on which they consistently do just that is
The Complete Last Concert
(Atlantic 7 81976-2), a two-disc set recorded at their farewell concert in 1974, which marked the end of nineteen years playing together as a unit (they subsequently joined forces again in 1981). This set contains some of their hardest swinging and most lyrical playing on a program of popular and jazz standards, including "Summertime," "What's New," ''A Night in Tunisia,"
 
Page 83
and "'Round Midnight," as well as well-known John Lewis compositions such as "Django," ''Skating in Central Park," and "The Golden Striker."
One of their very best and most varied studio efforts is
Lonely Woman
(Atlantic 7 90665-2). This set shows the group at their peak in 1962; they had been playing together for seven years and knew each other very well musically. There is a lot to listen for here: the shifting tempos on "New York 19," the flat-out drive of Milt Jackson on "Belkis," Lewis's and Jackson's fine blues playing on "Why Are You Blue?" (Lewis is usually at his best on slow tempos, particularly on the blues; listen to his solo on Charlie Parker's "Parker's Mood" on
Bird: The Savoy Original Master Takes
[Savoy ZDS 8801]), and the deliciously relaxed mood of "Lamb, Leopard (If I Were Eve)." The title tune is one of the best-known compositions of Ornette Coleman, the alto saxophonist who was making a very large stir in the jazz world at the time this record was made; the MJQ's version of it shows, paradoxically, by taking a very different tack, the tonal implications of Coleman's "free" approach. I recommend this set very highly. Also excellent is
Pyramid
(Atlantic 1325-2), with its characteristic Bachian counterpoint on "Vendome," a fine reading of Lewis's "Django," and a unique, nearly eleven-minute performance of the title tune, a slow, gospel/blues-flavored piece by bassist Ray Brown.
Thelonious Monk
One of the greatest presences of the 1950s and 1960s was pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. Monk participated in the legendary jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem in the very early 1940s, along with Charlie Christian and Dizzy Gillespie, at which some of the ideas of Christian, Lester Young, and Roy Eldridge - the longer melodic lines, the substitute harmonies, the off-the-beat accenting - were being refined and extended into what would eventually be called bebop.
Monk was already composing back then, and several of his tunes were recorded by other musicians. (Cootie Williams, the great Ellington trumpeter, recorded two of Monk's tunes when he led his own band, "'Round Midnight" and "Epistrophy." The latter, recorded in 1942, is available on
The Bebop Era
[Columbia CK 40972], which also includes a Charlie Parker reading of "'Round Midnight.") "'Round Midnight" was the most popular, followed closely by "52nd Street Theme," recorded by Bud Powell and many others. But most of his tunes, as everyone was to find later, demanded more of the musicians who played them than the standard bebop line demanded; Monk's compositions had characteristic harmonies and rhythmic devices that needed to be incorporated, or at least taken into account, when a player was soloing.
 
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And the ensemble, as well, had to pay attention to a number of fine points. Almost everything Monk recorded is worth owning.
Monk's first sessions as a leader, recorded in 1947, are available as
Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music, Volume 1
(Blue Note 81510) and show his unique ensemble and compositional conception at work from the beginning. Very few others, at a time when Bird was recording "Donna Lee" and other complex lines, would have recorded a song - "Thelonious" - the main theme of which consisted essentially of only two notes. And no other pianist would have recorded the introduction Monk put on his "In Walked Bud" - a skittering, descending run that sounds at first just like a rapidly played scale but which actually functions to set the tempo for the band (listen closely to the way he accents certain notes as he descends).
Monk always did the unexpected and usually tried to figure out a way to use material that had been taken for granted in some way to a different effect. His harmonic individuality and rhythmic devices marked him as a modernist of the time, but he was a member of no school; he was himself, and he took the entire history of jazz as his province. His solo on "Thelonious," for example, sounds a lot like Count Basie in the way it uses space, in its percussive, trumpet-riff right-hand accents, in its economy, even in the way he plays a brief stride passage. The collection has a number of other tunes that Monk would return to throughout his career as well: "Well You Needn't," "Off Minor," and the beautiful "Ruby, My Dear'' were all Monk standards. The performances of two haunting slow pieces, "Monk's Mood" and the perennial "'Round Midnight," are especially interesting. "Monk's Mood" is a whole composition, not just a melody over some chord changes, with short counter-melodies and characteristic harmony notes from the piano in between the horn players' reading of the melody. "'Round Midnight" is one of the greatest mood pieces in the history of jazz, beginning with the piano answering the horns' melancholy calls in the introduction and the piano stating the unforgettable melody over the horns' held notes.
Milt Jackson
(Blue Note 81509) contains eight tracks from a 1948 session pairing Monk with the great vibraharp master, including two takes of Monk's blues "Misterioso." Listen to how, on both takes, Monk uses the same accompaniment strategy, based on a flatted seventh interval, to Jackson's solo. Also interesting here is Monk's version of "Epistrophy," in which the piano, vibes, and drums give the feeling of playing in three different meters. Some of the best of the Blue Note Monk material is to be found on
Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music, Volume 2
(Blue Note 81511), recorded in 1951 and 1952. Monk is joined, again, by Jackson for half the album and by an all-star group including trumpeter Kenny Dorham, the underappreciated tenor saxo-
 
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phonist Lucky Thompson, and Max Roach on drums for the other half. The set points up how funny Monk could be in his writing, as in the devilishly intricate "Four in One" and the well-known "Straight, No Chaser." Both use unexpected, unorthodox linear strategies that nobody else would have thought of. They are surprising but logical, which is a good way of characterizing everything Monk did.
For another surprise, check out "Skippy" here; the performance starts with what seems to be an improvised Monk solo, playing another funny line that twists back on itself and uses all kinds of odd intervals. At the end of the piece, the horns come in playing the same line. The ensembles throughout this set are expertly played, and there is fine solo work from Dorham and Thompson.
Over the next couple of years Monk made a number of records for Prestige, one of the most important independent jazz record companies of the 1950s.
Thelonious Monk
(Prestige/OJC-010),
Monk
(Prestige/OJC-016), and
Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
(Prestige/OJC-059) all showcase Monk's hardest swinging side, generally in relatively informal settings.
Thelonious Monk
is a set of trio performances with either Art Blakey or Max Roach on drums, which highlight Monk's percussive approach to the piano. Included here is the original version of "Little Rootie Tootie"; Monk's solo on this was transcribed by Hall Overton and performed by a large ensemble at a 1959 Town Hall concert (available on
The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall
[Riverside/OJC-135]). Monk has four tracks recorded by a quintet including Basie tenorist Frank Foster and trumpeter Ray Copeland, along with Blakey (he was one of Monk's most compatible drummers) and bassist Curly Russell. This is Monk at his most swinging, especially on "Hackensack," his reworking of ''Lady, Be Good." Foster really rolls here, Monk urging him on with strong, pushing chords. Notice how, when the higher-pitched trumpet comes in, Monk moves up the keyboard, playing high, bell-like sounds in the upper register. Also in this set are three tracks by a quintet including tenorist Sonny Rollins and French horn player Julius Watkins which have a loose, relaxed feeling about them. Watkins was an excellent player; the unusual sonority of the French horn makes these sides especially interesting.
Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
includes two fantastic extended 1954 tracks ("The Way You Look Tonight" and "I Want To Be Happy") on which Rollins plays and plays and plays, a fountain of fresh ideas and rhythmic assurance. Monk is in a supporting role here, but he fills it extremely well. The set also includes two trio tracks ("Nutty" and the very unusual "Work"), along with another one of Monk's pieces that use repitition to humorous effect ("Friday the Thirteenth").
Monk's best material, it is generally agreed, was recorded for Riverside
 
Page 86
Records beginning in 1955. Producer Orrin Keepnews gave Monk the opportunity to play in many different kinds of settings; he recorded him live, solo, in several trio sessions, as well in ambitious projects with larger ensembles. Because there is so much, I will concentrate on the highlights and only sketch in the minor efforts. If you'd like to eliminate the suspense of buying the discs one at a time, pick up the Grammy-winning
Thelonious Monk: The Complete Riverside Recordings
(Riverside RCD-022-2), a twelve-disc set containing every bit of music that Monk laid down for that label. Otherwise, check out the following discs.
Probably the all-around best record Monk ever made was
Brilliant Corners
(Riverside/OJC-026). It contains some extremely challenging writing for the five-piece band on the title track, a mysterious theme that includes several tempo changes and is a killer to play at the faster speed. Monk gets a huge sound out of the front line of alto and tenor sax. A long blues, entitled "Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are," contains great solos from Sonny Rollins, who spins his solo out of a motif Monk plays in his solo, altoist Ernie Henry (a dedicated Parker disciple), and bassist Oscar Pettiford. Max Roach is the drummer on the session. On "Pannonica," a languorous, sophisticated ballad named for the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, otherwise known as Nica, who was a special friend to many jazz musicians, Monk plays celeste as well as piano. Rollins takes a phenomenal solo here, too. In addition, Monk plays a fine solo version of the standard "I Surrender Dear," and trumpeter Clark Terry signs on for a version of ''Bemsha Swing," on which Max Roach plays timpani. For the breadth of its sounds and the depth of the music, this is really one of the essential albums.
Monk's Music
(Riverside/OJC-084) is another ambitious outing, perhaps most notable for the presence of tenor patriarch Coleman Hawkins, one of three saxophonists at the date (the other two were tenor giant-to-be John Coltrane and altoist Gigi Gryce). The program includes readings by the full band (which also included trumpeter Ray Copeland) of "Off Minor," "Crepuscule with Nellie," "Epistrophy," and a famous version of "Well You Needn't," on which Monk calls out "Coltrane, Coltrane" to cue the tenorist for his solo. (On the twelve-disc Riverside set, there is a fascinating short breakdown take of "Well You Needn't," on which you can see how difficult Monk's music could be; his piano introduction, which sounds as if it's in a different tempo from the rest of the song is, in fact, in tempo, only accented so that it sounds as if it's in a different tempo. At one point Monk says to someone in the band, "You can't hear that, man? Or do you just want to be obstinate?" The second time through, Art Blakey plays the basic tempo underneath

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