The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz (42 page)

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Authors: Tom Piazza

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BOOK: The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz
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For a real uncut rhythmic workout try
Max Roach + Dizzy Gillespie - Paris 1989
(A&M CD 6404), an unaccompanied duet performance between Gillespie and the architect of modern drumming, in which Gillespie's rapid-fire trumpet lines intertwine with Roach's endlessly inventive patterns, echoing them, bouncing off them, and creating an ongoing rhythmic counterpoint. Gillespie's embouchure seems to be weak here, though, and he has trouble articulating at the rapid tempos. He sounds best on the cuts where he has the mute in, and his scat vocal on "Oo Pa Pa Da" is a gas.
Fats Navarro
The greatest trumpeter to arrive in the late 1940s, after Dizzy Gillespie, was Fats Navarro. Navarro, who died at age twenty-six in 1950, had one of the most beautiful trumpet sounds of his time and was able to articulate the most complicated kinds of harmonic and rhythmic material with ease, while always swinging. He also had a true grandeur and stateliness in his phrasing that reached back to Armstrong and the New Orleans players; he had a full, clear tone which instantly made any ensemble sound distinctive, and he was a very melodic player as well, not just a slinger of formulaic patterns.
There is not a lot of Navarro available, but nearly all of it is excellent. The all-around best are surely
The Fabulous Fats Navarro
,
Volume 1
(Blue Note 81531) and
Volume 2
(Blue Note 81532), on which the trumpeter is heard in a number of different recording situations, nearly all of which are led by pianist-composer Tadd Dameron. Navarro's rich tone makes tracks like
Volume 1
's "Our Delight" and "Dameronia" into some of the most luscious-sounding performances of the late 1940s.
Volume 1
also features two takes of both "The Chase," on which the trumpeter takes two crackling up-tempo choruses, and "The Squirrel,'' a medium-tempo blues with three terrifically relaxed and stinging trumpet choruses. Also present here is the famous "Casbah," a Dameron original on the chords of "Out of Nowhere," on which vocalist Rae Pearl sings a wordless melody and Navarro takes a fine half-chorus.
Volume 2
includes five tracks matching Navarro with another well-known bop trumpeter, Howard McGhee, who made several records with Charlie Parker in the late 1940s. The best things from the date are undoubtedly the two takes of "Double Talk," an up-tempo composition by the two trumpeters on which they trade ideas in an escalating match of wits, technique, and imagination. "Double Talk" was recorded on a 12-inch 78-rpm record rather than the usual 10-inch type, allowing for five and a half minutes of playing time rather than the normal three or so. By the way, the liner notes have the order of
 
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trumpet soloists mixed up; Navarro takes the first chorus, then McGhee takes one, then they split a chorus before solos from piano and alto sax. After the others solo, Navarro and McGhee return and exchange sixteen-bar sections, then a chorus of eights, then a final chorus of four-bar exchanges and out. "Double Talk" is one of the most exciting records of the late 1940s. On
Volume 2
, Navarro also takes great solos on both takes of the Dameron-led "Jahbero," which features the conga drumming of Chano Pozo, the Cuban drummer whom Dizzy Gillespie introduced in his big band, and "Lady Bird," a well-known Dameron composition.
Navarro and piano innovator Bud Powell teamed up a number of times; certainly their most famous meeting was the 1949 session, including a young Sonny Rollins on tenor, which produced the bop classics "Wail," "52nd Street Theme," "Bouncing with Bud," and "Dance of the Infidels.'' Available (in several takes apiece) on
The Amazing Bud Powell
,
Volume 1
(Blue Note 81503), they are landmark sides for all concerned. Navarro is joined by both Powell and Dameron on various sides collected on
Fats Navarro: Fat Girl
(Savoy SJL 2216; the title makes reference to a nickname of Navarro's). Among the Dameron-led sides here are "Nostalgia," which is another lovely line based on "Out of Nowhere," "The Tadd Walk," an up-tempo Dameron line based on the tune "Sunday" and containing two fantastic muted trumpet choruses, and several sides recorded with the seldom-heard baritonist Leo Parker. Navarro and Powell are together here for four 1946 performances by a recording group called the Bebop Boys, which also included Sonny Stitt on alto and a young Kenny Dorham on trumpet. Originally released as two-part performances on both sides of 10-inch discs, these, too, give the soloists extended time to play. Navarro is in top form here, especially on the Powell original "Webb City." If you like Navarro, this set is highly recommended.
The Bebop Boys, with only one minor difference in personnel, had gone into the RCA studios the day before the Savoy session and recorded four tunes under the name Kenny Clarke and His 52nd Street Boys. Available on
The Bebop Revolution
(RCA/Bluebird 2177-2-RB), the tracks, while shorter, have better sound than the Savoys. On "Royal Roost" (which Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane would record together ten years later as "Tenor Madness"), Navarro follows Kenny Dorham's two trumpet choruses with two extremely brilliant ones of his own. The set also contains a 1947 track on which Navarro plays Dameron's "Half Step Down, Please" with a recording group led by Coleman Hawkins, always one to encourage the younger musicians of the 1940s.
Other intriguing Navarro guest appearances may be found on
Dexter Gordon: Long Tall Dexter
(Savoy SJL 2211), on which the trumpeter teams up
 
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with the great bop tenor player for four 1947 sides, and
The Bebop Era
(Columbia CK 40972), on which Navarro can be heard with both Bud Powell and Charlie Parker in a live performance from Birdland recorded in the summer of 1950, not long before the trumpeter died. Navarro takes a characteristic solo, and he and Parker trade electrifying fours at the end of the tune. The rest of the material from this evening goes in and out of print regularly, often on various marginal labels. Look for it; it is one of the very best of the best matchups of giants you'll ever hear.
Also worth picking up if you like this style is
Fats Navarro with the Tadd Dameron Band
(Milestone MCD-47041-2), a collection of 1948 broadcasts by the Dameron band from the Royal Roost. The sound isn't that great, since the performances were taken from broadcasts, but the set contains some stunning work from Navarro throughout, as well as good glimpses of other bebop stalwarts such as trombonist Kai Winding, tenor saxophonist Allen Eager, and the little-heard altoist Rudy Williams.
Miles Davis
Miles Davis is arguably the most influential musician and bandleader who emerged after Charlie Parker. Although he gained his first major exposure playing with Parker, he was the center of a kind of countertradition, usually called cool jazz, that developed just after bebop. At a time when nearly everyone of a certain age was trying to play a highly charged, emotionally intense version of the complicated new music, Davis put together both an instrumental and an ensemble style that captured emotional territory left up for grabs by most of his contemporaries. Others at the time were thinking along the same lines, but Davis had the vision and the unique instrumental voice to focus those thoughts.
But "cool," like most such labels, is no more than a shorthand for certain stylistic and temperamental tendencies. Throughout his career, Davis would swing back and forth between the aerated sounds of
Birth of the Cool
and
Kind of Blue
and the hot sounds of the "Conception" and "Walkin'" sessions. So beware all labels.
Davis recorded copiously over a period of about forty-five years; his career went through a number of discrete phases, like Picasso's, and it was largely this constant changing and artistic urgency that make him such a fascinating figure. In the late 1960s he discovered electric music, and he recorded little of value afterward. But almost everything he recorded before then, with a few exceptions, is worth having.
Much of it has been issued in several different forms, and the choices can
 
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be confusing. I will give the titles and numbers of the records and discs in their most easily available form. One note: I give the Original Jazz Classics series titles and numbers for all of Davis's Prestige recordings of the early 1950s, but all have been collected on the eight-CD box
Miles Davis Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings 1951-1956
(Prestige PCD-012-2).
Beginnings
We get a first real glimpse of what Davis was about on Charlie Parker's Savoy and Dial recordings. Davis's sensibility was, obviously, set strongly in a certain direction at a very young age (he was nineteen at the time of his first session with Bird). Davis leaves lots of space in his solos on "Billie's Bounce" and "Now's the Time" (available on
Bird/The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes) Volume 1
[Savoy ZDS 4402]); his lines are legato, full of long notes, and not heavily accented. His playing is as different from Bird's in tone and affect as lime sherbet is from pork chops.
For someone that young to play in such a different style from the leader on their first recording together says something about Davis's character, especially because the new music aesthetic of that time placed so much emphasis on dexterity (one of Bird's tunes was named for it) and quick rhythmic and harmonic thinking. His cup-muted solo on "Thriving from a Riff" shows that he had those qualities to call on, too, when he wanted to; the underplayed, cool style was a matter of choice. A footnote: Davis's "Now's the Time" solo was quoted thirteen years later by Davis's pianist Red Garland in his solo on "Straight, No Chaser" on the 1958
Milestones
(Columbia CK 40837) album.
By 1947, after some time with singer Billy Eckstine's big band, Davis was sharing the front line of the most important jazz group of the day with Charlie Parker. On the recordings the quintet made for Dial records (available as
The Legendary Dial Masters, Volume 1
[Stash ST-CD-23] and
Volume 2
[Stash ST-CD-25] and as
Bird on Dial, Volumes 1-6
[Spotlite 101-106]), especially, the contrast between his tone and Bird's is refreshing, and Davis makes some classic statements. Listen to the way he comes in after Bird's solo on "Scrapple from the Apple" (the "alternate" - actually the take originally released on 78-rpm record - on
The Legendary Dial Masters, Volume 2
); this is a fully conceived melodic statement. Dizzy Gillespie went toe-to-toe with Bird on the Musicraft recordings, matching technique and fiery inventiveness against the same; but in Davis, Bird had found someone to complement him rather than express the same solo sensibility. The rhythm section, too, provided a cooler setting for Bird's melodic inventiveness but a very swinging one. Much of the credit goes to drummer Max Roach. Two years later, when Davis put some of his ideas together in the
Birth of the Cool
sessions, he'd use Roach again on drums.
 
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Most great soloists seem to be playing a couple of parts at the same time, balancing their phrases with others that echo or counterbalance them, as if in an ongoing gloss on their own thoughts. Davis learned, I'm sure, about internal answering phrases from Bird. Listen to Bird's solo on "Dewey Square" - behind the beat, warm, full of parallel and answering phrases - followed by Davis's legato, almost melancholy statement. On these sides, Bird is reined in, making complete and controlled melodies. Could Davis have had anything to do with it? The Dial sides are classics of the music. The records the quintet made for Savoy are less consistently melodically inventive, and the sound quality is starker. But they made classic music for both labels.
One interesting session they made together during this period, for Savoy, was with the regular working group (with Nelson Boyd instead of Tommy Potter and John Lewis instead of Duke Jordan) but under Davis's leadership and with Bird playing tenor (available on
First Miles
[Savoy ZDS 1196]). "Milestones," "Little Willie Leaps," "Half Nelson," and "Sippin' at Bell's'' are all listed as Davis compositions, although researcher Phil Schaap claims that "Milestones" was penned by John Lewis. They have a coolness about them, too, especially "Milestones," on which the whole sound, with Bird playing low and in unison with a cup-muted Miles, is shady and cool. What makes it cool? There are not a lot of notes, the tempo is moderate, and the lines are legato and evenly accented rather than heavily accented and staccato. Bird's sound on tenor wasn't as piercing as his alto sound, either. "Sippin' at Bell's" is a blues with interesting substitute changes; Miles plays open horn on this one. "Sippin'" was also recorded in a session under pianist Sonny Clark's leadership ten years later (available on
Cool Struttin'
[Blue Note 46513]), with trumpeter Art Farmer and altoist Jackie McLean.
By 1949 Miles was ready to feature himself in an orchestrated setting that would bring out his "Milestones" side - harmonically sophisticated, legato and lightly accented, unison between high and low instruments, a cushioned sound. The result was what became known as the
Birth of the Cool
sessions (available as
Birth of the Cool
[Capitol 7 92862 2]).
In the Ensembles section, I noted that the
Birth of the Cool
sides were to the rest of the modern movement what the 1927 Bix Beiderbecke-Frank Trumbauer sides were to the other small-group jazz of their day. Note also the similarities between Beiderbecke's cornet sound on "Singin' the Blues" (available on
Bix Beiderbecke, Volume 1: Singin' the Blues
[Columbia CK 45450]), for example, and Davis's on any number of sides from the 1951-1953 era, such as "Dear Old Stockholm" on Blue Note or "When Lights Are Low" on Prestige. Lester "Pres" Young felt a special affinity for Frank Trumbauer's playing; Davis was certainly a temperamental heir of Young's; both sound like men who are

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