The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz (48 page)

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Authors: Tom Piazza

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BOOK: The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz
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theme played alternately rubato and over a moderate six-eight vamp for blowing, an extended performance with good work from the entire sextet. "The Joker" is a very relaxed, swinging performance of some "I Got Rhythm" changes with a "Honeysuckle Rose" bridge. "Mr. Kenyatta" is a modal vamp that goes into swing for the bridge, ''Melancholee" is a slow ballad played unison by Shorter and Morgan, again with a pentatonic basis, and "Morgan the Pirate" is a swinging waltz.
Search for the New Land
was recorded when Morgan was at the peak of his powers - still full of youthful freshness and brilliance but in command of the story he wanted to tell. His sound is strong but expressive at the same time; listen to the way, on "Melancholee," he shows such control and logical musical use of the lower range of the trumpet. The accompanists couldn't be much better; Higgins, especially, is a joy to listen to. And Shorter, who was to join Miles Davis's quintet later in the year, had mastered his own brand of very unorthodox lyricism - always unpredictable, melodically inventive, and with a tone influenced by John Coltrane's but recognizable as his own. This is an extremely satisfying jazz album.
Just as good in its way is the 1966
Cornbread
(Blue Note 84222), which has Hancock and Higgins in the rhythm section again, with Larry Ridley on bass; Morgan shares the front line with no less than altoist Jackie McLean and tenorist Hank Mobley. The results are exciting; everyone was really "on" that day, it seems. The title track is a wailing blues theme over a vamp/gospel rhythmic background, with all three horns playing some very strong stuff. Morgan's lovely, gentle samba "Ceora" is a real highlight, with a great piano introduction by Hancock. The album also has two bright-tempoed, straight-ahead swingers, "Our Man Higgins" and "Most Like Lee," on which all the horns turn the heat up in true hard-bop fashion; Mobley and McLean really spur each other on, and Morgan soars over it all. And check out the trumpeter's beautiful muted reading of the standard "Ill Wind." This is a highly recommended album.
Morgan scored a bona fide jazz hit with his album
The Sidewinder
(Blue Note 84157), recorded only two months before
Search for the New Land
, with a quintet including Joe Henderson on tenor, Barry Harris on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Higgins, again, on drums. The album has a good assortment of material, including various blues forms, Latin vamp backgrounds, and a fine, straight-ahead swinger ("Hocus-Pocus") that will please bebop fans. The title tune is an interestingly accented, catchy twenty-four-bar blues with great solos by Morgan, Henderson (both of whom play masterfully with the vamp background set up by the rhythm section), Harris, and Cranshaw (both of whom reach down into the funk). "Boy, What a Night" is a fast blues
 
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waltz that swings as hard as a straight-ahead four-four blues, due largely to Cranshaw's sharp, buoyant bass. Henderson plays very well on all of it, matching Morgan idea for idea. Morgan's tone, exuberance, and sheer instrumental control are a great pleasure.
Take Twelve
(Jazzland/OJC-310) is not quite up to the level of the previously mentioned Blue Notes, but it is very good nonetheless, showcasing a somewhat less bravura side of Morgan's playing. Accompanied by tenorist Clifford Jordan, Harris, Cranshaw, and drummer Louis Hayes, Morgan plays some tasty stuff on tunes that, characteristically, include waltz sections, Latin vamps, and a good dose of straight-ahead blowing.
Freewheelin'
Much of Morgan's strongest playing was done as a sideman with some of the preeminent musicians of the time. Some of the best known of that work was recorded with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers on
The Big Beat
(Blue Note 46400),
Indestructible
(Blue Note 46429), and, especially,
Moanin'
(Blue Note 46516). Morgan's solo on the title track of
Moanin'
is a classic of blues preaching, full of half-valve effects, daring leaps and swoops covering the whole range of the horn, and unexpected melodic touches. The CD issue of this album includes an alternate take of "Moanin'" with an intriguingly different Morgan solo. "Calling Miss Khadija" on
Indestructible
is a Morgan composition featuring some very exciting trumpeting over a churning six-eight background. But all three Blakey sets will be big favorites with Morgan fans.
Morgan has guest shots on more albums than I can list. Some of the very strongest include John Coltrane's famous 1957
Blue Train
(Blue Note 46095), on which Morgan takes memorable solo after memorable solo, digging way down into the blues on the title track, leaping and dipping at a high tempo on "Lazy Bird," and delivering some gorgeous and assured ballad playing on "I'm Old Fashioned."
No Room for Squares
(Blue Note 84149), a 1963 album by tenor man Hank Mobley, shows the trumpeter in top form having a ball bouncing accents off of the infectious drumming of Philly Joe Jones in a program mixing Mobley and Morgan originals - modal ("No Room for Squares"), an "I Got Rhythm"-based cooker ("Three-Way Split''), a gospelish, Horace Silver-style blues ("Me 'N You"), and a beautiful Morgan ballad ("Carolyn"), among others. Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson's 1966 album
Mode for Joe
(Blue Note 84227) has some brilliant Morgan in a slightly larger band context with Henderson, trombonist Curtis Fuller, vibist Bobby Hutcherson, and a rhythm section of Cedar Walton on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. Morgan's solo on "Caribbean Fire Dance" is especially exciting; notice how at the beginning of his solo he plays some high
 
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notes that are actually two notes at once, in imitation of a tonal effect Henderson achieves on tenor elsewhere on the album.
The very young Morgan has some moments of high fire on tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin's 1957
A Blowing Session
(Blue Note 81559), on which he is in the fast company of tenorists Griffin, Hank Mobley, and John Coltrane, playing in front of a murderously swinging rhythm section of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Art Blakey; it was a hot day in April, obviously. As the title implies, this is a loosely organized session - three up-tempo cookers, including a very fast "The Way You Look Tonight," and a medium-tempo ballad ("All the Things You Are"). Morgan's cocksure, even arrogant playing is arguably the best thing about a very good, if very casual, album.
Some of the same looseness can be found on two jam session-type albums by organ master Jimmy Smith,
The Sermon
(Blue Note 46097) and
House Party
(Blue Note 46546), recorded in 1957 and 1958, respectively, and including the standards "Just Friends," "What Is This Thing Called Love?," and a burning version of "Cherokee" (on
House Party
), on which Morgan clearly shows his Clifford Brown roots. My favorite Morgan work here is his pecking, preaching solo on the classic twenty-minute-long blues which is the title cut of
The Sermon
; this medium-tempo shuffle-beat workout also has a definitive organ solo by the leader, as well as fine work from guitarist Kenny Burrell, altoist Lou Donaldson, and the little-known tenor master Tina Brooks. Morgan can also be heard in absolute top form on a whole album of material on the extremely worthwhile four-record set
The Complete Blue Note Recordings of the Tina Brooks Quintets
(Mosaic MR4-106), featuring a crackling-hot Morgan next to the fluent, unique Brooks, in front of a first-rate rhythm section of pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Doug Watkins, and drummer Art Blakey, doing a blazing ''The Way You Look Tonight," two other standards, and two originals.
Blue Mitchell
With a melodic conception, like Morgan's, coming basically out of Clifford Brown's but more lyrical, with less of a bravura quality and, at times, an almost shy aspect that may have owed something to Miles Davis, Blue Mitchell was a wonderful if lesser-known trumpeter of the 1950s and 1960s. That lyrical quality did not, by the way, overshadow his abilities as one of the better blues players of the time. He got his first big exposure as a member of pianist Horace Silver's late-1950s quintet.
Mitchell's best record - certainly the one that features him at the greatest length - is
Blue's Moods
(Riverside/OJC-138), a 1958 date with the ideal rhythm section of Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones, and the often overlooked Detroit
 
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drummer Roy Brooks. Mitchell is at his best here, with his sweet, pointed tone and relaxed phrasing, scoring big points for melodic invention on bright-tempoed rides through neglected standards like "I'll Close My Eyes" and "I Wish I Knew," as well as Charlie Parker's "Scrapple from the Apple'' and Mitchell's funky original blues titled "Sir John." Wynton Kelly seemed to be having an especially good day, and his solos (as well as his comping) are another big reason to pick up this album, which will be a favorite with fans of chord-changes-oriented, bebop-rooted playing.
Mitchell's
The Thing To Do
(Blue Note 84178) is also excellent, a somewhat harder-edged 1964 set with two of his compatriots from the Silver group, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook and bassist Gene Taylor, along with drummer Al Foster and a very young and very hot Chick Corea on piano. The album features Mitchell's happy calypso "Fungii Mama" and Jimmy Heath's "The Thing To Do," which has a gospel-tinged theme that goes into a bright swing for the solos, which include a relaxed, footloose sortie by Mitchell. Joe Henderson's walking-tempo "Step Lightly" is a good vehicle for everyone as well, and Corea's "Chick's Tune" alludes to Tadd Dameron in a Latin-flavored melodic setup. Corea is brilliant throughout, by the way; you hear Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Horace Silver, Wynton Kelly, and countless others in his extroverted, unusual, and highly swinging playing. When Corea plays acoustic piano, his touch and control are all his own.
The Cup Bearers
(Riverside/OJC-797) is another outstanding disc teaming Mitchell with Junior Cook and Gene Taylor; Roy Brooks (also from Horace Silver's group) rounds out a rhythm section to which Cedar Walton contributes perfectly on piano. Except for two good standards ("Why Do I Love You?," played medium-tempo, on which Mitchell sounds a bit like Fats Navarro with the cup mute in, and "How Deep Is the Ocean"), the set consists of jazz originals, tastily arranged, by the likes of Thad Jones, Charles Davis, the underappreciated Tom McIntosh, and Walton himself. This is a very relaxed and very focused disc.
A newly assembled Mitchell collection,
Blues on My Mind
(Riverside/OJC-6009), presents material taken from three late-1950s Mitchell LPs in which the trumpeter is heard with tenorists Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, and Jimmy Heath, with Wynton Kelly on piano throughout and either Art Blakey or Philly Joe Jones on drums. One of the highlights is Mitchell's quartet reading of Benny Golson's haunting ballad "Park Avenue Petite," but there is plenty of good cooking Mitchell here as well, and, as the title implies, a preponderance of blues. Anyone who likes Mitchell will want this one.
Like Lee Morgan, Mitchell always added to sessions on which he was a sideman. Certainly that is true of his exciting work with Horace Silver's group on
 
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Blowin' the Blues Away
(Blue Note 46526),
Finger Poppin'
(Blue Note 84008), and, especially,
Doin' the Thing. The Horace Silver Quintet at the Village Gate
(Blue Note 84076), on which Mitchell blazes a wide and extremely swinging, funky swath through what is perhaps Silver's most infectious performance (no small claim), "Filthy McNasty." Mitchell can also be heard on six seminal performances by Jackie McLean recorded in 1960 and available on
Jackie's Bag
(Blue Note 46142), including "Appointment in Ghana," a modal masterpiece, and "Ballad for Doll." The third member of the front line on these is, again, the brilliant tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks. Like Morgan, Mitchell is heard on the highly recommended
The Complete Blue Note Recordings of the Tina Brooks Quintets
(Mosaic MR4-106, LP only). Mitchell is Brooks's partner for the legendary ''Back to the Tracks" session, a classic Blue Note quintet date that was announced in the Blue Note catalog but never released. The session has a wonderful, unique sound, a kind of keening, mournful quality that doesn't impede the crisp swing one bit.
Kenny Dorham
Kenny Dorham was one of the most durable and flexible trumpeters to come out of the bebop era. Unlike some musicians, Dorham never stopped listening and growing; he was as involved in some of the most adventuresome music of the mid-1960s as he was in the music of the mid-1940s, as comfortable playing with Andrew Hill and Herbie Hancock as he had been playing with Charlie Parker and Bud Powell.
Late-1940s Dorham recordings like those with the Bebop Boys (available on the Fats Navarro album
Fats, Bud, Klook, Sonny, Kinney
[Savoy SV-0181]; others by the same group under the name Kenny Clarke and His 52nd Street Boys are included on
The Bebop Revolution
[RCA/Bluebird 2177-2-RB]) and Charlie Parker (
Bird at the Roost
[Savoy ZDS 4411-4]) reveal a journeyman bebop trumpeter with neither the technical brilliance and full sound of Fats Navarro nor the ability to project mood and nuance that even the young Miles Davis had. It really took Dorham until the early mid-1950s to carve out a distinctive style, but Dorham at his best was a strong and unique voice.
As a leader, Dorham's best albums are two he recorded for Blue Note, eight years apart, the 1955
Afro-Cuban
(Blue Note 46815) and the 1963
Una Mas
(Blue Note 46515). Both make extensive use of Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms, which seemed to bring out Dorham's most inventive side, and both are comprised almost entirely of Dorham's own compositions.
Afro-Cuban
features a powerhouse group including tenorist Hank Mobley, trombonist J. J. Johnson, Horace Silver on piano, and Art Blakey on drums,

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