The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz (64 page)

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Authors: Tom Piazza

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BOOK: The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz
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singing the lyrics as he plays, and cooking versions of the standard "You Stepped Out of a Dream" and Gordon's blues "McSplivens." It's hard to recommend this set highly enough.
But
Go!
has the irresistible minor-key swinger "Cheese Cake," on which Gordon is shockingly inspired - dodging, bobbing, and weaving. The two ballads here are as good as the ones on
A Swingin' Affair
(although "Don't Explain" is hard to top), and there are exciting versions of "Love for Sale" and "Second Balcony Jump'' (which was originally done by Earl Hines's big band - the version here is as inventive as "Cheese Cake") and a witty, tasty one of "Three O'Clock in the Morning." Both albums show Gordon's strong sound to full advantage; don't miss them.
Very nearly as good is the 1969
The Tower of Power
(Prestige/OJC-299), a quartet set (with Barry Harris, Buster Williams, and Albert Heath) on which tenorist James Moody sits in for an extended workout on a minor-key original called "Montmartre," which is worth the price of the album. It also includes a good straight-ahead blues, "Stanley the Steamer," and a beautiful and warmly lyrical original called "The Rainbow People." The rhythm section is topnotch, and Barry Harris's piano solos are another strong reason to pick this up. There was another album's worth of material recorded with this band, issued as
More Power
; one hopes Original Jazz Classics will get around to putting it out, too.
Gordon's 1970 Prestige outing,
The Panther
(Prestige/OJC-770), with pianist Tommy Flanagan, is also one of his strongest records. The title track is a swaggering blues based on a riff from the Jay McShann orchestra's recording of "Swingmatism," with an almost New Orleans rhythm-and-blues rhythm underlying it, on which Gordon spins inventive chorus after chorus. He was really on fire for this session. His ballad versions of "Body and Soul" and, especially, "The Christmas Song" also help make this one of the essential Gordon sets.
Gordon is a sideman for tenorist Booker Ervin's
Settin' the Pace
(Prestige 24123), possibly the wildest date Gordon ever participated in. The rhythm section here consists of Jaki Byard, Reggie Workman, and Alan Dawson, and the mood is adventuresome to say the least. The twenty-three-minute-long version of Gordon's classic "Dexter's Deck" contains a nine-and-a-half-minute solo by Gordon that is one of the most exciting things he recorded. The original liner notes, by David Himmelstein, are almost as wild as the music.
Dexter Calling
... (Blue Note 46544) is a good 1961 quartet set with Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, but it is neither as relaxed nor as spirited as the next year's
Go!
and
A Swingin' Affair
. This and
Doin' Allright
(Blue Note 84077), recorded three days earlier, were comeback albums of sorts
 
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for Gordon, who had been off the scene for most of the 1950s. His tone would harden some over the next year and become more penetrating and assured. This is a perfectly good set, just not one of the very best. The 1963
Our Man in Paris
(Blue Note 46394) is a fairly disappointing quartet set. With a rhythm section of pianist Bud Powell, bassist Pierre Michelot, and expatriate drum innovator Kenny Clarke, this looks like a dream session. But Powell wasn't in the best shape, and he is undermiked to boot, and this one never quite takes off, despite a good "Stairway to the Stars."
Doin' Allright
is a more satisfying, varied set than
Dexter Calling
..., with two good Gordon originals, "For Regulars Only" and "Society Red," as well as a fetching, walking-tempo reading of the rarely done Gershwin tune "I Was Doing All Right'' and a cooking "It's You or No One," on which Gordon really digs in. This set pairs the tenorist with new star trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who sounds very good.
One Flight Up
(Blue Note 84176) was recorded in Paris in 1964 in a studio that lends a cavernous echo to the sound. Gordon plays very creatively here, next to trumpeter Donald Byrd and in front of a rhythm section featuring pianist Kenny Drew. Drew's tune "Coppin' the Haven" brings out the best in everybody, and Gordon plays a version of "Darn That Dream" on which he sounds as relaxed as Lester Young, which is very relaxed, indeed. This set has a unique mood about it.
Gettin' Around
(Blue Note 46681) is probably the least of the Blue Notes, despite such good companions as vibist Bobby Hutcherson and a rhythm section of Barry Harris, Bob Cranshaw, and Billy Higgins. The material isn't as strong, and it never quite lifts off, for me at least.
Homecoming
(Columbia C2K 46824), recorded in 1976 during the season of Gordon's triumphant return to the U.S., has its moments but lacks the relaxation of the earlier Blue Note and Prestige sets. This may be partly because it was recorded live, partly because of the accompanying group's chemistry, but whatever the reason, there is a livid feeling about the set that is at odds with Gordon's best instincts.
Gordon's excellent mid-1940s small-group sides are collected on
Dexter Gordon: Long Tall Dexter
(Savoy SJL 2211); they include sessions with many of the best younger musicians of the time, including some very hot tracks with Bud Powell and equally hot ones with Fats Navarro. Gordon's solos here are, for the most part, gems within these three-minute performances. The sound, of course, is not as good as the things from the 1960s, but anyone with a taste for Gordon will enjoy these examples of young Dexter, the firebrand. For other glimpses of the Long Tall One at a young age,
Dizzy Gillespie and His Sextets and Orchestra: "Shaw 'Nuff
" (Musicraft MVSCD-53) has a brief but
 
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brilliant Gordon solo on "Blue and Boogie," and the Billy Eckstine set
Mr. B. and the Band
(Savoy ZDS 4401) has an electrifying 1945 big-band performance of "Lonesome Lover Blues," with chase choruses by Gordon and tenorist Gene Ammons.
Gene Ammons
Gene "Jug" Ammons, Gordon's sectionmate with Eckstine, was a heavy-toned, blues-oriented player - Herschel Evans, in a way, to Gordon's Lester Young, although Ammons, like any player of his generation, knew his Pres. In his recordings from the 1950s through the 1970s, he moved effortlessly between smoky, late-night ballads, grits-and-gravy organ-trio workouts, peerless blues playing, and straight up-and-down bebop jamming.
His all-around best album is probably
Boss Tenor
(Prestige/OJC-297), one of the great tenor sax albums of all time. On this 1960 date, Ammons has the benefit of an incomparable rhythm section of Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins, and Art Taylor, with conga player Ray Barretto added for a perfect accent. From Ammons's first lazy, growling notes on the album's slow blues opener, "Hittin' the Jug," he draws a definitive portrait of himself and, in fact, of a kind of subschool of tenor playing. It's safe to say that the Ammons approach, as presented in this set, can still be heard in the playing of countless tenors in uptown establishments across the country. The set offers a delicious, medium-tempo workout on "Close Your Eyes," a ballad ("My Romance"), a reading of the semiexotic "Canadian Sunset,'' a blues in a medium groove, and two cookers, Charlie Parker's "Confirmation" and the swing-era standard "Stomping at the Savoy," in which Ammons mines the Lester Young by-way-of Illinois Jacquet territory.
Boss Tenor
is one of those perfect albums. Don't miss it.
Blue Gene
(Prestige/OJC-192) has the same rhythm section as
Boss Tenor
(including Barretto), with Mal Waldron in place of Flanagan (not a fair trade) and trumpeter Idrees Sulieman and baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams added. Ammons generates some real excitement on the fast blues "Scamperin'"; notice that he quotes from Lester Young's solo on Count Basie's "Riff Interlude" (available on
The 1930s: Big Bands
[Columbia CK 40651]). Listen to the way he will take a short motif, extend it by a note or two, then change that extension slightly, adding to the intensity all along; he digs in, and keeps digging in, with the band riffing behind him. This track is worth the price of the set, which otherwise is pretty ordinary.
Jug
(Prestige/OJC-701) is a solid set, if a little monotonous in its choice of medium walking tempos. A refreshing
 
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change is the rarely done pop tune "Tangerine," which really moves along here at a bright clip.
To hear Ammons firing away in an organ-combo setting, pick up
Richard Holmes and Gene Ammons
-
Groovin' with Jug
(Pacific Jazz CDP 7 92930 2). Recorded live in 1961 in front of a responsive Los Angeles crowd (except for three studio cuts), Holmes's throbbing chording and the exhortations from the audience ("Work!" "Let's go!") bring out Jug's most down-home side and make for an exciting set, despite an occasionally shaky rhythm section. Another organ meeting, with Brother Jack McDuff (
Brother Jack Meets the Boss
[Prestige/OJC-326]), looks promising but is disappointing. There is some absolutely great Ammons with organ, though, on
The Boss Is Back!
(Prestige 24129), including a smoldering, chitlins-and-greens version of "He's a Real Gone Guy,'' on which Ammons really cranks up the soul over a shuffle groove.
Ammons recorded a number of all-star jam sessions for Prestige in the 1950s, all of which have good moments, with the likes of altoist Jackie McLean and trumpeters Art Farmer and Donald Byrd.
Gene Ammons All Star Sessions
(Prestige/OJC-014) has Farmer and altoist Lou Donaldson sharing the front line with Jug in 1955, but the real reasons to pick this one up are the seven 1950-1951 tracks on which Ammons goes toe-to-toe with fellow titan Sonny Stitt. "Blues Up and Down" and "You Can Depend on Me," especially, are prototypical tenor battles, the jam session equivalent of heavyweight bouts, tests of imagination, stamina, and presence of mind. Ammons is the first soloist on all takes of both tunes; Stitt's tone is slightly drier, a little more like Dexter Gordon's.
Blue and Sentimental
If you like Ammons's approach to the tenor, especially on the
Boss Tenor
album, you should also hear Ike Quebec's wonderful album
Blue and Sentimental
(Blue Note 84098), an ace program of ballads, blues, and standards, played by a neglected tenor giant. Quebec was very much in the Ammons bag, and in this 1961 set, accompanied by guitarist Grant Green, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones, he came out with a minor classic. The title track is a ballad associated with the short-lived Basie tenorist Herschel Evans, and Quebec and company summon an unforgettable mood. Quebec cooks very well on "That Old Black Magic," "It's All Right with Me," and his original "Like," but he shines brightest on the title tune and the fine ballad "Don't Take Your Love from Me."
Another son of Jug is the tough and prolific Stanley Turrentine. His
Look
 
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Out!
(Blue Note 46543) is an excellent 1960 quartet album that fans of
Boss Tenor
and
Blue and Sentimental
will enjoy. His big sound and fluid ideas are illuminated from a number of different angles; the ballads "Yesterdays" and "Journey into Melody" are standouts, as is the Turrentine original "Minor Chant," a swinging, medium-tempo piece that gathers steam as it goes along. His albums
Blue Hour
(Blue Note 84057) and
Z.T.'s Blues
(Blue Note 84424), which has Tommy Flanagan on piano, are favored by his fans as well, but for Turrentine at his bluesy best, pick up organ master Jimmy Smith's
Midnight Special
(Blue Note 84078); Turrentine preaches a blues sermon on the title cut and builds up a big Jug of steam on "One O'Clock Jump," goaded on by Smith's organ riffs.
Sonny Stitt
Equally proficient, and prolific, on alto and tenor, Sonny Stitt had the misfortune to be one of the very earliest and very best musicians to grasp Charlie Parker's language in the 1940s; as a result, he was seen for much of his career as a sort of second-string Bird. An extremely agile and swinging improviser, he certainly was not a genius of Bird's order of inventiveness and rhythmic flexibility (who ever was?); he was more a master of swing and suspense, with a repertoire of thousands of phrases, scale patterns, chord inversions, and sundry tricks of the trade, all of which he could call to mind with lightning speed. Consequently, he was a very hard man to beat in a jam session, and there is recorded evidence of his giving even Sonny Rollins a bad time.
Stitt could generate great heat through his swing, but one didn't really feel one was getting to know Sonny by listening to his playing, as one might feel about most of jazz's great players; he was among the most impersonal of the music's giants, which may partly explain his undeservedly low standing among some critics. As Stitt got older, when the vibes were right, more of his lyrical side came out. He recorded many, many albums, many of which are just hohum; here is the cream of the crop.
Sonny Stitt/Bud Powell/J. J. Johnson
(Prestige/OJC-009) is a collection of blistering sides from 1949 and 1950 with two bands, one of which is a quartet with Powell, Curly Russell, and Max Roach, the other of which is a quintet with Johnson, John Lewis, Nelson Boyd, and Roach. Stitt plays tenor all the way, swinging, swinging, swinging, on tune after tune, mostly standards favored by the boppers, like "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm," "Fine and Dandy," and "Strike Up the Band," as well as blues-and "I Got Rhythm"- based originals. You can hear Stitt's mastery of the Parker/Lester Young tradition very clearly (he had lots more Parker in his style than did his colleague Dexter

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