The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz (79 page)

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Authors: Tom Piazza

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BOOK: The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz
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make sly variations on them while maintaining the blues-based compositional integrity of the piece, engage in memorable improvisation, and use the resources of the piano trio fully, in well under three minutes.
Money Jungle
(Blue Note CDP 7 46398 2), a 1962 session teaming Ellington with his disciple Charles Mingus (on bass) and drum master Max Roach, is one of the pianist's best-known albums if only because of the sheer weight of talent assembled in the studio that day. For me, this is one of those all-star dates that doesn't quite come off; the three parts of the trio don't really blend, for the most part, and Ellington sounds as if he's having trouble settling in, at least on the medium- and up-tempo blues tunes that comprise much of the set. The exceptions are the fine ballad performances of "Fleurette Africaine," "Solitude," and the rarely done "Warm Valley." My guess is that Mingus and Roach were able or willing to follow the leader a little better in these classics, which bear the mark of Ellington's compositional genius. The other Ellington originals here - such as ''REM Blues," "Very Special," "Switch Blade," "Backward Country Boy Blues," and "Wig Wise" (which begins as a bop-flavored thing reminiscent of Dizzy Gillespie's "Woody'n You" but turns into a blues during the blowing section) - have a very thrown-together feel about them, as if Ellington just sketched out the barest of ideas and then they rolled the tape; none of them really goes anywhere. One note - "Backward Country Boy Blues" is a funny title because this twelve-bar blues is, literally, backward; the harmony goes to the dominant, or "five," chord in the middle four bars of each chorus and to the subdominant, or "four," chord in the last four bars, reversing the usual progression. But all in all, I have the feeling that, for whatever reason, Ellington wasn't able to exert the kind of control in this session that he needed to in order to pull together something cohesive.
Throughout Ellington's work with his own big band, late and early, there is more great piano playing than I could possibly mention. All the recordings discussed in the Ensembles section contain examples of his keyboard genius. But a couple should be pointed out again for special interest. One of these is his eleven-and-a-half-minute romp on "Ad Lib on Nippon," from 1966's
The Far East Suite
(RCA/Bluebird 7640-2-RB). This ingenious piece, despite its unusual tonality, is a blues all the way, and Ellington puts the piano through its paces, using the pedals and varying his touch to produce an astonishing range of percussive attacks. Ellington's influence on Thelonious Monk has been noted often, and this performance underscores the link in sensibility, although by this time, of course, Ellington had had the opportunity to think about what Monk was doing, too. For an example of just how directly Ellington influenced Monk, listen to the piano introduction to 1940's "Blue Goose" on
Duke Ellington: The Blanton-Webster Band
(RCA/Bluebird 5659-
 
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2-RB). According to trumpeter Ray Nance, Ellington said, on first hearing Monk, "Sounds like he's stealing some of my stuff." Here's some pungent evidence. Another example may be heard on a recording Ellington made as a guest with the Tommy Dorsey big band in 1945, "The Minor Goes Muggin'," available on the Dorsey set
Tommy Dorsey/Yes, Indeed!
(RCA/Bluebird 9987-2-RB).
Two early-1960s sessions have Ellington at the keyboard in summit meetings with, respectively, Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane.
Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington: The Complete Sessions
(Roulette CDP 7938442) has Ellington guesting with Armstrong's All-Stars (which included Ellington clarinet alumnus Barney Bigard) in an all-Ellington program. It is a relaxed, friendly session, including some lesser-done Ellington gems like "I'm Just a Lucky So and So" (a great vocal from Armstrong on this, with Ellington's delicious piano in the background), the beautiful "Azalea," and "Drop Me Off in Harlem."
Duke Ellington and John Coltrane
(MCA/Impulse MCAD-39103), too, is a real standout session for both principals, even better, on the whole, than
Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington
, mainly because the accompanists are exceptional. Instead of Armstrong's good but not outstanding bassist and drummer, we get various permutations of Ellington's and Coltrane's rhythm teams, which included bassists Aaron Bell and Jimmy Garrison and drummers Sam Woodyard and Elvin Jones. It makes a difference.
The program, again, consists entirely of Ellington tunes, except for Coltrane's fetching soprano specialty "Big Nick" and Billy Strayhorn's "My Little Brown Book." Ellington, Bell, and Jones weave a haunting background around Coltrane's tenor on "In a Sentimental Mood," a classic performance of this ballad. "Take the Coltrane" is an up-tempo tenor blues riff, "Stevie'' is a medium, minor blues, "Angelica" is a happy, Latin-flavored tune which Ellington also recorded as "Purple Gazelle" on his
Afro-Bossa
(Discovery 71002) album, "My Little Brown Book" rivals "In a Sentimental Mood" as a mood piece, and "The Feeling of Jazz" is a mellow, walking-tempo tune. Coltrane contributes adventuresome solos as well as lovely ballad work, and Ellington shows rhythm section sophistication of the highest degree, shifting his approach subtly but noticeably depending on which bassist and which drummer he finds himself with. Coltrane's language presents no problem for Ellington the accompanist and vice-versa. An essential set.
One last recommendation, although there is no particular point to it other than to steer you toward one of my favorite Ellington performances - be sure to listen to "The Single Petal of a Rose" from "The Queen's Suite," available on
The Ellington Suites
(Pablo/OJC-446), which you are going to want to own anyway. Duke is accompanied only by Jimmy Woode's bowed bass in one of the most moving things he ever recorded.
 
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Bud Powell
Certainly one of the most influential musicians in the history of jazz, pianist Bud Powell was never as well known to the public as were his contemporaries Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk. Throughout his career, he suffered from mental illness, and periods of amazing fluidity and brilliance alternated with times when he couldn't think clearly or, if he could, couldn't articulate what he was thinking.
But Bud Powell's best work is a unique listening experience in jazz, one of almost unparalleled intensity and beauty. His most distinct contribution to the music was a way of translating the melodic language developed by Charlie Parker into sharply etched single-note lines for the piano's right hand. His right-hand technique was so strong that he could articulate the complex accents of the new style of the time with a percussive force that made them stand out in great relief. In his most characteristic medium- and up-tempo work, Powell used his left hand to punctuate his right-hand figures with chords, much as an accompanist would add accents behind a soloist. At slow tempos, he had a rhapsodic, florid approach to chording, with dense inner voices closely harmonized. He was also, like his good friend Thelonious Monk, an important composer who added a number of standards to the jazz repertoire.
Almost without exception, every pianist who came after Powell shows his influence, especially those who are right-hand melody players. For all his technique and rapid-fire execution, Powell was basically a melodic player, as Bird was. Many players who developed strong right hands à la Powell were more arpeggio, or "sequence," players, using repeated melodic fragments for percussive effect - see, for example, Horace Silver's solo on "Filthy McNasty" from
Doin' the Thing. The Horace Silver Quintet at the Village Gate
(Blue Note 84076). But the mainstream of postwar pianists, such as Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, Barry Harris, Wynton Kelly, Sonny Clark, Bobby Timmons, Red Garland, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock, all owe a huge debt to Bud Powell.
Powell arrived on the scene almost fully formed around 1945. After 1953, because of his personal problems, his recordings became very erratic. After he moved to Europe in 1959, his situation improved somewhat, and there is some great Powell available from the 1960s.
Wail
Probably the best all-around introduction to Powell's sound and ideas is the Verve set
The Genius of Bud Powell
(Verve 827 901-2). Featuring Powell in both a solo and a trio setting, these 1950 and 1951 tracks show very clearly, in good
 
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sound, what made Powell unique. The opening trio tracks - "Hallelujah" and "Tea for Two" - show Powell at his most fiery, breathtakingly sure-footed at breakneck tempos, accompanied by bassist Ray Brown and drummer Buddy Rich. The three takes of "Tea" allow you to see just how inventive he was; he plays completely different ideas on each version.
"Parisian Thoroughfare," recorded here as a solo, is something of a jazz standard. Listen to the way Powell's finger control makes accents pop out of lines of notes that, in other hands, might just sound like unaccented scales. Compare it, for example, to Lennie Tristano's piano solos on the two takes of "Victory Ball," on
The Metronome All-Star Bands
(RCA/Bluebird 7636-2-RB). It is the difference between someone talking expressively and someone accenting all their syllables the same. This is the most characteristic aspect of Powell's single-note lines, and it is why they are so interesting to listen to. Notice how Powell inserts triplets into a line of eighth notes in order to vary the rhythm and shape his ideas in more detail.
The same can be said for all the solo performances here, including "Hallucinations" (which Miles Davis recorded as "Budo" on both
Birth of the Cool
[Capitol CDP 7 92862 2] and
Miles and Coltrane
[Columbia CK 44052]), "Oblivion," and the others. On the popular song ''The Last Time I Saw Paris," Powell even plays some stride piano in his left hand while playing bop single-note lines in his right, showing the continuity underneath the changing assumptions of jazz.
At opposite ends of the spectrum, but characteristic of the extremes of Powell's temperament, are "Dusk in Sandi" and "Just One of Those Things." "Dusk" is a ballad written by Powell and voiced in lush, florid chords with patented voicings. "Just One of Those Things" is a reading of Cole Porter's great standard at a tempo no other pianist but Tatum would dare; Powell's right-hand lines have the force of something under tremendous pressure coming out through a very small opening. The tension is exhausting; it's hard to imagine someone thinking coherently, not to mention brilliantly, at this speed.
Jazz Giant
(Verve 829 937-2) is a fine companion piece to
The Genius of Bud Powell
, consisting entirely of trio sides recorded in 1949 and 1950, with Max Roach on drums and either Ray Brown or Curly Russell on bass. Powell is in a somewhat mellower mood here than he was with Brown and Rich, although there are several up-tempo showpieces, like the fine "Sweet Georgia Brown" and Powell's own "Tempus Fugit," also recorded by Miles Davis for Blue Note. But basically this set is most valuable for the medium-tempo readings of Powell originals such as "Celia" and "So Sorry Please" and the beautiful readings of several standard ballads, including a solo version of "Yesterdays" and a
 
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great trio version of "Body and Soul," which shows Powell's melodic inventiveness perhaps more clearly than some of the up-tempo numbers. Also not to be missed is his solo version of his own ballad "I'll Keep Loving You."
Almost as good as
The Genius of Bud Powell
(some would say better) is
The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume 1
(Blue Note 81503) and
Volume 2
(Blue Note 81504), culled from several recording sessions, with Powell at the helm of both trios and a quintet including trumpeter Fats Navarro and a nineteen-year-old Sonny Rollins on tenor sax. Some of his greatest statements are here, including the amazing, Latin-inflected "Un Poco Loco," presented in three electrifying takes in which you can hear the trio's conception develop right before your ears. His trio version of "A Night in Tunisia," recorded at the same session, is classic Powell, driving and endlessly inventive, as are two takes of Charlie Parker's "Ornithology'' and a trio version of "Parisian Thoroughfare," which Powell plays on
The Genius of Bud Powell
set as a solo.
The quintet sides present several Powell compositions - "Bouncing with Bud," "Wail," and "Dance of the Infidels" - that became jazz standards and a Monk composition, "52nd Street Theme." Along with excellent solos from Powell and the others, these well-recorded sides give you a chance to listen closely to the choices Powell made when accompanying a soloist, the answering chords always contributing to the rhythmic momentum and forward movement of the solo and commenting on the soloist's harmonic choices; listen to how when Navarro or Rollins finishes a phrase, Powell will insert a short answering rhythmic phrase in chords. This technique is discussed more fully in the Ensembles section. Finally, some tracks by his 1953 trio with George Duvivier and Art Taylor, including "Reets and I," Oscar Pettiford's "Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas" (also called "Blues in the Closet"), and the fine I Want To Be Happy," are only slightly less excellent.
Powell was used widely as a sideman on some of the best, most famous small-group bop dates of the late 1940s. Albums such as
Fats Navarro: Fat Girl
(Savoy SJL 2216),
Dexter Gordon: Long Tall Dexter
(Savoy SJL 2211),
J. J. Johnson: Mad Bebop
(Savoy SJL 2232),
The Complete Charlie Parker Savoy Studio Sessions
(Savoy ZDS 5500),
The Be Bop Boys
(Savoy SJL 2225), and
Sonny Stitt/Bud Powell/J. J. Johnson
(Prestige/OJC-009) all present Powell in the company of other giants; he never failed to raise the stakes at a session. When Powell was there, a certain intensity and pressure were on that simply weren't there with any other pianist of the time.
One of Powell's best trio dates, recorded for the small Roost label, is available as
The Bud Powell Trio Plays
(Roulette CDP 7939022). Eight sides from a 1947 session with Curly Russell and Max Roach present Powell at his electrify-

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