The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz (80 page)

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Authors: Tom Piazza

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BOOK: The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz
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ing best on popular and jazz standards like "I'll Remember April," "Nice Work if You Can Get It," "Bud's Bubble," Monk's "Off Minor," and "Somebody Loves Me.'' These share a berth with eight mostly funereal 1953 sides that can't match the earlier ones for intensity, invention, or precision of execution. But piano and bebop fans will find the set essential for the earlier eight. Also worth checking out is
Charlie Parker and the Stars of Modern Jazz at Carnegie Hall, Christmas 1949
(Jass J-CD-16), which features Powell in one trio track and as the pianist for a jam session including Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt, baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff, and others.
Although Powell and Parker don't play together on
Christmas 1949
, there are several recordings of the two together, live. They brought out the most fiery sides of each other. The sparks fly especially hard on a 1950 session at Birdland that has been issued in as many different forms as John Dillinger had aliases, often on budget and bootleg labels. Columbia issued the complete session in the late 1970s as
One Night at Birdland
. Look for the combination of Bird, Powell, and trumpeter Fats Navarro; the three only recorded together once, so you'll know you have the right session (Curly Russell and drummer Art Blakey rounded out the band). It produced some of the most intense bebop you'll ever hear. Powell's solos on "Ornithology" (available on
The Bebop Era
[Columbia CK 40972]; the collection is worth buying for this track alone), "The Street Beat," "I'll Remember April," "Move," "Dizzy Atmosphere," and the other fast numbers generate a drive that overshadows even that of Bird and Navarro. His solo on the very slow " 'Round Midnight," on the other hand, is an almost frightening look deep into Powell's soul. Often when Powell's demons were out and about they blunted his ability to articulate what he was seeing. Not so, here; Powell was never in better form, and this solo is worthy of the nightmares in Goya's
Caprichos
.
Easily available, and at the top of the heap, is one of the unquestioned classics of the music,
Jazz at Massey Hall
(Debut/OJC-044, usually filed under Parker's name in stores), a 1953 Toronto concert which finds Powell in the company of Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach, easily one of the greatest all-star bands ever assembled. Powell's solos on "Wee," "Hot House," and "A Night in Tunisia" are right up with his best work, and his accompaniments are perfect. Some trio tracks from the same concert are available on
Bud Powell Trio: Jazz at Massey Hall, Volume 2
(Debut/OJC-111), which is also well worth owning, although some inferior material from a different session is along for the ride. Slightly earlier the same year, Powell and Mingus appeared at a club in Washington, D.C., with Roy Haynes on drums; the album assembled from the tapes of that afternoon,
Inner Fires
(Elektra/
 
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Musician E1-060030), contains some excellent, lucid Powell at near-peak form, but the sound is really hard to take. Good as Powell's playing is, I find myself taking this one off after a cut or two.
Dry Soul
For the next seven years, Powell's career went into something of an eclipse. His mental problems were plaguing him, and often his playing suffered. None of the material he recorded before he moved to Europe in 1959 can stand up to his early recordings, although some of it is quite beautiful in its own way, if you're not expecting 1950-vintage Powell. But even at his best, his playing lacked an assurance that it would regain - and lose again - when he moved to Europe.
Powell recorded several more times for Verve, but the results are unavailable currently; there is some good material, especially an album released originally as
Piano Interpretations
, but it all falls short of what he could do. On this, some recordings for Victor, and two of Powell's late-1950s Blue Note sessions, he sounded, pianistically, like someone slurring his words.
Two albums that are worth passing up are
The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume 3: Bud!
(Blue Note 81571) and
Volume 4: Time Waits
(Blue Note 46820). On the first, from 1957, he is heard with a trio including Paul Chambers and Art Taylor; they are joined for three tunes by trombonist Curtis Fuller, but Powell was just not in good shape. "Blue Pearl" is a nice original by Powell, and he plays some good things, but you can tell that he is hearing so much more than he is able to play: phrases get garbled before they end, fingerings disintegrate. It's painful to listen to. The same is true of the 1958
Time Waits
, another trio album, although there are some good originals, including the haunting title cut and the up-tempo "John's Abbey," which became a staple of his repertoire in the following years.
Somewhat better is
Time Was
(RCA/Bluebird 6367-2-RB). This material, recorded in 1956 and 1957 with George Duvivier and Art Taylor, is often either overlooked or put down, but I find it superior to the previously mentioned Blue Notes from the same period, as well as to the mid-1950s Verve material. Powell plays with a lot more authority on the 1956 titles, although sometimes his phrases end up not quite working out. But his swing on standards like "There Will Never Be Another You" and I Cover the Waterfront" is beautiful and unforced, and he plays fresh ideas, sometimes in a block-chord style (in which a melodic line is voiced all in chords). "Blues for Bessie" affords a rare chance to hear Powell dig into some slow blues, with interesting results.
He has a harder time on the 1957 titles, where you can hear him struggling to stay on the horse during a runaway version of "Salt Peanuts" that he
 
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counted off at too fast a tempo. On the swingers here, such as "Swedish Pastry" and "Midway," you can hear the main difference between early Bud and Bud from this period: in the earlier days he accented individual notes in the middle of his long lines of eighth notes; here he tends to play them more evenly, and it is why the music sounds less intense. Still, if you don't expect the Powell of "Bud's Bubble," this is worth buying for its excellent sound and a relaxed side of Powell that isn't heard too often.
The 1958 session released as
The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume 5: The Scene Changes
(Blue Note 46529) is very good Powell; he seems in complete control here, where he is accompanied by Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. The all-original program elicits probably the best music he had recorded since 1953. It wouldn't be in my top five Powell picks, but it is worth owning.
An important note: this album, along with the classic 1949 quintet date with Fats Navarro and Sonny Rollins, the 1951 trio date that produced "Un Poco Loco" and "A Night in Tunisia," and all the other Blue Note Powell, as well as the Roost trio sides, is available in a deluxe four-CD set from Blue Note entitled
The Complete Blue Note and Roost Recordings
(Blue Note CDP 7243 8 30083 2 2). For a Powell fan, this collection is essential. It includes a fine booklet with recording-session photos and an interview with Blue Note producer Alfred Lion about Powell, and the sound is excellent.
The Scene Changes
When Powell moved to Europe in 1959, he took a turn for the better; he was surrounded by people to whom his genius was apparent and respected, and he was given all the playing opportunities he wanted. His recordings from the 1960-1962 period reflect this relative well-being.
Probably the all-around most satisfying Powell album from this period was recorded in April of 1960 at a jazz festival in Germany. Available as
The Complete Essen Jazz Festival Concert
(Black Lion BLCD 760 105), it features Powell in a trio with bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Kenny Clarke; on four tunes - "All the Things You Are," "Yesterdays," a stomping riff called "Stuffy," and "Just You, Just Me'' - they are joined by a roaring Coleman Hawkins. The sound is good, and Powell sounds happy. His accompaniments and solos on the cuts with Hawkins are especially thrilling, and Pettiford's bass gives the rhythm a buoyancy that really goads Bud.
Neck and neck with
Essen
, and in some ways even better, is
Bouncing with Bud
(Delmark DD-406). Recorded two years later in Copenhagen, the album is a program of medium- and up-tempo bop standards such as "Bouncing with Bud," "Move," and "Hot House," along with one ballad, Benny Golson's "I Remember Clifford." When Powell was at his best in the late years, he played
 
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with a crispness of articulation and swing that had been missing for most of the 1950s, but he often relied on familiar scalar patterns in his solos. But here Powell is extremely inventive, full of fresh melodic ideas, especially on "Bouncing" and "Straight, No Chaser."
Also from Powell's stay in Copenhagen, recorded in April 1962, are five volumes on the Steeplechase label, entitled
Bud Powell Trio at the Golden Circle
. Passages of great inventiveness come cheek-by-jowl with periods where Powell phases out completely; listening at these moments is a disturbing experience. One example is a long version of Pettiford's "Blues in the Closet" on volume 2. You can hear Powell getting interested in what he is playing, then losing interest. On one version of Charlie Parker's "Moose the Mooche," also on volume 2, Powell will stop playing for a couple of bars at a time, then pick up a melodic line right in the middle, as if it had been going through his head but he had just forgotten to play it. At such moments, we are afforded a glimpse straight down into the void of time over which good music usually rocks us in steady arms. (All jazz musicians experience moments when they are playing more or less automatically, without meaning what they are saying, the way you might walk down the street and pick up your laundry, buy a paper, and let yourself back into your apartment without really being present in those actions.) Powell is accompanied by a local bassist and drummer who aren't too swinging, and the performances bog down sometimes. But then there are other tracks where he is extremely aware of what he is doing, full of allusions and new melodies.
A very good album of live Powell, recorded in a French nightclub in 1961, is
A Portrait of Thelonious
. Out of print, it is still sporadically available and should be re-released by Columbia sooner or later. Powell, accompanied by the French bassist Pierre Michelot and drummer Kenny Clarke, who was making his home in Europe at that point, performs Monk's "Off Minor," "Ruby, My Dear," "Thelonious," and "Monk's Mood" with an understanding that is rare for any pianist other than Monk to achieve. But that's what twenty years of friendship and mutual respect will do for you. The other tracks are good, too.
Shaw' Nuff
(Xanadu CD FDC 5167) contains much swinging but not always super-inventive Powell from his first year in Europe, including two unaccompanied duets with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin. The sound isn't very good, and Powell's characteristic grunting and growling are often as audible as his piano.
Powell recorded several times as a sideman in Europe. The most interesting is probably a long version of "I'll Remember April" recorded at a jazz festival in Antibes in the summer of 1960, when Powell sat in with Charles Mingus's band. Available on
Mingus at Antibes
(Atlantic 90532-2), the tune features a
 
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fine extended solo by Powell, as well as the chance to hear him accompanying Eric Dolphy and Booker Ervin. Powell isn't quite as sparkling on Dexter Gordon's
Our Man in Paris
(Blue Note 46394), which is too bad; they had struck hot sparks off each other on their 1946 sides for Savoy (on
Dexter Gordon: Long Tall Dexter
[Savoy SJL 2211]). But the "Stairway to the Stars" here is almost worth the price of admission.
All Bud's Children
As noted earlier, Bud Powell influenced just about every pianist who came along after him (as did Art Tatum). Most pianists who came of age in the 1950s accompanied soloists using Powell's principles, if not his actual sound, and their solos (in group performances) were also based on his solo approach: single-note right-hand lines rooted in bebop, accompanied by percussive and broken chords in the left hand.
The number of exceptional pianists who came along in Powell's wake is startling. Often they made their most remembered statements as sidemen with horn-playing leaders (as Red Garland did with Miles Davis, for example); often, too, they made trio sessions that are worth tracking down. Because so many good jazz records were made in the 1950s, and almost all of them used someone from the stable of fine pianists, a comprehensive list of where to find whom is impossible here. This is a highly selective guide to some of these pianists' best dates as leaders, as well as to really outstanding sessions on which they appear as sidemen.
One of the most influential of the 1950s pianists was Wynton Kelly, who was one of everybody's favorite accompanists. Kelly lent a special crispness and heat to rhythm sections; as a soloist, he had a popping, sharply articulated, very bluesy style, which can be heard on two small-group sessions under his leadership:
Wynton Kelly Piano
(Riverside/OJC-401), with Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, and guitarist Kenny Burrell, and
Kelly Blue
(Riverside/OJC-033), which features both a trio with Chambers and Jimmy Cobb and a sextet that adds Nat Adderley's trumpet and the saxes of Benny Golson and the too little known Bobby Jaspar. The sets were cut in 1958 and 1959, respectively, when Kelly was a member of Miles Davis's band. Both show off Kelly's incisive, staccato, on-top-of-the-beat approach to good advantage.
Good as these sets are, Kelly was probably at his best as a member of a rhythm section supporting one or more strong solo voices; he was certainly one of the best accompanists ever to play jazz, as a rundown of some of the recordings to which he contributed proves. With Davis (who loved Kelly's

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