Monk, Monk, More Monk!

A big part of learning about jazz for me consisted of haunting cut-out bins (remember those?) and buying bargain copies of albums that, for one reason or another, attracted me. I remember seeing the cover of Thelonious Himself and wondering about this cool cat on the cover (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelonious_Himself). I knew very little about jazz at the time, but I was familiar with John Coltrane, so when I saw that he played saxophone on the last track of what was otherwise a solo piano album, that Lp came home with me. It was the start of nearly half a century of totally loving the music and the playing of Thelonious Sphere Monk. At first, with the exception of ‘Round Midnight, hardly anyone played Monk’s songs aside from the maestro himself and a few disciples like Steve Lacy and Johnny Griffin (in the quintet he co-led with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis). Over time, as more and more musicians were drawn to his material, entire albums of Monk’s compositions began to appear. A trickle of tribute sessions turned into a flood, and before long, Monk’s tunes were showing up all over the place. Then, in 2005. came the first “complete” release, Monk’s Casino by the Alexander von Schlippenbach quintet, which offered 57 tracks on three CDs. Trumpeter Don Sickler and guitarist Steve Cardenas collaborated on the Thelonious Monk Fake Book, with lead sheets for 70 tunes, including several that Monk himself never recorded. 2017 was the centenary of Monk’s birth, and in celebration, we now have two more complete collections of Monk songs. Both are six-disc sets. Work: The Complete Compositions Of Thelonious Monk is a solo guitar effort by Miles Okazaki, self-published on Bandcamp, while Monk’s Dreams by the Frank Kimbrough quartet was issued by Sunnyside Records. Since there’s never enough Monk to listen to, note also the releases of pianist Andrés Vial Plays Thelonious Monk: Sphereology Volume 1, with the hint of more to come, and Duck Baker Plays Monk. with renowned finger-style guitarist Baker giving us versions of nine Monk songs.
All of which makes this a great time to indulge in a Monk Marathon. I’d suggest you start with a little of the master composer himself, whether it’s some of his critically important Blue Note sessions, the illustrious Riverside period, or even the Columbia years. Getting a bit of Monk’s playing freshly into your skull sets the stage and whets the appetite for more interpretations. Then turn your attention to the audacious Work: The Complete Compositions Of Thelonious Monk, where Miles Okazaki has devoted a large chunk of time to learning and playing Monk’s tunes on his lightly amplified 1978 Gibson Charlie Christian ES-175 archtop guitar, guided by Monk’s admonition to Steve Lacy in 1960: “Stop playing all those weird notes, play the melody!” His priority, he writes in his extensive essay that accompanies this download-only effort, “was to make a natural and lifelike improvisational performance” of each tune. In this, he has succeeded admirably. The simple and unvarying setup combined with the naturalistic recording process, overseen by fellow guitarist Liberty Ellman, allows the listener to hone in on Okazaki’s ever-beautiful delineations of Monk’s tunes. In addition to his introductory essay, Okazaki also includes notes on each of the songs, limning his approach to each one. The pieces are thoughtfully sequenced on the equivalent of 6 CDs, each one ending with a blues. That’s a lot of guitar to take in, so let me make a further suggestion: alternate the 6 discs of Okazaki’s set with the 6 discs of Frank Kimbrough and friends.

On Monk's Dreams, the much-admired Frank Kimbrough manages to almost never sound like Monk while playing his tunes. That’s not a surprise, since the composer had his own distinctive and inimitable approach to the keyboard, but when you play Monk’s music on the piano, comparisons are unavoidable. Working with multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson, mostly heard on tenor saxophone, bassist Rufus Reid, and drummer Billy Drummond, Kimbrough varies the program by mixing solo, trio and duet tracks into the flow. On the first disc, for instance, Reflections is caressed by the duo of Robinson on bass sax (!) and Reid on bass, and the disc concludes with a springy version of Blue Sphere performed by Drummond on drums and Robinson on tenor. Kimbrough goes it alone on Crepuscule With Nellie to open the second disc, and goes on to play Ruby, My Dear as a duet with Robinson’s tenor sax. There are way too many highlights to note throughout this collection to more than a few. On the first two discs alone, there’s Robinson’s well-constructed tenor solo on Played Twice, Robinson back on bass sax for Little Rootie Tootie, Kimbrough’s crisp accompaniment and lovely solo on San Francisco Holiday, and the pianist’s unhurried solo look at Functional. And everywhere, the listener can delight in the solid bass work of Rufus Reid and the unbridled enthusiasm and swing of drummer Billy Drummond. In a liner note, co-producer and recording engineer Matt Balitsaris discusses the sessions and notes that virtually everything you hear is a first or second take. The entire project took just six days to record 68 tunes, with Kimbrough’s solo pieces done a month later. The top-notch results arise from the obvious dedication and fierce commitment of the musicians. As Balitsaris exults, the players recorded this music “with such a collaborative spirit that it feels as Monk might have been in the room.” Monk’s Dreams is a tremendous achievement, and it is strongly recommended.

Continue your Monk Marathon with pianist Andrés Vial, who tackles some less-familiar numbers on Plays Thelonious Monk: Sphereology Volume 1. The lead-off track is the obscure Bluehawk, a seldom-played Monk tune that the composer recorded just once, on 1959's Thelonious Alone In San Francisco. Dezron Douglas on bass and Rodney Green on drums set the pace, and Vial and guitarist Peter Bernstein state the theme together before Bernstein takes off on a typically lively and lyrical solo. Vial follows with a fluid and suitably bluesy solo before turning the spotlight over to Douglas for a chorus before the band takes the tune out. Vial convened two quartets a couple of months apart for this release, each featuring guitarist Bernstein, with bassist Martin Heslop and drummer André White on the earlier date, replaced by Douglas and Green for the second session. While there’s sometimes the feeling that the rough edges of Monk’s tunes have been smoothed down a bit, there’s also the sense that Vial and his bandmates have really inhabited the material. The propulsive Think of One is particularly fine, including an inventive piano solo by Vial. Equally tasty is the quartet’s jaunty version of Green Chimneys, with a wonderfully snappy drum solo by Green. Light Blue is on the slow side, with a punchy guitar solo by Bernstein and a smoothly incisive turn by Vial. Bernstein shines again in a duet with Vial for a meditative look at Ask Me Now. The Heslop-White rhythm team is heard on the last three tracks of the disc. Introspection coasts right along, with some adept comping by Vial during Bernstein’s extended solo. Their version of Work features a bouncy piano solo and a happily swinging series of four-bar trades by Bernstein and Vial with drummer White. The disc ends with another tune rarely played by the composer, Functional. Vial and his bandmates give this blues a late at night, last set kind of feeling. It’s a fine way to end the date, and leave the listener looking forward to the next installment.

Last, and far from least, is Duck Baker Plays Monk, a vinyl-only release from Triple Point Records. The label has also produced a vinyl reissue of an earlier gem by Duck Baker, the 1996 album Spinning Song : Duck Baker Plays The Music Of Herbie Nichols, originally released in Japan on the Avant label. In a liner essay for the Monk project, Baker notes a significant difference between the two tribute albums. The Nichols project resulted from a suggestion by John Zorn at a time when Baker hadn’t arranged any of the tunes. He “had been fooling around with Monk’s tunes for almost all of my musical life” when the time came to make this album. Baker goes on to note that he learned a lot of Monk songs by ear, with tips from fellow guitarists like Ton Van Bergeyk and Davy Graham. He also praises the assistance of the late Roswell Rudd, an occasional collaborator and expert on Monk and Nichols, who contributed some voicings to these pieces, and also wrote a typically insightful essay for this release. It seems to this non-musician that learning a song by transcribing it from record, listening to it over and over again until you think you’ve got it, has to incorporate it into your musical muscles in a very different way than reading it from sheet music. The process of learning by ears yields more freedom to subsequent interpretations. Think of Charles Mingus teaching his bands to play his tunes by singing and playing them. The result here is that Baker’s versions of nine Monk compositions are exquisitely playful, with the melodies and harmonies thoroughly assimilated and distilled from a lifetime of listening and playing. In Baker’s vision, Jackie-ing is more introverted than usual, ‘Round Midnight, a song you think you know, sounds utterly refreshed in his hands, and the deceptively simple Light Blue sounds like it was written for guitar. This is a truly beautiful album, ranging, as Rudd notes, “from moments of profound simplicity to those of bristling complexity ...” Since 1976, Duck Baker has proved through his recordings of material ranging, per his website, from “traditional Irish music through old-time mountain music and bluegrass to blues, gospel, and ragtime to swing and modern jazz, to free improvisation” that there’s no music that he can’t make his own. On Plays Monk, he’s done it again. Strongly recommended, and the perfect coda to a Monk marathon.
Miles Okazaki: self-produced; Miles Okazaki (g); Brooklyn, NY, September 2017-May 2018; Volume 1 (46:43): Locomotive/ Brilliant Corners/ Gallop’s Gallop/ Light Blue/ Evidence/ Crepuscule with Nellie/ San Francisco Holiday/ Monk’s Point/ Shuffle Boil/ Jackie-ing/ Criss Cross/ Introspection/ Functional. Volume 2 (48:19): We See/ Sixteen/ Misterioso/ Humph/ Teo/ Hornin’ In/ Raise Four/ Skippy/ Pannonica/ Think of One/ Well You Needn’t/ Bolivar Blues. Disc 3 (45:58): Monk’s Dream/ Little Rootie Tootie/ Eronel/ Thelonious/ Ruby, My Dear/ Four in One/ Blue Hawk/ Stuffy Turkey/ A Merrier Christmas/ Played Twice/ Bemsha Swing/ Blues Five Spot. Volume 4 (48:10): Bye-Ya/ Who Knows/ Green Chimneys/ Blue Sphere/ Ugly Beauty/ Oska T./ Hackensack/ Ask Me Know/ I Mean You/ 52nd Street Theme/ Something in Blue. Volume 5 (47:49): Nutty/ Off Minor/ Two Timer/ In Walked Bud/ Monk’s Mood/ Let’s Call This/ Let’s Cool One/ Children’s Song/ Boo Boo’s Birthday/ Rhythm-a-ning/ North of the Sunset. Volume 6 (47:31): Epistrophy/ Coming on the Hudson/ Bright Mississippi/ Trinkle, Tinkle/ Reflections/ Brake’s Sake/ Straight, No Chaser/ Friday the 13th/ ‘Round Midnight/ Work/ Blue Monk. www.milesokazaki.com
Frank Kimbrough: Sunnyside SSC 4032; Scott Robinson (ts, bass sax, echo cnt, tpt, contrabass sarrusophone, bcl) Frank Kimbrough (p) Rufus Reid (b) Billy Drummond (d); Pipersville, PA, May 22-24 & 28-30, [band] and June 20, 2018 [solo piano]; Disc 1 (57:02): Thelonious/ Light Blue/ Played Twice/ Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are/ Ask Me Now/ Humph/ Bright Mississippi/ Reflections/ Bemsha Swing/ Teo/ Blue Sphere. Disc 2 (54:20): Crepuscule with Nellie/ Think of One/ 52nd St. Theme/ Eronel/ Bluehawk/ Little Rootie Tootie/ Two Timer/ Ruby, My Dear/ Boo Boo's Birthday/ San Francisco Holiday/ Functional/ I Mean You. Disc 3 (57:01): Shuffle Boil/ Monk's Dream/ Evidence/ Misterioso/ Four in One/ Brake's Sake/ Pannonica/ Bye-ya/ North of the Sunset/ Introspection/ We See/ In Walked Bud. Disc 4 (60:06): Nutty/ Trinkle Tinkle/ Blues Five Spot/ 'Round Midnight/ Jackie-ing/ Well You Needn't/ Sixteen/ Locomotive/ Gallop's Gallop/ Children's Song/ Blue Monk/ Friday the 13th. Disc 5 (52:11): Criss Cross/ Raise Four/ Let's Call This/ Who Knows/ A Merrier Christmas/ Stuffy Turkey/ Monk's Point/ Work/ Brilliant Corners/ Off Minor/ Hackensack/ Oska T. Disc 6 (50:38): Let's Cool One/ Hornin' In/ Coming on the Hudson/ Straight No Chaser/ Monk's Mood/ Green Chimneys/ Rhythm-a-ning/ Ugly Beauty/ Skippy/ Something in Blue/ Epistrophy. www.sunnysiderecords.com
Andrés Vial: Chromatic Audio 111417; Andrés Vial (p) Peter Bernstein (g) Dezron Douglas (1-6) or Martin Heslop (8-10) (b) Rodney Green (1-6) or André White (8-10) (d); Mount Vernon, NY, November 14 (1-6) or September 16 (7-10), 2017; 1.Bluehawk/ 2.Coming on the Hudson/ 3.Think of One/ 4.Ugly Beauty/ 5.Green Chimneys/ 6.Light Blue/ 7.Ask Me Now/ 8.Introspection/ 9.Work/ 10.Functional; 58:58. www.chromatic-audio.com
Duck Baker: Triple Point Records TPR 271 (Lp only); Duck Baker (g); Cary, NC, November 8-10, 2010, exc. *Balso (Reggio Emilia), Italy, November 23, 2015; Side A: Blue Monk/ Off Minor/ *Bemsha Swing/ Round Midnight. Side B: Light Blue/ Straight, No Chaser/ *Jackie-ing/In Walked Bud/ Misterioso; 46:25. www.triplepointrecords.com

SPAZA

Anyone reading this probably doesn’t need to be reminded of the instant global reach of the internet, but listening to the South African SPAZA ensemble on their self-titled debut for Mushroom Hour Half Hour Records really brings the point home.“Spaza,” I learn from the press release, has “come to signify an entrepreneurial spirit,” and spaces with that name have become “the nerve centers of social activity” in their communities. This sextet was recorded in a totally improvised performance in 2015 at the Spaza Art Gallery in Johannesburg, an impressively coherent achievement from what the label’s website describes as a “once-off ensemble of Johannesburg-based avant-garde musicians.” Their range of instrumental and vocal sounds is broad, with a sonic palette that incorporates synthesizers and electronic effects with impromptu lyrics and wordless voices. Percussionist Gontse Makhene is a powerhouse on an array of hand drums, and his rhythmic drive provides a constant pulse in tandem with the earthy sound of acoustic bassist Ariel Zamonsky. Trombonist and vocalist Siya Makuzeni and electric violinist Waldo Alexander make themselves felt with swoops of sound. Synthesist João Orecchia helps shape the overall ambience. Vocals, by Makuzeni, Makhene, and Nosisi Ngakane, blend, dart, and testify in a swirl of hypnotic and other-worldly sounds. The deeply syncretic approach of the group draws on traditions from all over the globe, eschewing genre considerations in favor of forging their own highly personal music. This is fascinating music with a global feel, but still grounded in the specifically local aspects of the Johannesburg scene. SPAZA is well worth a listen. Mushroom Hour Half Hour M3H-004 (LP & digital); Nosisi Ngakane (vcl, FX) Siya Makuzeni (vcl, FX, tbn) João Orecchia (synth, elec) Waldo Alexander (el vln with FX pedal) Ariel Zamonsky (b) Gontse Makhene (perc, vcl); Johannesburg, South Africa, May 17, 2015; Magwinya, Mangola neWhite Liver/ Sunlight, Glycerine, 2 loose draws/ Five Rand Airtime nama-eveready - 4000 degrees/ Tigerbalm nobuhlebakho [interlude]/ Ice Squinchies | Waiting For You/ Invocations [interlude]/ Stametta Spuit - Invocations; 44:02. www.mushroomhour.com

Lapis Trio: The Travelers

Musical compositions arise from numerous sources of inspiration : a person, the sky, a memory, a place, a color, or the mere curiosity of a particular chord sequence. For his Lapis Trio, nylon-string guitarist Casey Nielsen used a unique concept to generate songs. He imagined himself as a composer in a small village whose job was to write a new tune every day which “would need to immediately engage the work-weary audience by being unique and entertaining.” The result is The Travelers, with bassist Dan Thatcher and percussionist Tim Mulvenna joining Nielsen in a delightfully relaxed session, beautifully recorded live-to-2-track by Dana Nielsen. There’s a stately elegance to the trio’s formal yet emotionally rich explorations of Nielsen’s tunes. His writing is equally informed by classical guitar styles and the jazz and folk traditions. The acoustic instrumentation gives the music an intimate and friendly feel, just as Nielsen intended when he began the project. First among equals are Clavé, with its Latin-ish melody and Nielsen’s gorgeous solo perfectly accented by Mulvenna’s stripped-down hand percussion, and the sensitive closer, Beloit, with a rapturous bass solo by Thatcher. I liked The Travelers from the minute it first started playing, and the more I listen, the more enjoyable it becomes. Happily recommended.
Shifting Paradigm SP138; Casey Nielsen (ac g) Dan Thatcher (b) Tim Mulvenna (perc); Chicago, IL, April 21-27, 2017; The Travelers/ The Fischer/ Clavé/ Scatological Humor/ Culver City/ Gallagher’s Gift/ Beloit; 49:49. www.shiftingparadigmrecords.com

Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery on Resonance Records

Once a record label has established itself as a conduit for ethical reissues, with all the aesthetic and legal challenges that they have to deal with, collectors in possession of rare tapes tend to seek them out. So it is with the Resonance label, with their beautifully done packages of previously unheard music by the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Grant Green, and Larry Young. Two of the most important and widely influential jazz artists of the Fifties and Sixties, pianist Bill Evans and guitarist Wes Montgomery, are each represented by multiple Resonance sets.

Evans In England is the fourth Resonance release for the pianist, documenting a couple of sets recorded at Ronnie Scott’s famed club by the 1969 edition of his trio with Eddie Gomez on bass and Marty Morell on drums. The repertoire is familiar; only Michel Legrand’s What are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? was new to the band’s book for this engagement. Sound quality is pretty good for a surreptitious tape made by one of Evans’ European admirers, and the pianist is in top-notch form throughout the 110 minutes of playing time. Lengthy bass solos by Gomez are about the only distraction from Evans’ energetic playing on this set. Resonance has done their usual superb job of presentation, populating a 34-page booklet with rare photos, reminiscences with Gomez and Morell, and liner notes by Marc Myers. There is also a brief essay by, and an interview with Leon Terjanian, whom Resonance producer Zev Feldman calls “a passionate collector” and a member of Evans’ inner circle. He’s the source for this material, though not the recordist. There’s quite a lot of Bill Evans material out there; Tom Lord’s Jazz Discography lists over 200 sessions as leader. But for his hard-core fans, there’s never really enough, and this lovingly complied set will definitely satisfy.

Wes Montgomery’s Resonance projects have been split between Indiana recordings that predate his “official” releases and later live recordings after his skills were well known to jazz fans around the world. The latest set is Back On Indiana Avenue: The Carroll DeCamp Recordings, two CDs of early sessions that lack many of the data points that obsess some jazz fans. There are only rough dates, the locations are largely unknown, and the identities of the other musicians are largely guesswork. But it doesn’t matter that much, since Montgomery sounds so damn good whatever the context. The tapes come from a collection maintained by Carroll DeCamp, a pianist and arranger in Indianapolis who passed away in 2013. It turns out that Echoes Of Indiana Avenue, the first Resonance compilation of early Wes Montgomery, was also derived from DeCamp’s tapes, but no one knew that at the time. With the assistance of jazz educator and publisher Jamey Aebersold, who obtained the tapes from DeCamp merely by asking to preserve them, we now have a couple of hours of fine music to enjoy. When you consider the casual recording circumstances and the passage of time, the music is pretty good sounding, and happily the guitar is usually prominent. The material is organized by instrumentation. The first seven tunes on CD1 are quartets of guitar, piano, bass and drums. The rest of the CD is filled out by four tracks by an organ trio and two more by the trio plus David Baker on trombone and David Young on tenor saxophone. Disc 2 is labeled “Nat ‘King’ Cole-style trios with guitar, bass and drums.” Besides the sheer joy to be found in Montgomery’s guitar forays over more two hours of newly-restored sounds from more than half a century ago, there’s the obvious historical dimension to these early works. The big revelation in that regard is the inclusion what appear to be the earliest versions we have for four of Montgomery’s original compositions: Four on Six, Mr. Walker, West Coast Blues, and Jingles. Author Lewis Porter discusses the recording history of these songs, and much more, in his long essay in the accompanying booklet. As usual, the booklet, expanded to 44 pages, features plenty of period photos and a slew of brief interviews and recollections. Reissue producer Zev Feldman has his say, and we also hear from guitarists John Scofield and George Benson, along with memories of Carroll DeCamp by several of his family members. With this set, their sixth Montgomery collection, Resonance continues to reshape the career arc of one of the most revered guitarists in jazz history. Absolutely recommended.
Bill Evans: Resonance HCD-2037; Bill Evans (p) Eddie Gomez (b) Marty Morell (d); London, England, December 1969; Disc 1 (55:39): Our Love is Here to Stay/ Sugar Plum/ Stella by Starlight/ My Foolish Heart/ Waltz For Debby/ ‘Round Midnight/ The Two Lonely People/ Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me). Disc 2 (56:21): Elsa/ What are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?/ Turn Out the Stars/ Re: Person I Knew/ Goodbye/ Come Rain or Come Shine/ Very Early/ So What/ Midnight Mood/ Polka Dots and Moonbeams.
Wes Montgomery: Resonance HCD-2036; Wes Montgomery (g) with (collective personnel, “educated guesses”) Earl Van Riper, Buddy Montgomery, John Bunch, Carl Perkins (p) Melvin Rhyne (org, p) Monk Montgomery, Mingo Jones (b) Paul Parker, Sonny Johnson (d) David Baker (tbn on *) David Young (ts on *); Indianapolis, IN, possibly mid- to late 1950s; Disc 1 (67:05): Piano Quartets: Four on Six/ Mr. Walker/ ‘Round Midnight/ So What/ The End of a Love Affair/ Tune-Up/ West Coast Blues. Organ Trio: Jingles/ It’s You or No One/ Nothing Ever Changes My Love For You/ Ecaroh. Sextet: Sandu*/ Whisper Not*. Disc 2 (64:04): Nat “King” Cole-Style Trios : Stompin’ at the Savoy/ It’s You or No One/ Opus de Funk/ Summertime/ Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea/ Easy Living/ Four/ I’ll Remember April/ The Song is You. resonancerecords.org. Both releases are available on CD and limited edition vinyl.

Roland Bühlmann: Crucial

Remember being a child and making noise by blowing through a blade of grass? Roland Bühlmann certainly does. It’s just one of many unusual sounds on Crucial, a solo effort with his electric guitar and electric bass joined by a staggering array of sonic tools. Bühlmann records several tracks of guitar and bass before layering that with other, more obscure varieties of stringed instruments, like the hanottere, a Swiss zither, the guitar-ukulele hybrid known as a guitalele, the mandola, tuned a fifth lower than a mandolin, and a modern recreation of a kinnor, an ancient Israelite type of lyre. On various tracks, he also employs the Aeon sustainer, an infinite sustain device for guitar, along with grasses, wine glasses, a whistle, and another ancient Israeli instrument, the shofar, usually a ram’s horn and heard most often in the modern period at the start of the Jewish New Year. Adding to that wild brew, Bühlmann sprinkles sounds from various objects he uses as percussion, including branches and leaves, knives, an oil tank, stones, wrenches, and on one track, an udu, a Nigerian drum made from pottery. In typical critical shorthand, reviewers often reference music the reader is likely to have heard as a comparison to the recording under discussion, but aside from a few passages in Kaiilen and Buzzing, where the primitive percussion made me think of the Residents, Bühlmann’s swirling soundscapes don’t sound much like anything else unless you’ve heard his two previous solo releases, Aineo (2015) and Bailenas (2017). Most interesting to this listener, as he slips and slides along with the twists and turns in Bühlmann’s eccentric structures, is the way that Bühlmann manages to preserve the serendipitous accidents of improvised music while working with the painstaking process of overdubbing so many layers. Crucial is an endlessly fascinating release that’s especially suited to headphone listening for an hour of music to get happily lost with.
Self-produced; Roland Bühlmann (el g, bass g, Aeon Sustainer [1,2,4,8], grasses [3,6], guitalele [1,4], hanottere [1], kinnor [1,6,7], mandola [5], shofar [4], whistle [3], vcl [7], wine glasses [1,8]; percussion: branches, knives, leaves, oil tank, stones, udu [6], wrenches); Switzerland, no dates specified; 1.Kaiilen/ 2.Higgayon/ 3.Buzzing/ 4.Arabon/ 5.Crucial/ 6.Uvkal/ 7.Miserere/ 8.Subconsciously; 61:19. rolandbuehlmann.bandcamp.com

Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow & Bobby Previte: You Don’t Know the Life

The perpetually surprising trio of Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow & Bobby Previte’s latest venture is You Don’t Know the Life. After two releases with Saft at the acoustic piano, he limits himself this time around to two different electric organs and a Baldwin electric harpsichord that was manufactured from 1966 to the early Seventies. In addition to a pair of Saft originals and a few group improvisations, the trio’s typically eclectic repertoire includes a Bill Evans tune, a piece by the late Roswell Rudd, a couple of standards (Moonlight in Vermont and Alfie), and the title track, a song originally performed by the Moving Sidewalks, a Texas band from the late Sixties which was founded by future ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons. Evans’ tribute to producer Orrin Keepnews, Re: Person I Knew, kicks things off in surprisingly upbeat fashion. Dark Squares, the first improvisation, is well-titled for this somber investigation, showcasing Previte’s delicate cymbals and Swallow’s careful bass. Water From Breath is another improvisation, a sort of funky blues with a moody Saft out in front. Clocking in at just over six minutes, You Don’t Know the Life is the longest piece of the set. As played here, it’s a slow-moving dirge performed with impeccable grace by the trio. Previte’s tom-toms take the lead for a brief look at Rudd’s Ode to a Green Frisbee, with snaky organ lines by Saft. Two of Saft’s original compositions follow, The Cloak, an energetic romp, and Stable Manifold, an orderly blues line that rolls right along. The meanderingly self-absorbed The Break of the Flat Land is the last of the collective improvisations and the least interesting piece. Things get back on track with a finger-snapping version of Moonlight in Vermont, a favorite of jazz musicians since it was introduced by Margaret Whiting in 1944. A faithful version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s Alfie concludes this largely satisfying excursion by this redoubtable trio.
RareNoise RNR101; Jamie Saft (Hammond org, Whitehall org, Baldwin elec harpsichord) Steve Swallow (el b) Bobby Previte (d); NYC, January 2018; Re: Person I Knew/ Dark Squares/ Water From Breath/ You Don’t Know the Life/ Ode to a Green Frisbee/ The Cloak/ Stable Manifold/ The Break of the Flat Land/ Moonlight in Vermont/ Alfie; 41:14. www.rarenoiserecords.com

Soul Message Band: Soulful Days

The core members of the Soul Message Band are Hammond organist Chris Foreman and drummer Greg Rockingham, both members of the Deep Blue Organ Trio that recorded three CDs for Origin and Delmark between 2005 and 2010. For their new venture, the pair have enlisted young guitarist Lee Rothenberg, making his recording debut, and saxophonists Greg Ward on alto and Geof Bradfield on tenor. It’s pretty easy to discuss the band’s Delmark debut, Soulful Days. The only real question for a group called the Soul Message Band is whether the message has been delivered, and the answer here is yes, most emphatically. This CD is a lengthy excursion into the world of funky organ-based jazz, with the special attraction of the progressive-leaning saxophonists. The effervescent alto of Ward has been heard on discs by leaders like Hamid Drake, Ernest Dawkins and Mike Reed since his first appearance on disc in 2004, so he brings a fresh voice to the organ-based style. It’s a real kick to hear him on tunes like Grant Green’s Matador and Jimmy Smith’s J.O.S., and he reaches heights of bluesy intensity on Easy Time, a easy-going groover by Louie Bellson and Tommy Newsom. Tenor saxophonist Geof Bradfield, who appears on three tracks, has a more varied recording history, including dates with drummer Ted Sirota and pianist Ryan Cohen. Both saxmen play on Wayne Shorter’s Hammer Head, and their friendly duel makes the track one of the disc’s many highlights. Guitarist Rothenberg’s smoking Sir Charles and Ward’s snappy and upbeat Uncertainty are the sole originals in an exemplary batch of tunes with a welcome focus on less-frequently revived tunes from the Sixties. We’re treated to lengthy excursions through pieces like the Shorter tune, premiered by the Jazz Messengers in 1964, Freddie Hubbard’s Thermo, first performed by the 1962 edition of the Messengers, and Cal Massey’s These Are Soulful Days, which was debuted by Lee Morgan on his 1960 Lee-Way album. Foreman, Rothenberg and Rockingham keep things cooking with impeccable taste and unfailing momentum. Soulful Days is an irresistible treat, and is happily recommended.
Delmark DE 5030; Greg Ward (as, exc on 2,9) Geof Bradfield (ts on 2,4,9) Chris Foreman (Hammond B3 org) Lee Rothenberg (g) Greg Rockingham (d); Chicago, IL, August 22-23, 2018; 1.Sir Charles/ 2.These are Soulful Days/ 3.Uncertainty/ 4.Hammer Head/ 5.Little Girl Blue/ 6.Matador/ 7.Easy Time/ 8.J.O.S./ 9.Thermo; 76:12. www.delmark.com