clxxx. SURMAN, John (1944- ) / DeJOHNETTE, Jack (1942- )
Merry Pranks (Jester's Song) (1981)
JS, bass clarinet
JD, drums
(2:55)
from The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon.
A jaunty tune in three, these two guys sound like a whole orchestra! Surman starts in the bass clarinet's lowest range and then moves way up to the top.
DeJohnette simply swings.
A justifiably highly regarded album already three decades old!
clxxix. JULIA HÜLSMANN QUARTET
from: Not Far From Here.
ECM Week
For the next seven days, we'll feature tracks from ECM's extensive catalogue.
Manfred Eicher (b. 1943) founded ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) in 1969. For over 50 years, he has produced a remarkable number of remarkable albums by a coterie of musicians -- mostly producing intimate, personal and often radical music.
"He records musicians he likes, allows them to trust their own instincts, and plays a directorial role." [Jazz Review]
**
Julia (b. 1968) started studying music at a young age, and was influenced by a myriad of great jazz musicians -- in particular, she claims to have been greatly inspired by the late Don Grolnick.
Here -- in an original composition from her latest album -- the band plays an angular head in unison and then breaks off with a traditional ECM-type of group dynamic, returning to the head and concluding. Great playing by all.
Streiflicht = Highlight
clxxviii. WONDER, Stevie (1950- )
Venus Flytrap and the Bug (1979)
SW, everything
(2:25)
from Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"
(see Post lxxi for another track from this magnificent, underappreciated album!)
Hello flower
Boy, do you look juicy
And you know just what I'm coming to get, right
Don't eat me
Please don't eat me
I'm trapped in your love
Save me, don't hurt me
**
I knew you were going to ask me that question!
By closing its leaves, and swallowing it!
clxxvii. METHENY, Pat (1954- )
Two versions
Video of Amenabar's Mar Adentro
(2:22)
from Secret Story.
I believe Pat was in Brazil, and I seem to recall a story about a sadly ending love affair.
This was one of Pat's first excursions into symphonic territory, and this cut features only the symphony. It is beautifully written, with some of his bizarre enharmonic chords, like the E/Ab in bar 15 ...
clxxvi. HOLIDAY, Billie (1915-1959)
The story of the writing of the song.
Leslie Hutchinson ("Hutch") [fathered eight children with seven different mothers; reportedly had affairs with Lady Edwina Mountbatten, Tallulah Bankhead, and Cole Porter] discovered the song on top of a piano at the BBC.
Holiday was one of the first Americans to record it.
clxxv. BRUBECK BROTHERS
clxxiv. PARKER, Charlie (1920-1955)
Now's The Time (1945)
CP, alto saxophone
Miles Davis, trumpet
Dizzy Gillespie, piano (?)
Curley Russell, bass
Max Roach, drums
(3:17)
from The Charlie Parker Story.
DAVIS, Miles (1926-1991)
Straight No Chaser (1958)
MD, trumpet
Julian "Cannonball" Adderly, alto saxophone
John Coltrane, tenor saxophone
Red Garland, piano
Paul Chambers, bass
Philly Joe Jones, drums
(10:40)
from Milestones.
Here's the raison d'être for this post:
Miles -- 19-years-old -- plays this amazing solo on this Parker date (1:43) ...
Thirteen years later, listen to Red Garland play that Miles solo in block chords at 7:29!
**
Apparently, Miles was not amused. Garland was fired shortly after the date and replaced by Bill Evans.
clxxiii. EVANS, Bill (1929-1980)
I Wish I Knew (1961)
BE, piano
Scott LaFaro, bass
Paul Motian, drums
(4:41)
from Explorations.
This Warren/Gordon tune comes from the 1945 film Diamond Horseshoe (starring Betty Grable).
Evans deconstructs the tune to the point of unrecognizability (check out Chet Baker singing it or Coltrane playing it!) ...
**
Musical empathy. That's what made this trio special -- you can almost hear them listening to each other ...
LaFaro and Evans argued during these sessions and when Scott died in a car accident a few months later, Evans was devastated.
clxxii. ALLISON, Mose (1927-2016)
Your Molecular Structure (1968)
MA, piano
Red Mitchell, bass
Bill Goodwin, drums
(2:17)
from I've Been Doin' Some Thinkin'.
Your molecular structure is really somethin' fine
A first-rate example of functional design
Those cosmic undulations are steady comin' through
Your molecular structure baby, me and you
Your cellular organization is really something choice
Electro-magnetism 'bout to make me lose my voice
Got all my circuits open, my system's readin' "go"
Your cellular organization baby, stop the show
Your molecular structure is really somethin' swell
A high-frequency modulated Jezebel
Thermodynamically you're gettin' to me
Your molecular structure baby, ooh wee!
clxxi. SIDRAN, Ben (1943- )
from Life's a Lesson.
Liner notes:
As a young girl, Hannah Senesh, the author of this poem, gave her life attempting to rescue her people. She parachuted into enemy territory, was caught, imprisoned, and, eventually executed by the Nazis. During her imprisonment, she wrote many poems which still survive. This one, which was turned into a song years after her death, is a prayer that life itself will not end, that the simple things -- the sound of nature and the prayer that is in our hearts -- are lasting beyond ourselves.
Eli, eli, shelo yigamer l'olam
he chol v'hayam, rish rush shel hamayim
barak basamayim, tefilat ha'adam
O Lord, my God,
I pray that these never end:
the sand and the sea,
the rush of the waters,
the flash of the heavens,
and the prayer of the heart
clxx. HIROMI (1979- )
Dilemma (2016)
H, keyboards
Anthony Jackson, contrabass guitar
Simon Phillips, drums
(8:49)
from Spark.
Should you step ahead or backward?
Hiromi asks in her Spark comments.
**
I guess it depends if you can step in eleven (6+5) ... a groove that simmers and cooks throughout.
This trio makes a huge sound. Anthony and Simon are certainly up to the task of keeping up with this amazing woman.
clxix. KENEALLY, Mike (1961- )
Bolarius (2013)
MK, synths
(0:43)
from You Must Be This Tall.
clxviii. DUKE, George (1946-2013)
from Déjà Vu.
Duke's penultimate album. Here he's as funky as ever, a two-chord head with a richer written-out section that he uses to break up the solos.
Which are all great and funky: Sheppard, Payton, Laws, George on ol' Nord, and finally Bruner -- one thing Duke always knew how to do was comp behind other solos ...
The band sings out the title occasionally. Sounds like sumpthin' he'd get from Frank!
clxvii. BECHET, Sidney (1897-1959)
On October 19, 1919 the famed Swiss conductor, Ernest Ansermet -- who was in London with his orchestra, L'Orchestra de la Suisse Romande to accompany the Ballets Russe -- wrote an article in The Revue Romande, after hearing Bechet play with The Southern Syncopated Orchestra:
"There is in The Southern Syncopated Orchestra an extraordinary clarinet virtuoso, who is, so it seems, the first of his race to have composed perfectly formed blues on the clarinet. I've heard two of them, which he had elaborated at great length, then played to his companions so that they could make up an accompaniment. Extremely difficult, they are equally admirable for their richness of invention, force of accent, and daring in novelty and the unexpected. Already they gave the idea of a style and their form ws gripping, abrupt, harsh, with a brusque and pitiless ending like that of Bach's second Brandenburg Concerto. I wish to set down the name of this artist of genius, as for myself, I shall never forget it, it is Sidney Bechet. What a moving thing it is to meet this very black, fat boy with white teeth and that narrow forehead, who is very glad one likes what he does, but who can say nothing of his art, save that he follows his 'own way', and then one thinks that this 'own way' is perhaps the highway, the whole world will swing along tomorrow."
Bechet discovered the soprano saxophone in 1920, and was perhaps the first jazz musician to explore the instrument.
He taught himself to play many different instruments, but his fame rested on his wide-vibrato playing of the clarinet and the soprano sax.
**
This 1945 date featured the singing of "Hot Lips" Page, with Bechet and Mezzrow playing behind him -- then Bechet breaks out with a wailing solo, followed by Page, on trumpet.
clxvi. COLLIER, Jacob (1994- )
Flinstones (2016)
JC, everything
(3:10)
from In My Room.
At the age of 21, Mr. Collier had the amazing ability to fill his head with music and then pretty much instantly transform it into product.
The wonderful thing here is watching his multiple selves performing the whole thing.
A lot of post-bop 60s bands performed the song as a kind of joke -- the head was totally recognizable, and the soloists could really take off on the changes ...
Jacob's version is something else entirely.
clxv. BARROW, Arthur (1952- )
Hello Tomorrow (1998)
AB, all instruments
(2:30)
from AB3.
After graduating from North Texas State in 1975 with a degree in Composition, it only took Arthur a few more years to pass the audition for Frank Zappa.
He worked for FZ for about five years, and became the "clonemeister" -- rehearsing the band eight to ten hours a day, five days a week, with Zappa coming in later, after the band had the music down tight.
He plays bass on such iconic albums as Joe's Garage, Tinsel Town Rebellion, the "Shut Up" guitar box set, You Are What You Is, Ship Arriving Too Late and Man From Utopia -- in addition to dubbing new bass parts for the '68 albums, Money and Cruising [ugh] ...
**
In addition to his solo projects, he has also composed the music for at least four silent films -- notably Greta Garbo's first American film, Torrent (1926), and Keaton's The Cameraman (1928) ...
**
A bouncy, slightly polytonal melody is played by a bright piano, accompanied by bass and drums. Halfway through he adds a glockenspiel into the mix. It's a bit Zappa-like (and why not?) and ends on a major chord!
He thanks:
Richard Feynman
Albert Einstein
Igor Stravinsky
Béla Bartók
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Jimi Hendrix
and all of the fine folks at JPL, NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope.
clxiv. STONE, Agnus (1986- ) & Julia (1984- )
from Angus & Julia Stone.
My daughter recommended this to me to try get me into the 21st century.
I find it appealing --although for the life of me, I don't understand why girls who can actually sing, insist on pretending that they can't ...
**
Produced by Rick Rubin (McCartney 3,2,1 [miniseries])
**
I lay myself upon the floor
We're not all dying babe
Well maybe I don't need this after all
It was a place for me
And all the books upon your shelf
Tell stories of who you are
But there's more to the picture son
He says you'll play it on your broken guitar
He says
You play it on your broken guitar
Don't take my word for it
Don't take my word for it
Don't take my word for it
I do
I do
I do
I wake up in the morning so I
Can watch you dress for work
But there's more to the picture here
Than what we see or what we've heard
What we've seen or what we learn
Don't take my word for it
Don't take my word for it
Don't take my word for it
I do
I do
I do
clxiii. McCARTNEY, Paul (1942- )
Road (2013)
PM, Vocals, keyboards, percussion
Paul Epworth, drums
(4:31)
from New.
I love that Paul is never afraid to drive down new "roads."
This is a pedal-point tune, full of walls of sonic tapestry.
No silly love song, this ...
clxii. MINTZER, Bob (1953- )
from Off the Beaten Tracks Vol. 1.
clxi. MORRISON, Van (1945- )
clx. ZAPPA, Frank (1940-1993)
The Beltway Bandits (1986)
FZ, Synclavier
(3:26)
from Jazz From Hell.
from Ensemble Modern: Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions.
Frank had truly mixed feelings about the Synclavier. This composition is from the period when he first got it -- the patches he uses are all quite interesting and varied.
He later said something to the effect that he "missed the mistakes the musicians would make ..."
**
The brilliant Ensemble Modern transcribed the piece from the Synclavier recording and plays it brilliantly. I don't hear any mistakes.
clix. BEATLES, THE
from The Beatles.
It is alleged that the Maharishi made pass at Mia Farrow.
John was fed up, and decided to leave India. The Maharishi asked John why he was leaving ...
"If you're so cosmically conscious as you claim, then you should know why ..."
**
Originally, the song was called "Marhaishi" and John made no attempt to hide his feelings, writing lyrics with words that would get bleeped, even today!
George calmed him down, and the group set out to put it in the can.
117 takes later, they had it.
clviii. LENNON, John (1940-1980)
from Rock 'n' Roll.
Here come old flat-top
He was groovin' up with me
That's Chuck Berry singing You Can't Catch Me.
**
I'm sure John wished he had never ripped that off. It ended up costing him dearly.
A lawsuit ensued; John & Yoko had broken up; Lennon was using; and Phil Spector was producing.
A recipe for disaster and the album took a year to record and produce.
Ah -- it's only rock 'n' roll ...
clvii. ZAPPA, Frank (1940-1993)
from Uncle Meat.
I was 16 years old when Uncle Meat came out and as I put it on the turntable, I was fumbling through the nice booklet -- full of pictures of teeth for some reason -- when I noticed that Frank's handwritten lead sheet for the Main Title Uncle Meat (it was supposedly the soundtrack for a movie Frank was making -- the movie was eventually released in a different form) was neatly printed on one of the last pages.
It was the first (of many) Zappa pieces I taught myself to play and the first time I understood the sus2 chord. [I mistakenly typed in sus4 below; I meant to write sus2!]
Helsinki, Finland (1974)
The Ensemble Modern (1992)
Matteo Flori (2014) [Uncle Meat Suite]
clvi. McCARTNEY, Paul (1942- )
from Egypt Station.
T'ain't the 60s anymore ...
**
I sat around all day
I used to get stoned
I liked to get wasted
But these days I don't
'cos I'm happy, with you
I got lots of good thing to do,
oh yeah
I walked around angry
I used to feel bad
but nowadays my days
Don't have to be sad
'cos I'm happy, with you
I got lots of good things to do,
oh yeah
Like, hear the high clear robin sing
Walk a bluebell carpet
Watch the children playing games
Catch a moon and drop it
Hear the gentle mantle roll
On a frosty morning
See the mighty ocean break
Like a sailor's warning
I used to drink too much
Forgot to come home
I lied to my doctor
But these days I don't
'cos I'm happy, with you
I got lots of good things to do
Throw a pocketful of coins in the Trevi fountain
See an ice cold running stream
Rushing down the mountain
Hear a new born baby lamb
Calling for its mother
Watching reunited friends
Loving one another
I sat around all day
I liked to get stoned
I used to get wasted
But these days I don't
'cos I'm happy, with you
I got lots of good things to do, oh yeah
Happy with you
I'm happy with you
Happy with you
**
The CD has no spine ... it doesn't look right on the shelf.
clv. MANN, Aimee (1960- )
from the soundtrack to Magnolia.
cliv. KENEALLY, Mike (1961- )
from Wooden Smoke.
"So this is the album where I asked myself to politely calm down, and I wrote a set of music on my living room floor with sock feet and pajamas on."
Whatever it takes, Mike.
This slow lyric-less groove creeps into your skull and echoes through your soul. The piano is recorded beautifully upfront in the mix.
Mike signed my copy 1519/2000. Gee, I'll bet his hand was tired ...
cliii. BRAHEM, Anouar (1957- )
Le pas du chat noir (2002)
AB, oud
François Couturier, piano
Jean-Louis Matinier, accordion
(8:01)
from Le Pas du Chat Noir.
N-Z A-HA / Take On Me / ccclxx ABERCROMBIE, John / Timeless / xxiii ABERCROMBIE, John / JOHNSON, Marc / ERSKINE, Peter / Light Beam / cxlix ...
