Jazz
VOICES Notes and news on Jazz releases
That Mercer Magic
18 NOV 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
Johnny Mercer's contribution to the American Songbook is written in chapters, not pages. A genuinely American songwriter, and one of Georgia's favorite artistic sons, Mercer would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Nov. 18 and has been freshly honored by a new Centennial Celebration of his songs on Original Jazz Classics.
It's no wonder that so many jazz instrumentalists and vocalists play and sing Mercer's music. His song structures are tight but flexible enough to allow each interpreter to uniquely color in their own voice. I hesitate to mention any particular track in Mercer's Celebration because it might seem to imply that others are less important or brilliant. They are not.
Even so, peaks among these many highpoints have to include Chet Baker's "I'm Old Fashioned," equal parts impeccable vocal phrasing and longing heartache, a powerhouse Jimmy Witherspoon blowing the doors off of "Blues In The Night" and Tony Bennett's duet rumination on bygone "Days Of Wine And Roses" with pianist Bill Evans.
The second best part about this Mercer collection is the unheard combinations it allows you to imagine in your head. The possible sounds of Jane Monheit lushly inhabiting "Wine And Roses" instead of "Moon River," Rosemary Clooney and Mel Tormé swapping her "Hooray For Hollywood" for his "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive" and Evans and Bennett romping through "Blues In The Night," while 'Spoon drowns his sorrows in "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)" along with Dianne Reeves.
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I'm Old Fashioned
Various Artists, from Centennial ...
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Moon River
Monica Mancini, from Ultimate Mancini
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When October Goes
Monica Mancini, from The Dreams Of ...
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Days Of Wine And Roses
Andy Williams, from Andy Williams Live: ...
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That Old Black Magic
Herb Alpert & Lani Hall, from Anything ...
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Blues In The Night
Ray Charles, from Ain't It So
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Midnight Sun
Ella Fitzgerald & Oscar Peterson, from Ell ...
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The Shadow of Your Smile
John Pizzarelli, from Knowing You
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I Thought About You
Mel Torme, from Nothing Without You
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Fools Rush In
Susannah McCorkle, from The Songs Of ...
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Something's Gotta Give
Michael Feinstein, from Romance On Film, ...
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Dream Medley: Dream / Hit The Road To ...
Rosemary Clooney, from Sings The Lyrics ...
in this playlist.
Moving Up
04 NOV 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
The principals on Sonny Rollins' Moving Out, newly polished in the RVG Remaster series, couldn't have known this at the time, but they couldn't have assembled a set more representative of the state of post-bop jazz if they had built one from a diagram and instructions.
Its first two tunes -- the title track and subsequent "Swingin' For Bumsy" -- serve torrid bop straight up and pair Rollins in the front line with trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who flows through his upper registers scalding hot. The soft and supple "Silk 'N' Satin," taken more moderately, presents the modern jazz ballad sound, while "Solid" rocks the cradle of jazz, the blues, with its hip rhythmic snap. (Dorham and Rollins played together in a quintet led by drummer Max Roach, too.)
From a subsequent quartet session featuring pianist Thelonious Monk, "More Than You Know" puts the crown on top. Rollins creates a lush, richly gorgeous sound that hovers like a brooding, dark romantic cloud over the rhythm section, while Monk's contemplative spotlight turn doesn't end up worried into gnarled knots, like so many of his solos.
You can hear more music made by Rollins and Dorham on Plays For Bird ('56, Prestige), and more from this second session, with Monk, on Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins ('54, Prestige), also available in the RVG remaster series.
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Swingin' For Bumsy
Sonny Rollins, from Moving Out
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Blue Spring Shuffle
Kenny Dorham, from Quiet Kenny [Rudy Van ...
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Filide
Max Roach, from Deeds, Not Words
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Bemsha Swing
Thelonious Monk, from Brilliant Corners ...
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I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face
Sonny Rollins, from Plays For Bird [Rudy ...
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I Want To Be Happy
Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins, from Thel ...
in this playlist.
Essential Modern Art
30 OCT 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
I love when my assignments includes a musician's name that I recognize but whose music I've barely heard. Although a good friend of mine has praised alto saxophonist Art Pepper long and loudly, I can't remember listening to him before Essential Standards (OJC) appeared on my schedule. Shame on me.
Standards casts Pepper's brilliance in settings of different shape and size. He duets with pianist George Cables on the classic "Lover Man," on clarinet. Speaking of pianists, Dolo Coker's block chords on "Come Rain or Come Shine" and Tommy Flanagan's ruminations in "Nature Boy" are both quite beautiful, and Wynton Kelly's hard-rocking, high-flying piano leads Pepper's bop quintet scurry through "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise."
Whatever else you listen to, don't miss Pepper's triumphant solo tour-de-force through "Over the Rainbow," a tune he frequently revisited throughout his career and one of those solo takes -- like similar excursions by Sonny Rollins or John Coltrane -- that, when it's over, leaves no doubt that the soloist wrung everything out of himself.
Art Pepper was one of the few altos who didn't labor in the austere shade of Paul Desmond or more tortuous shadow of Charlie Parker. There are almost too many worthwhile Pepper titles from which to choose, but Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section (from Miles' first great quintet) (1957, OJC), the large "Art Pepper + 11" ensemble Modern Jazz Classics ('59, OJC), and his triumphant return to the Straight Life ('79, OJC) are great places to start.
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Over The Rainbow
Art Pepper, from Essential Standards
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Voodoo Lady
George Cables, from Cables' Vision
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West Coast Blues
Tommy Flanagan, from Something Borrowed, ...
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Dark Eyes
Wynton Kelly, from Piano
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You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
Art Pepper, from Art Pepper Meets The ...
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Walkin' Shoes
Art Pepper + Eleven, from Modern Jazz ...
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Surf Ride
Art Pepper, from Straight Life
in this playlist.
Essence Of Romance
28 OCT 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
No other trumpet player -- except for possibly Miles Davis -- could get lost in a ballad, and magnetically pull you in to get lost with him, like Chet Baker. Even better, Baker was double trouble, a trumpet player and a vocalist who could croon and caress ballads in a reed-like voice so soft that it nearly screamed. The new OJC collection Essential Standards presents a great opportunity to discover both.
Even if he'd never played another note, Baker's verses to "My Funny Valentine," in harmony with Gerry Mulligan's breathless sax, would still remain graceful yet poignant, eternally -- welcome to the most perfectly beautiful, time-stopping three minutes of your musical life.
The pensive melancholy of Baker's world-weary vocal on "Angel Eyes" is like a spider web, gossamer-thin yet quite strong and sticky, while his recitation of misfortune in "Everything Happens To Me" sounds so forlornly defeated that it's almost comical. In a brighter mood, Baker's flugelhorn gracefully glides through the opening "Have You Met Miss Jones," and drummer Philly Joe Jones' tap dance pulls the Latin rhythms out from Kenny Drew's piano accompaniment to "Old Devil Moon."
The Concord catalog includes many other titles from which you can luxuriously wrap yourself in Baker's stylish and heady moody brooding, most notably Chet Baker Plays For Lovers (Riverside), The Art Of The Ballad (Prestige) and Quintessence Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (Concord Jazz), in The Stan Getz Quartet.
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My Funny Valentine
Chet Baker, from Essential Standards
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Nobody Else But Me
Gerry Mulligan, from The Art Of Gerry ...
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Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Philly Joe Jones, from Drum Songs
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Ruby, My Dear
Kenny Drew, from Trio / Quartet / Quintet
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Autumn In New York
Chet Baker, from The Art Of The Ballad
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I'm Old Fashioned
Chet Baker, from Chet Baker Plays For ...
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My Ideal
The Stan Getz Quartet with Chet Baker ...
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We'll Be Together Again
The Stan Getz Quartet with Chet Baker ...
in this playlist.
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