Jazz
VOICES Notes and news on Jazz releases
Pucho's Legendary Soul Brothers
03 JUL 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
Legends Of Acid Jazz: The Best Of Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers has always been my favorite title in Prestige's Legends series. Percussionist and bandleader Pucho Brown was (and remains) the master of "Latin boogaloo," a big-band party blender of grooving instrumental soul, Latin, funk and jazz. Drawn from five of the seven Prestige albums Brown recorded with his original Latin Soul Brothers during the 1966-1970 heyday of instrumental funk, Best Of Pucho is the perfect musical pick-me-up.
Brown sets sail on Herbie Hancock's timeless "Maiden Voyage" with percussive, dancing dance rhythms led by brass that seems to lend the melody human voice. But don't enter for well-considered jazz. Rip into such frothy jams as "Psychedelic Pucho," with a percussion/bass breakdown that builds up momentum to launch Brown's earth-rattling timbales solo, and the band's theme song, "Swamp People," driven to howling by frantic percussion.
"Got Myself a Good Man" stirs jazz pressure cookers Bernard Purdie (drums) and Billy Butler (guitar) into Pucho's Latin soul stew. Purdie lays down the rhythmic foundation by rocking his drums to sound as big as a boogaloo house and Butler leaps in with a sinewy solo that cuts the groove to the bone. Purdie and Butler are each the respective subjects of their own Legends Of Acid Jazz set, which we'll also explore as part of this year's 60th anniversary Prestige celebration.
Acid Jazz: Best Of Pucho always sounds like the way you feel on a perfect sunny summer day.
-
Maiden Voyage
Pucho And His Latin Soul Brothers, from Le ...
-
Superstition
Pucho And His Latin Soul Brothers, from Th ...
-
Sex Machine
Pucho And His Latin Soul Brothers, from Ri ...
-
Attica
Bernard Purdie, from Legends Of Acid Jazz
-
The Thumb
Billy Butler, from Night Life
in this playlist.
The First Lead 'Trane
30 JUN 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
Even the most historic journey begins with a single step. Recorded on a single May 1957 date, the simply titled Coltrane (Prestige) marks John Coltrane's debut as a leader. In both its ballads and two original riff-bops on the blues, Coltrane foreshadows the incisive power that became a hallmark of his monster tenor style.
After Red Garland's piano intro lights the candles and draws the curtain, the ensemble wraps itself up deep in "Violets for Your Furs" and tenderly approaches "While My Lady Sleeps" as if trying to avoid awakening her (this remastered RVG edition sounds especially intimate and romantic). For a different mood, the ensemble collaboratively sings the up-tempo melody that signals it's off to the bebop races up and down "Straight Street."
"Bakai" simultaneously captures the sharp angles and turns of the bebop school from whence Coltrane came, and the deeper African rhythms where his musical explorations eventually led, two streams joined together by bassist Paul Chambers' open, walking blues that strolls right through its middle. Coltrane's investigative approach sounds fully grown, even on this first session as a leader.
Coltrane foreshadowed the long line of successful Prestige recordings worth rediscovering throughout the label's 60th anniversary year, including Traneing In ('57) Settin' The Pace ('57) and Soultrane ('58), all with the Red Garland Trio as backup, plus the legendary Lush Life ('58).
-
Violets For Your Furs
John Coltrane, from Coltrane [Rudy Van ...
-
I Can't Give You Anything But Love
Red Garland, from Red Garland's Piano ...
-
Sugar Ray
Roy Haynes, Phineas Newborn, And Paul ...
-
Soft Lights And Sweet Music
John Coltrane With The Red Garland Trio ...
-
Rise ’n’ Shine
John Coltrane, from Settin' The Pace ...
-
You Say You Care
John Coltrane, from Soultrane [Rudy Van ...
-
Trane's Slo Blues
John Coltrane, from Lush Life [Rudy Van ...
-
Gone Again
Red Garland Trio, from Groovy [Rudy Van ...
in this playlist.
Sound Of Fearlessness
25 JUN 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
Recorded on a hot July 1961 night with Booker Little, pianist Mal Waldron, and his incendiary rhythm section, Eric Dolphy At The Five Spot, Volume 2 (Prestige, RVG Edition) plays like a primer on Eric Dolphy's fearless sound.
I imagine that musicians either loved or hated playing with Dolphy, rarely in between, because the great freedom of expression that was so essential to his music comes with an even greater responsibility to use that freedom wisely. He eventually discovered kindred musicians willing and able to swim in his churning waters, such as Little, whose trumpet often -- not always, but often -- provided a more temperate yin to Dolphy's rampaging saxophone yang.
The very title of the opening "Aggression" summarizes its uncompromising musical ferocity. Even so, its two ballads are beautiful. Dolphy's flute runs rings 'round "Like Someone in Love" and "Booker's Waltz" dances in true waltz time. Waldron sounds at home both in the lower registers alongside bassist Richard Davis and pin-wheeling among the frontline.
Perhaps Dolphy played like a man possessed because he sensed the time he had to play was short. Little died about three months after this performance, and Dolphy succumbed to diabetic complications a few years later. Their passings seem to underscore the legend of this single night at the Five Spot, stuffed so full of music that it comprised four different Dolphy releases: At the Five Spot Volumes 1 & 2, Memorial Album and Here And There.
-
Aggression
Eric Dolphy with Booker Little, from At ...
-
Don't Explain
Mal Waldron, from Mal / 2
-
April Fool
Eric Dolphy, from Here And There
in this playlist.
Reelin' in Reel Life
17 JUN 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
Recorded and released in the summer of 1982, Reel Life (originally on Milestone) is one of Sonny Rollins' brightest and cheeriest sets. The album sounds more of its time than most releases. It sparkles with the bright warmth of summertime and go-go optimism of the early Reagan '80s.
Rollins' opening, title track bounces saxophone and guitar solos off its rock-steady beat (Rollins closes the set with a solo reprise of this theme). He also composed the cheery "Rosita's Best Friend," which incorporates sunny guitar and percussion solos into its Caribbean rhythm. Accessible and colorful, "Sonny Side Up" pops its singable melody out from its shiny sound, like a Cosby Show backing track. "Best Wishes" steps further in this direction, albeit with a thunderous solo from drummer Jack DeJohnette, who complementarily matches the wit and wisdom of his employer throughout. DeJohnette was the drummer on Rollins' first record after the saxophonist's legendary self-imposed exile (Next Album, Milestone, '72).
Reel Life also offers traditional Rollins fare: Hard bop with the emphasis on hard, he carves "McGhee" with the meaty, robust bop tenor sound that built his legend and still endures; and everybody gets funky to melt the Billy Strayhorn ballad "My Little Brown Book" down into the blues.
The set was the second album in the series that Rollins recorded for Milestone throughout the '80s, a decade in which, judging from album titles such as No Problem and Sunny Days, Starry Nights, jazz's reigning tenor genius must have been feeling pretty good.
-
Reel Life
Sonny Rollins, from Reel Life
-
Mirror Image
Jack DeJohnette, from The Dejohnette ...
-
The Everywhere Calypso
Sonny Rollins, from Next Album
-
Illusions
Sonny Rollins, from No Problem
-
Tell Me You Love Me
Sonny Rollins, from Sunny Days, Starry ...
-
My Little Brown Book
Kenny Burrell, from Ellington Is ...
in this playlist.
BROWSE ARCHIVE OF JAZZ VOICES
