Once again, here we are in the perpetually listening to every record in my collection alphabetically and blogging unscholarly thoughts project. This installment stars John Lewis, Mel Lewis and Dave Liebman.
John Lewis
2 Degrees East, 3 Degrees West – I love John Lewis records. I love MJQ records. The reasons come from the thoughtfulness of the settings, careful arrangements, and in the improvisations, the attention to motivic detail. Also, and this is really a big reason, Percy Heath. Plus, they play “Easy Living”, which is one of my favorites. Everyone on this record sounds great: Lewis, Heath, Bill Perkins (sort of sounds like Stan Getz), Chico Hamilton, and Jim Hall. It’s a mellow date, so don’t expect flames to come out of your speakers.
The Golden Striker – Scott Yanow didn’t like this record. He wrote that “the music is mostly written out and frankly rather dull”. That’s cool. Lots of people dislike third stream records. LOTS of people. I don’t really blame them because the rules that govern “excitement” are different than on typical jazz records or classical compositions. I love third stream records because of this very fact. Even though I adore playing standards, for example, there is something about the repetitive nature of the forms that make listening to them less exciting for me, sometimes, than records like this one. True, the emotional range of the album is fairly limited, but the writing is interesting, and I know that it would be fun to read through these charts. Cool band, too. Gunther Schuller, David Baker, George Duvivier (who is always flawless) and Connie Kay, plus some other cats.
The Wonderful World of Jazz – A very cool collection of recordings from 1960, starring exceptional people like Herb Pomeroy, Paul Gonsalves, Jim Hall, George Duvivier, Connie Kay, benny Golson, Eric Dolphy, and Jimmy Giuffre. Fascinating, thoughtful writing and playing from everyone, but “Body and Soul” sort of wins. Gonsalves’ solo is exceptional, and anything by Pomeroy is worth listening to; and this is one of his best recorded solos. This album also has great versions of “Afternoon in Paris” and “I Remember Clifford.”
John Lewis Presents Contemporary Music: Jazz Abstractions – This is one of the greatest records of all time. Seriously. Very, very important, fascinating music. This has the amazing “Abstraction” by Gunther Schuller, which is a serial composition with Ornate Coleman improvising throughout; ends in retrograde, of course. It also has Schuller’s “Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (Criss Cross)”, which is similarly incredible. The dedication, to Scott LaFaro, says in part that “Scotty, like all true artists, had an awareness of how much was yet to be accomplished.” He sounds great throughout, but especially his solo on “Django” – worthy of transcription, for sure.
P.O.V. – I love movies, and I love stories and books, and theory, philosophy, and all sorts of nerdy stuff. The title must refer to Point of View, which is a cinematic term for what the lens of the camera is telling the viewer. When POV is combined with other aspects, mise en scene for example, magic happens. Watch Hitchcock and Fellini and you’ll see what I mean.
To me, this album title conjures up images and takes my ears to tone poems like Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. I love that stuff. Prog rock is like that, too. When I studied with Steve Lacy, we talked about things like this a lot. I remember him telling me that “all music tells a story” which, I think, is true. So what if Brahms disagrees.
This record takes me to imagery, imagination, contemplation, thoughtfulness. Few, if any, John Lewis records are on fire, so this isn’t one to listen to for daredevil theatrics. More so, it’s a record to listen to when thinking about narrative. Like, the kind of record you’d like to hear in the Garrick Theater. Oh, and Richard Davis, like aways, sounds great.
A few more records from this batch:
Mel Lewis – Mel Lewis and Friends – There is some ferocious playing on this record. Seriously. Ron Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Michael Brecker and Hank Jones all bring it, and both Cecil Bridgewater and Gregory Herbert (alto saxophone) are absolutely on fire on this record. There are various points in time where recording quality and cross-generational playing have interesting results. In this case, the dry/close mic recording of the drums and pick up on the bass make for a very focused, driving beat. The issue I have is Mel Lewis’s bass drum. Feathering was a great device when 18 piece big bands were playing for 2000 dancers in gigantic dance halls, but it’s just not appropriate, or at least not appropriate at the level the bass drum was recorded, on a small group jazz date in the 1970s. What makes this ironic is that I love the playing and the writing on the whole record, except I struggle to enjoy the drums…and he’s the leader.
Dave Liebman – Drum Ode – Records like this aren’t made that often anymore. A jazz record in language, but epic in scope; I guess Kamasi Washington is the only one really making music like this anymore. It’s too bad. I love it. And this particular record is great because it has the personnel that shaped my ears back in the day. Bob Moses, John Abercrombie, Richie Beirach and Barry Altschul all had a huge impact on me when I was a teenager. Hearing them altogether, alongside Gene Perla, Jeff Williams, Potato Valdez, Steve Sattan, Badal Roy, Collin Walcott (from Oregon!), Ray Armando and Eleana Steinberg makes for a massive, awesome sound. Beirach, especially, sounds fantastic.
Dave Liebman – Pendulum – Yeah man. Again, I love this era. Recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1978 with Randy Brecker, Frank Tusa, Richie Beirach, and Al Foster, it’s a fascinating, burning, fun, interesting, adventurous recording. No, I don’t always love the drum sounds during this time period, but the playing? C’mon. Awesome. When there is enough space to stretch out and the cats on the stand are as heavy as they are, great things happen. Also, this is an Artists House record, and that label was awesome.