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Bags Groove (A Tribute to Milt Jackson)
Mike LeDonne, Jim Snidero, Steve Wilson, Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, Steve Nelson, Bob Cranshaw, Mickey Roker
első megjelenés éve: 2001
(2001)

CD
4.300 Ft 

 

IMPORT!
Kosaramba teszem
1.  The Prophet
2.  Compassin
3.  Reunion
4.  Namesake
5.  The Harem
6.  Little Girl Blue
7.  Sava Bella
8.  Bags' Groove
Jazz

Mike LeDonne - Piano
Jim Snidero - Flute/Alto Sax, Steve Wilson - Alto Sax, Jim Rotondi - Trumpet, Steve Davis - Trombone, Steve Nelson - Vibes, Bob Cranshaw - Bass, Mickey Roker - Drums

This recording "Bags Groove" is my personal tribute to the great Milt Jackson. I wanted to express through words, through music, and through the words of his friends & musical associates what a great man he was.

The dictionary definition of a genius is a person of the highest mental ability or the greatest creative power. A strong natural talent. Each of these definitions describe Milt Jackson perfectly. The thing about genius is that it may lie somewhere deep inside the mind that gets tapped into only when doing the one special thing you were put on this earth to do. The first thing to figure out is what that thing is. Milt was born with the gift of perfect pitch. A sure sign of a natural born musician. He had a photographic memory. If he heard something once, he knew it - certainly a sign of "high mental ability". There were times when after a particularly grueling day I would see him nodding off from fatigue right before we were to go up and play, and I would think how in the world is he going to play tonight. But the minute he picked up those mallets and played his vibes he could do no wrong. His talent was something so deep and so natural genius is the only way to describe it.

Another thing they say is that genius breeds genius. Milt was around at a time when the "giants" walked the earth. Being around people like Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell didn't hurt. Whatever the circumstances were, Milt's talent reached the highest level. The level where the feeling that comes out is so intense that the ideas are just the icing on the cake.

Milt started out playing the guitar when he was around 7 years old. He used to love to sing and accompany himself on the guitar. He also sang in the gospel choir at his church. He tried playing the piano but he found that he couldn't get his 4th and 5th fingers to work well. He first played the vibraphone in his school music program. The other instruments had all been taken so his band director encouraged him to give the bells a try. He told me that he fell in love with the instrument when he found out that it had an electronic device under the bells that rotated and gave the instrument a vibrato. Here was his opportunity to utilize his knowledge of the keyboard and have the vibrato of a singer. Milt always set the vibrato very slow and called it his "soul". The rest is history.

When I first met Milt Jackson he seemed kind of aloof. Of course I was so in awe of him it was hard for me to relax around him. He had always been my favorite living musician and his band with Cedar Walton (piano), Ray Brown or Bob Cranshaw (bass), and Billy Higgins or Mickey Roker (drums), was my favorite band. I saw them almost every time they played in New York. After I got to know him I found he was a completely down to earth, warm person, who loved to play cards, play pool, and most of all, play music.

God Bless my fellow pianist James Williams for calling me to sub for him with Milt in 1988 in a little club in Philadelphia named Jewels. Luckily I knew most of the arrangements from having seen them perform so many times. I didn't feel like I played well at all. After the gig I went up to Milt to apologize for my performance but before I got to say I'm sorry Bags grabbed me and gave me a big hug. This night is still one of the high points in my life.

The next day we had a huge feast over at Mickey's house. It was my first real exposure to Milt the regular human being. I witnessed my first of hundreds of card games between Mickey and Milt. I wish I had recorded the banter at those games. Bob and I used to go and just sit there and listen to them and laugh.

Then I found out what a good cook Milt was. He would often find someone's house to cook at when we were out on the road. He'd get up, go shopping and cook up a storm. His specialty was desert. He made incredible pies and cobbler. He'd always show up for a flight to Japan with a couple of pies. This was a revelation to me. I didn't know you could be around such great musicians and have so much fun. It's also when I realized that real heavy musicians don't go around acting heavy.

In fact, Milt had an almost childlike exuberance for music. We were in Pittsburgh one time which is the home of one of Milt's best friends, the great drummer "BeBop" Joe Harris. Joe is well studied in all percussion and has all kinds of percussion instruments in his home including vibes and marimbas. Milt was doing his thing, cooking a meal for us in Joe's kitchen, when on the radio comes a National Public Radio broadcast of the great pianist Ray Bryant, and his trio. I'm listening to the music, and they hit some kind of groove, and the next thing I know Milt's in the living room jamming with the radio. Here's one of the great innovators of all time, who still loves playing so much he can't resist a good groove, even if it's just coming from the radio!

I remember nights just hanging out with Milt listening to music. He would tell me stories about when he went to the west coast in a band that included himself on vibes, Bud Powell on piano, Oscar Pettiford on bass, Kenny Clark on drums, Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet and Charlie Parker on alto sax. When Parker couldn't make it the great tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson would take his place. I would sit listening to these stories and then it would hit me, this was Milt Jackson I was hanging out with. He was one of them. I'd have to pinch myself and wonder how did I get here.

Thanks to James's busy schedule I eventually wound up on the gig permanently. Imagine going to work every night and getting to play with Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker which is one of the swingingest rhythm sections of all time, and getting to hear Milt Jackson on top of that! This was heaven on earth.

On this CD I tried to capture the spirit of what Milt Jackson was all about. I wanted it to make use of the lessons I learned from the many musical sermons I received from the "Reverend" (Milt's other nickname). I also wanted to make my own personal statement through his music. I picked the instrumentation according to the kind of texture that I knew he liked with the vibes. Each song is short and to the point. One thing Bags hated was long winded solos. He got his philosophy from the great Charlie Parker. Bird used to say that if you play more than 4 choruses in your solo you're practicing and, Practice at home!

Milt is known for writing a lot of blues' but I don't think many people realize how many great songs he wrote. I find his compositions to be like his playing. Simple yet deep, beautiful and of course soulful. Little Girl Blue is the only standard and was one of Milt's favorite ballads. I would like to point out one chorus in Bags Groove directly following the piano solo. This line is from a big band arrangement by the great bassist John Clayton which was recorded on a co-led date by he and Bags on Quest records called "Explosive." Milt loved this chorus and immediately added it to the quartets version which we played every night. To me it just became part of the tune so I had to include it here. You'll notice I broke out the Hammond organ on Namesake. I love the sound of this instrument and just thought it would be fun to play on this tune (and it was).

The musicians are some of my favorites on their respective instruments and people who I thought could do justice to this music. Mickey and Bob go back over 30 years with Milt. I think they sound as good as they ever have delivering the kind of swing that's becoming a lost art today. On top of that you've got these great players! Jim Snidero, who's a fantastic alto sax player, features his beautiful sound on flute. Jim Rotondi, who's a killer on tpt. and flugelhorn, Steve Davis' warm sound and swing on trombone, Steve Wilson, heard in the section on alto flute, has to be one of the premiere soprano sax players around today. And the man in the hot seat, Steve Nelson. I love the sound he gets out of the bells. It's a big warm sound like Bags' was yet distinctively his own. He's a musician who's musical personality is a direct outgrowth of his own personality. That is to say his style is totally without pretense, again a way he reminds me of Bags. I think Steve also proves that you don't have to sacrifice being soulful to be at jazz's cutting edge.

But enough from me for now. I thought it would be fitting to hear from some of Bags closest friends and fellow musicians. Here's what they had to say:

"Through the recent years of modern jazz, I have from time to time had the opportunity of touching musical bases with Milt Jackson. Ever since I first heard him back in the days with his affiliation with Dizzy(Gillespie), Ray(Brown), and others of the bop era, I came to realize that his voice had become one of the most important musical entities in the world of jazz. He has always been the consummate vibes player, in my estimation. The most vivid memories I have of him date back to a duo performance at Carnegie Hall some years ago with just piano and vibes; the album titled "Ain't But A Few Of Us Left", and lastly, on the Majesty of the Seas cruise when I had the opportunity to listen uninterruptedly to his wonderful quartet featuring one of the most promising and talented pianists of this particular era, Mike LeDonne." - Oscar Peterson

"I met Milt Jackson in 1945 when he joined Dizzy's small band with Bird, Max, Bud & I. We became roommates and friends. Jackson had a way of playing the vibes that I've never heard before or since. His ballad interpretations should be studied by any and all jazz music students. All in all he was a beautiful man and a super musician. I really miss him." - Ray Brown

"I was completely influenced by Milt. I first met Milt when Billy Mitchell took me over his house in Long Island. He was hard to approach because of his stature musically and personally. His music was completely the opposite. This was the Yin and the Yang of Milt Jackson. Of course I later found out that he was only hard to approach until you got to know him. I used to love when he'd come up to me and say "Hey Bobby come on up to my room you jive sucker." That's when you knew he liked you.

Playing the instrument : He knew how to make it not a novelty. He made it proud to be associated with any kind of music. When you listened to him play you felt like you had money in your pocket. Like you were rich. It gave you the energy and love to go on in life and go after the things you were thinking about. His music made you want to go after your dreams." B. Hutcherson


On his third Double-Time release, Mike LeDonne assembles an illustrious octet in honor of one of his mentors, the late vibraphonist Milt Jackson. While the arrangements and the band are polished, there's an inspired simplicity and looseness to this date, making it one of LeDonne's best. The pianist plays brilliantly, as usual, although this album doesn't necessarily stress the piano, but rather the band texture as a whole. Enlisting two guys named Jim (Jim Snidero, alto and flute; Jim Rotondi, trumpet) and three named Steve (Steve Wilson, alto and soprano; Steve Davis, trombone; Steve Nelson, vibes), LeDonne gives these tunes a thickly and poetically harmonized treatment. (Veterans Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker, on bass and drums respectively, complete the lineup.) Highlights include Davis' dissonant counter-line on the hip, Latin groove "Reunion," LeDonne's cunning quote of the "Love Story" theme on "Sava Bella," and the remarkable ensemble shadings heard on the standard "Little Girl Blue." In a departure, LeDonne plays Hammond organ on the swinging "Namesake," which is a bit cluttered but quite energetic. Steve Nelson plays the melody and solos first on the closing "Bags' Groove," as is fitting on a record dedicated to bop's most influential vibraphonist.
---David R. Adler, All Music Guide
Weboldal:Doubletime Records

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