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| Jazz Express Presents Jazz for Summer Days - Cool Jazz for Hot Cats |
VÁLOGATÁS
Art Pepper, Bobby Hutcherson, Cecil Brooks, Charlie 'Bird' Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Pat Martino, Phil Woods, Richard 'Groove' Holmes, Richie Cole, Russell Gunn, Sonny Stitt, Stan Getz, Wallace Roney |
első megjelenés éve: 2008
73 perc |
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| (2008)
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CD |
Kérjen
árajánlatot! |
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Jazz
Hey, welcome to Jazz Express. If this is your first time, its good to have you here, you're gonna dig it. We pick the music to suit your mood and all you have to do is kick back and have yourselves a groovy, relaxing time. And on a summer's day like today, we're guessing what you need is some sun-drenched, swingin' sounds and whaddayaknow...here they are.
Hey, welcome to Jazz Express. If you've been around before, you know what to expect. I guess that's why you came back for more. If this is your first time, it's good to have you here, you're gonna dig it. We pick the music to suit your mood and all you have to do is kick back and have yourselves a groovy, relaxing time. And on a summer's day like today, we're guessing what you need is some sun-drenched, swingin' sounds and waddayaknow…here they are, and here's all about 'em.
Expert Hammond organist Richard 'Groove' Holmes is the kind of player who has been doing what it says on the tin since the 1960s and is nothing less than a hero to a later generation of acid jazzers because of it. He kicks things off beautifully with a strutting version of Duke Ellington's "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me". His long-time partner in groove is the no-nonsense tenor player Houston Pearson.
Wallace Roney is generally recognised as one of the great post-Miles Davis trumpeters. He was even asked in the early 1990s to take Miles's role in a posthumous tribute tour featuring a reunion of the great mid 1960's Davis quintet. The drummer of that group, Tony Williams, had already added his distinctive percussive touch to Roney's 1986 debut as leader from which comes "Float", an alluring composition by another drummer, Cindy Blackman.
The 1940 song "Don't Worry 'Bout Me" is often taken at a stately pace to underline the poignancy of the vulnerable lyric. Tenor legend Stan Getz treats it with an upbeat nonchalance and melodious insouciance which suggest that really, we shouldn't worry about him at all. The sun is shining and he's cool. So, for that matter, is altoist Richie Cole on the obscure but attractive bossa nova "Malibu Breeze", a fresh, open-air track featuring some delightful, uplifting playing. The brilliant piano solo - the cascading notes glittering like sunlight in a summer shower - is by Dick Hindman.
John Coltrane took jazz to many intrepid heights and depths until his death in 1967 and it's the authoritative contribution of the grand tenorist that dominates "B.J.", a sprightly 12-bar blues. However the 1958 session was actually led by relatively unknown trumpeter/flugelhornist Wilbur Harden who disappeared off the jazz scene soon after this recording was made due to ill-health. His medium-bop playing has a pleasing warmth of tone and one can only wonder at all the music he never got to make.
By contrast, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson has made a huge amount of music in his career, over 40 albums between 1965 and now, mostly on the famous Blue Note label. Here we hear him in 1984 giving Tadd Dameron's bop standard "Good Bait" a good workout in the company of Branford Marsalis on soprano saxophone.
The most famous fanfare in jazz history signals the arrival of the great Charlie Parker and his 1948 masterpiece "Parker's Mood". Even after over 50 years, Bird's poised blend of the earthy and the ethereal, the blues and the bop remains a dizzy experience, hitting the spot every time. Like a cool mint julep on a summery day, as the song goes.
Drummer Cecil Brooks III is usually known for his fiery hard bop output, but here he delivers "Sunshine", a light, pretty melody with a Latin tinge featuring a young Greg Osby on soaring soprano sax and Geri Allen on piano. And if all these summer sounds have made you thirsty, perhaps we should go "Sippin' At Bells" with Miles Davis. Named after a real bar in Harlem frequented by young Miles and his bebop friends in the late 1940s, it sure sounds like a happenin' bolthole.
And hey, is that Miles again playing "Fly Me To The Moon"? No it's Russell Gunn, a trumpeter as much involved in hip hop as jazz though clearly influenced by Davis's classic lean approach to a melody. And does Sonny Stitt sound a bit like Charlie Parker to you? Some say he was an avid copyist of Bird, some say he evolved a similar style independently. Either way, Stitt could play real good, like here in 1981 on "I'll Walk Alone". Art Pepper was another alto player with a lot of Parker in him - here, for instance on the 1952 perky blues performance "Surf Ride". But like Stitt, Pepper developed an identifiable musical character before long, a cool astringency the beginnings of which can be heard even on this early cut.
Finally, two musicians who are among the most fluent players who ever picked up their respective instruments. On his own undulating bossa tune "Willow" there's six-string maestro Pat Martino at his warm-toned, sinuous best, producing musical lines which flow with the intricate naturalness of a stream through a meadow. Equally, Phil Woods gives the impression that there is nothing his fertile musical mind can imagine that he cannot effortlessly play. Obviously stimulated Michel Legrand's elegant melody and harmonies of "The Summer Knows", Woods delivers a tour de force of alto sax playing, over seven intoxicating minutes of unfettered melodic invention.
So that's that for another summer and another Jazz Express. But there's plenty more music where that came from. Be sure to swing by next time you're in the neighbourhood. We're always open and you're always welcome.
---Chris Ingham
Chris Ingham is a jazz musician, songwriter, contributor to Mojo magazine and author of The Rough Guide To The Beatles and the forthcoming Rough Guide To Sinatra. |
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