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| Jazz Express Presents Autumn Moods - Warm Grooves for Colder Days |
VÁLOGATÁS
Booker Ervin, Charlie 'Bird' Parker, Clare Teal, Curtis Fuller, Hank Jones, Hank Mobley, Houston Peterson, J.J. Johnson, Jamie Cullum, Kai Winding, Kenny Burrell, Lester Young, Miles Davis, Stacey Kent, Wallace Roney |
első megjelenés éve: 2008
72 perc |
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| (2008)
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Kérjen
árajánlatot! |
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Jazz
Welcome to Jazz Express. If you've been here before you'll know this is the place where the music is just where you're at. If you're new, good to see you, you'll love it. This time round? Ok, so the sun's gone in and the days aren't so long. But look at those leaves turning to beautiful gold, take a breath of that autumn air and check out our fabulous Autumn Moods selection. See, there's an upside to everything.
What a mellow place "Arabia" sounds in the hands of master trombonist Curtis Fuller. Just two chords up and down, but when his fellow players get to work with it -include Benny Golson (tenor sax), Lee Morgan (trumpet) and Wynton Kelly (piano) - there's a wealth of swinging detail too.
Hard to believe the George Gershwin wrote "It Ain't Necessarily So" for his folk-opera in 1934 when you hear young Jamie Cullum taking the funky route with it in 2002. Not sure why he changes "whenever it's poss'ple" (rhymes with "gospel", see) to "whenever I'm able", but I guess the Sinatra In Sneakers has his reasons. This is the one where he hits the top of his piano like he's playing the drums, isn't it? That's gotta hurt.
Some blue chip hard boppers from 1956 on Blues Number Two. The leader is Hank Mobley (tenor sax) but among his estimable cohorts are Donald Byrd (trumpet) and Barry Harris (piano). Sure it's just a blues, but check out the extra chord changes when they lay the tune on you, before and after the made-up stuff.
That bruising, expressive tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin is the leader on this 1960 interpretation of "Autumn Leaves", but Richard Williams on muted trumpet makes an equally telling contribution. A hot, impressive performance all round, though the slight timing anomaly between Williams's and Ervin's solos suggests two takes were edited together to create it. Fair enough.
The weather may be frightening, but that delightful singer Stacey Kent still knows when her cup is more than half full on "Isn't It A Lovely Day". Just like Fred Astaire did in Top Hat, the 1935 movie where the song comes from when his partner in the rain was Ginger Rogers. Here, Stacey makes music with the equally elegant David Newton at the piano.
Another joint venture displaying consummate professionalism and style is the two-trombone pairing of J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding, heard here on a tidy 1954 performance of Johnson's "Blues In Twos". Johnson solos first with a smooth-toned legato bop style with Winding following, marginally brasher and fonder of the lower register.
Houston Person specialises in a tough-but-tender attitude to the tenor saxophone, an approach heard at its best on a ballad. Here, in 1987 he gives the musical equivalent of a bear hug to the song composed in the mid 1940s by pianist-singer Matt Dennis "Everything Happens To Me" in the venerable company of Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet). Bridgewater's muted horn solo sounds a little like Miles Davis, though not quite as much as the man himself does on "Little Willie Leaps", a coolbop classic from Miles's first ever date as leader in 1947.
Bringing the temperature down majestically is the guitarist Kenny Burrell who caresses his way through "My One And Only Love". A 1953 ballad heard by most people for the first time on Frank Sinatra's album Songs For Young Lovers, it's actually an adaptation of a 19th century melody called "Romance" by Anton Rubinstein.
"Teach Me Tonight" is an R&B-style ballad, composed in the mid-1950s when they were all the rage, and delivered her in suitably raunchy style by singer Clare Teal. Her blues-happy accompanists include guitarist Nils Solberg and pianist Simon Wallace. Always blues-happy was the bop alto genius Charlie Parker, here delivering a typically unsentimental 1947 reading of Irving Berlin's 1933 song "How Deep Is The Ocean" followed by solos by none other than J. J. Johnson and Miles Davis.
Piano man Hank Jones is known for his exemplary work as a great sideman on countless jazz dates, the most recent of which was an album of ballads by saxophonist Joe Lovano recorded when the master pianist was 84 years old. "Summer's Gone" - a bewitching ballad from the pen of Basie saxophonist Frank Wess - dates from 1955 (when Jones was a mere 37) and also features a fine solo from trumpeter Donald Byrd.
"Blue Lester" spotlights, of course, the glorious, sleepy-eyed-but-wise saxophone of Lester Young. Beyond a handful of classic riff tunes ("Lester Leaps In" and "Tickle Toe" among them), Prez wasn't especially known for his original compositions, but "Blue Lester" is an easy, ingenious minor lick, a perfect encapsulation of the deceptive simplicity of the Lester style.
Finally, "Blue In Green" is a 1987 interpretation of a jazz classic that first appeared on Miles Davis's 1959 album Kind Of Blue. Trumpeter Wallace Roney proudly displays his tonal and conceptual debt to Miles and indeed the whole performance – also featuring Gary Thomas (tenor) and Mulgrew Miller (piano) - alludes strongly to the original, metric shifts and all. The result, not surprisingly, is most haunting.
So, I guess that's all for now. Another set of glorious sounds from Jazz Express - plenty more where they came from. Be sure to drop in again, next time you're passing. We're always open and you're always welcome.
---Chris Ingham
Chris Ingham plays jazz piano and writes about popular music. He contributes to Mojo and is author of Rough Guide To The Beatles and the forthcoming Rough Guide To Frank Sinatra. |
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