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Charles Tolliver Big Band - "With Love" (due Jan. 16th)


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This seems to have dropped off of the radar quickly. There was so much buzz about it the past few months, and now........nuthin'.

+++

Here's a very nice review from "Time Out New York" magazine:

Charles Tolliver

With Love (Blue Note)

Even while hunting for the next Norah Jones, Blue Note thankfully continues to honor its legacy by recording jazz elders. The label started ’06 strong with a stirring Andrew Hill disc that featured a fellow veteran, trumpeter Charles Tolliver. And the New Year brings Tolliver’s Blue Note debut as a leader, an exuberant big-band release teeming with inspired solos.

Tolliver’s large ensemble has garnered raves in recent live appearances, but it’s been three decades since his last big-band recordings (on Strata-East, a label he cofounded). With Love effectively erases the interim; now as then, the trumpeter favors hectic yet hard-grooving arrangements. “Suspicion,” a reworking of a tune that dates to the ’70s, features a brisk, Latinish piano backbone and blasts of piercing brass. As with much of the record, the track’s ensemble sections are bombastic, but their density nicely sets off the sinewy improvisations. Later in “Suspicion,” Tolliver engages drummer Victor Lewis in a high-wire duet that showcases the trumpeter’s trademark tone—robust yet slightly blurred—and funky rhythmic flow.

The leader plays brilliantly throughout, but his costars nearly upstage him. The alternating piano soloists are on fire: Tolliver’s longtime associate Stanley Cowell displays his blues-drenched virtuosity on “Mournin’ Variations,” while the young Robert Glasper builds to a head-spinning prismatic climax on “Rejoicin’.” These maverick voices balance out the flashy charts, yielding a rare example of a comeback session that truly crackles. — Hank Shteamer

The Charles Tolliver Big Band plays Jazz Standard Tue 30–Feb 3.

Edited by BFrank
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This seems to have dropped off of the radar quickly. There was so much buzz about it the past few months, and now........nuthin'.

I hope you're wrong about this. It's getting written up quite a bit and they are mostly very good to excellent reveiws (it was even reviewed in Entertainment Weekly). Maybe you organissimo guys are just so ahead of the curve that this CD is already old news to you as the rest of the world is just discovering it. Hopefully it's not because no one buys CDs anymore.

As for the recording quality, it is loud but it is a loud band, I would think that even in this day of things recorded usually on the safe side that a balls to the wall big band can still be recorded as such instead of having the life drained out of it. So, yes, it's loud. It was loud when we were recording it (I swore the walls were shaking a few times) and it felt more like a live situation than a recording situation when we were playing. My slight criticism is that perhaps it could have sounded a little warmer, loud is fine but it is perhaps a tad harsh in spots and could have been a little warmer. I hope you all check it out though. I think it's a great CD and you should buy it on that fact alone but hopefully we can also send a message to Blue Note that will encourage them to continue to record this sort of music.

For those in the New York area, I hope you can make it out to the Jazz Standard this week for our CD release party.

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This seems to have dropped off of the radar quickly. There was so much buzz about it the past few months, and now........nuthin'.

I hope you're wrong about this. It's getting written up quite a bit and they are mostly very good to excellent reveiws (it was even reviewed in Entertainment Weekly). Maybe you organissimo guys are just so ahead of the curve that this CD is already old news to you as the rest of the world is just discovering it. Hopefully it's not because no one buys CDs anymore.

As for the recording quality, it is loud but it is a loud band, I would think that even in this day of things recorded usually on the safe side that a balls to the wall big band can still be recorded as such instead of having the life drained out of it. So, yes, it's loud. It was loud when we were recording it (I swore the walls were shaking a few times) and it felt more like a live situation than a recording situation when we were playing. My slight criticism is that perhaps it could have sounded a little warmer, loud is fine but it is perhaps a tad harsh in spots and could have been a little warmer. I hope you all check it out though. I think it's a great CD and you should buy it on that fact alone but hopefully we can also send a message to Blue Note that will encourage them to continue to record this sort of music.

For those in the New York area, I hope you can make it out to the Jazz Standard this week for our CD release party.

David, I was referring the the buzz on this board, not in the media. I don't read many music magazines, actually.

Sounds like a "rockin'" session! Wish I could'a been a "fly on the wall" for that.

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Ratliff chimes in:

CHARLES TOLLIVER BIG BAND

“With Love” (Blue Note)

The trumpeter Charles Tolliver started his career in the early 1960s, playing with Jackie McLean, Art Blakey and others; he became known as a bandleader later in the decade, after John Coltrane died. At that shaky moment in jazz Mr. Tolliver was an exciting, undefinable force in its mainstream, holding fast against abstraction and electric music, pushing out well-balanced phrases with the ferocious zeal of late Coltrane.

Mr. Tolliver started writing big-band music for a few years in the early ’70s, then stopped and became less visible in general. In 2003 he formed his 20-piece group and jumped back in with gusto. His new big-band record, “With Love,” sounds like the work of a man who has been in storage for a long while and is ready to fight.

The band, performing at the Jazz Standard tomorrow through Saturday, is brash, powerful and immediate, with blasts of high brass and sharp drum fills. Mr. Tolliver’s arrangements are reasonably complicated but direct; you can almost hear his furious conducting gestures.

His music here represents a time when jazz wasn’t so tricked-up and self-doubting. Instead there are modern-jazz basics, done earnestly and energetically: quartal harmonies, call-and-response arrangements and a slug-it-out rearrangement of Monk’s “ ’Round Midnight,” taking the song through different moods and tempos.

“With Love” has a comparatively old-school rhythm section in the bassist Cecil McBee and the drummer Victor Lewis; a young, iconoclastic pianist in Robert Glasper (whose improvisations in “Rejoicin’ ” and “Right Now” are squirrelly, hyperactive, exciting things) and a brilliant lead trumpeter in Mr. Tolliver, whose bright, almost shattering sound takes over in several solos.

There’s something strangely manifestolike about this album. It isn’t preservationist or pedantic. It isn’t protecting anything; it’s having too much fun for that. But it demonstrates what we may be missing if we completely abandon the viscerally exciting qualities in jazz big bands that were important not so long ago. BEN RATLIFF

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Tom Hull (www.tomhull.com) review:

Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love (2006 [2007], Blue Note/Mosaic): I reckon that Tolliver's reemergence is a dividend of Andrew Hill's accession to living legend status, given the trumpeter's prominence on Hill records old and new. Tolliver appeared on numerous avant-leaning Blue Note recordings in the late '60s, but his own work was limited to his own very limited Strata East label -- The Ringer (1969) is a personal favorite, but it's about the only one I know. (I haven't heard the recent 3-CD Mosaic Select box, which picks up live tracks from 1970 and 1973.) Tolliver's discography shows little after 1975, at least until he reappeared on Hill's Time Lines. Unfortunately, his new record is a loud and brassy big band thang. I don't much care for it: the high energy parts don't move me even when they're bruising, the solos lack finesse, and there's no groove to hang things on. It will be interesting to see how this is received. B

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Tom Hull (www.tomhull.com) review:

Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love (2006 [2007], Blue Note/Mosaic): I reckon that Tolliver's reemergence is a dividend of Andrew Hill's accession to living legend status, given the trumpeter's prominence on Hill records old and new. Tolliver appeared on numerous avant-leaning Blue Note recordings in the late '60s, but his own work was limited to his own very limited Strata East label -- The Ringer (1969) is a personal favorite, but it's about the only one I know. (I haven't heard the recent 3-CD Mosaic Select box, which picks up live tracks from 1970 and 1973.) Tolliver's discography shows little after 1975, at least until he reappeared on Hill's Time Lines. Unfortunately, his new record is a loud and brassy big band thang. I don't much care for it: the high energy parts don't move me even when they're bruising, the solos lack finesse, and there's no groove to hang things on. It will be interesting to see how this is received. B

Somehow, based on this review, I don't think I'd take this guy's opinion very seriously.

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Tom Hull (www.tomhull.com) review:

Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love (2006 [2007], Blue Note/Mosaic): I reckon that Tolliver's reemergence is a dividend of Andrew Hill's accession to living legend status, given the trumpeter's prominence on Hill records old and new. Tolliver appeared on numerous avant-leaning Blue Note recordings in the late '60s, but his own work was limited to his own very limited Strata East label -- The Ringer (1969) is a personal favorite, but it's about the only one I know. (I haven't heard the recent 3-CD Mosaic Select box, which picks up live tracks from 1970 and 1973.) Tolliver's discography shows little after 1975, at least until he reappeared on Hill's Time Lines. Unfortunately, his new record is a loud and brassy big band thang. I don't much care for it: the high energy parts don't move me even when they're bruising, the solos lack finesse, and there's no groove to hang things on. It will be interesting to see how this is received. B

Somehow, based on this review, I don't think I'd take this guy's opinion very seriously.

Not about Tolliver anyway.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Up for this thread, just listening to the CDs. Man, those trumpeters play high and loud ! :o Takes a couple of listens to really get into it (Tolliver has a truly unique arranging style - this sounds like no-one else) but once you do, this disk is happening. I agree that the bass is a bit under-recorded (looks like Malcolm Addey did the honours).

First time I ever saw a Mosaic for sale too in my local store. :cool:

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I caught a couple of tunes in performance at the IAJE conference last weekend, and yes, they were moving some air! In addition to that, I think the sound man had been mixing concerts all day (this was about 11:30pm) and had gradually gotten the levels louder and louder. So, even though the volume was at times physically painful, the band was playing that challenging music with great spirit, and a good time was being had by most (including me)! :P

was that david sanford and the pittsburgh collective?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Purchased today and just started to listen. Oodles of energy here; also, while this band has its own sound, it reminds me of Dizzy's '40s band, that "Let's all jump off a cliff" thing. Fascinating to hear how Tolliver himself has developed over the years. I might want to hear McBee more strongly/clearly, but from what I can tell he's playing his ass off, as is Victor Lewis, who does come through strong and clear.

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I caught a couple of tunes in performance at the IAJE conference last weekend...

was that david sanford and the pittsburgh collective?

Sorry for the late reply. No, it was Tolliver and his band. I was just doing some spring cleaning in my home office and came upon my still-sealed copy of the CD. I'll have to give it a spin tonite...

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Heard two track on the car stereo yesterday. My ears are still bleeding.

No kidding! :eye::eye: I just gave a listen to the whole disc, and I feel like I been beat up! It's just full throttle, non-stop (even the ballads, like "'Round Midnight").

Afterward, I put on Jimmy Heath's Turn Up The Heath to cleanse the palate. Swingin', ballsy writing and playing, but not nearly as rough around the edges as Tolliver's thing.

Edited by DukeCity
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Heard two track on the car stereo yesterday. My ears are still bleeding.

No kidding! :eye::eye: I just gave a listen to the whole disc, and I feel like I been beat up! It's just full throttle, non-stop (even the ballads, like "'Round Midnight").

Afterward, I put on Jimmy Heath's Turn Up The Heath to cleanse the palate. Swingin', ballsy writing and playing, but not nearly as rough around the edges as Tolliver's thing.

About bleeding ears, I moved on yesterday to "'Round Midnight" and the next track, and suddenly felt (though this may be nuts on my part) that the harsh way this is recorded (and the harshness is in Tolliver's writing as well) is the perfect analogue to how angry I feel when I read the newspapers these days. It's like an "Ode To Rove and Gonzales."

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Heard two track on the car stereo yesterday. My ears are still bleeding.

No kidding! :eye::eye: I just gave a listen to the whole disc, and I feel like I been beat up! It's just full throttle, non-stop (even the ballads, like "'Round Midnight").

Afterward, I put on Jimmy Heath's Turn Up The Heath to cleanse the palate. Swingin', ballsy writing and playing, but not nearly as rough around the edges as Tolliver's thing.

About bleeding ears, I moved on yesterday to "'Round Midnight" and the next track, and suddenly felt (though this may be nuts on my part) that the harsh way this is recorded (and the harshness is in Tolliver's writing as well) is the perfect analogue to how angry I feel when I read the newspapers these days. It's like an "Ode To Rove and Gonzales."

Hey, that could be quite the marketing strategy: "Charles Tolliver and his Big Band: The Soundtrack to our Lives!"

Could be even better for BlueNote's bottom line than that whole Norah Jones thing! :g:lol:

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Hmmmm....

I have this album and very much enjoy it, but however "edgy" the playing by any and all concerned may or may not be, I can't help but feel that it's an edge whose impact (no pun intended) has been somewhat dulled by the passage of time. All these cats (including Billy Harper, who is - is - one of my True Tenor Heroes) had more "edge" in the 70s individually and collectively.

It's still fine, worthy music, but it hardly stirs the "militant" in me like the older Strata-East stuff did (and still does on a good day). That inner militant still exists, but this ain't the stuff to stir it. What it does stir is a rememberance of militancies past, which is all well and good (and certainly welcome), but it's certainly nothing to get the job done on today's terms in today's world. Truthfully, it wasn't enough to get the job done back then either, because here we are, right?

But hey - Billy Harper is a Voice Of God no matter what.

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I think a lot of contemporary recordings just sound dull and lifeless in general, regardless of how vibrant the performers may sound live. Are they just using too much compression?

For the Tolliver CD (haven't heard it yet), I have a really stupid question: is this 'bleeding ears' effect less pronounced if you turn down the volume, or does it require the listener to turn down the volume so much that the music can't really be heard properly?

Bertrand.

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