Nessa SPAM

[couw]

While readying to pull the trigger on "All Music"

so, what did Trigger say?

[Man with the Golden Arm]

When you pull the TRIGGER the least of one's worrie's is "what he sez?".

[charlesp]

Back up so any who don't have this fantastic release can order one from Chuck and those who do have it can add it to the stack of cds to listen to over the holiday weekend.

[AfricaBrass]

Lately, when I order a Mosaic set, I've been trying to order something from the Nessa catalog. So far, I've got the Art Ensemble box, Warne Marsh, both Roscoe Mitchell's, and the Fred Anderson.

I have been digging them all!

Especially Snurdy and All Music.

I'm waiting for the Air title that will arrive next week.

[Guest Chaney]

Issue #149 August-September 2004

Warne Marsh: All Music.

Chuck Nessa, producer; Stu Black, engineer; Steve Wagner, remastering. Nessa 7

Pete Christlieb/Warne Marsh Quintet: Apogee. Walter Becker, Donald Fagen, producers; Roger Nichols, engineer; David Donnelly, remastering. Warner Bros. 73723

Warne Marsh (1927-1987) was a thinking cat’s tenor saxophonist—his most vocal champion is Anthony Braxton. Marsh inherited mentor Lennie Tristano’s bias toward a light instrumental tone and long intricate line. There are stretches in his solos where accentual patterns fall as regularly as the ictus in lyric poetry (countering his dizzying ascents into rarefied harmony). But those improvisations are distended by all manner of temporal or harmonic field distortions that warp his orderly progress. He deals with the finest gradations of timing and chord alteration, on a micro-level, demanding close attention from the listener.

Marsh knew the subtleties of the tenor’s timbre, but never luxuriated in them. His wistful, vulnerable sound is rooted in Lester Young, but Marsh’s signature tone—fleet and almost breathy in the upper-register, more furry down below—has the fretful air of a man settling into a too-hot tub.

In 1976 he was living in L.A. and playing in Supersax, a quixotic band where multiple saxes played Charlie Parker solos in unison, when he and that group’s rhythm section recorded the splendid All Music, now reissued on CD with twice as much music as was on the LP. It includes five takes of “I Have a Good One for You,” a themeless romp on standard changes where Marsh methodically develops Henry Jamesian attenuations of line. On an alternate take of the blues “On Purpose,” he works up beautifully crafted sequences that sidestep or steer clear of generic licks, and there’s a quietly breathtaking “Easy Living” where he wrings a sublime paraphrase of the melody from deep within the chords, after playing only the four opening notes straight. Pianist Lou Levy is particularly simpatico, his Tristanic linear grace mixed with buoyant timing and effectively deployed blues figures. Jake Hanna’s cross-accents never disrupt his swinging pulse, and Fred Atwood’s period bass tone—partly miked, partly direct-injected, it appears—is not too distracting.

Two years later Marsh was paired in the studio with Pete Christlieb, a hard-charging tenor then playing in the Tonight Show band and doing the odd Steely Dan date. Steely Dan’s masterminds produced it, and though Marsh fans were grateful for a blip of major-label exposure, in hindsight it seemed intended more to feature Christlieb in fast company than to showcase an overlooked master. Marsh had teamed with compatible saxophonists before, notably Lee Konitz, but here a more aggressive partner and rhythm section (with Levy returning, on a brittle-sounding piano) don’t really help to draw him out.

Sound is problematic. Rock-style, the rhythm section is upfront, with the saxes at a distance, and separated enough to create a cold gulf between them. The tenors’ best moments arrive in frequent bouts of improvised counterpoint, like their a cappella break on a jam over “Love Me or Leave Me” chords (one of three bonus tracks). Alas, it’s one of several numbers marred by post-production special-effects endings, with the horns overdubbed, harmonized, or otherwise processed to sound more Supersaxy. The producers have been praised for their hands-off attitude more than they deserve. KW