Michael Fitzgerald

db May 5, 1966 p.25 Spotlight Review - Avante-Garde Summit * * * * * This is possibly the most powerful human sound ever recorded. Coltrane has collected 10 other soloists, each a distinctive voice in contemporary jazz. All hold in common the ability to scream loud and long. If the music coheres, it does so because everyone is screaming about the same thing. The album is a recording of a single work which lasts more than 35 minutes. In the liner notes, Shepp speaks of the music this way: "It achieves a certain kind of unity; it starts at a high level of intensity with the horns playing high and the other pieces playing low. This gets a quality of like male and female voices. It builds in intensity through all the solo passages, brass and reeds, until it gets to the final section where the rhythm section takes over and brings it back down to the level where it started at... The ensemble passages were based on chords, but these chords were optional. What Trane did was to relate or juxtapose tonally centered ideas and atonal elements, along with melodic and nonmelodic elements. In those descending chords there is a definite tonal center, like a B-flat minor. But there are different roads to that center." In the notes, Brown says that the music has "that kind of thing that makes people scream. The people who were in the studio *were* screaming.... You could use this record to heat up the apartment on those cold winter days." There are two things to consider here. The first is the actual experience these musicians shared in the recording studio on June 23, 1965. The other is this phonograph record of the event. Ordinarily we can accept these two things as one. The differences, though important, are not crucial. True, one had to "be there" when Horowitz returned to the concert stage last year in Carnegie Hall. But the recording of that concert captures enough for us to re-create the event through the music. In fact, the music transcends the event. The event has meaning through focused concentration on the quality of the music. This is not so in the case of Ascension. The vitality of this music is not separable from "being there." The music does not transcend the event. In fact, the music *is* the event, and since there is no way of reproducing (i.e., reliving) the event except by doing it again, the music is in essence nonrecordable. This brings us to a difficult subject involving not only this music but also much other contemporary art. In our growing esthetic, "the moment" emerges as sacred. The "now" is the reality from which a new esthetic of the religious is flowing. Perishable sculpture points this out to the observer. Musicians like John Cage offer variations on this theme. Present time has always been most crucial to jazz. Yet nowadays, as a revolution crystallizes, what was once merely crucial is now the thing itself. This revolution, the black one, has a vested interest in "now" as *opposed* to "then." The forces that spawned it are wasting no love on old things. The old order was "then." It passeth to "now." No one alive today can remember a more concerted cry for a new social being. Ascension is (among other things) at the center of this cry. The spiritual commitment to present time vibrates around Earth; the vibration is focused and intensified in music like this. To offer it on a "recording" is in some sense *against* the thing itself. Ascension is a recording not of an event, but of the sounds made during an event, and these sounds by themselves do not give us the essence of the event. If the listener is informed enough to be able to imagine what it was really like when this event took place, then the record may have meaning. But it would seem that a listener so informed would not especially need or want a reminder of another "then." It is my feeling that gradually there will come a music informed by the freedom and power of Ascension, but which has more artistic commitment beyond the moment of recording. Such music is already forming (although with less muscle - no music matches Ascension for sheer strength and volume.) The few moments when Tchicai is soloing constitute one of several places where this more subtle light shines through strongest. Distinctions are close; everything seems *about* to happen. Meanwhile, it is useful to regard this album as a documentation of a particular space of history. As such, it is wonderful - because the history is. If you want immersion in the sounds of these men, if you want their cries to pierce you, if you want a record of the enormity and truth of their strength, here it is. (B.M.) Mike

I was disappointed that the planned reformatting of the Bruyninckx CD-ROM wasn't put into effect. A sample (for the letter I) was included in an earlier installment. It used different colors, a better font (including bold typeface for some things) and other methods to present the information more clearly. The latest version is still basically in typewritten mode (Courier font) with underlines or ALL CAPS to distinguish certain elements. I hope the 2007 one does make the change. For those serious about discography, the Raben CD-ROM looks good. Like the Bruyninckx, it's in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. Just one file for the whole volume 8 (Fre-Gi) plus a couple auxiliary files. It has information (both new sessions as well as details about old sessions) that is found in neither Lord nor Bruyninckx (and certainly not Jepsen). Raben has long had a reputation for being the more accurate general discography and this holds true. Support this project so that it might continue in the face of quicker, but sloppier products. $25 from http://www.storyville-records.com/book.html . Mike

There were two tours Bird made with Kenton. Hence, the different alto players. Mike

Any of her solo albums would be a good entry point. Unfortunately the earlier ones are out of print. Your decision might consider whether you prefer large or small group music. She's got examples of big band, strings, quintet, quartet, trio, solo - stuff with vocals, stuff with percussion - a lot of variety. But I think if you like one record, you'll like the rest. Please see the Renee Rosnes discography on my website. Mike

Erik Raben was designated as the successor to Jepsen, who declined to continue after he completed the eleven volumes of Jazz Records 1942-196X. He died in 1981. A bootleg edition of Jepsen was published in 1986 (straight photocopy). The first edition of the Raben update (Jazz Records 1942-1980) was published in 1989. Mike

Got mine yesterday, haven't yet explored. Walter Bruyninckx mentions that the 2007 revision/update will be his last discographical work. His son, Lucien and Domi Truffandier may continue but this hasn't been decided. In the same package I got the vol. 8 of the Erik Raben discography Jazz Records 1942-1980 on CD-ROM. Looking forward to digging into these this weekend. Mike

That's a New Jazz record by Herbie Mann. Out as OJC CD 900. Mike

Yep

Well, pretty sure that Gunther Schuller conducted *all* performances of Epitaph..... Mike

Right - Stretch. I saw them a couple of times and somewhere around here I have that bluish colored album. Mike

Yes - that name is ringing a bell. Can't quite place it now. Mike

Definitely not. Steve was recording with Rutgers University folks like James Spaulding (1976), Kenny Barron (1980), and Ted Dunbar (1980). Subsequent to those, he recorded with Mickey Bass, Fathead Newman, Bobby Watson, Mulgrew Miller, Donald Brown, Geoff Keezer, Lewis Nash, Tony Reedus, Ray Drummond, and he had also done 3 albums of his own - all of this before 1990. Those guys are high profile in my book. Mike

If you're claiming something from 1985 is the first rock boxed set, you must have some hidden stipulations that need to be laid out - are we talking CD only? As I mentioned earlier, the boxed set "Phases" by The Who was issued in 1981 and there are certainly earlier examples - for instance, I have a boxed set on Capitol (STCR-288) from sometime in the early 1970s, I'd say (green label). The cover states: the significant works of a perceptively creative musical era... 3 complete records of sensory experiences sensationally created by The Steve Miller Band ("Sailor") The Band ("Music From Big Pink") Quicksilver Messenger Service And then of course there's the Chicago: Live At Carnegie Hall Volumes I, II, III & IV boxed set - from 1972 (I can tell because it's got The Fifty State Voter Registration Laws - 1972 as an insert). Mike

According to the listing here: http://jazzlabels.klacto.net/pacific.html compiled by Francois Ziegler and Pacific Jazz expert Jim Harrod, this LP was never issued. It was to be a reissue of Swing M 33.325 - the contents of which are listed in Lord (session H294-4). Mike

"The Who and The Band should be possible to do in 4 CDs" - ?? You are comparing this with the Cream boxed set - that's complete, is it not? Cream was in existence for under three years. The Who started a year earlier and lasted *ten* years after - plus a four year addendum (anything past 1982 is off limits in my book) - with pretty much everything from 1969 to 1978 being a "classic" (including two double-Lp epics). Which is not to say that pre-Tommy material isn't worth considering, it's just much less consistent. Compared to The Rolling Stones, The Who wins hands down for consistency. These are bands for which serious fans want to own *every* album. (BTW, it should be noted that there was a serious boxed set of The Who - it was titled "Phases" and came out in 1981. It was 11 LPs - the first 9 albums, complete.) Anthologies just don't do it. Now, a rarities boxed set would be different. Just keep the "regular" stuff off it. Mike

Details on all Duke Pearson recordings may be found on my website. Bob Cranshaw & Mickey Roker, in this case. Mike

And I'll put in a good word for Kenny Barron's "Voyage" - recorded by Stan Getz, Benny Golson and many others. Mike

That was filmed too, right? There was also a live broadcast from the Chicago Jazz Festival - 1990, I think. I caught Epitaph live in Damrosch Park, NYC on August 28, 1990. Mike

Buddy Childers. Mike

Kloss was still active last I heard, a couple of years ago. Fred Rogers was a great man. His bachelor's degree was in music composition and he considered himself first and foremost a songwriter . http://www.misterrogers.org/mister_rogers_.../songs_main.asp A far cry from the b.s. being shoved down the throats of children on today's new TV. Mike

So was Joe Van Battle still recording around 1957? Everything I've seen seems to be talking late 1940s-early 1950s. I'll try to investigate further tonight. Yes, Fred Cohen emailed me the info on the Transition stuff. Need to follow up on that. Thanks - Mike

My source was the error-ridden Tom Lord CD-ROM - certainly could be wrong, but the problems are deeper. The identical entry appears in the CD-ROM by Walter Bruyninckx (source of most of Lord's information). Haven't checked Jepsen or Raben. Wonder if Gallert & Bjorn have seen/heard this. BTW, actually the entry says Al Jackson (b) but I believe this should be Alvin, the brother of Milt Jackson, who recorded in Detroit in 1948 (with Elvin). 1950 is way early for some of those guys (no recorded Flanagan until 1956), but others did do things in the late 1940s. It seems odd to have that personnel in Detroit in 1957. Wasn't just about everyone listed in NYC by then? Flanagan and Elvin were with J.J. Johnson, Lateef was doing the Savoy records, and Burrell was signed to Prestige. New Uptown CD sounds like another winner. Mike

There's an earlier (?) session for what is, I assume, a small local Detroit label: J-V-B by Kenny Burrell and the Four Sharps (probable personnel is Yusef Lateef, Tommy Flanagan, Billie Burrell or Alvin Jackson (b), Elvin Jones or Hindai Butts (d). (Not too shabby personnel-wise right there.) Date is c. 1950. Anyone ever seen or heard? Mike

Looks like just one zip file to me. http://www.exactaudiocopy.org/eac095pb5.zip Mike

Paul Bley - Charles Mingus - Art Blakey Introducing Paul Bley, 1953 Debut Records. Mike