mikeweil

For starters I'd recommend the great 1987 Denon CD "The Art of the Saxophone", which has Wallace encountering sax giants Harold Ashby, Jerry Bergonzi, Oliver Lake and Lew Tabackin, with the unlikely but fascinating and swinging rhythm section of John Scofield, Eddie Gomez and Dannie Richmond! Comparing him with other saxists in such close proximity is a good way to appreciate his originality. And the sound of this CD is excellent, to these ears!

I liked Rodney Kendrick's piano playing from the first note, and bought all of the four Verves immediately - I vaguely remembered having a listen to that Hip-Hop record in a record shop but being somewhat turned off by what I heard. Well, maybe I will re-check. I think he got those chords more from Randy Weston than from Monk - Weston was his mentor, and one of the Weston-influenced trio tracks would have been my choice for a BFT. With his dreadlocks and rather wild attire Kendricks didn't quite fit into the young lions scheme, as he reported in an interview. I remember Justin Robinson from the Harper Brothers Verve album and one of his own for that label - competent players all, but without without that special individuality Kendricks has. His were the CDs I kept ... if I want to hear good harbop, I'd rather put on a Mobley record.

The bass sound is the major reason I did not recognize Haden on this one - I understand this was released on the audiophile label of a manufacturer of High-end components, NAIM, and these often have a remarkably different approch to recording than other labels. They did not care for the sound familiar from hundreds of recordings, but had their own way of hearing this bass. The choice of notes reminded me of Haden, but that pedestrian walking is below the level I am used to him playing at - he's much more inventive on the Hank Jones Steal Away you mentioned. Turns out I sold all the Chris Anderson CDs I had - he is harmonically very sophisticated, and if you are into that, he's jazz heaven, but I prefer groove to that, and there he misses out a bit.

Thank you very, very much, Nate, for your elaborate comments. The most striking message I get from your BFT is that there is so much music happening, especially on the small labels, that it is virtually impossible to keep track of everything. And, having the oppurtunity to write a handful of percussion-centered reviews each year, and knowing that trade a bit, I admire your care and respect you give to this mountain of music sent to you for review - I am much more critical in details, as you might have noticed from my guesses. Some notes to individual tracks below.

After receiving a double CD with more of his beautiful piano music I felt the urge to start a thread about this too little known composer, and found out he was born exactly 131 years ago, on July 20, 1873. He is one of my top five favourite classical composers, although I know only his piano music, but this is among my desert island music. He was born in the South of France, in St. Félix de Caraman en Lauragais, studied law on demand of his parents in Toulouse, but his desire for music was stronger - he moved to Paris in 1896 after first studies in Toulouse - Albéniz was among his teachers. Details about his career can be found in any major music encyclopedia - the online portrait I had bookmarked seems to have gone. He moved back to the South, to Céret on the Mediterranean coast near the border to Spain after ten years - many cubist painters he had made friends with in Paris followed him there. He left only for performances of his greater works - 3 operas - which are very rarely heard; he is best known today as a composer of piano music - on that field he rivaled Debussy and Ravel during his lifetime, and was premiered by the same pianists, Blanche Selva and Ricardo Vines. His piano pieces are the perfect soundtrack for the warm and beautiful landscape of that region of France, "Cerdana" is my favourite, its opening arpeggio takes me to heaven in seconds. CD recommendations: A comprehensive 2-CD selection of all major piano works: "Sunflower Sea", Finlandia 8573-87181-2 (2001) played by Izumi Tateno, who lovingly took photos in Séveracs birthplace and plays excellently. Excellent sound, too. Cheapest introduction containing his two most famous cycles, Cerdana & En Languedoc, Naxos 8.555855 (2004, recorded 2001) by Jordi Masó, a Cantalunyan pianist. Cerdana & three shorter works on Pianovox PIA 543-2 (2000) played very well by Billy Eidi - there is an identical edition of this recording on another label - a little superior to Masó in sound and interpretation. My favourite is the OOP CD by Jean-Joel Barbier, Oeuvres pour piano, Accord 200322 (1988, recorded 1970 & 1988) Aldo Ciccolini recorded the complete piano works in the 1960's for EMI France, they were reissued on a 3-CD set that is available on Amazon Marketplace etc., but I found his playing somewhat less poetic than the others mentioned, and the piano sound too harsh. His complete organ music is on L'oeuvre intégrale pour l'orgue, Aeolus AE-10141 (2000) played by Michelle Leclerc on a Cavaillé-Coll organ in Paris, with works by Henri Mulet, Vincent d'Indy & Ernest Chausson. Most of his songs for voice and piano are on a Hyperion CD which I haven't heard but plan to purchase, it got very good reviews. I doubt any of you has heard any of his music, but if you like French piano music (Debussy or Ravel) or Spanish (Albéniz or Granados) you might like him, though he has his own sound with only resemblances of these. His music holds a special place in my heart, so I thought I'd share this, especially as I had this idea on his birthday!

What is the difference compared to the previous 2-CD box from Columbia Legacy? Better sound?

According to the CD Universe entry they did!

Received a 2-CD set of beautiful, well-played piano music of French composer Deodat de Séverac, rendered by a Japanese residing in Finland, Izumi Tateno. Ordered a copy of James Carter's Layin' In The Cut.

We should make that a habit! Would double the fun!

You can send your copy to randyhersom - see three post further up. Sorry to hear to have too little time!

He generally sounds to me like he is not that developped in his two-way coordination - I know this is a helluva thing to do - but maybe he is more used to play with bass and drums accompaniment. Playing piano without bass and drums needs a lot of practice to learn how to coordinate these two or more voices, and in his first solo passage from around 2:10 he sounds to me like he didn't clearly know how to get to the end of the chorus, the left hand sounds insecure. On the whole, he's not enough to the point, to these ears, rhythmically, in particular. I'm very ctritical about these things ... The saxist takes less chances, stays within certain limits, but he knows more what he can do and what he wants to do. I started liking this tenor player all the more after a few more spins of this track, he reminds me a little of Art Pepper, but with a softer attack. Who is this?

Forgot to mention I really dig this album, ALL players involved. My peronal favorite among Rivers' Blue Notes. I thought Sizzle to be a strange misconceived album. All tunes jump along in lively tempos without much diversification. I sold that almost immediately. Sounds like an underrehearsed one-shot studio affair, even though Holland and Altshul were frequent partners at the time. The Impulse Trios, OTOH, are all great. Good impression of how he sounded live then.

It's not a problem of his playing, but of the way he was recorded: From what I know from photos made in the Van Gelder Studio, Rudy used to place the mikes pretty close to the cymbals. Steve Ellington had his ride cymbal suspended very loosely on the stand, swaying back and forth at a wide angle, thus causing a phasing effect. If Rudy had placed one or two mikes overhead 6 or 7 feet high, he would have avoided this. The first Dave Holland quintet CD on ECM has Ellington too, if you listen closely, you can hear it but it won't distract you.

I remember seeing him live on some Frankfurt Jazz Festival - an unplanned appearance to take advantage of his band passing through town at the time of the festival. Nice music with an original touch. He was a prominent, important figure on the Polish jazz scene back then. But I never saw any of his records.

I haven't heard the Ellington Dreyfus but own several others - they sound spectacular, but compared to transfers from the metal parts I tend to prefer these. The Dreyfus remasterings have much less surface noise, more dynamics and thicker bass and clear treble, but lose on the natural room ambience the Centennial set has. The Django Reinhardt CD sounds great - I think their method works best with pre-1940s recordings.

That album with Stuff Smith is a nice one - the whole band swings their butts off, especially bassist Al McKibbon, who obviously had a great time playing that date. Lou Levy, Shelly Manne, Bob Evelvoldsen - all playing exceptionally well and swinging here. This was on a French CBS CD a few years ago. I doubt there is enough material for a 3-CD Select, just two I think.

WTF does that astrological stuff have to do with anything? I just think his astrological chart mirrors his personality - this way it works out nicely in many cases.

This is the Bill Evans I like the best!!!

Very much agree with you, Jim! There is no mention of Rivers in Michael Fitzgerald's Chronology of Art Blakey. As far as Rivers' tenure with T-Bone Walker is concerned - as a pro you play any kind of gig if you need money. But you expect different things to happen in this band compared to Miles' quintet with its rather open approach. Miles really may have wnated to be the "old man", i.e. leader of the band, and Sam's natural authority and dexterity and his bonds with Tony may have been too much. Furthermore, being a Gemini, there is always a tension between conservative and progressive strains in Miles' music - he wanted to take the music further out, but not as far out as Ornette or Trane or Cecil Taylor. And Rivers and Tony certainly could have done that - Tony wanted to play with Cecil at the time. But he was still so young and perhaps couldn't quite make up his mind. I think Miles was real mad at the loss of Trane, and Shorter was the closest, he had wanted him as early as 1960 when he had just joined the Messengers. But at the same time Shorter stayed inside enough to make it easier for Miles. I always think Shorter observed Trane's path and decided not to follow him, for various reasons.

Finally, my comments to tracks 1-7: Track 1: I like this kind of hoedown, the strings and they way they're used is nice - I appreciate humor in music above all others, and if it is really authentic musical humor I'll accept some flaws - but no flaws here. Would like to hear more of it. The tincans and tambourines are a nice touch. Who is this? Track 2: Some Cecil-ite doing Donna Lee. Interesting, but I probably couldn't take a whole CD of this. But this interests me more than most free style solo pianists I have heard. His witty approach makes it listeneable. Track 3: No idea who it is. Carla Bley's tune "Sing Me Softly Of the Blues". Almost a classical tone on the alto. Is this from a whole CD of Carla's tunes? Something to check. They take the title literally - that's what I always like, when there is some reference to the song title. I dare say it is neither Konitz nor Paul Bley. The cellist uses too wide a vibrato for my taste. It would have worked perfectly without the cello. Still very nice. I'd listen to more of this. Track 4: Saxes only, with bass and drums. Nice writing. They get it across to me. After the ensemble the alto soloist gets a little on my nerves. Would have preferred less alto and more baritone - I think the latter is more consistent in his ideas. Track 5: Starts out making me curious how it will proceed, but what follows is some modern Chick-Corea-esque theme for a jazzy tv commercial with neo-baroque leanings. I probably have heard too much of this kind, so blame it on my listening experiences rather than the level of the playing here, which is good. Still all of the elements here have been used more convincingly, I think. Track 6: Now that could be Konitz, or at least someone who likes him. Konitz' sound is somewhat more fragile. No that's not Konitz. Is that a tenor sax? The pianist plays some phrases that sound he hasn't quite made up his mind - some random chords not totally conceived. Nice idea to take their time before they really play together, but somehow the track as a whole doesn't convince me. Track 7: After some more listening, I'm sure this is Bennie Wallace. I couldn't listen to him all night - well I once did for a whole evening and it was hard to bear as his drummer was so unrestful - but I somehow like his jagged style. I have some tenor battles he organized that are very nice, and his monkisms are always good. Very nice BFT !!!!!

Never was in doubt ...

"Swingmatism" is high on my list as well! Agree on the Prez sides!

Great choice, one of my favourite Keith Jarrett albums! Will give it a listen.

Now that I at last find the time for some more concentrated listening, here are my more elaborate comments on some tracks starting from the piano/bass duo: Track 8: A little too pedestrian for my taste - The walking is pretty simple, not much feeling in it, very conservative, doesn't match his solo ideas. I like to hear more tonal painting on a tune like "Alone Together" - they certainly do not sound like it, but just play the tune and the changes. Track 9: Very nice - an album I would check out for more. No idea who it is, just a feeling I should know. That Dolphy-esque tune sounds familiar. Track 10: NMCOT - and definitely not Gato. This is a Paris suburb I will not pay a return visit. Track 11: Very nice two-handed pianist - don't see how he should be interested in the dull backing of the duo bassist from track 8. Still no clue who it is. Track 12: This has been guessed, and I have it, but listened more to his trio track, one of which I considered for my upcoming BFT. I like this pianist a lot - what has he been doing lately? Track 13: I'm not a fan of this unsettled piano trio style in the Bill Evans wake. I like a tune to be played, not just hinted at. I always have the impression they would improvise just the same stuff on a totally different tune. Track 14. Nice guitar trio, no idea. Would have to hear more to say wether or not I like him. Cool idea to play an ABBA tune - it's the way you play it! He sure does it well! .... oh - it's over so soon? Enjoyed it, whish I had more time for peaceful listening.