Oliver Nelson: TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

[ghost of miles]

Nothing especially spectacular here, just good, warm, engaging playing from the principals, including Nelson on alto & tenor, Lem Winchester on vibes, George Tucker on bass, Roy Haynes on drums, and Johnny Hammond Smith on organ. One of those jazz CDs that made my wife go, "What's this?" when I was playing it the other day (in a good way!).

[DrJ]

Sounds worthy of investigation, David. I've been on a kick to expand representation of Fantasy Jazz reissues in my collection. With all the limited edition BN and Verve reissues, Mosaics, and hard to find small label stuff out there I have tended to grossly neglect the Fantasy Jazz holdings like the OJCs - due to their relative ease of locating them. It's like "well they'll be there when I'm ready" but ready never seems to come! So I've begun to include at least 1 or 2 of their titles in every batch of new discs purchased and I'm really enjoying discovering some dates that I should by rights have heard LONG ago - most recently PORTRAIT OF SONNY CRISS. The Oliver Nelson OJC stuff I haven't yet heard, like this one, is near the top of my list.

I love most of the Oliver Nelson I've heard so far, even some of his campy-er large group arrangements. The guy was a real craftsman in that department, and I think his soloing is vastly underrated. What he lacked in sheer chops he more than made up for in the ideas department.

While everyone recognizes BLUES AND THE ABSTRACT TRUTH as the utter masterpiece it is, it was SOUND PIECES (Impulse!) really turned my head around about his sax playing, and his collaborations with Dolphy (in the COMPLETE PRESTIGE Dolphy box) cemented his overall genius for me. Not an innovator, but a real artist.

[Chuck Nessa]

This was a big favorite in my dorm room. Haven't played it in a few years but have fond memories. Guess I'll pull it out.

[Chuck Nessa]

Dang, it's gone. Still have Meet Oliver Nelson and Screamin' the Blues so I pulled them out.

[JSngry]

I love most of the Oliver Nelson I've heard so far, even some of his campy-er large group arrangements.

Just curious which of Oliver's big-band charts you've heard that were "campy".

I mean, I'm a HUGE fan, but I'll be the first to admit that he overextended himself and wrote a lot of things that were somewhat perfunctory and/or skeletal, but "campy" is not an adjective that has ever come to mind. Except for maybe some of the TV scores he wrote, and even then, that's camp by context, not content.

Not looking to pick a fight or start a debate, just curious about that choice of words, that's all.

The thing about his writing and playing alike that I really dig is that it's all "polite" on the outside (usually), yet seethingly, broodingly, dangerously even, tense/intense on the inside. His playing's like that "figuratively", and his writing is like that explicitly - if you just pay attention to the lead lines, sometimest it'll seem kinda "eh...". but listen to the inner voices underneath those lead lines, and WHOA NELLY, we got us one unsettled mofo here! And when he did let the mask fall (which wasn't really all that often - you gotta wonder if that was a contributing factor, besides the oft-cited "overworked", to his death at the tragically young age of 43), you got the power head on. And it was not a gentle power!

Yeah, Oliver Nelson is always good with me. Another good OJC is the three tenor side he did w/King Curtis and Jimmy Forrest:

Yeah Buddy!

Edited October 19, 2004 by JSngry

[Man with the Golden Arm]

One of those jazz CDs that made my wife go, "What's this?" when I was playing it the other day (in a good way!).

Isn't that what we all live for. The Freudian curse of a married jazz fan.

[JSngry]

Tex, do you have any faves among ON arranged dates?

Well, yeah.

First of all, you gotta find the Flyiong Dutchman BLACK BROWN & BEAUTIFUL (NOT the Bluebird reissue of the same name). That one is....whew.

Then there's THREE SHADES OF BLUE, also on FD, w/Nelson, Leon Thomas, and Johnny Hodges. A lot of this one is on the Bluebird BB&B, so if worse come to worse... But hey - you've not heard "Yearnin" until you've heard Rabbit play it.

Then there's the recently reissued SOUL ON TOP, by the Godfather & Louis Bellson, arranged in and for full glory by ON. Hell yeah.

And also w/Hodges, there's a Verve side by him called THE ELEVENTH HOUR, which tries to fool us into thinking it's an "easy listening" date. Nelson plays along, but breaks every rule imaginable in the process. Priceless, and to my knowledge, LP only, at least in Nonjapania.

LIVE FROM LOS ANGELES on Impulse has its detractors, but I'm not one of them, not even slightly.

I'll pretty much take a chance on Oliver anytime on somebody else's date if the price is right, and if it's his own date, the right price can be a little higher. I've been disappointed often enough, had expectations met more often than not, and been delighted enough to keep on going for it.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Yeah, Oliver Nelson is always good with me. Another good OJC is the three tenor side he did w/King Curtis and Jimmy Forrest:

Discog question? Is the version of the cut "Soul Street" added to the '...Battle' disc one and the same as the one on the Forrest disc by that name?

[JSngry]

Don't know. I only have the OJC LP.

[Chuck Nessa]

Discog question? Is the version of the cut "Soul Street" added to the '...Battle' disc one and the same as the one on the Forrest disc by that name?

The Prestige discography says they are the same.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Thanks Chuck. I finally got that darn AMG@$%%$#$@ thing to load and see now that the Forrest disc compiles three sessions. That tune "Soul Street" is SO Oliver Nelson but seeing that it's Forrest's composition had me wondering if it was a different version from the tri tenor summit.

[DrJ]

No fight implied, Jim. "Campy" probably isn't the best word choice in retrospect (hey, it was early in the AM my time!).

I guess what I was getting at is that every once in a while the big band arrangements he did don't sound quite as fresh and modern to my ears as they usually do, and sound a bit more rooted in the times. For the sixties, probably due to my own internal associations than anything "objective" or common to others, that can sometimes sound campy to me.

But I agree with your general points pretty much completely - and there's precious little that I'd place in that maybe "dated" category from Nelson (maybe for example some of the stuff with Jimmy Smith, very occasionally - although taken in total I LOVE those recordings as I mentioned on a Smith-related post recently).

I total agree about the power comments. I think one reason he made such a good pairing with Dolphy to me is that he had some really unique stuff going on with the inner voices and there was that sometimes barely concealed dark power.

Edited October 20, 2004 by DrJ

[mikeweil]

Thanks Chuck. I finally got that darn AMG@$%%$#$@ thing to load and see now that the Forrest disc compiles three sessions. That tune "Soul Street" is SO Oliver Nelson but seeing that it's Forrest's composition had me wondering if it was a different version from the tri tenor summit.

They used that track to fill the album of leftovers from the vaults - perhaps they wouldn't or couldn't complete the June 1, 1962 big band session with Oliver Nelson. There must have been some problems, as Forrest didn't record again as a leader until 1978!

[mikeweil]

I must admit that I find Nelson the tenor player even more appealing than Nelson the arranger - just my thing.

All of the Prestige albums he's on feature engaged playing and his unique tenor sound.

E.G. on his first Impulse LP Thje Blues and the Abstract Truth his solo on the first track always steals the show - noone, I say: noone ever played tenor like this!

[mikeweil]

Edited October 20, 2004 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

... and sideman dates with Johnny Hammond Smith, Etta Jones, Red Garland, Clea Bradford, Shirley Scott, Eddie Bluesman Krikland, plus a ahndful of arranger's dates.