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Clifford Jordan: Any Love?


fasstrack

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These Are My Roots was already mentioned. I like it b/c it was a little off the beaten track with Leadbelly tunes (it was traditional blues-themed) and a bigger group sometimes. Weird choice for banjo: Chuck Wayne.

Then there's Remembering Me-Me, also with a larger ensemble and featuring on one tune Chris Anderson---on Fender Rhodes!

Wayne was not a weird choice for banjo but a logical one. His Wikipedia entry notes: "Wayne was born Charles Jagelka in New York City on 27 February 1923 to a Czechoslovakian family. In his youth, he became an expert on the banjo, mandolin, and balalaika." Apparently he kept up his chops.

What was the name of the Art Farmer Quintet recording with Jordan and Fred Hersch? They played The Smile of the Snake (Donald Brown), Santana (Fritz Pauer), and some Strayhorn. It's a beautiful recording. Just think of the blend of that front line.

"Blame It On My Youth"

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=art+farmer+blame+it+on+my+youth

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Weird not b/c Chuck couldn't play banjo, he could---and very well. I meant weird b/c he wasn't really a blues-type player. (Just one of the greatest guitarists to ever pick one up). In this case---with Atlantic Records---I doubt Jordan had choice over all the players.

These Are My Roots was already mentioned. I like it b/c it was a little off the beaten track with Leadbelly tunes (it was traditional blues-themed) and a bigger group sometimes. Weird choice for banjo: Chuck Wayne.

Then there's Remembering Me-Me, also with a larger ensemble and featuring on one tune Chris Anderson---on Fender Rhodes!

Wayne was not a weird choice for banjo but a logical one. His Wikipedia entry notes: "Wayne was born Charles Jagelka in New York City on 27 February 1923 to a Czechoslovakian family. In his youth, he became an expert on the banjo, mandolin, and balalaika." Apparently he kept up his chops.



>>>What was the name of the Art Farmer Quintet recording with Jordan and Fred Hersch? They played The Smile of the Snake (Donald Brown), Santana (Fritz Pauer), and some Strayhorn. It's a beautiful recording. Just think of the blend of that front line.

Mirage (a gem):

http://www.allmusic.com/album/mirage-mw0000187988



Yes, Blame it on my Youth. James Williams, not Fred Hersch. Rufus Reid and Victor Lewis. And the Pauer tune was Fairy Tale Countryside. Excuse my advanced case of CRS. The version of Summer Serenade is a gem on this. Perfect tempo for this tune.

>>>What was the name of the Art Farmer Quintet recording with Jordan and Fred Hersch? They played The Smile of the Snake (Donald Brown), Santana (Fritz Pauer), and some Strayhorn. It's a beautiful recording. Just think of the blend of that front line.

"Blame It On My Youth"

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=art+farmer+blame+it+on+my+youth

Edited by fasstrack
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That Farmer band also recorded 'PhD' for Contemporary. Farmer, HJordan, Burrell, WIlliams, Reid, Smitty Smiff. I never got sround to getting 'Blame it on my youth', but I got 'PhD' - very nice album.

I've also got, and ADORE 'Blue Head' - Fathead and Clifford live; done in 89 at Riverside Park Arts Festival, with Ted Dunbar, Buddy Montgomery, Todd Coolman and Smitty. Jordan has an absolutely cavernous sound on this one which flattened me.

MG

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Those few maple shade recordings I'v heard are some of the best sounding I've ever heard including Masters of Two Different Worlds and Live at Ethels

Of topic but the best one is Bluiett's recording with Mark Shim, Larry Willis and Jimmy Cobb, among others

The best sound Jimmy Cobb attained on record

Edited by Steve Reynolds
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I have a more limited window of love on Jordan. To my ears, he really found his voice playing with Mingus in 64-65. And perfected it in the Magic Triangle group with Walton/Jones/Higgins. I really like both of the Strata-East albums, especially 'Glass Bead Games", and the Steeplechase albums, whether under his name or Walton's. The Muse albums (except for the live one) sound very underrehearsed to me, as so many on that label do. And I found his playing to be very inconsistent after the mid-70's. But I will always have room for and greatly appreciate his peak mid-60's to mid-70's work, and do own the albums he did before that, though I have not kept the ones he did after that.

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Another plug for Glass Bead Games. I saw him play in Providence around 1980-81 with a local rhythm section, it was not pretty, unfortunately (the local guys just weren't making it, especially the piano player if I remember correctly). He signed my copy of Glass Bead Games then.

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Can you expound on the Mapleshade issue?

I don't remember the details, and can't find where it was discussed earlier here - it was quite a while back. But it had to do with Pierre Sprey recording sessions, holding them for a long time, and then releasing albums without compensating everyone. But like I said, I don't remember the details.

By the way, while I was searching for that old thread, I found two previous threads about Clifford Jordan. I kind of understand why some of the moderators harp on that - it would be nice to have all of this in the same place.

Edited by jeffcrom
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Speaking of musicians playing with Clifford Jordan and not making it: in the mid '80s there was a predecessor to the big band he reconvened a few years later to gig and record with. This one afternoon there was a rehearsal at the Jazz Cultural Theater. Jack Wilson wrote the charts-which were polyphonic and interesting as hell-and conducted. Vernell Fournier was on drums. Since Hal Dotson never showed I either volunteered or was drafted to play some bass lines and fill out the bottom of the rhythm section a bit. Clifford pointed at me for a solo too. I think I'd worked w/Vernell already by then. Anyway the young horn players, to a person, could not keep time. I remember Jack admonishing them to listen to the drums! Smoke was coming out of Vernell's ears! Clifford was silent and I remember feeling bad for him, that one of his stature had to play with amateurs even at a rehearsal. Afterwards I said to Fournier 'a little scuffling, huh?' He replied 'a LITTLE?!!' He was pissed. No wonder that was it for that band

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Clifford Jordan was one of the first musicians I heard when I fell in love with jazz.

Why? Because one of the first records that impressed me was the Mingus ´64 band in Paris. I was almost a kid then and didn´t know about many musicians, so each member of that band became somewhat like a hero for me.

I loved Clifford Jordans big tone, and I loved his solos which where rooted in the tradition but he could get beyond that too !

The next time I heard him on record was that 2 LP BN-LA thing "Blowing Sessions" (from the original albums Griffin "A Blowing Session" and Cliff Jordon John Gilmore "Blowing in from Chicago").

An I really like the 1975 stuff with the Magic Triangle, the albums with the Cedar Walton Trio.

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Clifford Jordan was one of the first musicians I heard when I fell in love with jazz.

Why? Because one of the first records that impressed me was the Mingus ´64 band in Paris. I was almost a kid then and didn´t know about many musicians, so each member of that band became somewhat like a hero for me.

Me too. My college library had the 3 LP set "the Great Jazz Concert of Charles Mingus", and I had never heard anything like that, and I became enamored of Dolphy and Jordan right then. I was 18, a freshman in college. That is still a magical recording for me, and I was thrilled when it finally came out on CD a few years ago.

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My lone leader purchase from Jordan is Glass Bead Games, which I very much enjoy and gets a ringing endorsement from a number of you here. I'll have to add to my Clifford Jordan section with some recommendations from this thread.

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Clifford Jordan was one of the first musicians I heard when I fell in love with jazz.

Why? Because one of the first records that impressed me was the Mingus ´64 band in Paris. I was almost a kid then and didn´t know about many musicians, so each member of that band became somewhat like a hero for me.

Me too. My college library had the 3 LP set "the Great Jazz Concert of Charles Mingus", and I had never heard anything like that, and I became enamored of Dolphy and Jordan right then. I was 18, a freshman in college. That is still a magical recording for me, and I was thrilled when it finally came out on CD a few years ago.

Hello Felser !

Great to hear, that somebody else had the same "history". I was also 18 when I got that 3 LP set. What a great start to get into the music. That kind of Mingus-Music could open you up for everything. I was still a newbie and Mingus "opened" me to Bird and Bop (Parkeriana), and to Free, because all the more "far out" stuff Dolphy played, and all that changing tempo opened me for Ornette etc.

About the mentioned "Percussion Bitter Sweet":

The first Max Roach album I got (shortly after Mingus) was Max Roach "Speek Brother Speek". And again there was "my old friend" Clifford Jordan on it.

Hey, if you want some great Clifford Jordan, check "Speak Brother Speak" (Roach with Cliff Jordan, Mal Waldron and Eddie Khan ! That´s a great little album, and Clifford is at his best, he really stretches out in similar manner like he did with Mingus.

And if you like the more "far out" Clifford from that period and also got some of the Mingus 1964 stuff, I´d highly recommend "Right Now-Live at the Jazzworkshop" from Juni 1964: At that time, Byard and Dolphy had left the group, so it was only a quartet (Mingus, Cliff Jordan, Jane Getz and Dannie).

I never heard a better Clifford Jordan than on that little album "Right Now".

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Clifford-Jordan-65-smallHEAD.jpg

Fortunately, I had my little B&O recorder with me in the control room. This is a direct line feed, but I was running quarter track on a 14" tape at 3/8 i.p.s.. so this speaks well for Bang & Olufsen.

DivShare File - Outhouse C_ Jordan 4.mp3

DivShare File - Highest Mountain - C_ Jordan 5.mp3

DivShare File - Malice Toward None-C_ Jordan 4.mp3

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