Jazz to Play While Reading

It’s nice to spend a lunch hour in a comfortable chair reading a book. A pleasant break from the work day.

Sure, I can hear you say that I could read in the gym while pumping an elliptical machine, but at least I walked up to the third floor and found a spot near a window where I could warmly look out at the frigid winter chill while I read modern lit.

good and sweaty

I was listening to jazz as I read. Something that wouldn’t distract me too much. I needed to get away from horns and large bands that would pull me from the words. A piano trio was a fine solution. I turned to one of my finest countrymen, Oscar Peterson’s Trio-Live in Chicago.

The trio consists of:

Oscar Peterson – piano

Ray Brown-bass

Ed Thigpen-drums

Brown and Thigpen are seasoned pros and they lay down a crisp and mellow place for Oscar to display his genius. He’s one of the greats of course, though he probably doesn't get the cred he deserves these days. The Trio is definitely worth a listen. It would have been a great show that night in Chicago, 1961.

I can give you a taste for now. How about ‘Sometimes I’m Happy.’ 

Enjoy my friend and let’s talk tonight about that screenplay. A know a guy who suggested he could compose a cello-based score.

The Art of the Trio

Erroll Garner on the keys

I know you've heard me talk before about being a recent devotee to the piano trio. I am constantly amazed by the different sounds available to those three musicians. Today I was listening to one of the all-time classic jazz recordings: 'Misty' by Erroll Garner from the album 'Contrasts' (1954).

This song is such a classic that it would be easy to dismiss it, much the same way you could dismiss the Dave Brubeck Quartet's 'Take Five'. Dismiss 'Misty' at your peril! Some things are popular for a reason. It didn't hurt the legendary status of the song that Clint Eastwood made a movie called 'Play Misty For Me.'

Have a listen (and take a look) to a live version. He really did have a sound of his own. Perfect music for a blustery spring day.

Because you know how much I love to share music with you,  let's listen to the incomparable Johnny Smith's version. We need to discuss Mr. Smith some time soon!

The Best Pianist You've Never Heard Of

The best pianist you've never heard of just may be Herbie Nichols.

play it, Herbie

(If you haven't heard of the great Lennie Tristano I might place him first, making Herbie the second best pianist you've never heard of...) Friends, surely you'll remember those jazz cliches I have spoken about several times and Herbie fits the 'never received the acclaim he deserved during his lifetime' (he also died too young, so fits two cliches).

Let's make sure he gets plenty of posthumous attention shall we?

As I was driving west on Water Street this afternoon I was happily listening to the wonderful 'Rif Primitif' which displays his divine sense of rhythm. Truly a masterful trio. How did the jazz public of the 1950s not realize the genius that was recording at Blue Note? Was it just that he was one of many and got lost in the shuffle? 

Blakey brings the thunder

It took me a long time to come around to appreciating the piano trio in general.

Perhaps I had never heard the best ones and associated it with lounge music and always found myself missing the fire of a horn-player. I liked piano players like Monk and Brubeck but never focused on them in the trio format. Bill Evans changed it for me, and then I discovered that the piano trio offers the jazz lover a wide variety of soundscapes. Bill Evans offers a gentle mood with the bass sharing centre stage (especially in his recordings with Scott LeFaro), the exquisitely talented Ahmad Jamal is a joy to listen to (are you getting tired of me talking about the masterful drumming of Vernel Fournier?) and his exploitation of the dynamic range is astonishing, and then there is Herbie Nichols who is completely different. There is a logic to his playing; effortless and beautiful runs that I know you will appreciate. He seemed to have an affinity with drummers the same way that Bill Evans had with bassists. It doesn't hurt that Art Blakey, one of the two or three greatest jazz drummers all time (and I know some of you are at the moment shocked that I wouldn't immediately place him at #1 but you know that there are so many incredible jazz musicians and how accurately can one rank them?) played with him a freat deal.

Do yourself a favour and have a listen.

Albums That All Humans Should Own #1 & 2

Here we go, my friends. I am going to begin giving some essential albums picks so you too can enjoy the wonderful world of jazz.

On a weekend in 1961 The Bill Evans Trio played the Village Vanguard in New York City. The group had been together for a few years but this was the first time that they had been recorded with top-notch equipment.  The three men (including Scott LeFaro, bass, and Paul Motian, drums) had a interesting take on what a piano trio should be: they didn't want it to be a piano trio at all. The bass and drummer were not there simply to support the piano; all three musicians were equal.  Sure, the group had Bill Evans' name, but he was a star after his role in Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue'. The three men play together beautifully.  It is the sort of music that you can keep in constant rotation over the course of the day and create a gorgeous soundtrack.

My wife did this when she was pregnant and at home. Perhaps that's why our babies are so happy and mellow.

The trick is what specific album to buy... The weekend's performance (5 sets worth) was released on a few different albums.  You can get the entire performance on a three disc set 'The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961'. I think most people don't need that set (do you need 3 takes of All of You and two takes of Alice in Wonderland, Detour Ahead, Gloria's Step, Jade Visions, My Romance and Waltz For Debby? If you do, I understand completely) but why not save a few dollars and pick up the albums 'Sunday at the Village Vanguard' and 'Waltz For Debby'.

If you are trying to decide which one to get first, may I suggest you choose 'Waltz For Debby' since it has the stunningly gorgeous Some Other Time. Just listen to that incredible song! Does it have you rushing out to buy it right now? I thought so. I would love to know what Paul Chamber's thought of LeFaro's work.

'Waltz For Debby' (1961) and 'Sunday at the Village Vanguard' (1961) are my first and second picks of essential albums that all humans should own.

A sad note: these recording are all the more special because Scott LeFaro died in a car accident a couple of weeks after they were recorded.

He is woefully under-recorded and few aficionados doubt that he would have become a major force in jazz. His playing is unique. He spends much of his time high up on the neck of his bass creating captivating melodies and rhythms that help make this Trio so unique in jazz. Some say that Bill Evans never got over the loss, and even suggest that though he recorded voluminously  until his death in 1980, he never again achieved the transcendent quality on display on that day. I have listened to a lot of Bill Evans and have never heard an album that has me arguing against that statement.