The Sermon has been found

The Sermon. It didn't move me to religious ecstasy.

not terribly inspired

It took some digging but I found the album deep in my collection and it’s been spinning this afternoon. The trio is top-notch: Hampton Hawes – piano, Leroy Vinnegar – bass and Stan Levey – drums. You’d think that trio would be killer and on another date they would have been. On this night however, it just doesn’t come together. There isn’t that magic that appears when a band and the material is right. 

Maybe that’s the problem: the material.

I get that Hampton was looking ahead to years in prison and that may have left him thinking of the beyond but the choice to do an all spirituals album didn’t work, at least not to my ears. The music isn’t bad, it just isn’t as great as you’d expect from these three.

So let me give a recommendation since I know I piqued your interest about Hampton Hawes these past few days. What album should you buy?

I’ll give you options.

1. I spoke about the ‘All Night Sessions’ album and that’s a classic.

2. If that’s not enough, you could pick up ‘The Trio: Complete Sessions with Red Mitchell and Chuck Thompson'. 35 tracks of goodness that you could pick up cheap.

3. If you want to hear him in different context with a horn player, which you don’t get to hear often with him, how about ‘For Real!’ Harold Land plays some fantastic sax on this album. It’s also one of the few recordings made with Scott LeFaro who would join Bill Evans in June 1961 for his seminal Live at the Village Vanguard recordings (and die tragically in July).

If you want a taste, have a listen to the title track. It starts with Scott LeFaro walking us in and then comes the band. It's a swinging 11 minutes that I know you'll enjoy.

False Story About Hampton Hawes

a pity we lost 5 years of him in his prime

It's easy to hear a good story and take it as true just because...well...just because it's a great story.

This was brought to mind as I started writing about Hampton Hawes yesterday. I thought I had a great story to share about that album but it turned out that the story wasn't true.

Here's the untrue story: Hampton Hawes was charged with crimes related to his heroin use and was due to be shipped off to prison. The night before he was to go, he went into the studio and recorded a ton of music that was to become the "All Night Session" albums.

I liked that story.

The idea that he knew he was going to be silenced (musically silenced) because he was due to spend five years in the pen so he put all of that fear and anger and apprehension into that recording session. I thought that would make for great fiction and I even debated making a play about it.

But...it's not true. That's not the way it went down. That album was recorded November 12-13, 1956 and he wasn't arrested until his 30th birthday in 1958.

Now I can't even recall where I heard this false tale.

The true story is that there was indeed a period of tens days where Hampton had been convicted and had not yet been sentenced and he was free during that period. It was during that time that he recorded "The Sermon," an album of spirituals which wasn't released until 1987 and is still hard to find. I'll do my best to track it down and I'll report back, maybe over a strong coffee.

I write this since a lot of people, you and I included, are thinking about 'truth' these days and this story has me thinking that things I held as true could be completely incorrect and instead are just good stories masquerading as truth.

It happened the night of November 12-13, 1956.

I’ve written elsewhere about the scourge of heroin in jazz. (I should immediately add that it was the policing and criminal sentences handed down to jazz drug users that hurt the music during its height, not just death or illness from using.)

Surely we’ve all wondered what musical landscapes Charlie Parker may have discovered had he reached the age of 35. I know you and I have discussed it at a party once, years ago.

Hampton was so cool and so busted

I’m listening to one of the great jazz quartets and one you may not be familiar with.

Hampton Hawes was one of the great pianists of the West Coast scene in the 1950s. It’s easy to focus on the legendary horn players: Art Pepper, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Jimmy Guiffre; but the keys had no shortage of heavyweights: Claire Fischer, Russ Freeman, Jimmy Rowles; and Hampton Hawes was right there with them.

I’m listening to Hawes’ All Night Sessions album (Contemporary, 1956).  

It was originally released as three albums. The title is accurate. All of the music, seventeen tracks, almost two hours of top-notch jazz, was recorded in a single night session in Los Angeles November 12-13, 1956. It’s not unusual for jazz groups to make maximum use of studio time and get as much onto tape as possible and maybe the fast pace led to the recordings a vibrancy that lifts each track. You need to get your hands on these recordings.

Jim could play that thing

Jim Hall had a large role to play in the greatness. To me, he’s one of the top 3 or 4 guitarists in jazz and I’ve written before about what a fan I am of his playing. (I remember having you over for coffee and going on about his trio recorded in Toronto). He’s masterful in his accompaniment and during his moments to shine.

Here’s the band:

Hampton Hawes - piano

Jim Hall - guitar

Red Mitchell - bass

Eldridge Freeman – drums

Red Mitchell's no slouch on the bass and as for Eldridge Freeman...I don't know him. Lays downs some nice brush strokes.

Why did I mention drugs? The jazz world lost Hampton for five years beginning in 1958 after he was convicted for heroin charges. He was later pardoned by John F. Kennedy, but that’s another story. What song to offer? Toss a coin really but how about Hampton’s Pulpit. You'll see what I mean about the fantastic interplay between Hampton and Jim.

Let’s talk soon. Rodney called me and you won’t believe what he told me.

His name is Mose

'The young man...ain't nothing in the world these days..'

I feel I need to apologize for my mood last night. You wanted to hear some music and enjoy the Cabernet but I was focused on my petty issues. I'm overly sensitive, I know, I know. You'd think my 40+ years would have helped developed a thicker skin, but sometimes it seems like life has worn away what little protection I had and now the slightest breeze knocks me over. See? It is the next day and still I'm going on.

You really enjoyed the music and we didn't have much time to talk about it. I put on Mose Allison Sings (Prestige, 1963). I was surprised you weren't familiar with him. This album caused an explosion in the UK when it was released much like the Velvet Underground did in the US a few years later when they sold something like 5000 albums, but everyone who bought the albums formed a band. You recognized Young Man's Blues from the Who's version, which is great, but as much as I love John Entwistle, I've got to say Mose's version does it for me.

I look forward to the next time we get together, old friend, and I promise that I will be in better spirits.

This One's For Doris

Sitting in my car. Lunchtime. Shelley Manne's "Live at the Blackhawk" is playing. Wonder Why. Victor Feldman has a light touch on the keys in this one. The band's channeling the Ahmad Jamal Trio.

(Though let’s be honest: I enjoy Feldman’s playing, but it doesn’t have those astonishing otherworldly moments of Jamal.)

The season is finally turning over. I think spring is here to stay. A lot of change in the world right now. A new day job for me in a few days. A new book percolating and maybe ready to come out.

Lets agree that Wonder Why will be my soundtrack for the coming weeks. Upbeat. Cool. Relaxed yet propelled forward at a steady pace.


Turn off the news, sweet Doris. There’s nothing we need there today. 

Ahmad Jamal smiles, as we all do when we hear him play

Woody 'n' Me

Woody's deep into it

I love Woody Shaw.

Every time someone starts going on about how Miles Davis is the one and only trumpet god (remember when Tim went on about that? The whole Dark Prince thing?) I sputter and say Louis Armstrong! Art Farmer! Lee Morgan! Charles Tolliver! And of course, Woody Shaw!

My love for Woody came from his recordings with other leaders including Hank Mobley, Horace Silver, the early 1970s incarnation of the Jazz Messengers, and especially Mal Waldron's amazing "The Seagulls of Kristiansund" (Soul Note, 1987), which I will have to write about in detail some time soon.

I love that Live at the Village Vanguard album and it marks another concert that I wish I would have attended. I wish I could have sat there and had a dry vodka martini (does the Vanguard make a decent martini?) and let myself get pulled away by the 26 minute title track.

one of my favourites

Woody's playing is fresh and modern and to my ears, his songwriting places him near the top of jazz composers.

As I write this, I'm listening to "Night Music", which was the first album by Woody that I ever owned. The track is Orange Crescent. It's a great place to start. The fact that the great Bobby Hutcherson guests on the album certainly helps. Steve Turre, who might be the best trombonist you've never heard of, also adds some melodic fire.

Woody's recordings under his own name came in the 1970s and 1980s when jazz was starting (or continuing) its decline in popularity. I think that's the only reason he isn't a legend. Well, he's a legend to me. He was consistently strong and he put out some incredible albums including "The Moontrane" (Muse, 1974), "Little Red's Fantasy" (Muse, 1976) and any of the live albums he recorded. His Columbia recordings are also musts. "Rosewood" (1978), "Stepping Stones" (1979), "Woody III" (1979) "For Sure!" (1980) and "Untitled" (1981).

This is creative, energetic, beautiful music and I urge you to sample some of the riches that he left for us.

This is quite a list of incredible music, and all the more amazing is that he put it all out there before the age of 44, when he died tragically, but let's not talk about his sad end, okay? Let's focus on the music.

Albums That All Humans Should Own #9

I've never denied the fact that my jazz tastes peak in the late 1950s. I think a majority of jazz fans feel the same. How many books have been written about 1959 being the greatest year in jazz history? A lot of great music was made in the decades before and after, but if I had to pick only one decade of jazz to listen to until the end of my days, of course it would be the 1950s.

An example of a great album that I'd never listen to in that scenario, would be my next recommendation for Essential Album.

'Souvenirs de Django Reinhardt' by Django Reinhardt (1947) is my ninth pick of essential albums that all humans should own.

Man...Django can play! Anyone who is familiar with his music is rolling their eyes at the obviousness of my observation. Like saying water is wet. 

The thing that strikes me about this recording, beginning with the first track, Minor Swing, is how modern his playing sounds. He got incredible tone from that electric guitar and he sounds like he was loving this new toy he's been playing.

The story goes that he first played an electric guitar during his first visit to America in 1947, but wasn't terribly impressed with them, calling them "tin pots". Back in Europe, he had an electric bar pickup added to his Maccaferri, and that fantastic electric archtop sound is born.

I went on a tear last year after falling in love with this revelatory album and bought many of his recordings, but none of them reached me the way this did.

Maybe the gypsy jazz sound isn't for you. Listen, If that's the case, I urge you to put aside those preconceived notions and listen to this album. It will get into you. You are powerless to resist the vigor with which Django plays.

Recorded Live at The Black Hawk

buy every volume. you won't regret it

Tonight as I get dinner together I’m listening to one of my all-time favourites. I’m making pizza and about to spread some flour and decide whether I should open a Belgian or Canadian beer.

‘Summertime’ is playing. It’s been recorded hundreds of times and with the exception of Billy Stewart’s classic, this might be my favourite recording of it.

Manne is the drummer, but he doesn't dominate the recordings, as someone like Buddy Rich or Art Blakey can do. He put together a killer band and he let them do their thing. They were settling into a long stand at the club and they seemed relaxed together. They played like men who loved what the others on the bandstand were playing, and were uplifted by it.

Other than Manne, they're not very well known outside of jazz circles, though they were all solid West Coast players:

Shelley Manne - drums
Joe Gordon - trumpet
Richie Kamuca - tenor sax
Victor Feldman - piano
Monty Budwig - bass

This band is tight. They sound like they've been playing together for years. For me, the stand out is Victor Feldman, who I listened to a lot after I discovered this recording. An English musical prodigy, he was primarily a vibist and percussionist and the legend goes that he didn't play piano until shortly before this recording was made. I'm not sure if that's true, but I like the story enough that I choose to believe it.

Just now I realize that I have to track down some of Richie Kamuca recordings so we can talk about them next time we get together.

The lovely Blue Daniel just started. Such a great song, especially now that things are feeling pretty heavy at home and around the world.

Head over any time. Pizza will be ready soon.

Belgian it is.

Thinking About Flutes

After talking to you about Nathan Davis the other night, I've been thinking about other flautists that I listen to.

(Odd word isn't it? Flautist? Why add the A? Wouldn't flutist be just fine? English is strange.)

There's two tracks that immediately came to mind and I bet you haven't heard them.

you gotta love the cigarette holder...

The first is by A.K. Salim, whose name isn't talked about within our jazz circle, but he put out some fantastic music in the 50s and 60s. Duo-Flautist is a great track that has, you guessed it, two flute players, Herbie Mann and Frank Wess. One of the things I find interesting about Salim's records is that he doesn't play on them. What? How does that work? He's the arranger, composer and director of the records. Whatever works I guess. I suppose that's why he looks so scholarly on the cover of "Flute Suite". Duo-Flautist is great and if you've already started listening to it, you'll see I'm right. I recommend checking out any of his recordings. His "The Modern Sounds of A.K. Salim" combines his albums "Flute Suite" and "Blues Suite" and I know you'll like it.

The other track is by the great Wynton Kelly. I know you know the name since I've talked about him a lot and written about him too. His recording of Bobo is the other flute track that popped into my mind. It's a happy little thing isn't it? It's the first track on The Wynton Kelly Trio's "Undiluted"

I must also mention that one of my all-time jazz faves, the Great Paul Chambers, Kelly's longtime partner, is on bass. Jimmy Cobb is solid as ever on drums and then there's the flute, who appears only on one track on the album. It's  Rudy Stevenson.

Who? I hear you. Who indeed. He's not exactly a jazz luminary but he still played with a who's who over the years including Nina Simone, Grant Green, Cedar Walton, Duke Pearson, Lee Morgan, Herbie Mann and Junior Mance. He also named his son Wynton Kelly Stevenson, so I guess he loved his brief time with the Trio.

Tonight I'll spin something else and I'll give you a call to talk about it.

Tell Joe I said hello.

Kamasi Washington Is Back

...we always suspected he could walk on water

It was good to see you last night. I appreciated the book recommendations and the advice. Yes, I think  you’re right: it’s time for change, though it's easier said than done.

I neglected to tell you something that made my day. Remember how much I went on about Kamasi Washington’s The Epic when it came out a couple years back? I listened to it for two months straight. Most of us did. The voices, the grooves, the horns.  

As a fan of the bass, Thundercat's presence on that album helped make it for me. It was a huge album and it could have fallen apart under the weight of it's own ambition, but it doesn't.

the man they call Thundercat

The big news that I never had the opportunity to tell you is that Kamasi has new music out and it's as bombastic and brilliant as you’d expect. Be sure to listen to the two advance tracks he released. You’ll love them. Let's get together with a nice Cabernet when the album comes out and listen to the whole fantastic thing. It's another long one, looks like two albums unlike The Epics' three, but I have not doubt, judging form these samples, that we're in for another treat. May need a second bottle.

And about that other thing you told me: hang in there. Things will turn around for you.

Was Nathan Davis The Greatest Flautist?

Jazz Concert in a Benedictine Monastery is hard to find but worth the search

I can face facts. I know that jazz flute has a bad rap. It's easy to understand why. Maybe that god awful album cover of Herbie Mann's Push Push was the final nail.

You've told me that most people find it difficult to relate to that upper register that doesn't have that same soul as a saxophone. It's not easy to swing on a flute. Maybe you're right.

But friends, Nathan Davis could do it. The man could play any sax too. He could probably rock a kazoo.

If you're doubting me, and I know at least one of you is, have a listen to Uschimaus (from the album 'Jazz Concert in a Benedictine Monastery' (1972) or on the collection 'The Best of 1965-76') and your doubts will be cast aside.

The recording quality is pretty poor, but the band is stellar and they cooked in that Benedictine Monastery. They probably had some of those monks realizing that God was right there, in jazz all along.

yikes. someone toss this man a shirt

Well, Nathan Davis died yesterday, and that's another Great who's moved on. It makes me wish that I was religious like those monks and then I would have some solace in thinking that he's jamming in the great beyond. It would be a great band up there, or down there, wherever.

Who knows. Maybe I'll be lucky and the afterlife is a jazz club in permanent happy hour. Dollar a drink, top shelf only.

Listening to Miles With Sadness in My Heart

So goddamned cool

She went quickly and much too soon and of course, we were all heart-broken. You know the details so I won't get into them. I imagine you got an invite to next weekend's memorial gathering.

She didn't think much of jazz, but I liked her anyway. This weekend, since I needed as much comfort as possible, I turned to an old friend, Miles Davis's Prestige recordings.

It's a debate I've had many times in many cities and hope to have another debate soon: namely, what is Miles' best musical period. It's a great debate since there is, clearly, no BEST period. It's all a matter of taste. I love his earliest recordings with Bird as well as his fusion recordings, especially In A Silent Way.

Admittedly, I've never met anyone who would argue that the recordings from his final decade are the cream of the crop, though I still like his recording of "Time After Time" from You're Under Arrest, (or how about this live version?) but maybe that's just because I'm partial to that Cyndi Lauper tune. Now I know that many of you are groaning from much of what I've written in this paragraph, but I'll stand by Cyndi.

As I'm sure I've told you before, I'm partial to Miles' Prestige recordings. Great bands, great songs. Jazz doesn't get much better than albums likeas the classics Cookin', Steamin', Relaxin' and Workin'. The familiarity of these great recordings helped get me through this tough weekend. I could offer up a dozen tracks to prove my point, but how about "Ahmad's Blues"?


Enjoy. I hope to raise a glass with you again soon. Call me.

Excuses

Friends, I'm sorry it's been so long. I don't really have a good excuse. I could say that writers are typically self-isolating, or that I've been writing more fiction lately and less about jazz, but those aren't good excuses.

I've still been listening to a lot of jazz, which will not surprise you. I promise to be better at keeping in touch because I have so much to tell you. Nothing remains the same.

I forgot to tell you the name.

It was good to finally see you but I only have a moment before I catch this train. His name is John Young and it was his trio we listened to last night.

Also, I neglected to complement your delphiniums.

Say hello to Larry.

Let's Talk About Jim

the greatest guitarist in jazz?

It has been too long, friends. Yet even as I write these words I don't have enough time to express everything I want to say about the great Jim Hall, who I have been listening to almost exclusively for the past few weeks. We shall discuss him soon, okay? Over a nice cup of Kicking Horse or a pint of Sleeping Giant perhaps.

For now, be sure to listen to Jim Hall Live as soon as possible for it is truly a work of beauty.

Let's talk soon, okay?