Monthly Archives: August 2009

Disc of the day: 21-08-09

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Tony Bennett and Bill Evans: The Complete Recordings (Fantasy 0888072312814)
It’s hard to listen to this with fresh ears – especially the first nine tracks, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, first released in 1975, and a very regular visitor in its vinyl format to my record player ever since then. It seems to me that anyone who considers being a jazz singer or a jazz pianist to accompany to a jazz singer should start with Young And Foolish, the opening track. It is some kind of pinnacle of both arts.

Bennett sings the song pretty straight, but with such control and such attention to phrasing, timing, and, above all, the emotional rise and fall of the lyric and the tune. This is not cool singing, relaxed as it may be (and when was Tony every not relaxed?) – just listen to how he moves the intensity up on “carefree days” and then gives it real welly on “bluebird has to fly”. This is a voice in soaring mode, for sure. And the heartfelt “I wish we were young and foolish again” from a man mature even then, has a real force.

Evans’ solo before Bennett comes back for the reprise in this just-under-four-minute gem is a small jewel in its own right – expertly formed, incorporating its own memorable little melodic fragments, a lovely exposition of the songs’ chords and harmonic riches and a highly personal exploration of Evans’ own feelings.

The whole of the Album holds riches like these, with Some Other Time, Evans’ famous Waltz for Debby, given lyrics for the first time by Gene Lees, and But Beautiful the other stand-outs.

The second collaboration, Together Again from a year later, completes the first CD in this twofer and starts with a graceful solo interpretation from Evans of the tune The Bad And The Beautiful, before Bennett joins him for a programme which includes Bernstein’s Lucky To Be Me, the Michel LeGrand classic You Must Believe In Spring (also the title track of an Evan trio album five years later) and another Evans original, The Two Lonely People. It’s all just as classy as the first disc and perhaps feels even more comfortable a pairing now.

The first disc ends with a couple of bonuses from the ’76 session, while the second disc comprises loads of alternate takes – five from the first session, the rest from the second – and is a real treasure trove offering fresh insights.

Just take Young And Foolish again, for example. It’s complete with the rarely-heard verse, and Bennett has a more whispered tone at the start of the chorus, as well as some lovely falling bends on the line “I wish we were…” before Evans’ solo. This solo, too, is a striking variation on the more familiar one. So, while many “alternate take” completist collections may only offer near duplicates of the eventually chosen version, this collection really does deliver.

In the substantial liner-note essay Will Friedwald highlights how different this singer and pianist collaboration was to what had gone before, even in Bennett’s own discography. This was not a singer out front being accompanied by a pianist – it was a meeting of two musicians in as perfect a partnership as you might find – then or since.

We thought the original albums were pretty complete – this release really is!

Rashied Ali 1933-2009: R.I.P.

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“Those were trying times in the Sixties,” said the jazz drummer Rashied Ali. “People were screaming for their rights, and wanting to be equal, be free. And naturally the music reflects that whole period.” In the two years he played in John Coltrane’s quartet, from 1965 until the saxophonist’s death, Ali revolutionised jazz drumming.

via Rashied Ali: jazz drummer | Times Online Obituary .

We were hoping to see and hear him in Birmingham in duet with Lee Konitz. Now we will have to go back to those classic Impulse! recordings.

Coming up in the autumn

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“The autumn leaves float by my window, those autumn leaves of red and gold…” Well, not quite yet, we hope – let’s try to get a little summer in first. But autumn features strongly in jazz and the season of mellow fruitfulness is always bursting with jazz deliciousness.

The Birmingham Jazz programme for the autumn has been released and features a wide range of players from some of the most illustrious veterans to the most creative youngsters just starting out.

For free jazz fans and those with an eye on jazz history, November 28 and December 1 should be added to the diary now. The former date is a chance to hear two great names long resident in the US avant-garde’s hall of fame: bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Andrew Cyrille.

They are two thirds of the Profound Sound Trio with slightly younger British saxophonist Paul Dunmall, and they were first brought together at the Vision Festival in New York as part of a Birmingham Jazz commission.

The latter date is a once in a lifetime chance to hear a duo of two true jazz greats: saxophonist Lee Konitz and drummer Rashied Ali. Konitz is the grandest of the grand old men of jazz with a career that stretches back to Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool sessions; Ali is best known for his work with John Coltrane near the end of the saxophonist’s career and when he was at his most adventurous.

So, for those who never had a chance to hear Miles and Trane, here is an opportunity to make a connection to those giants, and for those who have heard Konitz and Ali before, well, you know how special this is likely to be.

Before all that, other gigs to look out for in the Birmingham Jazz autumn schedule include Outhouse Ruhabi and the Tord Gustavsen Quartet.

I first heard Outhouse Ruhabi at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2008 and was knocked out by this fruitful amalgam of a young London jazz quartet with a double saxophone frontline and Wolof drummers from The Gambia in West Africa. It’s all masterminded by Outhouse drummer Dave Smith who has spent quite some time learning African drumming from the Wolofs.

The appearance of the word Quartet after the name Tord Gustavsen comes as a bit of a shock, but it’s an exciting one. After half a decade of recording and playing in a strict piano trio format, the Norwegian pianist and composer has added a saxophonist, Tore Bronborg, to the band, and there is also a change in the bass chair, with Mats Eilertson now in.

Outhouse Ruhabi are at the CBSO Centre on October 9 and the Tord Gustavsen Quartet are at the same venue on October 17.

Young Birmingham jazz musicians also feature in the autumn programme with the Morgan Brothers playing The Jam House on September 15 and Sam Wooster leading a quartet at The Rainbow on October 28.

For full details of all these gigs, keep an eye on www.birminghamjazz.co.uk

Disc of the day: 14-08-09

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Bill Frisell: Disfarmer (Nonesuch)
This is film music but, as you would expect from the iconoclastic US guitarist, it is no ordinary film music. Because instead of the film being a current motion picture, it is the old still pictures of Arkansas photographer Michael Disfarmer.

These are pictures of rural American folk, staring severely into the lens, unmoving and seemingly unmoveable. They have a kind of timeless quality, nostalgic Americana but also frighteningly vivid and present – a bit like the music of Bill Frisell, really.

He naturally leans towards his Americana and country side with assistance from Jenny Scheinman on violin, Greg Leisz on steel guitar and mandolin and Viktor Krauss on bass. The tracks are short and linked by recurring themes, some familiar tunes crop up among the originals – like That’s Alright Mama and Lovesick Blues – and Frisell continues to plough a most fertile furrow in unmistakeably American music.

Have a look at Disfarmer’s pictures here

Three reasons to head for Stratford

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A lot of jazz people take August off, heading for the festivals like Brecon, in Wales, or further afield in a wide range or jamborees, from the George Wein Festival (formerly Newport) in the US, or Oslo Jazz Festival in Norway to the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Israel, the Summer Jazz Bike Tour in the Netherlands and even MuzEnergo in Dubna, Russia. Yep, it’s very much an internationally practised art form.

But some jazz people are homebodies, which is good news, too, and some of them run Stratford Jazz. In a generally strong programme, this Sunday still stands out.

Leading the band is guitarist Nic Meier. The man with a trio of CDs out on the prestigious Naim label produces an exotic sound, strongly influenced by Pat Metheny and by Middle Eastern music.

Born in Switzerland, he now lives in London and in addition to conventional guitar he also sometimes plays a fretless guitar (yes, the mind boggles!), which helps him get that sliding, and microtonal range heard in music from countries like Turkey.

But it’s not just Meier who is the draw card to the White Swan in Stratford on Sunday. With Nic for this gig are Dave O’Higgins on tenor saxophone and Asaf Sirkis on drums.

O’Higgins was once the wild kid on the block; now he is one of the established players of the establishment, with a regular chair in the BBC Big Band. He has an extensive discography behind him, from lively small combo sessions of original material to a with-strings set of jazz classics.

With a group of dancers he developed the Jazzcotech project, and his most recent is a rambunctious live set that sets his tenor against that of mainstream US tenor man Eric Alexander. He might be a slim man of average height, but O’Higgins has a huge musical personality and easily fills a small room.

Sirkis, originally from Israel, enlivens the London scene and, in fact, the whole country in a wide range of bands, from his own trios and duos, but also as a long-time member of Gilad Atzmon’s band and more recently in Tim Garland’s Libra trio with the saxophonist and pianist Gwilym Simcock.

This is a very special back-room gig for Stratford Jazz, so there’s a £10 ticket rather than the usual free entry and raffle. But, as usual, it starts at 8pm.You can find out more at www.stratfordjazz.org.uk and it is heartily recommended.

Looking ahead, news from the London Jazz Festival is slowly emerging in an enticing dribble. Highlights so far include Sonny Rollins, Carla Bley, John Scofield and Tomasz Stanko, as well as two performances by Kurt Elling and the always-intriguing Bill Frisell playing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. To keep tabs on developments and to be alerted of booking opening, add www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk to your favourites.