Stan Getz - Sweet Rain (1967)

Second Ron Carter post in a row, and another Stan Getz one following the recent Getz-Gilberto (link below).  The lineup on this breezy, nimble session from March 1967 is completed by Chick Corea on piano, whose compositions also bookend the album, and Grady Tate on drums.  

 

Right from the lengthy Litha, it's gorgeous late-summer bliss that shows Getz not so much in thrall to bossanova any more as having fully internalised Latin rhythms and influences.  A lovely mid-tempo take on O Grande Amor by Jobim/de Moraes does keep the Brazilian flame alive, and the album's first side closes out on the melancholy title track by Mike Gibbs.  Two lengthy explorations in Latin-inflected rhythms complete the album, lifted throughout by Corea's lightness of touch and the distinctive warmth of Getz's tone.

link

pw: sgtg

Stan Getz at SGTG:

Conception

Getz/Gilberto

Miles Davis - Live-Evil (1971)

First in a three-Friday look at some of the many double-live albums released by Miles Davis in the 1970s (already posted: Agharta, see list below).  This one does actually include short tracks of studio material, three of them by Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal and recorded in June 1970; Pascoal also contributes vocals, percussion and electric piano to those pieces.  All the rest are live recordings from The Cellar Door in Washington DC, 19 December 1970.  Joining Miles on stage were Gary Bartz, John McLaughlin (a quick end-of-residency addition), a rare electrified Keith Jarrett before he swore off amplified keyboards, and a cracking rhythm section of Michael Henderson, Jack DeJohnette and Aitro Moreira.

The album title, and a couple of the track titles, come from the mirror-text effect on the vinyl gatefold: MILES DAVIS LIVE = SELIM SIVAD EVIL.  Sivad is the first lengthy live jam - might that be Jarrett's (in)famous vocalising halfway through? Could be Airto.  What I Say turns up the tempo for an even funkier exploration - Jarrett sounds like he's about to play LA Woman in the intro there.  The brief studio tracks by Pascoal are mellow, drifting drones, and completing Record 1/CD1 is a studio take of Gemini/Double Image by Davis/Zawinul, which actually dates back to February 1970.  That last one adds Khalil Balakrishna on electric sitar, and all the studio material adds Chick & Herbie to the keyboard section.

.

Over on Disc 2, Selim provides a quick overture in the form of a Pascoal piece sounding similar to the other two, then it's Live Evil all the way in the two remaining long tracks.  Funky Tonk does what it says on the tin, with plenty of Jarrett grooves, McLaughlin solos and storming percussion.  To close, Inamorata is a great straight-ahead funk jam, with the "Narration By Conrad Roberts" being a brief voice-over poem near the end by the titular actor, for reasons I've never quite seen explained.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson
On The Corner

Big Fun
Agharta

Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson (1971)

Soundtrack to a 1970 documentary about heavyweight champion boxer Jack Johnson (1878-1946), and also just an incredible electric-period Miles Davis album; perhaps an even better John McLaughlin album, given the guitarist's starring role.  First released as simply "Jack Johnson", with the LP cover below, all subsequent releases switched to the monochrome image of Miles (which apparently should've been the proper front cover in the first place), and added "A Tribute To" to the title.

Most of the music on the album's two side-long tracks was recorded on 7th April 1970, with inserts from earlier sessions.  Wanting to put together "the greatest rock 'n' roll band you've ever heard", Davis chose McLaughlin, Michael Henderson on bass guitar, Billy Cobham on drums and Steve Grossman on soprano sax to tear through the spontaneous rock groove of Right Off.  Eventually they were joined by Herbie Hancock, who happened to be passing through the studios and was plonked in front of a grungy organ to further electrify the groove at its midpoint.

Yesternow is an altogether weirder listen, with Teo Macero wielding the tape blade for a concoction that even has a brief excerpt of Shhh/Peaceful from In A Silent Way in the mix.  The first thirteen minutes are a much more slow-burning piece a la Ife on Big Fun, then post-Shhh the track jumps to another completely different session from February 1970.  The lineup here includes Sonny Sharrock on second guitar (not sure if it's him or McLaughlin doing that volley of laser-blast effects in the right channel), Chick Corea, Bennie Maupin, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette.  At the very end, a calm orchestral outro features a Jack Johnson voiceover performed by actor Brock Peters.  Altogether, A Tribute To Jack Johnson is one of Miles' most scorching electric records, and one that deserves to be just as well appraised as the better known classics like Bitches Brew/Silent Way.

Original LP cover

link

pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 
On The Corner

Big Fun
Agharta

Colin Currie with Sam Walton and Robin Michael - Striking A Balance: Contemporary Percussion Music (1998)

An hour of great marimba & vibraphone-based music, released in 1998 to herald the fresh new talent of percussionist Colin Currie, born right here in Edinburgh in 1976.  The well chosen and sequenced programme takes in big name composers from Bach to Reich, with some lesser known ones in between.

The album starts with its knottiest piece, written by Tosh Ichiyanagi in 1982 as variations on a Caprice by Paganini.  Here, as with about half the album, Currie is accompanied by pianist Robin Michael, who also features on the following quartet of miniatures from Chick Corea's Children's Songs.  Currie is also paired on a few tracks with another marimba player, Sam Walton, resulting in a beautiful Alborada Del Gracioso from Ravel's Miroirs, a little bit of Bach from English Suite No. 2, and Reich's Nagoya Marimbas.  Lovely chilled weekend listening.

Alternate cover

link
pw: sgtg

Chick Corea & Gary Burton - Lyric Suite For Sextet (1983)

The 80s adventures of Armando Anthony Corea continue (prev. posts: Children's Songs & Voyage) with this September 1982 recording.  Winding up (for the time being; they'd reunite again from the late 90s onward) a partnership that began a decade prior, Chick and vibesman Gary Burton decided to push the boat out a bit and record this Corea-penned suite, accompanied by a string quartet.

What could've been, at the very least, an interesting experiment does sound exactly like that in the album's early tracks, to be honest.  Corea's always-exciting pianism and Burton's gorgeous vibes blend as beautifully as ever, but the strings can feel a little grafted on.  Not to worry though, as this is an album that peaks midway and then just cruises at that altitude through to its close.

The crossing point from 'interesting experiment' to 'absolutely lovely' coincides with IMO Corea's compositional highlight of the whole thing, Brasilia.  Sounding like a perfect modern-classical package that Erased Tapes' Robert Raths would give his eye teeth to get his hands on, that track and its follow-up, Dream, are also the two longest pieces in the set, giving the listener extra time to luxuriate in their brilliance.  In summary, a really nice suite of music for autumnal chillout, raised up to near-essential by the huge step up in quality in its second half.

link

Chick Corea - Children's Songs (1984)

A year before setting off on his wondrous Voyage with Steve Kujala, Chick Corea recorded this beautiful, intimate solo piano album.  The concept was to tie together several short compositions that he'd been accumulating since the early 70s into a suite that would "convey simplicity as beauty, as represented in the spirit of a child".  The result was 20 pieces covering a wealth of different moods in just over half an hour, the many subsequent comparisons to Bartók’s Mikrokosmos well justified.

Longtime Corea fans will recognise earlier appearances of a few of the pieces: Nos. 1, 3  and 6 are reworked Return To Forever themes, Nos. 5 & 15 appeared (with those titles already in place) on 1978's Friends, and No. 9 is Pixieland Rag from 1976's The Leprechaun.  On this album they all find their ideal home alongside the others, to the point where everything runs together so perfectly it's hard to pick out favourites.  Perhaps it's even counterproductive to do so (although 4, 6, & 10 always come to mind for me, for starters), as Children's Songs is best enjoyed as a suite.  And it's a suite with a great postscript on CD editions, in the five minute Addendum for piano, violin and cello.

link

Miles Davis - On The Corner (1972)

Someone mentioned late 60s-70s Miles in the comments recently, which made me dig this one out.  When On The Corner got its Columbia Legacy reissue in 2000, it became my introduction to Miles Davis' electric period - and holy crap, what a choice for diving into his post '68 journey to the outer limits of jazz fusion.  Already getting a hammering from establishment jazz critics for setting his sights light years farther than theirs, by 1972 the James Brown/Sly Stone-influenced Davis cared less than zero with On The Corner, its straightahead funk cacophony and its cartoon cover by illustrator Corky McCoy (Miles' idea being to appeal to a younger African-American audience).

If On The Corner was meant to be a record to groove to, that's not exactly easy at the outset, as the odd rhythm (the sixteenth-notes on the hi-hat are the key to following it) cuts in mid flow.  The title track - the first three minutes of the opening suite - is the kind of full-on fury that would lead to scorching live documents like Dark Magus and Agharta a few years later, with John McLaughlin's guitar and Collin Walcott's sitar wah-wahing like fighting lions.  Even as the larger 20-minute track opens up to give a bit more space, the subsequent sections deftly spliced by Teo Macero (wonder if he was ever aware of Tago Mago?), the groove doesn't calm down until the very end.

The head-shaking of the jazz critics continued as the rest of the album - that's 34 minutes - proceeded to hinge around one single bassline.  I must admit on early listens this did make me tune out, particularly on the 23 minute Helen Butte/Mr Freedom X - big mistake.  To follow these tracks closely is to hear infinite variations from the assembled players (Miles himself sticks mostly to electric organ, in his Fela-like lead shaman role), and an abundance of clever editing and other studio trickery, influenced by both Stockhausen and Paul Buckmaster  Essential, life-affirming deep groove music that the rest of the world is still catching up to.

link

Chick Corea & Steve Kujala - Voyage (1985)

A particularly gorgeous one-off on a label stuffed with them, particularly in the 70s and 80s, Voyage was recorded in July 1984 following a tour between these two Americans, the legendary Corea who was no stranger to ECM by this stage, and innovative flautist Kujala, making what would be his only appearance on the label.

Chick Corea is on fine form throughout these five tracks - three original compositions, interspersed with freely improvised co-creations with Kujala.  Bringing his sprightly upbeat pianism to the fore straight away (in a typically sparkling digital recording), Corea leads an energetic mid-morning skip to the beach on the lengthy opener Mallorca, originally written to be a guitar/piano duet with Paco DeLucia.  Kujala, who pioneered a kind of 'bending' flute technique that could take its sound closer to that of a shakuhachi, fills in the atmosphere like a gentle breeze through the trees.

The second 10+ minute track, and the first free improv, Diversions might inevitably be more abstract, but still sounds gorgeous throughout, particularly when Kujala is given an unaccompanied spotlight about five minutes in, after which he returns the courtesy to Corea.  We get more solo Corea at the start of the album's second half, in the almost indescribably beautiful Star Island, before Kujala returns a minute and a half into the next on-the-fly duet,  titled Free Fall but still full of gentle ease and repose.  The album ends on an upbeat note with one more Corea composition, Hong Kong.  In conclusion, if you were charting a voyage through the more unexplored seas of ECM, this might just be one of the singularly paradisaical islands available to discover.  Unreservedly recommended.

link