Pat Metheny, Dave Holland & Roy Haynes - Question And Answer (1990)

Sunny (even though it was recorded just before Christmas) and swinging single-day session from a trio of absolute masters of their craft, effortlessly turning in five Metheny originals, three jazz standards and an Ornette Coleman cover.  It's a well-sequenced hour of uptempo material and some gorgeous ballads, in classic guitar trio format until the album closer - which oddly sounds like it's jumped in from a Pat Metheny Group record, but it's still a great tune so it doesn't jar with the rest of the material.

Pat's on fine form, Dave Holland rock solid and nimble, and the legend that is Roy Haynes.... just.... wow.   Sometimes I feel like this album should've been credited to Haynes first followed by the others, he's just so on point with every single beat and trademark cymbal/hi-hat flourish.  So well recorded, too - if a lover of jazz drumming was ever to tap me for a recommendation, they'd be pointed straight in the direction of this album.

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pw: sgtg

Pat Metheny at SGTG:
Watercolors
New Chautauqua 
American Garage
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls
Offramp
First Circle
Song X
The Way Up
and featuring Pat:
Dreams So Real
Shadows And Light
The Sound Of Summer Running

Lee Konitz, Miles Davis et al - Conception (1956 compilation, rec. 1949-51)

R.I.P. Lee Konitz, 13 October 1927 - 15 April 2020

The legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz has died at the age of 92, from Covid-related pneumonia.  He was the last surviving member of Miles Davis' Birth Of The Cool band, and had a storied career in his own right as a distinctive, melodic player and improviser.

This great collection was issued by Prestige in 1956 to bring together some 78rpm sides and material from 10" LPs.  The first six tracks in fact are the entirety of "The New Sounds" by "Lee Konitz featuring Miles Davis", a 10" released in 1951.  All of it essential early cool jazz and bop.

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pw: sgtg

Oliver Nelson - The Blues And The Abstract Truth (1961)

Simply one of the greatest jazz albums ever made.  More details needed?  Have a look at the all-star cast on the cover.  Still not convinced?  Download and enjoy. Six perfectly composed instant classics, with wonderfully harmonized main melodies each giving way to a round of solo spotlights, either in blues measure or near enough, and a sumptuous, reverb-bathed production.

The Blues And The Abstract Truth has always been a November album for me, ever since checking it out of the library at university, popping it in my Discman and walking through the darkening, windswept and rainy streets of Edinburgh listening to Stolen Moments for the first time.  Kind Of Blue, Blue Train et al became part of my life around that same month, but this album has stayed with me more consistently than any other from the 50s-early 60s canon.

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