Spending some "Time" with Dave Brubeck, to end the year (1959, 1961, 1966)

And yep, it's SGTG breaktime once again. Thanks for all your comments, and for enjoying all the music.  As to where this blog goes from here, I think it'll definitely just be occasional posts, when there's an interesting radio concert to share, or the results of a quirky charity shop haul.  The whole 'sharing a massive CD collection and writing about it just because I wanted to' thing that sparked this off is pretty much done & dusted now, and has been hugely satisfying.  Thanks everyone for being part of it.

To leave things for now, here's a triple header by an artist I took far too long to give some serious time to, starting in the annus mirabilis of album jazz: 1959.  The Dave Brubeck Quartet had made a name for themselves in West Coast cool jazz over the course of the decade, and were becoming influenced by folk forms experienced on a tour of Eurasia, as evidenced by a 1958 album.

Their smash hit album a year later took the 'quirky time signatures' USP and just ran with it, creating indelible instant classics like Blue Rondo A La Turk and Paul Desmond's Take Five.  Beyond these standouts, the Time Out album contains absolute loveliness like Strange Meadow Lark and Kathy's Waltz, and my personal favourite, the effortlessly cool elegance of Three To Get Ready.

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The success of Time Out led to a handful of sequels, so here's a couple of them.  First up, from 1961, is Time Further Out - subtitled Miro Reflections as a nod to the cover art.  The album's running order is structured so as to progressively add more beats to the bar, starting off with a pair of waltzes and featuring another couple of pieces in 5/4, as well as the 7/4 of its best-known track Unsquare Dance.  Brubeck's dexterous pianism and the rhythm section's ability to play absolutely in-the-pocket regardless of the meter continue to be absolute joys, as is the breezy melodic sensibility of this coolest of quartets.

 

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The 'time' albums then concluded five years later with Time In, credited to Brubeck only on the cover but still featuring the classic quartet within.  This gorgeous record makes more sparing use of quirky time signatures, and after the full-tilt Lost Waltz that opens the album tends towards breezier mid-tempo tunes that hone in on the quartet's effortless interplay.  Not sure if it's because Time In was the least familiar to me of these three albums (that were found together in a box set), but I've been returning to it the most for sheer enjoyment.  And that feels like as good a place as any to leave SGTG for the moment.  Happy new year when it comes, everyone!

 

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Tomasz Stańko Quartet - Lontano (2006)

Recorded in November 2005, Lontano was the conclusion to a trilogy of albums recorded by the Tomasz Stańko Quartet: the trumpeter, now in his sixties, backed by a trio of fellow Poles half his age, who'd continue to produce great music in their own right.  The quartet's expansive, cinematic feel for space and patient, at times near-ambient improvisational pace reached their apex in the diffuse, impressionistic music on this aptly-titled album.

At the album's core are its title tracks, numbered I, II and III, a total of 40 minutes of free improvisation credited to the full group.  Whether they were all recorded as a single session or as three separate takes I'm not sure, but the Lontano tracks provide the deepest expression of this quartet's spacious sensibility, the shorter pieces that surround them highlighting the spare beauty of Stańko's writing and more sublime playing.  Stańko reaches back to his first ECM appearance for a fresh take on Tale, and even further to his first appearance on LP, the muscular version of Komeda's Kattorna giving an upbeat contrast to sublime ballads like Song For Ania and Sweet Thing.  A masterpiece of an album that keeps on giving with every listen.

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Tomasz Stańko at SGTG:
Jazzmessage From Poland
Purple Sun

TWET 

Balladyna
Freelectronic in Montreux
Bluish
Bosonossa And Other Ballads
Matka Joanna 

Suspended Night

Neighbourhood (Manu Katché) 

Wolność W Sierpniu - Freedom In August
Dark Eyes
Wisława
Polin

Tribute To Tomasz Stańko, London Jazz Festival 2022

George Russell's New York Band - Live In An American Time Spiral (rec. 1982, rel. 1983)

Finishing up this little box set of George Russell's incredible music with the composer firmly focused on his New York Big Band, who we heard in their initial incarnation last time.  Only a couple of members from that group remained by the time of this recording at the end of July 1982, and the lineup here's as strong as any Russell band.  Just three long pieces: taking up all of the album's first half is Time Spiral, a Swedish Radio commission written in 1979.  Starting from mellow electric piano, it boils over more than once into a funk monster with plenty of scorching solo spots.  The rest of the album digs into Russell's rich back catalogue all the way to the late 40s, in a barnstroming Ezz-Thetic, and early 60s for D.C. Divertimento which gets a groove-smoking makeover.  Tons of fun from a firey ensemble.

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The rest of the "Complete Black Saint & Soul Note" box set:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Trip To Prillarguri

Othello Ballet Suite

Listen To The Silence

Vertical Event VI

New York Big Band

BBC Concert Orchestra / Marcin Wasilewski Trio - Tribute To Tomasz Stańko (live at EFG London Jazz Festival, 16th Nov 2022)

As the noted in the radio host's intro, the late, great Tomasz Stańko would've been 80 this year.  An ideal time for a tribute concert, then - and this one definintely delivers the goods, with the trio who worked with him for several years augmented by orchestra and special guests.  Since the Polish trumpeter's death four years ago, we've been left with a truly great catalogue in European jazz, and the impression (I certainly get) that Stańko just kept getting better with age.  His last few years are my favourite to return to over and over, and music from this period forms the core of the setlist, the elegaic melodies enhanced by the BBC Concert Orchestra in ways that serve the material well.

The first half begins with Yankiel's Lid and Street Of Crocodiles from Polin (links to other albums below), spotlighting young saxophonist Emma Rawicz.  To fill the essential trumpet role, we then get Avishai Cohen for the rest of the evening, starting with a beautiful rendition of the Wisława title track.  More guests are introduced by way of a duet interlude - guitarist Rob Luft, a recent addition to the ECM stable, backs singer Alice Zawadzki on a folk song arrangement of hers.  Luft is then the featured player as we return to Stańko's music for Terminal 7, to lead in to the interval - and I've left this 20-minute section of the broadcast intact for a change, as the announcer features clips of an interview with Stańko recorded in 2008.

 

Tomasz Stańko's early association with Krzysztof Komeda, mentioned in the interval, is also reflected in the concert resuming with the Lullabye from Rosemary's Baby, sung by Zawadzki backed by the orchestra. Stańko's own music for film and theatre is also touched on, with A Farewell To Maria and Roberto Zucco - good to hear from a corner of the Stańko ouevre that remains lesser-known (not least because those obscure soundtracks could do with being reissued).  Other than Celine, an arrangement of material from Suspended Night, the rest of the set returns to the Wisława album - Faces, April Story and then a brief rip through Assassins to close a superb concert.  Avishai Cohen sounds fantastic throughout, given the not inconsiderable task of stepping into Stańko's shoes; the Marcin Wasilewski Trio a perfect link to the composer in life (and Wasilewski is always such an incredible pianist), and well-chosen guests and sympathetic arrangements all make this a fitting tribute.  If you love Stańko's music even half as much as I do, don't miss this one.

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Tomasz Stańko at SGTG:
Jazzmessage From Poland
Purple Sun

TWET 

Balladyna
Freelectronic in Montreux
Bluish
Bosonossa And Other Ballads
Matka Joanna 

Suspended Night

Neighbourhood (Manu Katché) 

Wolność W Sierpniu - Freedom In August
Dark Eyes
Wisława
Polin

BBC Concert Orchestra & Guy Barker's New Jazz Orchestra - Celebrating Mingus (30th Sept 2022)

Broadcast of a tribute concert held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London just over a month ago.  Celebrating Mingus, in his centenary year, is achieved by the two orchestras and saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin not in a straightforward programme of Mingus tunes - as was the case with a previous tribute concert posted here - but through Mingus' formative influences, and a grand narrative work in the second half.

The concert does start off with a pair of Mingus classics - Don't Be Afraid, The Clown's Afraid Too and Us Is Two, freshly orchestrated by Guy Barker (as is the whole programme) and providing a punchy, vivacious curtain-raiser.  The tempo then comes down for a lovely Fleurette Africaine, and stays with Ellington for Money Jungle's title track and I Got It Bad.  This section, sketching out Mingus' early influences, next reaches all the way back to Joplin and an orchestration of Jelly Roll Morton's arrangement of Maple Leaf Rag, before returning to Ellington by way of Tizol for a great Caravan.

The single work devised by Barker that takes up the remainder of the concert is titled Mingus 100, and over 70 minutes paints the colourful life of its subject in vivid hues.  Far from being just a run-together medley of Mingus themes (although many classics are present and correct), the beautifully-arranged suite is narrated by Allan Harris, to a text by Rob Ryan.  Harris is a thoroughly engaging guide to the musical events, inhabiting the mercurial character of Mingus in all his joys, sorrows and memorable moments, turning the suite into something approaching a mini-musical biopic.  Just listen to the whole thing and enjoy, it's a wonderful tribute.

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Mingus at SGTG:

East Coasting
Jazz Portraits: Mingus In Wonderland 

Mingus Ah Um & Mingus Dynasty 
Oh Yeah

Tijuana Moods

Mingus Revisited (aka Pre-Bird)
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady  
Mingus Plays Piano  
Let My Children Hear Music

Mingus Moves
Changes One & Two
Cumbia & Jazz Fusion
plus:  

The Quintet: Jazz At Massey Hall
Blue Moods  
Money Jungle  

Mingus (Joni Mitchell album)
BBC Proms Tribute by Metropole Orkest

George Russell - New York Big Band (rec. 1977-78, first rel. 1982)

Getting into late 70s period Russell now, and starting to leave the Scandinavian era behind.  Not entirely though, as one track here - a great version of the Russell/Dizzy Gillespie co-write Cubano Be, Cubano Bop - comes from the same Swedish concert at which Vertical Event VI was recorded.  Otherwise, per the album title, we're in New York (possibly, per the album cover, at the Village Vanguard - the liners don't specify a venue) with hard grooving, bluesier material, especially on the vocal track Big City Blues.  A couple of re-arranged excerpts from Listen To The Silence, and one from Living Time, the 1972 suite released on CBS and featuring Bill Evans, highlight Russell's more complex work, and the album is rounded out by a piece from trumpet player Stanton Davis and an arrangement of God Bless The Child.

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Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Trip To Prillarguri

Othello Ballet Suite

Listen To The Silence

Vertical Event VI

Jacques Loussier - Play Bach (rec. circa 1965 - I think - this compilation dated 1987)

Charity shop acquisition that caught my eye a couple of weeks ago, that cheap 'n cheesy cover art instantly bringing to mind the hilariously badly-adorned 80s reissues of Tangerine Dream's first four albums.  This album is no more 80s-sounding, electronic or retro-futuristic in any way - it's a collection of jazz piano trio recordings.

Angers-born pianist Jacques Loussier (1934-2019) and his trio of bassist Pierre Michelot (who was also part of Miles Davis' Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud lineup) and drummer Christian Garros occasionally varied their repertoire, but are largely notable for one thing.  It's in the title of this CD, and in the titles of dozens of LPs released from 1959 onwards (why not run a good pun into the ground?) - yep, the Loussier Trio's USP was to arrange the music of J. S. Bach for jazz trio.  They did it a lot (including updated recordings of the same pieces), and they did it very well.

This made the random find of a 1987-compiled CD on the Accord label - with no recording dates or any other source information - a bit baffling at first.  Eventually I narrowed down, with reasonable certainty, to this collection being sourced from live recordings originally released in 1965 as a double LP titled Play Bach Aux Champs-Élysées.  The 20-minute Partita In Se Bémol matched an Aux Champs version on YouTube, and the rest kind of fell into place from there.  Oh, and one other head-scratcher with that particular track: it briefly pauses for applause just before the eight-minute mark; the disc plays a track split here, but the Partita is listed as one continuous track on the back and inners (the disc thus knocking the rest of the track numbers out of sync with the tracklist).  I've edited the Partita back together here to match the original release, and because Accord's 80s compiling standards were starting to give me a migraine.

A fun-ish week of detective work aside, this stuff sounds really nice, and works.  Loussier (or Michelot) more often than not plays a few bars straight, then the melody gets jazzed up a bit, then the performance spins out into genuine piano trio interplay.  That's about it.  The fact that these are live recordings probably helps focus the extemporisations into something next-level and highly enjoyable.  And there's undeniably something quite "purest source" about using Bach as a springboard for the melodic, harmonic etc improvisations of jazz.  Wouldn't mind exploring more Loussier in future.

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Frank Zappa - Petit Wazoo (live 1972, rel. 2006 & 2016)

Following on from the "Wazoo" big band, Zappa spent October and November 1972 taking a slimmed-down version of his jazz ensemble on the road.  This became known as the "Petit Wazoo" band, and in Zappa's late life and after his death an official document of this group became one of the most sought-after releases by fans.

Well, he had been working on one.  When the keepers of The Vault looked for Petit Wazoo tapes in the mid-00s to compile into an album, they found tapes cut, sequenced and mixed by Zappa periodically between 1972 and 1977.  This was released in 2006 as Imaginary Diseases, and has the unmistakable stamp of being Zappa's own concept.  A couple of short pieces lead into a lengthy minor-key blues, and the album's just warming up.  A belter of a Farther O'Blivion follows, including a great drum solo by Jim Gordon, then another slinky groove-improv.  The highlights keep coming in the form of the title track and the final piece, a jam from Montreal, capping off an extremely satisfying album of great arrangements and top-notch guitar playing.

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Plans for the 'vault release' of Petit Wazoo music were then shelved - for no less than a decade, for whatever reason (no less than 30 albums separate the two releases, so possibly the Zappa Family Trust just like to keep things varied, and certainly can't be viewed as stingy to fans, as new archive releases continue unabated to this very month).  In any case, Little Dots came out in 2016 as a vault-selected companion piece to Imaginary Diseases, and contained a couple of non-instrumentals this time: a fine but no great revelation Cosmik Debris, and a full-length (literal) shaggy-dog story Rollo.  

 

Added to this are more jam-based pieces from Kansas City and Columbia, and the two-part composition that gives the album its title.  All great to hear, and the players interact brilliantly once again, but I think the Zappa-conceived sequence of Imaginary Diseases just edges it slightly as an overall album experience.  Great to have both to listen to side by side though, as a two-hour insight into this all-too short-lived ensemble.

 

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Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Wazoo (Live 1972) 

Road Tapes Venue #2 (Live 1973)

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Total Immersion at The Barbican, London (live 2022)

George Russell - Listen To The Silence (rec. 1971, orig. rel. 1973)

Back to George Russell with another commissioned work, this time for the 1971 Kongsberg Jazz Festival, and recorded at its live premiere performance (with some studio effects added later) on 21st June 1971, Kongsberg Church, Norway.  Taking some lines from Rainer Maria Rilke, Maurice Nicoll, Dee Brown and snippets from Newsweek and the New York Times for its libretto, Listen To The Silence is a choral work calling for two choirs as well as jazz ensemble.  

 

The chanting voices get things underway before Russell, Garbarek & co enter to drive the music forward, and the work continues in this manner with the church acoustics giving the stentorian vocal delivery a definite atmospheric boost.  The instrumental sections are frequently more minimal and stripped-down compared to Russell's other work of the era, but this works in favour of the overall stark mood, and makes the Garbarek-Rypdal section at the start of Event IV all the more outstanding.  Subtitled "A Mass For Our Time", Listen To The Silence might be a bit 'of its time' in subject matter, but it remains a captivating listening experience to this day.

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Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Trip To Prillarguri

Othello Ballet Suite

Vertical Event VI

Miles Davis - Aura (rec. 1985, rel. 1989)

A suite of music composed for Miles by Palle Mikkelborg in 1984, and recorded in early 1985.  Contractual hurdles delayed its release until 1989, but it was worth the wait - Aura is nothing less than Miles Ahead for the 80s, lushly orchestrated but with the sound right up to date for its era.  Elements of rock, reggae and electronic music are all woven into the multi-colour suite, which is musically germinated from a ten-note theme based on the letters in "MILES DAVIS", a la B-A-C-H.  Sometimes eerily ambient, such as the opening minute with the calm broken by John McLaughlin introducing the theme, sometimes hard-edged and frenetic, Aura is a great album that finds Miles with plenty of spark left in him.

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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

Live-Evil
On The Corner

In Concert

Big Fun
Agharta

Dark Magus

We Want Miles

Weather Report - Tale Spinnin' (1975)

Percussive fireworks and melodic fusion from Weather Report at the top of their game.  In his only appearance with WR, Leon 'Ngudu' Chancler of Herbie Hancock/Santana/many others fame is the drummer, with Alyrio Lima handling percussion and the core trio of Zawinul, Shorter and Johnson carried over from the previous album.  Tale Spinnin' gets off to a flying start with one of Weather Report's most memorable album openers, Man In The Green Shirt, and grooves onwards with a sublime Shorter composition and another lengthy Zawinul piece.  It's not all funky fusion - the highly atmospheric Badia is a definite standout, with Zawinul's eerie electronics continuing the band's early experimental strand.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

s/t debut

I Sing The Body Electric

Mysterious Traveller 

Black Market

BBC Proms 2022: Marius Neset / London Sinfonietta - Geyser (3 Sept 2022)

The last post from this year's Proms is another world premiere, in this work composed by Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset.  Playing with the London Sinfonietta, Neset took his geologically-inspired suite from its calm beginnings to frenetic interlocking patterns with great solos and on to much more besides.  Don't take the track splits I've added in as necessarily accurate - this was mostly guesswork as only the first couple of sections are applauded, all the rest segues, and I had nothing else to refer to.  But do enjoy all the twists and turns of this incredible work, with Neset's core quintet blending wonderfully with the ensemble.

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pw: sgtg

Wynton Marsalis / Eastman Wind Ensemble - Carnaval (1987)

Been meaning to give Marsalis a listen for ages, so this charity shop find came in handy.  It's not exactly typical of his straight-ahead revivalism of pre-60s bop, though - Carnaval reaches even further back to pay homage to the brass bands of the turn of the 20th century.  Not a great introduction to Wynton's trumpet playing either - he sticks to cornet throughout for brass-band lead-instrument authenticity.  But regardless, this is a really nice album.

Marsalis is backed throughout by the Eastman Wind Ensemble, conducted by Donald Hunsberger.  The programme sounds beautifully recorded (full digital, eh, great traditionalist? Shouldn't you have been recording on to Edison cylinders for this project? ;)) and features era-typical brass band repertoire from Jean-Baptiste Arban, Paganini, Rimsky-Korsakov and more.  Ideal music to accompany the last days of mild weather before the change of seasons.

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Barre Phillips - Mountainscapes (1976)

One of the most satisfyingly avant-garde ECMs from the label's first decade, and also the first appearance in-house for reedsman John Surman, whose association with ECM continues to this day.  Recorded in March 1976, Mountainscapes was the result of the Surman-Phillips-Martin trio being given fresh purpose by the addition of Austrian electronics wizard Dieter Feichtner.  

 

The collision of free jazz and synth ooze makes for a unique and thoroughly enjoyable listening experience, with the tracklist simply a numbered suite to immerse yourself in.  Parts III and VII are duos between Phillips' bass improvisations and the eerie glow of Feichtner's synths, cut from a 40-minute free-form session (imagine that in its entireity sitting in Eicher's vault somewhere...).  The closing piece makes good use of a happened-to-drop-by John Abercrombie, adding another texture to this singular record.

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George Russell Sextet feat. Jan Garbarek - Trip To Prillarguri (rec. 1970, rel. 1982)

More live recordings from George Russell and co taped at the Södertälje Estrad, this time back in March 1970 (although not released until 1982, when Soul Note took over their chunk of Russell's material).  This one's a belter - it may as well be Jan Garbarek's Esoteric Circle quartet from 1969 performing live with the addition of Russell on piano and Stanton Davis Jr on trumpet.  Three of the pieces here are Garbarek-penned, including two that appeared on the Esoteric Circle LP.  From Russell's catalogue we get themes from Souls Loved By Nature and the earlier classic Stratusphunk, plus a closing rendition of Ornette Coleman's Man On The Moon.  Electrifying stuff throughout, and a definite highlight in both Russell and Garbarek's discographies.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Othello Ballet Suite

Vertical Event VI

Collin Walcott - Cloud Dance (1976)

Essentially John Abercrombie's Gateway Trio with a very different lead voice, in the form of Orgeon/CODONA's multi-instrumentalist (here focusing on his considerable talents on sitar) Collin Walcott (1945-1984).  This stunning record was recorded in the same month as Gateway's debut, right in the white heat of ECM's golden age with a lineup who perfectly merge jazz with Indian musical forms.  

 

Lengthy explorations giving the quartet full chance to shine, like opener Margueritte, sit alongside miniature features for Walcott and Dave Holland such as Prancing and Eastern Song.  Abercrombie is by turns liquid and languid (Night Glider, the lovely title track) and throughly electrified (Scimitar).  Walcott's sublime playing remains the star of this album, and would continue to occupy a unique space in the ECM sound world (including with a reformed Oregon) until his tragic accidental death at the age of 39.

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Collin Walcott at SGTG:

Miles Davis - On The Corner

Egberto Gismonti - Sol De Meio Dia

Astrud Gilberto / Walter Wanderley - A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness (1966)

Light and uplifting bossanova pop from the genre's legendary vocalist, backed on this occasion by organist/pianist Walter Wanderley's trio.  The two title tracks are up first, with A Certain Smile serving as a brief overture, and A Certain Sadness featuring an uncredited guitarist who may or may not have been João Gilberto.  From there, a breezy twenty-odd minutes goes by in lovely, classy style, staying true to the album's concept-of-sorts in contrasting downbeat ballads and frothy poppy numbers, with the emphasis on the latter.  Instant musical refreshment.

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Previously posted at SGTG:

Getz/Gilberto

The Astrud Gilberto Album

Look To The Rainbow

I Haven't Got Anything Better To Do

Gilberto With Turrentine (scroll past main post)

Frank Zappa - Wazoo (recorded Sept. 1972, released 2007)

One from the vault, in the concert that wound up a still-recuperating Zappa's brief tour with the 'Grand Wazoo' big band, recorded in Boston Music Hall on 24 September 1972.  Band introductions come first, along with an unfortunate tale of squashed instruments under a falling speaker cabinet.  The beginning of this appears to not have been captured by the soundboard tape: apparently the missing words are "Well, here we are in Boston, ladies and gentlemen. Just to fill you in on some of the zaniness that took place earlier this afternoon."

 

That out of the way, we first get an extended blast of The Grand Wazoo title track.  If you love that album as much as I do, this is a treat to hear, as is Big Swifty from Waka/Jawaka.  In between is Zappa's improvisational vehicle from the era, Approximate.  Apparently there's a bit of shifting around in the running order to get a good fit for double-CD, so Disc 2 centres on an early version of The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary, without vocals but with specially-arranged sections for more improvisation (no mean feat with so many musicians).  A couple of short encores close proceedings: it's particularly interesting to hear an embryonic Regyptian Strut, here titled Variant I Processional March.  So much great stuff here from the Zappa albums I love best - the sound might be spotty in places but this is a wonderful concert to have.

 

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg 

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

Road Tapes, Venue #2: Finlandia Hall, Helsinki 1973

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

The Gil Evans Orchestra - Out Of The Cool (1961)

Here's something that sounds particularly good in a sweltering summer.  Coming hot on the heels of Gil Evans' Sketches Of Spain collaboration with Miles Davis, Out Of The Cool was one of the first batch of LPs released on the new Impulse! label.  

 

Trading some of the tightly-written arrangements that were Evans' stock in trade for a slightly looser, more rhythmic groove, the album hits cooking temperature right away with the 15-minute La Nevada, the insistent rhythm an ideal base for soloing.  A pair of refreshed standards follow, with a lovely trombone-led Where Flamingos Fly then a languid Bilbao Song.  An extended take on George Russell's Stratusphunk highlights more great solos over a walking strut, and the album closes on a pensive note with another Evans composition, Sunken Treasure.

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Arrangements by Gil Evans at SGTG:

Miles Davis: Miles Ahead, Sketches Of Spain, Quiet Nights

Astrud Gilberto: Look To The Rainbow

George Russell - Vertical Event VI (rec. 1977, rel. 1981)

Funky fusion with the customary George Russell twist of his unique compositional style, here extending to the title of this work.  Vertical Event VI was another commission for Swedish Radio, composed in 1976 and recorded live at the Södertälje Estrad in March of the following year.  Numbering the works he'd composed in Scandinavia thus far, in the liner notes Russell says he considers the Othello Ballet Suite to be Vertical Form II, Souls Loved By Nature as Vertical Form III (links below), and so on, with Vertical Form VI "represent[ing] the full crystalisation of the vertical form style of notation".

 

Being a bit of a rudimentary music theorist, I'm no closer to understanding 'vertical form' in laymans' terms than when I started reading all these liner notes on Russell's albums, but the end result is just as enjoyable to blast out.  The original first side of the 1981 vinyl contained Event I, nine minutes of the large-group forces gradually gathering steam, and Event II, a fifteen-minute groove monster.  The other three respectively highlight the grungy organ, a banjo-style detuned guitar with more funky minimalist basslines, and finally a recapitulation of the work's main themes.  Probably the most accessible of Russell's big-band 'vertical forms' that I've heard so far, and certainly tons of fun.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Othello Ballet Suite