Waldron and Lacy had been working together for nearly forty years by the time of this recording, primarily as a duo as well as in each other’s groups. Both shared a deep love of Monk’s music, and developed a rigorously stripped down musical language. They were truly original improvisers and standout voices on their instruments. 

You couldn’t hope for a greater bass and drums combination to accompany Waldron and Lacy than Workman and Cyrille.  Two giants of the music, between them they had by this point worked with Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Mary Lou Williams, and Cecil Taylor among hundreds of others. They are both masters of the tradition while being constantly exploratory, forward-looking innovators.  Deeply swinging, they combine beautifully in the quartet, and find space for delightfully playful extended solos.

The 2CD set is beautifully put together, with great sound, informative liner notes from Adam Shatz, reminiscences from Workman and Cyrille, and contributions from the likes of Evan Parker, David Virelles, and Dave Liebman.  It might only be April as I write this, but this album is already a strong contender for release of the year.

Transferred from the original tapes (preserved by Patrick Wilen, son of legendary saxophonist Barney Wilen), Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors is presented as a 180-gram vinyl limited edition 2-LP set. 

The post Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy – ‘The Mighty Warriors’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The music shows Shepp already working with the range of approaches that would become familiar on his run of great albums on Impulse over the next few years. ‘Dunbar Days & Miami Joys’ is a groovy blues showing Shepp already knew how to combine freedom and funk, ‘Viva Jomo’ features extended improvisations over a wonky, fast 5/4, and ‘Sophisticated Lady’ is the first in a several-decades long relationship with Ellington’s compositions.

The recording is pretty good for a budget demo done 60 years ago, with the three horns especially well captured. Triple Point specialise in lovingly done reissues of rare free jazz finds, and this is beautifully put together, with excellent quality vinyl pressing and extensive and informative liner notes. I have to admit I find it a bit of a shame when historically significant finds are released only as expensive vinyl issues with no download or CD available. Although this LP is hugely cheaper than Triple Point’s New York Art Quartet, Cecil Taylor and Bill Dixon releases, it’s still a lot of money for what is essentially a three tune demo and some alternate takes. That said, the label always do a fantastic job on quality and also involve (and presumably pay!) the artists, something that can’t be said for plenty of historical reissues and discoveries. For fans of Shepp, Lacy and Rudd – three of the greatest ever to play this music – this is a fascinating addition to the recordings we already have.

Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone)
Roswell Rudd (trombone)
Steve Lacy (soprano saxophone)
Arthur Harper (bass)
Denis Charles (drums)

The post Archie Shepp – ‘Derailleur’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

UK Bassist Olie Brice’s tribute to a very great bassist takes the form of a “Ten Tracks” Feature. He writes:

Richard Davis – who has died just a few days ago at the age of 93 – was one of a handful of the truly greatest jazz bassists of all time. Often the double bassists who drive big bands, appear on high profile pop sessions and perform with leading orchestras are not the same artists who are at the cutting edge of jazz but in Richard Davis’ case he could do everything and do it all with an astonishing swagger, freedom, drive, imagination and virtuosity.

1 – Bee Vamp from ‘Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot‘

I’m pretty sure this album was the first Richard Davis I heard, years before I became a bassist myself. One of the greatest live albums in the history of recorded jazz. Dolphy, Booker Little, Mal Waldron and Ed Blackwell are all on fire, and Davis is in the middle of the storm driving things on, creating a magic carpet of ideas and swing. There’s a vital lesson in this performance – there is clearly confusion throughout the piece over the form, whether the solos are following the pedal/swing sections or opening up. I think most musicians today would reject this take – yet its some of the most exciting music I’ve ever heard. Mistakes are not necessarily mistakes.

2 – Black Fire from Andrew Hill – Black Fire

Along with Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill is probably the other bandleader I associate the most strongly with Davis. Between 1963 and 1965 Richard Davis played on a run of 7 astonishing Andrew Hill albums, each and every one of which is an unmissable masterpiece. I love them all dearly, but maybe my favourite of all is the first, Black Fire, a wild quartet ride with Joe Henderson on tenor and Roy Haynes on drums. The title tune is classic Davis, with all the trademarks – wild intervallic leaps in his lines, gloriously propulsive swing that always threatens rubato but somehow still makes the form as clear as anything, a fantastic if brief solo… I’ve long been fascinated by music that can create an illusion of two separate lines in a single voiced instrument – Bach’s violin sonatas and Evan Parker’s solo soprano playing come to mind – and Davis has the capacity to do that in his line in the mist of a whole quartet improvising.

3 – Spectrum from Andrew Hill – Point of Departure

I could have picked any track from this iconic album, but I’ve gone for ‘Spectrum’ because it’s fascinating to hear Davis navigating so many shifts and different approaches in the same tune. Andrew Hill’s writing was so ahead of it’s time, and this piece combines an ostinato in 5/8 with free sections in a truly groundbreaking way, with Richard Davis a central force in the whole thing . I want to quote Hill from the liner notes – “As for Richard Davis, he is the greatest bass player in existence”

4 – Hat and Beard from Eric Dolphy – Out to Lunch

Hopefully everyone reading this already knows this classic masterpiece of an album – if not stop reading and go and get a copy now! I love the transition from the written material to the improvising on this tune – bang! We’re straight off into the stratosphere, but at the same time completely involved with the composition. Listening back to these albums to narrow down this shortlist, I’m struck by how much I’ve stolen from Richard Davis for my own playing – both on purpose and inadvertently. One example is used a lot on this piece – the use of a big whack on the lowest E string, as a snare-like punctuation as much as a pitched note.

5 – Come Sunday from Eric Dolphy – Iron Man

This is so beautiful! Duet for bass clarinet and arco bass. Davis had a gorgeous arco sound – he worked with orchestras under conductors as prestigious as Stravinsky, Boulez and Bernstein – and it’s perfectly showcased here with so much space. Sublime. There are four more duo takes from this recording session available, and they’re all magical.

6 – Everything Happens to Me from Elvin Jones – Dear John C

If I had to choose just one track to show why I love Davis’ playing so much it would probably be this one. Beautifully recorded, it has all the trademarks – incredible swing, outrageous swoops and leaps, an unexpectedly wild solo in a pretty straight ahead tune – I’m in danger of repeating myself but it’s just classic Richard Davis!

7 – Shiny Stockings from Elvin Jones & Richard Davis from ‘Heavy Sounds’

Davis’ relationship with Elvin Jones at this point was so productive. This album, is a couple of years later than Dear John C, and very much in the same vein. Perfect illustration of combining clarity and mystery in the same walking bass – check out those octaves 30 seconds in!

8 – Jeeps Blues from Lawrence Brown (with Johnny Hodges)– ‘Inspired Abandon’

As well as working with the cutting edge of 60s jazz, Davis sounded just as at-home and just as much himself with elder masters of previous generations. Who else was making albums with Eric Dolphy and Johnny Hodges in the same year?! This track, from a great Lawrence Brown album, features one of the most swinging walking blues ever recorded – Davis manages to sound completely in the idiom with these Ellingtonians, without avoiding the slides, rhythmic hiccups and surprises that make it so clearly him.

9 – Parisian Thoroughfare from The Jaki Byard Experience

Yet another great rhythm section – Jaki Byard, Richard Davis and Alan Dawson made quite a few records together under different horn players’ leadership – the 3 Booker Ervin albums are great. This is my favourite though, under Byard’s name and with the mindblowing Roland Kirk making up the quartet. This track swings wildly, and has a fantastic bass solo.

10 – Vienna from Clifford Jordan – In the World

A track with two bassists! Richard Davis and Wilbur Ware making some magic happen on this gorgeous Clifford Jordan tune. Well worth listening to this one with headphones or serious speakers – I love the way Davis and Ware don’t really bother keeping out of each others way, but Ware’s huge clarity and Davis’ sense of adventure result in a complex and beautiful total bass voice. Wonderful duo section as well. The whole album is great, my favourite Clifford Jordan record. Incidentally the liner notes credit Wilbur Ware with the arco playing, but I’m 99% sure that’s wrong.

With an artist as versatile as Davis, who has been active at the very highest level for over 5 decades, I’ve inevitably left out loads of great music.
I also love:

• The two duo albums with Walt Dickerson
• Both of the Creative Construction Company records
• Joe Henderson’s ‘In n’ Out’
• Earl Hines’ ‘Once Upon a Time’
• Roland Kirk’s ‘Rip Rig and Panic’

Any of these could made my list! In checking a discography to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything I’ll kick myself for, I also realise there’s still loads I haven’t spent sufficient time with – I don’t know any of his albums as a leader well enough, and that duo record with Archie Shepp sounds amazing on first listen… Plenty to keep me studying for years to come…

The post 10 Tracks I Can’t Do Without: A tribute to Richard Davis first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Playing an almost entirely Ellington/Strayhorn repertoire, this could hardly fail to be a joyous listen. The whole band are on great form, swinging like mad, soloing inventively and clearly enjoying themselves playing such fantastic and familiar compositions. Harry Carney especially gets more solo room than on most Ellington albums and sounds at the very height of his powers. The recording is really good as well – while it isn’t clear from the liner-notes the excellent sound would suggest it was probably recorded for radio or similar.

There was a spate of wonderful records in the 60s featuring Ellington bands playing Ellington material without him – particular favourites of mine are Lawrence Brown’s ‘Inspired Abandon’ and Earl Hines’ ‘Once Upon a Time’. This recording maybe isn’t quite as essential as those two, but it’s a fantastic recording of truly great musicians having a great time playing truly great music – who could ask for anything more?

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Emerald Duets

Emerald Duets features Smith in duet with four of the greatest living drummers: Pheeroan akLaff, Han Bennink, Andrew Cyrille and Jack DeJohnette. All four duets are wonderful, and it’s fascinating to hear the different drummers in such similar contexts. 

The Bennink and Cyrille discs stood out, with their beautiful balance of swing and freedom. AkLaff, the youngest drummer of the four, brings a heavier, funkier edge to proceedings. One interesting way to compare duets was listening back to back to the composition The Patriot Act, Unconstitutional and a Force that Destroys Democracy –  which Smith performs with Cyrille, akLaff and DeJohnette, all three takes fascinating both in their differences and similarities.

While it’s true that the boxset is entirely made up of Smith playing duets with drummers, that doesn’t mean that all of the music is duets of trumpet and drums – the fourth disc, a duet with DeJohnette, includes both musicians playing piano at times, with DeJohnette also on Fender Rhodes.

Smith has a rich history of working in duo with drummers – the oldest I’m aware of is a mid-80s masterpiece with Ed Blackwell, and there are several more including earlier meetings with Jack DeJohnette and an incredible album with Louis Moholo. This wonderful set continues that tradition, and long may it continue – it would be great to hear Smith in duo with Mark Sanders, Gerald Cleaver or Nasheet Waits.  

String Quartets Nos. 1-12

String Quartets Nos. 1-12 is an astonishing body of work, collecting all of Smith’s string quartet compositions from 1965 to 2019 (there are already more as-yet unrecorded works) in new recordings by the RedKoral Quartet and various guest soloists. The RedKoral Quartet was formed during Wadada Leo Smith’s tenure at CalArts, initially to participate in his large scale work Ten Freedom Summers. Their performances are fantastic throughout the boxset, with the energy and focus needed combined with a glorious tone.

In the booklet accompanying the set, Smith mentions being influenced in his string writing by: the great Blues guitarists, such as Muddy Waters and BB King; European composers including Bartok, Debussy, Webern and Shostakovitch; and African American composers, from Jelly Roll Morton to Alvin Singelton. All these diverse influences ring true in the rich and varied music in this boxset.  

While the earlier pieces in the boxset are beautiful and original compositions, they can be heard as broadly sitting in the 20^th century quartet tradition, with the Bartok and Shostakovich influences particularly audible. The later pieces, however, are truly unique and make it apparent how Smith’s through-notated music is part of the same language as his improvised work. String Quartets 11 and 12 are both masterpieces, with an astonishing intensity and focus.  

Between them these two boxsets give us a valuable insight into the imagination and individuality of one of the most significant creative musicians of our time. Highly recommended.

The post Wadada Leo Smith – ‘Emerald Duets’ / ‘String Quartets Nos. 1-12’ (boxsets) first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The trio’s first gig was at a Whitney Museum exhibition about Cecil Taylor, and the album is dedicated to Taylor. While all three musicians worked with the legendary pianist (Parker and Cyrille extensively and Rava occasionally) the dedication feels more like a memorial than any attempt to use Taylor’s music as a point of reference.

All three contribute compositions, and they also play a a freely improvised piece, a couple of improvised blues and even a surprising standard, ‘My Funny Valentine’. The subtlety and detail of Parker and Cyrille’s free swing is a joy, and Rava’s smoky flugelhorn tone and melodic sensibility fit perfectly.

Like all TUM releases that I have encountered, this one is beautifully recorded and presented. TUM have done a wonderful job of documenting the ongoing work of some of the greatest improvisers in this music (their Wadada Leo Smith catalogue is particularly important) and ‘2 Blues for Cecil’ is a wonderful addition to that list.

The post Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, Enrico Rava  – ‘2 Blues for Cecil’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Morgan had assembled a great band for his July 1970 residency at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California. Bennie Maupin plays wonderful tenor sax, bass clarinet and flute and contributes several compositions. He shares Morgan’s mastery of the blues and the Jazz tradition, but you can also hear him pushing forwards, his playing showing the influence of Wayne Shorter and free jazz – in fact he would join Herbie Hancock’s new band Mwandishi immediately after this engagement. Harold Mabern was a first call New York pianist, working with the likes of Sonny Rollins and Betty Carter. Bassist Jymie Merritt was a real innovator – the first bassist of note to use an electric upright bass, and rhythmically groundbreaking, with an approach to phrase lengths that influenced Dave Holland, among others. Mickey Roker was a wonderful drummer, deeply swinging and perfectly suited to the band. Jack DeJohnette, in town with Miles Davis, sits in for one tune, a burning take on ‘Speedball’.

This band and Morgan’s last (with Billy Harper and Freddie Waits replacing Maupin and Roker, can we have a box set of them live please?) show Morgan breaking new ground from his famous hits such as the Sidewinder and playing the best music of his career. He was branching out creatively and politically, involved in fundraising for the Black Panther Defense Fund and playing a live soundtrack for a documentary on Angela Davis. His tragic death at the age of 33 cut short a musical career that was far from finished developing. I recommend the heartbreaking but brilliant documentary “I called him Morgan” for the context of his last months and death.

The box set has been put together with real care and attention. The remastered sound is superb, and the liner-notes are extensive and informative, including interviews with the surviving musicians. Highly recommended.

The post Lee Morgan – ‘The Complete Live at the Lighthouse’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The recording is of the second of a two night gig at the Gibbs Club in Cardiff. Recorded by Nick Lea – presumably an informal setup – the sound isn’t great and background audience noise is often audible. But in a way both of those things add to the charm – this was one of thousands of similar gigs Lol played, and that’s what it feels like, a relaxed, warm interaction between the improviser and the room. If you loved and miss hearing Lol Coxhill live, this is a fantastic way to be reminded of what that felt like, while if you’re new to his music this would be a great place to start.

It should be noted that this is the last CD that will be released on this important label, SLAM Productions. With 250 releases over a 33 year span, SLAM has been a vital part of the scene. George Haslam – SLAM label boss – has released valuable albums by a wide range of legendary US musicians including Steve Lacy, Mal Waldron, Max Roach, Roswell Rudd and Jaki Byard, giants of the UK scene including Paul Dunmall, Howard Riley and Elton Dean, and also consistently released and supported younger musicians and less well known artists. If you’re reading this George – thank you, the label will be missed.

The post Lol Coxhill – “Coxhill ‘85” first appeared on UK Jazz News.