Wynton Marsalis - He And She

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Blue Note

Recorded on August 24th and 25th, 2007 at Legacy Recording Studios, New York

Release date: March 24th 2009

Availability: CD, MP3 Download



"He And She" is an ambitious jazz concept album that really works. A long poem, written and spoken by Wynton Marsalis in the style of a 'toast', is interspersed in sections between each track. The theme is the relationship between man and woman right through the stages of life – from childhood to old age.

The band is Wynton Marsalis' preferred touring quintet – Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Walter Blanding (tenor and soprano saxes), Dan Nimmer (piano), Carlos Henriquez (bass) and Ali Jackson (drums) – and the music is old time swing with a strong New Orleans feel, in keeping with Wynton Marsalis' increasing emphasis on traditionalism in jazz.

Eminent critic Stanley Crouch provides liner notes that bring this out clearly:

"Marsalis understands that all art is dialogue with the greatest triumphs of its past, and that true individuality comes from the quality of that dialogue. Long ago he moved beyond a single style to call up the broadest possible range of expression available to him and native to the art of jazz. As he has said, "I'm not interested in playing a style of jazz. I am interested in playing jazz, and playing or adapting any style or combination of styles that express my imagination as I hear and feel it."

Photo credit: JoAnne Savio

Sounds formal, but this gets to the heart of what is a warm, fulfilling, imagination-filled experience that you will want to go back to again and again. The rage and anger of the 2006 album "From The Plantation To The Penitentiary" has been transcended by the more simple and eternal theme of personal relationships, what makes the world tick beyond the challenges to morality and intellect of 9/11 and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Confirmatory, uplifting, contemplative jazz. Highly recommended.

You can view Wynton Marsalis reciting the whole poem uninterrupted and in its entirety and listen two tracks from the album here.







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Horace Parlan - Up & Down

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Blue Note

Release Date: June 18th 1961

Re-release date: February 10th 2009

Availabilty: CD, MP3 download



Like many albums by Horace Parlan, "Up & Down" has not been available on CD or MP3 until the release of this RVG remaster.

The rhythm section - Horace Parlan (piano), George Tucker (bass) and Al Harewood (drums) – was the house band at Minton's in Harlem in the early 60's and often appeared on Blue Note recordings at the time. Their complete understanding of each other's moves lies at the core of the driving undercurrent of this music with Al Harewood's drumming - as on Bobby Hutcherson's "The Kicker" – outstanding.

Add to this two great performances by Grant Green on guitar and Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone and you have the almost perfect hard bop album, infectious, memorable, bluesy, danceable.

The Ervin Booker composition "The Book's Beat", Horace Parlan's "Up & Down", George Tucker's "Fugee" and Grant Green's "The Other Side of Town" open the album in swinging, uncompromising style.

Babs Gonzalez's ballad "Lonely One" offers a contemplative break before the album closer Tommy Turrentine's "Light Blue" returns the band to uplifting hard bop.

A fine album featuring some of the best jazz to emerge from Blue Note in the early sixties.









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Charles McPherson - First Flight Out

Arabesque Jazz

Release Date: December 13th 1994

Re-release date: March 5th 2009

Availabilty: CD, MP3 download



There are jazz albums and then there are jazz albums that are exceptional. "First Flight Out", almost unknown and just re-released by Arabesque, is very much in the latter category.

Charles McPherson's alto sax playing is almost good enough to make you think that Charlie Parker is still with us. The twelve tracks of "First Flight Out" cover the whole range of jazz emotions. The backing band - Michael Weiss (piano), Peter Washington (bass), and Victor Lewis (drums) - is sympathetic and tight. And into all this you have to add the imagination and insight of Tom Harrell's evocative trumpet playing.

In short, the iconography of a great album.

At the centre is the take on "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", Charles Mingus' homage to Lester Young. To say that the closing solo by Tom Harrell is exceptional would be a large understatement. Dust down clichés such as hairs on the back of the neck standing up and goose bumps and you don't begin to get close. The fact that Charles McPherson spent twelve years in the Charles Mingus band has much to do with the feeling that this song is understood and reinterpreted at a level of intensity that few have equaled.

There are many other high points: the poise and elegance of "Blues For Chuck"; the exuberance of the version of Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't"; the bop sensibility of "7th Dimension"; the upfront beauty of "Portrait".

Very highly recommended.









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Interview with Charles McPherson at WFIU

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The Very Best Of Prestige Records

Prestige

Recorded 1949 - 1969

Release date: March 24th 2009

Availability: CD, MP3 Download



When Bob Weinstock launched the indy jazz label New Jazz in 1948 from his 48th Street New York store "The Record Corner" few would have guessed that this was the first step in the creation of what was to become Prestige Records. In the next thirty years (the last Prestige album appeared in 1978) the label would record nearly all of the jazz greats and take its place alongside Blue Note as a major player in the popularization of the best of the music that had grown out of the experiments of the boppers at Minton's Playhouse and become a world phenomenon.

This 2-CD album, released to mark sixty years of Presitge records, presents a very well chosen selection of from the label's vaults. Nick Philips has made a good job of selecting just 25 tracks from a vast catalogue.

From the opening track, taken from that very first Bob Weinstock release (Lee Konitz "Subconscious-Lee"), to the final 1969 offering from Charles Earland ("More Today Than Yesterday") this is the perfect introduction to the music.

The high points are many: Miles Davis playing "My Funny Valentine" and "If I Were A Bell"; Sonny Rollins duetting with John Coltrane on "Tenor Madness" and playing his inspiring calypso based blues "St Thomas"; John Coltrane playing "I Love You" and duetting with Kenny Burrell on "Why Was I Born?"; Eric Dolphy performing "Les" with Freddie Hubbard and joining Oliver Nelson on "March On, March On"; Yusef Lateef performing "The Plum Blossom".

A celebration of the great jazz recorded by Prestige in its thirty year heyday.

You can preview full versions of the following tracks:

Sonny Rollins - Tenor Madness
Eric Dolphy - Les
Red Garland - Hey Now
Pat Martino - Waltz For Geri
Wes Montgomery - D-Natural Blues







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Complete Prestige discography



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Art Farmer - The Meaning Of Art

Arabesque Jazz

Recorded at Manhattan Beach Recording, New York on May 9th and 10th, 1995

Release Date: October 17th, 1995

Re-release date: March 5th 2009

Availabilty: CD, MP3 download



The Meaning of Art", the third of the Arabesque Jazz re-releases of Art Farmer's work for the label in the 90's, was originally issued in 1995, between "The Company I Keep" and "Silk Road". It is the same band as "The Company I Keep" except that Slide Hampton on trombone replaces Tom Harrell.

The personnel is: Art Farmer (trumpet), Ron Blake (soprano & tenor saxophones), Slide Hampton (trombone), Geoffrey Keezer (piano), Kenny Davis (bass), Carl Allen (drums).

Slide Hampton contributes two original compositions, "On The Plane" and "Lift Your Spirit High", both uptempo and mainstream, and these are good vehicles for the band despite some unfocussed bass soloing.

"One Day Forever" is a slow paced ballad composed by Benny Golson who was a long time collaborator of Art Farmer's in the "Jazztet", one of the best jazz groups of all time, and here Art Farmer's playing is at its most convincing as he draws out the beauty of theme in a long and involving solo.

Geoffrey Keezer's "Free Verse" is a ten minute medium tempo piece that leads to good solos by Art Farmer, Ron Blake on soprano sax, Slide Hampton and the composer himself.

"Home", by ex-collaborator Fritz Pauer, is Horace Silver-like, slinky, bluesy bop that produces one of the most successful tracks with fine solos from Art Farmer, Ron Blake, Slide Hampton and Geoffrey Keezer.

The two standards – "Just the Way You Look Tonight" (Jerome Kern /Dorothy Fields / Dorothy Sills) and "Johnny One Note" (Richard Rogers/Lorenz Hart) – are very much throw away and add little.

Though somewhat weaker than "The Company I Keep " and "Spice Road", principally because the horn harmonization is far less exact, "Meaning Of Art" is satisfying, subtle bop that is a part of the trio of albums that form a fitting climax to Art Farmer's long and distinguished career as a pioneer in jazz.









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Read our review of Art Farmer and Tom Harrell "The Company I Keep"

Read our review of Art Farmer "Silk Road"

Read our review of Ron Blake "Shayari"

Read our review of Joe Locke Geoffrey Keezer Group "Live In Seattle"

Art Farmer biography

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