John Coltrane Quartet - Ballads

When I first heard the samples of this album on the internet, I wan't interested at all. It was strange to hear Coltrane playing in this style - but he felt its opposite when he was also said by others to be the best of the angry tenors as we can read on the original cover, which Impulse kept when it released it in the newer Impulse originals series.

The title perfectly and simply describes what we'll hear: ballads. Beautiful standards...

1. Say it (over and over again)

2. You don't know what love is

3. Too young to go steady

4. All or nothing at all

5. I wish I knew

6. What's new

7. It's easy to remember

8. Nancy (with the laughing face)

...which are good to hear again and again any times - that's why they're standards and get famous and have stayed alive. I think there's a few people who these songs don't take effect on. So to angry tenors he answered: I guess, they say that because I play the horn hard. Now he proves his abilities to this style, too, and maybe it was a need himself as well to do something lighter than his real, deeply serious music. It's a fanatastic album for silent and sensitive moments. Unfortunately it's only a little bit longer than half an hour, but it is worth to hear.

Gene Less writes about Coltrane the following:
Coltrane is, as a matter fact, one of the gentlest and quietest people I've met in jazz. And, two or three years ago, he was just about the shyest.
Now that he has become a study in effusive cameraderie. But he has emerged considerably from that cocoon of quiet in which he lived his off-stage life. He talks more now, he laughs more readily, he seems more assured.

Too young to go steady:


Listen to Naima.

Pharoah Sanders - Thembi

Popular jazz may not be the topic where you have seen Pharoah Sanders' name, he made music in other "spheres": the spheres of Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, and others.

Thembi is an album with many colours and desires to show things from this world, things which are hidden or things simply from nature - expressing them in its pure reality and sometimes in a wild, almost animalistic way. As we can read on the inner cover:

This album is dedicated to, and named after, Thembi Sanders. Thembi is an abbreviation of Nomathemba, which is an African Xhosa name, meaning hope, faith and love. Thembi is all hope, faith and love to Pharoah Sanders.

The album starts with the soft-sounding, pulsating Astral traveling, a piece by Lonnie Liston Smith (he also has an album titled Astral traveling, but now in this blog you can read a review about the album Renaissance). As Sanders's melody comes in, we can feel its ancient meaning, and some kind of piece in it. Its ambient, echoing atmosphere suddenly breaks when the second track opens: Red, black & green. Now it's something which is hard to write about. The completely free, vivid and harassed starting can be felt as the forces of the universe may struggle with each other, or all of the little movements of it become quickly loud. These hoarse brass sounds and huge drums later change: the chaos declines and something evolves out from it. It comes from behind it, under it or just one little melody gets the main role: the world shows some sort of system, piece and harmony. The music becomes a flowing journey amongst all of the emotions in the universe, amongst three colours which maybe describe everything: red, black & green. This song in music has an important meaning for me. As we go on, we mee the lighter Thembi with its cool rhythm and Sanders' fine melody again. But the album still keeps more secrets: Love, a bass solo by Cecil McBee, which is also a notable point on this album. The melody is slightly painful and lamenting, but rather woolgathering - I love when in a jazz song the other musicians get silent and one gets the main role and play a solo: then he uses his instrument in other way and shows its other abilities, makes experiments with it. Cecil McBee makes interesting slides and sometimes he let the bass' strings twang. At the end he changes to bow and the music leads through the last two tracks which make a nice frame on this album, it starts with a similar melody to Astral traveling. As we reach the end, everything becomes really vivid and animalistic, we can hear noises similar to nature's own noises which increase the character of this special atmosphere.

Thembi (live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgBVWx_1TKs

Astral traveling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmL1da8VhiE

Red, black & green (part):

PRO/CREATION (for Pharoah Sanders)

Music, as language,

looking in to the world

with the spirit of a people

identifies itself more precisely

than label. And is there, always,

coming from every place

Pharoah has been - Africa, Asia,

& our long memory in America.

He, traveler in sound/spirit,

is direction firm, strong, firmly

connected to root. Expression

past any word. Energies of sound,

old as ear of any god known or not,

now redistributed here to move us

with Love, Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer.

Continuities, yes,

the song, memorial and now.

It is from here

Pharoah takes our ear

breaking the silences of our spirit & walls.

Remember slave bells?

And desire? Red, black & Green;

THEMBI, the woman, home.

(by Keorapetse Kgositsile from the original liner notes)

Anna Ternheim - Leaving on a mayday

It's an album from 2008 but today Verve also released it. I think because of this label Anna Ternheim's reputation will grow immediately. She's a Norwegian singer-songwriter, with a nice voice and a cool singer-songwriter style which leads us out to pop/rock: her first album, Somebody outside was released in 2004, on which we can hear the single Shoreline and To be gone which also got a place on an other album Halfway to fivepoints / Separation Road.

Her newest, Leaving on a mayday is a little bit more serious mix of songs than the earlier records. Starting with the harder What have I done, the album gets a strong inception. The arrangement also got more complex, by the strings, newer instrumental solutions and the structured vocals. For example in Terrified the deep and reverbed drums and the nice string melody make an oppisitional atmosphere which often achieve an effective result in any kind of music. The role of strings is emphasized on this album, they can be sane, beautiful and can have a faintly agressive sound.

Let it rain leads us back to the world of What have I done with its slightly monotonical and deeper base pattern to reach My heart still beats for you, which is the most silent song on the album, creating its middle point. Later, one of my favourites No, I don't remember is from that mentioned style, but we also meet Summer rain, a slow song based on a chorus, and for example, Losing you which is rather indie pop than singer-songwriter. But no one wants to set up limits for this music, it's interesting to hear these things which sometimes steps on the frontier of a genre.

Anna Ternheim also released an ep in the topic of Sinatra, on which she perform five songs by him in a very, very different way. I'm looking forward to her next projects.

No, I don't remember:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmngmHSHoS4

Black Sunday afternoon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0hd0B5ZvY4

What have I done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8QKKlmwlOs

Anna Ternheim's website:
http://www.annaternheim.com/

Anna on Verve:
http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/artist/music/detail.aspx?pid=12065&aid=7351

Verve jazz timeline

In other words, Verve records has launched a new feature on its website, Interactive Verve History. You can review the decades of jazz from 1950's until present time. Each decade is described by some notable albums released by Verve and political/historical happenings as well. Enjoy!

http://history.vervemusicgroup.com/

Anniversary of John Coltrane's birth with Naima

Today, it's an important day because of two things: usually it's the day of the autumnal equinox (but now in 2009 it's the 22th), and it's 83 years ago the same day when the jazz-giant saxophonist, John Coltrane was born. He was stepping ahead on one way, but he got very far on it. I often wonder what would be if he didn't die at age 40 - did he get more far? And can somebody get more far?

Let's remember him with a beautiful ballad written for his wife, Naima, by the classic Coltrane quartet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ywkpVJ624

Gabor Szabo - Spellbinder

Gabor Szabo (1936 Budapest - 1982 ~), the jazz guitarist comes from Hungary. It's good to feel that his name is as big in jazz as many more American musicians' name.
Now I chose Spellbinder, this attractive album by him for these early-autumn days. Shortly, to sum up this album, I would say: well-known songs translated to a new, light musical language sealed by Szabo's personal style. It seems that he's fond of the Sinatra family and standards, because of the familiar tracklist:

01. Spellbinder
02. Witchcraft
03. It was a very good year
04. Gypsy queen
05. Bang bang (My baby shot me down)
06. Cheetah
07. My foolish heart
08. Yearning
09. Autumn leaves / Speak to me of love

From the original liner notes:
In a conversation concerning this album, Gabor added: "I never intend to sit down and play music that's bad or commercial; but on the other hand, I do not intend to stop playing tunes I like - wherever they come from - just to fit in with whatever is 'avant-garde' and 'in' that moment. These are all songs to which I'm attracted, and so long as the results are aesthetically satisfying to me, I don't care whether some rule maker thinks they're not 'proper' to jazz. After all, music is - or should be - self expression."

His guitar voice is unique and friendly, and compatible with a wide range of moods. I use the word friendly, because there are some kinds of music which you hear and think it's nice, it comes from the heart, and totally honest. You feel it friendly. And, to see the compatibility, just listen to the nice sounds of Witchcraft, and after that, the more serious and deeper It was a very good year. If you listen carefully (for ex. at 1:54), you'll hear cool and technical slides in the guitar melody. Unfortunately it's very short, but also very expressive, with its new rhythm by Chico Hamilton's drums and Ron Carter's bass. I also recommend to you Frank Sinatra's version of it, where you can hear the effective lyrics, and strings which almost cry. Later, in Bang bang there's an additive acoustic guitar solo in the melody. They emphasized the "bang-bang" part with the cool rhythm and volume differences, which made an attractive result. Here, we hear Szabo singing, too. His singing voice is clear and simple, perfectly matching to the melody, and there's a little accent in it, or something else, which makes it unique. We can also hear his easy-flowing vocals in that kind later song, Yearning. And in the end, he plays Autumn leaves and Speak to me of love together, as he used to do. This version of Autumn leaves is a good example about how to express something only with one instrument.

It was a very good year:

Ella Fitzgerald - Clap hands, here comes Charlie!

By its selection and compilation, it's a perfect vocal jazz album. Because it shows gladness and melancholy, also vividness and slowness, and contemplating-carefree moods as the songs pass by. That's what I like in these records, this kind of variegation.

Starting with the fast Night in Tunisia we can easy be fascinated, and after that, too, because then comes the slow, beautiful ballad, You're my thrill, and a nice song, My reverie (one of the best songs on this album). Later we meet the happy shouting Jersey bounce, or the well-known and well-titled Good morning heartache, which melts up in melancholy and beauty, to paint some more colours on the album.

But this variegation wouldn't work without a very varicoloured voice. Ella was a great talent, it's not coincidence that they called her "First lady of song". Yes, she can be wild, she can shout in happiness, wake up your mind: "live!", laugh on something, or slow down and almost cry while singing.

To prove it better, here are some words quoted from the inner cover:

"Ella Fitzgerald has no competition. The most universally admired popular singer in the world, she represents one of the fortunate cases when talent translates into popularity and productivity. ...

Clap hands, here comes Charlie, a collection of tunes with varying degrees of jazz relevance, has ever since 1961 been just about the most treasured by Ellavationalists. ...

Ever as emotionally deep as she is swinging, her voice brimming with contagious, enthusiastic energy, her ptich perfect and her time beyond approach, I think she's modestly misidentified the proper recipient of applause: we should be shouting: Clap hands! Here comes Ella!"

They call it the Jersey Bounce
A rhythm that really counts
The temperature always mounts
Whenever they play the funny rhythm they play

It started on Journal Square
And Somebody heard it there
They put it right on the air
And now you'll hear it everywhere...

Good morning heartache:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZEq8H8cTNc

Hear samples of the album on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Clap-Hands-Here-Comes-Charlie/dp/B00000477N/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1249464455&sr=8-3

Jimmy Smith - The cat

I haven't known what should I write for the next post until this afternoon, when a sad thing happened to me. While I was walking, I saw a dead cat. I didn't know that it's dead, I just got closer to it (thinking that it's just lying on the pavement), but as I stepped beside it, I recognized the reality. This gave me the idea for this post: The cat.

Jimmy Smith has a professional talent to play loud, fast big-band things or slow and quiet ballads. Now it's the loud side of Jimmy Smith, whose nickname is often "Incredible" (as you can see it on the cover).

The cat is an 1964 record (originally Polygram but later Verve), and has two theme-songs (as often on Quincy Jones albums). The music is loose, it will make you forget your problems, because the melodies have carefree atmosphere. Because of the time when it was recorded, it's quite short but a great delight for a sunny summer day. And if we are at organ, a strange instrument which got into the jazz a long time ago - let's talk about it. There are some instruments in jazz which are rare. One of these is organ, whose one of the biggest masters was Jimmy Smith. I read an interesting thing in the book: Janos Gonda - Jazzworld (he's a Hungarian jazz musician and also a writer of several articles about this art). So he writes the following: as the organ got into the jazz, many pianists started playing it. But they were just playing piano - on an organ, there wasn't any difference in the way of playing. Except for Jimmy, who created a new own language for the organ, a new way to play it, making it an instrument which is slightly different to the piano.

See his page on the Verve website:

http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/artist/default.aspx?aid=2740

George Benson - Shape of things to come

It's my freshest attainment - a pre-birthday present. I haven't really known Benson albums yet, except for "Absolute Benson", but this new one is another category, it's from the earlier times, when he was more conventional and less "pop" (his later carreer is more notable, but that would be an other post). But the orchestration isn't conventional, there are also trumpet, flugelhorn, vibes, harmonica and organ, etc. in the tracks. (at the piano: Hank Jones and Herbie Hancock!)

It isn't hard to get in that kind of mood which this album shows us. Looseness, lightness and vividness - especially for the second track: "Face it boy, it's over" - with the light vocals in the background, and the simple, carefree melody. Do you feel this kind of looseness and airiness while listening to today's music? I don't think so. You can say that the latest r'n'b tracks are very cool and loose, but I suppose the honest innocence and that kind of simplicity are missing. "Shape of things to come" doesn't contain any bad thought, it wants to live - and this album will calm you down.

My other favourite on this album is the last track: "Last train to Clarksville". On the cover you can read: "...this leads us into the closer, Last train to Clarksville. Lucas' harmonica is the lonesome whistle that activates the train. As Morris stokes his engine with a perpetual brush-fire, Benson spaces his phrases astutely for optimum swing and impact. After the brass ensemble shouts out its message, the theme returns, fading away down the track and off into the distance." I like as the bass goes down on a dissonant note for a moment, and then up again (from 02:27): with the monotonic drum theme (like the noise of the trains) it creates a non-stop feeling.

It was recorded in 1968 and now it's released by Verve Records.

Read more about this album on the Verve website: http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/artist/releases/default.aspx?pid=11760&aid=2731

Face it boy, it's over:

Alabama

My favourite song by John Coltrane (jazz saxophonist) is Alabama. You can watch a performance of it at Jazz Casual on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j_TDoOPnIA or listen to it on the album: John Coltrane - Live at Birdland (Impulse!).

The next quotation stands on the inside cover of the original lp and cd.

"If you have heard Slow dance or After the rain, then you might be prepared for the kind of feeling that Alabama carries. I didn't realize until now what a beautiful word Alabama is. That is one function of art, to reveal beauty, common or uncommon, uncommonly. And that's what Trane does. Bob Thiele asked Trane if the title "had any significance to today's problems". I suppose he meant literally. Coltrane answered, "It represents, musically, something I saw down there translated into music from inside me."

Which is to say, listen. And what we're given is a slow delicate introspective sadness, almost hopelessness, except for Elvin, rising in the background like something out of nature... a fattening thunder, storm clouds or jungle war clouds. The whole is a frightening emotional portrait of some place, in these musicians' feelings. If that "real" Alabama was the catalyst, more power to it, and may it be this beautiful, even in its destruction."

I can't write anything else as Leroi Jones did - which is to say, listen. Listen to the deep rumbling of the piano and above the melody of the saxophone which shows something new about this world.