MUSIC REVIEWS
Previous Reviews...
Charlie Haden
So, awhile back I found myself at SFO looking at the departure monitor and seeing a three-hour delay of my flight. I set off to find a bookstore. After perusing the shelves, I purchased The New York Times' Essential Library--Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings. The book consists of one hundred short, critical essays by Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff, a thirty-five-year-old who, although not even born when seventy-five percent of these recordings were made, is obviously an astute and knowledgeable follower of jazz as well as a good writer. A perfect read for traveling.
Of course, a selection of the one hundred most important anything is going to be arbitrary and provocative, but as the cover notes state, "here is an aficionado's take on the greatest...." Good enough. The one hundred recordings are listed in chronological order starting with the original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917), on to King Oliver, Bessie Smith, Fletcher Henderson, Louis and so on, through the most contemporary artists, including Don Pullen #93, singer Cassandra Wilson #94, and bassist Charlie Haden #99.
I had listened to Charlie Haden since the early sixties when he recorded with the revolutionary alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman. When I read essay #99 citing Haden's CD, Nocturne, I was intrigued by Ratliff's insinuation that this was indeed a true jazz classic and that all of the music was slow, rather relaxing and thoroughly delicious. I decided to give Ben's suggestion a try. I was not disappointed.
This recording consists of eleven Mexican and Cuban boleros as well as "the jazz-tinged bolero-filin style of 1940's Cuba." In contrast to the classic three-four boleros of Spain with their crescendos and climaxes, these slow, languid, exquisite pieces in the two-four beat unfold to a quiet anti-climax. While the CD is recorded under Haden's name, he is essentially in the background. The center of this recording is the Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. His work here is almost classical but with an unmistakable jazz feel and deep sensitivity. Guitarist Pat Metheny guests briefly and the great contemporary tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano plays on four tracks.
Nocturne is a knockout--unusual, yes; low-key, yes; beautiful, yes; rich, yes. In other words, YES, a jazz classic! Five Stars!
The New York Times Essential Library Series--Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings, Ben Ratliff Charlie Haden, Nocturne, Verve Music Group, 440013611-2
Astor Piazzolla
Readers of my previous reviews understand that my taste in music ranges far beyond contemporary and traditional jazz. Consider the tango, which has always seduced me with its drama, passion, sensuality and, yes, its sexiness and sense of danger!- specifically the New Tango (Tango Nuevo) as composed and performed by Astor Piazzolla, an Argentine musician with roots in America and American jazz.
Born in Argentina in 1921, Astor Piazzolla and his family moved to New York in 1924. As a child he studied the piano and early on showed musical talent. At the age of ten he received a bandoneón, an accordian-like instrument used in Argentina as the chief instrument for the tango. He continued to play the bandoneón for the rest of his life.
The tango as a dance and musical form became very popular in Argentina (principally in the city of Buenos Aires) in the 1890's and has reached the stature of a national art form. It was performed in every neighborhood by dancers, tango bands and orchestras. Passionate debates arose as to which orchestras played the best and which dance couples interpreted the music most correctly. Innovations in both the dance and the music itself were met with great criticism and public outcry, and only slowly has the tango as an art form developed.
It was into this milieu the young composer and virtuoso bandoneón player immersed himself when he returned to Argentina in 1936. Throughout the 1940's, 50's and 60's he worked with many orchestras and traveled to both America and Europe. In the early 1950's he studied in Paris with the legendary composition teacher Nadia Boulanger who encouraged him to continue to explore the tango idiom. While in New York around this same time, Piazzolla was exposed to the music of jazz musician Gerry Mulligan, who was leading an octet. (Later on Piazzolla would lead his own tango octet in Buenos Aires and continue to experiment with the small group format.) The two musicians eventually recorded together in 1974.
Astor Piazzolla was considered to be somewhat of a rebel by most tango enthusiasts, but he continued to compose and play his own version of the musical form, which was referred to more and more as the "New Tango." His work combined traditional tango elements with influences of jazz and classical music but with radical variations of time and rhythms and passion and ecstasy.
At times, Piazzolla's grandiosity and sense of the dramatic remind me of the great French classical composer Hector Berlioz. It was inevitable that Piazzolla would become wildly popular in Argentina, somewhat famous in Europe, and only slightly celebrated in America, where, ironically, so much of his musical roots originated.
In the late 1960's as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia, I had the opportunity to travel to Buenos Aires and was exposed to the tango continually for six days-in stores, hotels, and restaurants. Being naïve about the culture of the tango and of Argentina, I was unaware of the dance halls and concerts, and, most of all, unaware of the master "Tanguero," Astor Piazzolla. My loss!
I finally discovered Piazzolla in the early 1980's while listening to the eclectic Berkeley FM radio Station KPFA (94.1). Charles Amarkanian, then music program director, presented several shows featuring the passionate music. I was quite impressed and vowed to learn more about the musician and his work. He was in concert several times in the Bay Area, but somehow I was unable to attend. After his death in 1992 I purchased "The Lausanne Concert" recorded in 1989, and my favorite of his CD's. I believe it is the quintessential Piazzolla recording: a version of his most famous composition "Adios Nonino" (a memorial to his father); the wonderfully brooding "Mumuki" featuring the piano and violin in the prelude; and the intense and dramatic "Contrabajisimo" written for Hector Console, the bass player of the breakthrough New Tango Quintet (Quinteto Nuevo Tango). Like Duke Ellington, Piazzolla wrote many of his compositions with one or more of the musicians of his groups in mind.
Piazzolla's work is grandiose, dramatic, highly charged, intensely beautiful and performed with virtuosity. His music deserves more renown and more airplay (ear play!) Astor Piazzolla! Five Stars!
Astor Piazzolla - The Lausanne Concert, Milan (73138) 35649-2 (recorded 1989) Astor Piazzolla - Tango: Zero Hour, Nonesuch 79469-2 (recorded 1986) Astor Piazzolla - The Montreal Jazz Festival Concert, Milan (7313835936-2 (recorded 1984) Astor Piazzolla and Gerry Mulligan - Summit, reunion cumbre ANS 10005-2 (recorded 1974)
Southtown Strummers
Although I was present at their ten-year anniversary party and several other gigs over the last twenty years, I normally would not go out of my way to hear the Southtown Strummers. Let's face it--this is not a band that immediately comes to mind when someone asks, "Who's your favorite band?" I mean, a banjo band??? Hellooo!
But sometimes even this reviewer must admit when some of his preconceptions get blown apart by two banjos, a piano and a tuba or base. The latest CD by the Southtown Strummers, Vested Interest--25 Years With The Southtown Strummers, is a winner on several levels.
When my friend and Strummer original, Dave Frey, gave me a copy of the CD a couple of months ago, I put it on a shelf and, I confess, forgot about it. Last week, while rummaging through a pile of "more contemporary" jazz offerings (actually, I was looking for a CD by tenor saxophonist Stan Getz) I came upon the Strummers CD, still in its plastic wrapper. Overcome with guilt as well as suddenly energized by the thought that I could also get a valid review for this newsletter, I promptly tore off the wrapper and sat in my easy chair to listen to the likes of "By The Beautiful Sea" and "Five Foot Two." Ho-hum, nap time.
However, as one track led smoothly to another, an unrelenting fact bore down upon me--here were four REALLY good musicians playing some REALLY good music. "By The Beautiful Sea" is a very "listenable" tune with some dandy work by Frey on banjo and tubaist Jim Brennan; and "Five Foot Two" becomes a noteworthy counterpoint to "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone."
The other two Strummers are Bill Houston on banjo (most of the time) and the great Greg Stevens on piano and vocals. These guys cook with a real fire added to the solid underpinnings of Frey and Brennan. Check out Stevens' version of "Jane's Ragtime Dancing" and Houston's playing and arrangement of the mysterious and provocative "Tico Tico." Long-time string bassist Phil Anderson retired from the band in 1989 and was replaced by Brennan that same year. This CD is a compilation of numbers from a vinyl LP recorded in 1987, Lost In Tin Pan Alley, and a 2001 recording session with Brennan on tuba. It is interesting to listen to the contrasting lines of the string bass and the tuba.
It's hard to pick a favorite track, as each selection has something of interest, but I especially like "At The Catfish Ball," "King Chanticleer" (the slick, classic arrangement by banjo master Dave Marty), "Oh By Jingo," "Everybody Loves My Baby" (Stevens' hot solo), "Whistling Rufus" (Frey's relaxed picking and strumming), "Twentieth Century Rag" (great!) and the classic "After You've Gone."
In the end, these are four excellent musicians who sound like they really enjoy playing together and performing pieces essential to understanding American history, American humor and American jazz. This CD is a masterful assortment of genuine entertainment, musical cliches and "aw-shucks" tunes, and I give it five stars! "Happy Trails," boys.
Southtown Strummers, Vested Interest--25 Years With The Southtown Strummers; High Five Enterprises; High Five CD STS 002 (Available through www.banjobook.com or connect from our "links" page at www.duaneewing.com)
Bug Music
For those who are interested in music of the twenties and thirties, two CD's, Beau Hunks Saxophone Ensemble with the Metropol Orchestra: The Chesterfield Years, and Bug Music--Music of the Raymond Scott Quintette, John Kirby and his Orchestra, and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, show the richness and diversity of the great American composers Duke Ellington and Raymond Scott. Ellington, whose career spanned at least fifty years, from the early 1920's through the 1970's, is probably the most well-known American bandleader and composer of the twentieth century. Raymond Scott, while not as popular, is probably quite familiar to those who had listened to Paul Whiteman's Orchestra from the mid to late 1930's, enjoyed several well-known cartoons of that time period, or remember the early television show "Your Hit Parade" from the late 1940's and early 1950's.
The Beau Hunks CD highlights Raymond Scott's arrangements for the Paul Whiteman radio show, which was sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes. The Beau Hunks/Metropol Orchestra collaboration plays exact transcriptions of the original compositions done for Whiteman's CBS Radio show--classically oriented, big orchestral pieces, precisely performed and very musical. Tunes on the recording such as "Powerhouse" and "Siberian Sleigh Ride" provided the background for cartoons from early TV and Saturday matinees. Scott's music is distinctive, unmistakable and very American!
The Bug Music recording by contemporary New York clarinetist Don Byron and his ensemble showcases works of Scott, Ellington, John Kirby, W.C. Handy, Clarence Williams and several others, including a great, humorous piece by Billy Strayhorn called "SNIBOR" featuring Byron on clarinet. This album is well recorded, beautifully performed and has a wonderful, swinging jazz feel--the music is old, the feeling is contemporary. Five Stars!
Beau Hunks-Chesterfield Recordings of 1937 (Basta 30-9097-2)
While listening to the Sacramento National Public Radio station KXJZ-FM recently, I suddenly realized I was hearing the driving Afro-Cuban rhythms and unmistakable sound of Eddie Palmieri on his latest CD, Ritmo Caliente.
For the last forty years or so, Eddie Palmieri, now sixty-six years old, has recorded some thirty albums and CDs, been awarded seven Grammys and is an internationally acclaimed music icon. Along with the late Tito Puente, Palmieri sits atop the somewhat narrow but deeply fan-based genre of Latin Jazz. His piano playing and composing has been at the forefront of Afro-Cuban/New York Puerto Rican music and has set the standard for Latin-American jazz. (Listen to track #6, "Tema para Renee" dedicated to his eldest daughter, Renee, who, in turn, was named after the great pianist-composer Rene Hernandez, who worked with another famous Afro-Cuban bandleader, Machito.)
Similar to many jazz musicians, Palmieri has enormous respect for classical music, alluding to it often in interviews and arrangements of his music. On this CD he goes a bit further with "Gigue (Bach goes Bata)." A listener who is not paying attention may think something is "wrong" since the first two minutes contain classical piano music while the remaining six plus are filled with a kind of salsa party presided over by J. S. Bach. Another track, "Grandpa Semi-Tone Blues" is also interesting, different and fun.
My exposure to Latin Jazz began with the Afro-Cuban flavored records of Los Angeles-based orchestra leader Stan Kenton. As a teenager, I spent many hours listening to the Kenton album called Cuban Fire! To a young contemporary jazz fan, this wildly loud, dramatic and fast-paced music, played by some of the cream of L. A. studio jazz musicians, was exactly the music with which to declare, unequivocally, my independence. Even my relationship with my favorite Uncle Bob (whom I expecially respected and revered for his six-year sacrifice in the Pacific before and during WWII), took a tremendous hit after I played several cuts for him from the album and he declared that Stan Kenton and all those who liked him were crazy malcontents (or more colorful words to that effect).
Ten years later I was in training for the Peace Corps in rural Puerto Rico, where I heard mambos and cha-chas everywhere. I will never forget the night a young Puerto Rican U.S. Army returnee and I tramped over hill and dale to a cantina/dance hall in the middle of nowhere to dance the night away to recordings, some of which were probably done by Eddie Palmieri. Most likely being the only "Anglo" ever to set foot in that particular dance hall, I was the center of attention--until the juke box played and the dancing began. Then it was everyone for himself! Some of the prettiest girls I had ever seen couldn't wait to teach me (amid much laughter and giggles and in spite of my almost total lack of Spanish language fluency) the very popular "mambo." The whole experience was exciting, slightly frightening and exhilarating. Since then I have kept a place in my heart for Latin American music in general and Afro-Cuban music in particular. As a musician, I play Latin tunes with respect and as much authenticity as possible.
When I heard Palmieri's latest CD, I was reminded of my own debt to the man and his music. Even if this CD were not as good as it is, even if it were a bit tired, which it isn't, I would still give it five stars simply because this is the quintessential Afro-Cuban Sound and Eddie Palmieri is the quintessential Latin Jazz musician--restless, innovative while respecting traditions, continually exploring the sacred rhythms which captive Africans brought with them to the Caribbean Islands.
If you are at all the adventurous type you'll find Eddie Palmieri's Ritmo Caliente (as well as the CD Nocturne by Charlie Haden and Gonzalo Rubalcaba previously reviewed) to be excellent examples of "Latin Jazz" with which to expand your possibilities.
Eddie Palmieri, Ritmo Caliente, Concord Picante, CCD-2180-2