The Blue Note Lounge

lol that can't possibly all be sweat...I'm guessing speckles of paint on the wall behind him.

I agree. I am seriously thinking of buying the Francis Wolff monograph. And I'm praying I #1939 (wayne shorter's ) signature is the icing on the cake

"Let me emphasize again that the above comments are merely a guidepost to enable you to follow the music. Though all music has a scientific basis, the procedures involved in either creating it or listening to it can never be reduced to the mechanical level of a numbers game". ---Leonard Feather


Here is something you can take to the bank; when you have an eminent jazz critic like Leonard Feather resorting to the disclaimer above in his liner notes for a sophomore Blue Note album by Andrew Hil, you know you're entering uncharted territory. Uncharted musical territory that is. Though many of you are familiar with Hill's first album for Blue Note, Black Fire 4151 and his third, Point of Departure 4167; I doubt that familiarity extends to Judgement. Seriously, if you are unfamiliar with this album you are doing yourself a disservice as it and the other two records I mentioned comprise Andrew Hill's finest recordings on Blue Note or any other label. Like Black Fire and Point of Departure, the music on Judgement  defies category. It isn't straight hard bop nor is it your grandaddy's free jazz. The term avant garde has been ascribed to it, but we all know that label can mean anything. Is the music unusual? Yes, that it is. But you should be asking, is the music fun? I swear under oath that it is more fun than most straight hard bop records. Unlike Mr. Feather, I won't resort to scribbling musical diagrams with staff notations and what not to attract your interest in this music. I will simply ask you to go to Spotify or Pandora or iTunes or however you download music and listen to the opening track Siete Ocho. I believe that is spanish for 7/8 which is the meter configuration for this particular song. For the rest of the day you will find Richard Davis' repeating bass figures running around in your head. Note how the song itself concludes unceremoniously without warning or fanfare.

Believe me, this is adventurous music but you don't need to be an adventurer to enjoy it.

Alto, Bone and Vibe: A Jazz Triptych


When Previoulsy discussing the three albums in this post I would mistakenly refer to them as a "trilogy", but I know better now. They are a "triptych" and not a trilogy as I've now come to understand. Some definitions are here in order with regards to my use of the terms "trilogy" and "triptych". Now then: a "trilogy" constitutes three presentations that make up a whole. A "triptych" constitutes three presentations that may or may not yield a whole.  In other words, the three Godfather films constitute a trilogy; on the other hand the three classic Hollywood Philip Marlowe films, (The Big Sleep, Murder, My Sweet and The Lady In The Lake) constitute a triptych.


A triptych traditionally is presented as three hinged panels. As such, the three instruments listed in above in my heading serve as the three hinges in this Jazz triptych. The alto is Jackie Maclean, bone is Grachan Moncur III and vibe is Bobby Hutchinson. These three musicians constitute the nucleus of three remarkable albums recorded between April, 1963 and November, 1963. The three albums are Jackei Maclean's One Step Beyond, Destination Out and Grachan Moncur III's Evolution.

The level of sophistication, interaction and continuity of ideas that is on display across these three albums over the span of seven months by Maclean, Moncur, Hutchinson and their revolving duo of accomplices is usually reserved for long term bands like Duke Ellington's classic big bands of the 50s, Miles Davis' 2nd great quintet  from 1965 to 1968 and the John Coltrane Quartet on the impulse label. As a matter of fact I know not of any other remarkable run of three albums in the annals of Blue Note.

While Jackie Maclean is the spiritual leader of this group, it Granchan Moncur III in his role as the composer in chief who bears the mantle of high priest.


Without further let us now look at the three panels in our triptych:


Panel: 1 One Step Beyond



Jackie forms a band out of his practice sessions with Hutcherson and Moncur III. The two centerpiece compositions on this album Frankenstein and Ghost Town are penned by Moncur III. They are uniquely venturous compositions and a harbinger of his outer musical auteurism

Those of you who are fans of Anthony Williams will rejoice to no end to hear how remarkably precocious the 17 yrs old prodigy sounds on his debut on the Blue Note label. He was hand picked for this date by Maclean himself.

Pay close attention to the final track, Ghost Town.


Panel 2: Destination Out!




Grachan Moncur III once again assuming the duties of primary composer for the group, continues to explore and expand upon the themes and motifs touched upon on One Step Beyond. Love and Hate, the opening track on Destination Out literally picks up where Ghost Town, the final track on One Step Beyond left off. Larry Ridley takes the place of Eddie Khan on bass, while Roy Hanes replaces Tony Williams on the drums, but the core group of Maclean, Moncur III and Hutchinson remain 


Panel 3: Evolution





On the strength of his work as trombonist and composer on the previous two albums Moncur III is rewarded with his own date. Again Moncur III continues to progress as a composer on this third record; in fact it isn't a coincidence that the album is named Evolution. And as the title implies it is the next logical step from the two previous albums. Moncur III's composition retain their auteuristic attributes. Since this is not a triptych and not a trilogy are not brought to a nice and tidy conclusion on this third; instead they are fragmented even further in an exponential manner. More questions are being posed than are answered.

At the center of it all as usual are the alto, bone and vibe. Anthony Williams returns as drummer while the bass is manned by Bob Crenshaw.


Conlusion:

There is no other instance in the venerable Blue Note catalogue where a  unique set of circumstanc like this trio of records presents itself. Certainly a lot of what transpired on these three records is by conscious design; Maclean provides ample evidence in his unpretentious liner notes on the first two records to support this argument. However, it is the music within the albums that makes the case for these records.  Those who are disciplined and patient might want to explore this Jazz triptych in a 1, 2 and 3 order, but I am reminded of the saying by Jean Luc Godard: every film must have a beginning, a middle and end, but they it doesn't have to be in that order.

One thing for sure is that there is endless rewards with repeated listening...

Did You Know That Herbie Hancock Made a Free Jazz Album?

Over the course of his prolific and shapeshifting career Herbie Hancock has worn many hats as a musician, but yet no one I know I will tell you that he made a Free Jazz album. The Free Jazz album I speak of is none other than 1964's Inventions and Dimensions BN 4147. It is easy to neglect this one of a kind record that has Hancock in a stream of consciousness mode, improvising his lines in the studio without rehearsals. It is an album I'm fond of referring to as "Bossa Not" because at time when Bossa Nova was all over the airwaves across the US, Hancock had the fortitude to fuse latin music and Jazz in a startling unexpected  manner that avoids the mundane.

I refer to BN 4147 as a free jazz because it is entirely improvised in the studio by Hancock and his accomplices and Hancock mentions that it was inspired by his musical encounters with Eric Dolphy in the liner notes. He also gives Miles Davis credit for helping work out the structure of some of the songs. But let's delve into the phrase Free Jazz a bit further. No doubt many people's idea of Free Jazz boils down to a honk and squeak free for all, a conception that has in turn lead to a gross misunderstanding of the term Free Jazz..



To cut straight to the point, Free Jazz is not the unfettered expression of musical outpouring that many assume it to be; rather it is a style that while on the surface appears free of strictures is nevertheless grounded in traditional foundation. LJC in his write up for Out To Lunch defined Free Jazz as a "musical bungee jump".

This is a definition that I find to be most accurate because bungee jumping is an activity that gives the appearance of being an unfettered risk taking in the face of death but at it's heart t is an activity that is grounded by rules. You have to have the right length of of bungee cord, you have to make sure that it can bear the jumper's weight and so on and so forth. You get idea.







BN 4147 is not your typical Free Jazz album though; for one it lacks any honk and squeak because it is an album played only by rhythm instruments. Paul Chambers, Willie Bobo and Chihuahua Martinez make up the rest of this band and the music is very much tilted towards the "Latin Idiom" Things jumps off to a strange and unfamiliar pattern on side A with the 6/8 track that is reminiscent of Andrew Hill's "Siete Ocho" and Duke Ellington's "Red Garter" all at the same time. Four additional songs later this strange and unusual album comes to a close with the song "A Jump Ahead", a song that can only be described as a reworking of the title track from the 1958 Miles Davis album, Milestones. Only this time , Chambers who was the basist on that 58 album reprises his role by playing the song's pedal points with a different tone at each interval. The result is as interesting and entertaining as the Miles Davis original.





I highly recommend several listening to this record as it is not a record that grabs you right away, but rather it is one of those records that draws you in gradually with repeated listening.

I use the term "Free Jazz" freely. I use it to highlight the Eric Dolphy connection and to point to the fact that Hancock and his group were mostly going off their stream of consciousness.

I would count Free Jazz as part of the post bop family. Post bop for me is sort of like post-modernism; it's everything but never one thing alone. 

lol..these things are never as simple as we try to make them