The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

The Quarantined Jazz Voyager is placing Mode For Joe on the turntable and is another timeless classic that influenced my listening in the Eighties and has since been a part of my collection. Recorded and released in 1966 box tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, it would be the last Blue Note album to feature Henderson as a leader in the classic era. The session was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder on January 27, 1966, and produced by Alfred Lion for Blue Note Records.

It is a concept album combining modal and hard bop modes aimed at creating an oceanic atmosphere. Many of the track titles refer to marine biology or the sea, and the musicians develop the concept through their use of space. The album was presented with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.

A Shade of Jade, Mode for Joe, Black, Caribbean Fire Dance, Granted, and Free Wheelin’ are the six compositions that make up the hard-bop album. The personnel on the date are tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, trumpeter Lee Morgan, trombonist Curtis Fuller, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Joe Chambers.

So stay diligent my fellow voyagers in being healthy, continue to practice social distancing, and don’t be so anxious to rush back to the new normal. It has been said that music soothes the savage beast, so listen to great music. I share that music to give you a little insight into the choices this voyager has made over the years during this sabbatical from jet setting investigations of jazz around the globe.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Earl Malcolm “Jock” Caruthers Sr. was born on May 27, 1910 in Monroe, Mississippi and studied at Fisk University in the 1920s. He began playing in Bennie Moten’s ensemble in 1928.

Working in St. Louis, Missouri early in the next decade with Dewey Jackson and Fate Marable, Jock then joined Jimmie Lunceford’s band in 1932, recording often with the band. He remained a member of the orchestra until Lunceford’s death in 1947.

Following this he played with Joe Thomas and Ed Wilcox, and he worked locally in Kansas City through the 1960s. Saxophonist Earl Caruthers, who was a mainstay on the Kansas City jazz scene, passed away on April 5, 1971 in Kansas City, Kansas.

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Three Wishes

The Baroness asked Harry Carney what his three wishes would be and he replied:

1. 1. “To be healthy.”

   2. “To be happy.”

   3. “For everyone to have eternal life and healthy minds.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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Requisites

New Thing At Newport: John Coltrane~Archie Shepp | By Eddie Carter

And now for something completely different!  In 1960, Creed Taylor, a producer for ABC-Paramount Records launched Impulse Records, the company’s label exclusively devoted to jazz.  This morning’s subject of discussion from the library is a 1965 live date at The Newport Jazz Festival taken from two performances by The John Coltrane Quartet and The Archie Shepp Quartet.  The album is New Thing at Newport (Impulse! A-94), it was released in 1966 and my copy used for this report is the 1968 Stereo reissue (AS-94).  Coltrane makes his only appearance on the record backed by McCoy Tyner on piano; Jimmy Garrison on double bass; and Elvin Jones on drums.  Archie Shepp composed and performs the remaining four songs supported by Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone; Barre Phillips on double bass; and Joe Chambers on drums.

Side One starts with an Introduction of Coltrane’s group by Father Norman O’Connor, a Roman Catholic priest who was a huge jazz fan, a longtime radio host at WGBH in Boston, a weekly columnist for The Boston Globe and host of a syndicated jazz program.  The Jazz Priest, as he was known, also served as master of ceremonies of various concerts and festivals and contributed to other magazines including Down Beat and Metronome.

The quartet launches into an enthusiastic version of the saxophonist’s One Down, One Up.  Trane kicks off the song with a zestful introduction and opening chorus.  McCoy starts the soloing offering a feast of dazzling virtuosity, then John turns up the temperature with a thrilling reading making the most difficult passages between Bop and Free Jazz improvisation seem deceptively easy.

The Archie Shepp Quartet takes over for the first side finale, Rufus Swung His Face at Last to The Wind, Then His Neck Snapped.  This song portrays a lynching and made its initial appearance on his 1964 debut, Four For Trane.  The ensemble begins with a duet dialogue between the saxophonist and Hutcherson on the introduction.  Phillips and Chambers come in next for the collective theme.  Archie is up first with a lead solo ablaze with a raucous beat.  Bobby provides vigorous exhilaration on the second statement, then Paul takes a free-wheeling rollercoaster ride on the closer preceding the reprise and abrupt coda.

Side Two opens with Hutcherson leading the rhythm section on a dreamy introduction to Le Matin Des Noire.  Shepp builds the emotion gradually into the opening statement with a laid-back attitude.  Phillips and Hutcherson give two concise readings before the song’s fadeout and crowd’s ovation.  Scag is delivered with unflinching realism about the dangers of heroin and where the addiction ultimately leads, the gutter, prison, or the grave.  The two-beat delivery by Bobby, Barre, and Joe is reminiscent of the tick-tock mechanism inside a clock.  Archie recites a grim message to the audience and listener rather than playing the notes as the clock continues to beat ever louder, culminating into a crash of the cymbals that marks the end.  Shepp’s Call Me By My Rightful Name closes the album with a medium beat on the introduction and melody that’s maintained as the song unfolds.  The saxophonist makes a fine impression on a bittersweet, sensitive interpretation that receives a nice ovation from the Newport crowd at the climax.

New Thing at Newport documents one of the final live performances of The John Coltrane Quartet featuring Tyner, Garrison, and Jones.  Trane would change direction and personnel within a year moving further into Free Jazz and towards a more spiritual sound in his music.  Shepp also continued to evolve from Post-Bop towards Free Jazz, but in the years to come also recorded works of Contemporary Jazz, Modal Jazz, and Soul-Jazz.  The recording by Buddy Graham and Frank Bruno delivers a lively soundstage throughout the highs, midrange, and low-end.

My only issue with this album is the same problem I had with Miles and Monk at Newport from 1963.  Both LP’s should have been released as two-record sets spotlighting each band on one record because the listener only gets one song from Coltrane verses four tunes from Shepp.  If you’re not a fan of Avant-Garde or Free Jazz, New Thing at Newport is an acquired taste that may not be the album for you.  However, if you’re in the mood for music to challenge your emotions and intellect along the lines of The Shape of Jazz To Come by Ornette Coleman, Out To Lunch, and Outward Bound by Eric Dolphy or Point of Departure by Andrew Hill.  I invite you to audition New Thing at Newport by John Coltrane and Archie Shepp.  An album that’s still pretty amazing nearly fifty-five years after its release and one you’ll want to make room for in your library!

~ Miles and Monk at Newport (Columbia CL 2178/CS8978); Out To Lunch (Blue Note BLP 4163/BST 84163); Outward Bound (New Jazz NRLP-8236, Prestige PRLP 7311/PRST 7311); Point of Departure (Blue Note BLP 4167/BST 84167); The Shape of Jazz To Come (Atlantic 1317/SD 1317) – Source: Discogs.com

New Thing at Newport is a 1965 live album recorded July 2, 1965, at the Newport Jazz Festival featuring two separate sets from that year by tenor saxophonists John Coltrane and Archie Shepp.

1. Spoken introduction to John Coltrane’s set by Father Norman O’Connor ~ 1:08
2. One Down One Up ~ 12:28 (from Coltrane’s set)
3. Rufus (Swung His Face at Last to the Wind, Then His Neck Snapped) ~ 4:58 (from Shepp’s set)

1. Le Matin des Noire [sic] ~ 7:39
2. Scag ~ 3:04
3. Call Me by My Rightful Name ~ 6:19

• John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
• McCoy Tyner – piano
• Jimmy Garrison – double bass
• Elvin Jones – drums

• Archie Shepp – tenor saxophone, (recitation on “Scag”)
• Bobby Hutcherson – vibraphone
• Barre Phillips – double bass
• Joe Chambers – drums

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Gianni Basso, born in Asti, Italy on May 24, 1931 studied music in the busy northern city of Turin, where his childhood friend Oscar Valdambrini was a homeboy. A fascination for American jazz, their meeting was a case of a tenor saxophone and trumpet finding each other. This led to all manner of musical possibilities, most notably the easy-to-maneuver-and-feed small combo.

He started his career shortly after World War II, first as a clarinetist, then switched to the saxophone in the Forties performing in Germany and Belgium in Raoul Falsan’s Big Band. By the beginning of the next decade, he was established as a commercial “GB” or “general business” player in Milan, but one with a steady presence at jazz events, including some of the early Italian attempts at post-fascist festivals.

From about 1954, a collaboration with trumpeter and composer Oscar Valdambrini began that resembled the relationship between Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. The partners’ group was without a doubt the most popular jazz band in Italy in the ’50s, accompanying many touring stars such as Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Gerry Mulligan, Slide Hampton, and Chet Baker. His style became so developed that the Verve label signed him and Sarah Vaughan immediately recruited him for her 1984 album The Mystery of Man.

The late ’70s saw Basso founding the band Saxes Machine and fronting the Gianni Basso Big Band. In his senior years he settled into the comfort of the Rome studio scene, still playing in clubs and enjoying his growing historical stature on the European jazz scene that included free jazz fans.

Tenor saxophonist Gianni Basso, whose playing was influenced by Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins,  passed away on August 17, 2009.

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