Jazz Improv

This is short jazz solo I recorded at my producer friend's house. It got us warmed up to recording that day. I try to play bebop with a lot of modernism and some outside free jazz sort of stylings. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/jazz-improv-1

Out Front

Out Front is a jazz record from March 1961 by Booker Little and his quartet featuring Max Roach (drums). Also on the album are Eric Dolphy (alto sax, bass clarinet, flute) Art Davis (bass), Ron Carter (bass), Don Friedman (piano), and Julian Preister (trombone). I wanted to write about this album because its a terrific record, very polished for 1961. I was curious to hear it because it featured Eric Dolphy (everyone knows the live Dolphy record with Booker Little at the Five Spot) and Max Roach on the same album, something I had not heard before. And it was totally worth it.

Booker Little was only 23 and died later that year in 1961. These seven tunes are worthy enough to be replayed and preserved by a modern jazz group, that's how good it is. Eric Dolphy's playing isn't as free as it usually is here. In fact, most of what you hear here sounds like arrangements complete with piano, bass, trumpet, trombone, alto sax, flute, bass clarinet, and drums. Its quite a full sound. Not quite big band but not quite quartet either. It reminds me of something Mingus would record although not as technical. In fact, I would say that although this music is challenging for the soloists, the music is much more emotive than technical. There's humanity to this jazz, quite a lot of it. This element is sorely missing in today's modern straight ahead and sometimes free-jazz scenes. Its blues even though there's complicated arrangements.

The music has room to breathe. There's a sense of blues to all the pieces although a lot of the heads sound like bebop riffs from the 50's. I want to say it sounds orchestral as well. They are definitely playing to well organized charts and doing a spectacular job laying down the groove and getting the right tones. 

With song titles like We Speak, Strength and Sanity, Quiet Please, Moods in Free Time, Man of Words, Hazy Hues, and A New Day you would think this is either a free jazz album or some kind of progressive jazz record. It is quite a progressive jazz album but not free jazz. However, it was definitely new and innovative in 1961, that's for sure.

The solos here are spectacular. Dolphy's style is recognizable as always. Instead of going too far outside the changes, instead here he plays to the song's tonality, meaning he doesn't go off into the realms of the netherworld like on some of his own records. There's a feeling of respectability to the composer and he stuck to the song. The solos aren't long but are rewarding. This is about tunes, not so much about blowing, like the 50's bebop records. Although there is definitely a bebop influence here in the playing, especially the drums, I would say that Booker Little is also trying to find his own sound, style, vernacular if you will. I would say he achieves this with his sounds.

I found this CD on the library servers and ordered it. It was so good I downloaded it onto my computer. Its a shame Booker Little died so young, he would've gone on to have a great career in jazz. In a lot of ways I see how this sort of music inspired the modern jazz crowd of today. In fact, a lot of modern straight ahead jazz today sounds much like this music. There's detailed, written out arrangements, soloists, and they try to put as much humanity into the music as possible, no matter how technical the music is.

Its damn good!

Thoughts on jazz books

So I'm reading two books on jazz right now and I thought I'd jot down some of my thoughts about the books and some things I've learned from them. I'm almost done with both books, maybe even just a mere 60-80 pages away from finishing both. I've been doing a lot of reading...

Anyways, I'd like to talk about Stanley Crouch's biography on Charlie "Bird" Parker called Kansas City Lightning-The Life and Times of Charlie Parker. This book is so heavily detailed with history about jazz, the black musical tradition (including Jim Crow and minstrelsy) and American history you sometimes forget that its about Bird. What Crouch does best is cultural critique. You might not always agree with what he's saying but what he says comes with a sense of seriousness and care for jazz, and ultimately black people and their history. For that his work is incredible, even if I think his thoughts on free jazz are way wrong.

Kansas City Lightning goes into much detail about Parker. He was a pampered only child to a single mother, lived with his girl friend (and later wife) with his mother, and was laughed off the bandstand to such a degree that he went home and cried. He said never again and practiced and practiced until he nailed all the changes, all the melodies, and then some. He was already playing professionally in bands at the age of 16 even though he wasn't a good sight reader (good at reading music charts, notation) and only knew a few keys (most popular songs of the day were played in only a few keys). All that would change.

Once he got used to the nightlife and hanging out all night into the morning he found the world he wanted to belong to. That's when he starting using (code for heroin). I'm still reading the book but one can only assume that he would become super famous and then descend into ruin. That's the story of all so-called greats. They become great, fly too close to the sun, and then crash land to ruin or in some cases death. I'm interested to see how Crouch will end the book.

The other book is author (bassist, composer, music theory teacher) Paul Steinbeck's biography and music analysis on the Art Ensemble of Chicago. It's called Message to Our Folks, which was one of their early albums. This book is much more appealing to me because the Art Ensemble is one of my favorite music groups ever. I was awed by them when I saw their videos on Youtube some four or five years ago. When I heard them I found out that jazz can mean much more and be much different from the other free jazz stuff I had heard in the past (Ornette, late period Trane, Ayler, Sanders, Shepp). The AEOC's music has a lot more collective improvisation (much like Louis Armstrong's Hot Five) but they can also go into bebop, swing, blues, and even European harmonies-sometimes all within the same tune. There's nothing quite like them. You should listen to their music if you aren't familiar with their work.

Going forward, the book starts off as a biography about all the guys in the band. Its interesting to note that most of the guys were in the army, went to college (but most didn't stay) because of the GI bill, and most of them all came from musical and religious families. Pretty typical stuff. I was a little surprised to read that most of them were in the army. In today's world going to the army is seen as a much different thing as back then. It's good to know where all the guys came from.

After that history part there's musical analysis of the album A Jackson in Your House (Jackson was the name of saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell's cat). I listened to the entire album before I read it and although I don't think Steinbeck can completely explain the music in words I do think its cool that he added transcriptions (music notation) of certain parts to the music. That's something I've never seen before, its new, and totally exciting. Again, I think he does a good attempt at explaining the music in words but I don't think words do it justice. Its just too hard to explain the variety of sounds that this band can produce. However, its still great reading.

After that there's more talk about their next period, the 1970s. They were in a good spot by then. They had reached international acclaim in Europe (particularly Paris, where they stayed from 1969-1971 and when they came back home they were already the most famous band to come from Chicago's AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). However, work was still hard to come by so they played on and off about twelve times a year and in between they played side gigs where they could earn a living (mostly playing with other AACM groups). Eventually they began to become more popular in America (once they got signed to a major label-Atlantic) and they started to get regular gigs where they increased their price. They've had a big influence on me musically and culturally. I look forward to reading more.

When I'm done reading these books I'll probably write a final little excerpt about it. This is a great step forward in my jazz history.

It don't a thing if it ain't got that swing.

The Music That Delivers The Goods

I've been listening to a lot more music lately. More so than gaming. Here I'd like to talk about some of the music that delivers the goods-the emotional content, the cool riffs, the outstanding improvisation, and more.

I usually like to listen to a lot of music that I've heard before. A major part of that is that quite frankly I've heard a lot of music-perhaps too much. A lot of people my age wouldn't know most of the music I listen to. No, I'm not being condescending, I'm just stating the facts. There are people my age who don't even know Strawberry Fields by the Beatles. Sad, yes. But true. Anyways, let's talk about the music I've been listening to and perhaps provide a little insight on why I keep coming back to it and gravitating to it.

First off, Death. The brutal death metal band from Florida that came to popular acclaim in the 1990s. I was talking to an older musician co-worker earlier tonight and he said that the singer from Death (Chuck Schuldiner) was considered the great hope for metal back then. But then he suddenly died due to brain cancer. He's considered the Godfather of Death Metal and had this great voice that wasn't cookie monster vocals that you hear in pretty much every death metal group. Not only were his vocals great but his guitar playing was spot on. He could do great leads as well as phenomenal rhythm.

I've been feeling Death a lot lately because I've been feeling a little angry. I like to display my anger through my guitar playing (shredding fast neoclassical licks and playing jazz standards) but sometimes you just need that raw guttural death metal style growls to satisfy the beast within. Am I evil? Probably. Haha.

Right now I'm relaxing listening to Hendrix. Hendrix is an artist I will always respect, love, and admire until the day I die. He's literally the greatest guitar player that ever lived, one of the best songwriters, and one of the best rock and rollers. He was cooler than all the Beatles combined. His music is so bluesy and jazzy but he's also a true rock and roller. The Band of Gypsies album is the one I always listen to whenever I feel the need to listen to Hendrix. And I always like hearing Little Wing. 

Hendrix's music soothes my soul. Every aspect of the music is spiritually uplifting-if you believe in that sort of thing. It's like how Hendrix described his music, as "electric church music". It's great! I've learned a lot from Hendrix about guitar playing and what it means to be a truly great musician. I'll continue to learn from him through his music.

Next up, I'd like to talk about John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. Too very different kinds of saxophonists. Trane is a tenor sax player who went on to become one of the greatest musicians of all time. The same for Parker except he played alto.

I dig a lot of Trane's music because of how uplifting and spiritual it is. The wide range of emotions displayed through musical techniques, style, and sound are baffling but rewarding. Towards the end of Trane's career he was booed and shunned because he wasn't playing bebop and My Favorite Things. The truth is that Trane took jazz to the furthest edge that it could go-further beyond. Jazz can't go further than that. Trane and Ornette Coleman were the last revolutionary changes to come to jazz. Quite remarkable. That's why he's my favorite musician.

With Charlie Parker it's a different sort of inspiration. I'm in awe of Parker's technique and sound more so than his compositions or emotional range. He played all the best songs-the jazz standards of the day that are still popular now. I can hum a lot of stuff he played and its pretty technical but it's always melodic and catchy. His influence was so vast on jazz musicians-even me, an electric guitarist in 2016. Who would've thought, right? I can see his influence on people like Trane and Eric Dolphy too, even though those guys are totally different jazz cats.

Different moods call for different music. Who knows, maybe I'll start listening to rap sometime soon. 

Joe Henderson, Inner Urge

     I'm finally back writing about jazz! The last stuff I left off on was some modern jazz and even some rock: Pat Metheny, Ornette Coleman, St.Vincent, that kind of stuff. I really want to get into free-jazz albums. The only free-jazz albums I own is this great one by David S. Ware, one of the best saxophonists I've heard in my life. The other one is by this group called Dimensions in Space in Muisc, something like that. Anyways, this is a return to writing about jazz albums. This one is a straight-ahead album that pretty much all jazz fans should know, or at least they know the tune that the album is named after, 'Inner Urge', a fantastic jazz standard written by Joe Henderson, a great tenor saxophone player who recorded on the Blue Note record label in the 1960's. He would go on to play with many other famous jazz musicians and he even had a big band at some point later in his career.  
 This is the main info about the album: Inner Urge is an album by jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson released in 1966, the fourth recorded as a leader for Blue Note Records. It was recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on November 30, 1964. It features performances by pianist McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones on drums, both associated with John Coltrane, bassist Bob Cranshaw and Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone. The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the album a four-star rating (of a possible four stars), describing the music as "dark and intense". (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Urge) 
     Let's start with the first tune which is also my favorite tune on the album. It's called 'Inner Urge'. The first thing that you hear is the piano, bass, and drums playing this great melodic motif. The melody is played on the bass and sax and it is very melodic. What really stands out is how straight-ahead this sounds to my young modern jazz ears today. This is that classic sound from the 60's that jazz fans refer to as straight-ahead or post-bop. I would say the tune is modal and follows a form of chord changes over and over again, allowing the musicians to stretch out on familiar territory rather than improvising over new lines of chord changes. As they keep playing its like the whole song is reaching a musical climax, especially the drumming of Elvin Jones, who is arguably one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time. His style is so unique. The way he hits the cymbals and the bass drum are particularly Elvin Jones. He doesn't do that standard cymbal snare hit stuff that all jazz drummers do. Instead, his style is a flurry of notes all over the kit, complicated but somehow not sounding like he's showing off throughout the whole tune. There's some lines of tenor saxophone from the leader on this recording date, Joe Henderson, after the head. His solo here is very post-bop, it has some of the influences of the greats before him like Charlie Parker but his style is undeniably his own. This isn't a follower of Coltrane, this is a guy doing his own thing. McCoy Tyner was the pianist on this recording date and boy does he play! Its crazy how this album has two guys from the John Coltrane Quintet! McCoy's solo here is very smooth and shall I use the word coy? It's a melodic solo, that's for sure. After that there's an incredible drum solo by Elvin Jones. It's got a ton of licks and groove that all drummers can appreciate. His style is very complicated without sounding busy. It's really a marvel to hear. After that they play the main melody which is mainly played by the bass. Bob Cranshaw does a really great job with his bass tone here. The bass sounds like a great quality instrument in tune with great intonation. Before I end the discussion of this song I should say a bit more about the saxophone playing. Henderson's style is very professorial and chromatic yet full of melody and with precision on the sax. They used to call him the Professor. What I like about this song is that its become a jazz standard, and the mood is very dark, although the ending chord is a beautiful one. 
     Next, we have the tune 'Isotope', a very scientific name which could of came straight from Chem 101. This one has a straight-up bebop type head that is very chromatic and bluesy. Apparently this tune is suppose to be a tribute to Monk because of Monk's use of humor in his tunes. It has a playful atmosphere, especially in Henderson's solo. But it also has the virtuosity of a true bebop player as well. His lines here are very melodic, fast, and technical but he still has a great sense of melody and feel. By feel I mean to say that it never sounds like he's trying to put too many notes into one particular section. It's a bluesy solo, that's for sure. McCoy's solo here is very classic. There are some Monk-isms in there but for the most part he's following the chords harmonically. After that there is a trading bars part where the sax is playing some improvised lines and the drums are responding to it, a call and response, which is a part of blues as well as jazz. Elvin Jones was on fire on this recording. After that they repeat the head. It's such a Monk type melody, it's great to hear someone do a tribute to him. Thelonious Monk wrote, recorded, and performed some of the greatest jazz in the world.
     Then, is the tune 'El Bario', which is a tune Henderson wanted to have a Spanish musical ethos. It sounds like some simple chords over and over again and the band is just playing off that creating some great off the cuff music with a Spanish vibe. Henderson doesn't play any particular main melody or theme but rather an improvised musical performance with tons of musical phrases on his sax. His saxophone tone is very tenor-y. It sounds like he doesn't like overblown notes, or at least he just does it very rarely, and he likes to play all of his notes perfectly in tune. At the end Henderson does hit a few overblown notes, which is cool. I always liked when sax players hit the notes really hard, loud, and brashly. Reminds me of John Coltrane but also the great saxophonist with Sun Ra named John Gilmore.
     The next tune is 'You know I Care', which is a ballad, something that every straight-ahead jazz album should have. The head could have been written in the 40's. It's very beautiful and 'jazzy', it follows some standard jazz chord changes before the rise of bebop. I tried to find this song online and I believe it is an old standard. It's interesting hearing them play something so old school after hearing the other cuts before this. Joe's saxophone playing here takes you way back to that time. The melodies, the licks, the phrasing, its all straight from the jazz book. I've never heard McCoy play a tune like this before. He really can do it all. He restrains himself on this piece, not playing as much as he did on the other tracks. He doesn't really get a solo on this piece, he just comps and plays beautifully.
     Lastly, we have a tune by Cole Porter entitled 'Night and Day'. This one has more of a bebop stride to it. The saxophone solo just hits all the changes with great rhythmic and melodic content. He's really swinging his notes. That swing rhythm is hard to explain with words but once you hear it you'll know exactly what it is. It is one of the most essential elements of straight-ahead jazz. In more far out stuff like free-jazz sometimes the rhythm is unclear, or non-existent in some cases.  This last tune doesn't really stand out as much to me as the other tunes. 
     Finally, I have to say that this was a great album. I don't think you can really rate albums like this because the stuff recorded during this time was technically all great to me. All those guys had something to say back then and they were all great. I'd always heard of Joe Henderson because I'm a huge jazz fan, but more of straight-ahead and avant-garde side of jazz. I'd seen a few videos of Joe Henderson online playing with his big band and I thought it was amazing stuff. Once I went to see the CSUN college jazz band perform and they did mostly all Joe Henderson tunes with one of their sax teachers playing Henderson's parts with their school big band. It wasn't exactly amazing like seeing Henderson on YouTube but it did open my ears to more of Henderson's material. His style is great and he's one of those classic jazz saxophonists. This is such a cool laid-back album, I'm surprised I haven't heard it until now. There's going to be a lot of those classic records like this one that I'm going to have to go back and check out thanks to the Internet. Check this one out.

Coltrane's Sound

     

     "Coltrane's Sound is an album credited to jazz musician John Coltrane, released in 1964 on Atlantic Records, catalogue SD 1419. It was recorded at Atlantic Studios during the sessions for My Favorite Things, assembled after Coltrane had stopped recording for the label and was under contract to Impulse Records. Like Prestige and Blue Note Records before them, as Coltrane's fame grew during the 1960s Atlantic used unissued recordings and released them without either Coltrane's input or approval" (Wikipedia)
     The album was released in 1964, but it was recorded in 1960, during the My Favorite Things record era. One thing I can say about this album is that I initially first heard it online because I heard a 30 minute version of the song 'Liberia' on YouTube, then I noticed that there's an actual studio version of the song on this album with this kind of abstract painting of Coltrane, and I saw that it was called Coltrane's Sound. Sure enough, every track on the album was on YouTube, but today I actually saw it at this store called CD Trader nearby my house, and I decided to buy it. So be like me folks! Once you hear something great on the internet, make sure you go out and buy the record. Support your artists. Support your local music stores. Support Jazz. Anyways, let's talk about the actual music.
     The album starts with 'The Night Has a Thousand Eyes', a descriptive and kind of creepy (to me) title for a song. It has a strong opening theme that Trane keeps coming back to. It seems to be based off repetitive chord sequences, and then going back in and out to the main theme. Its very blues based and Trane's tone is very warm if you get what I mean. The piano is a little drowned out in the mix but you can hear the comping pretty well in the choruses than Trane takes with his saxophone solos. After the sax solos, there is a piano solo but I wish it was louder in the mix like Trane's sax. For some reason on these old recordings from the 50's and early 60's its sometimes very hard to hear the piano and bass. The bass playing here is very melodic and sounds great in the mix. Although this song is an old standard, it sounds almost modern by today's standards, like it could still be played today by straight-ahead artists.
     Next, is 'Central Park West', which I guess is a tune dedicated to Central Park. This one sounds like a ballad, and is in a minor key. It has a nice melody that you can sing easily and tap your toes to. This one, like the first song sounds like something old but could be played today and made modern by straight-ahead players. Again, here the bass sounds great and is very melodic and soulful. I think on this tune Trane is playing soprano saxophone, the tone sounds like more of a higher pitched instrument, almost like a clarinet, especially on the high notes. The drums play with brushes on this track. It's a beautiful track man.
     Moving on, 'Liberia' is the whole reason why I listened to this album. It starts off with a bluesy kind of riff, not unlike something Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers would do, then it goes into this kind of ethnic (but I'm not sure what kind of ethnicity) melody that kind of sounds flamenco inspired but still has blues roots. It's such a fantastic melody and theme! Trane and the gang kill it on this track! Once Trane gets going in his solo, he plays up and down the sax, playing bebop lines along the changes, sounding much like he did on the album Giant Steps, displaying what would become his classic trademark 'sheets of sound', a flurry of saxophone lines that are fast, technical yet soulful, and harmonically complex. This is the John Coltrane that every saxophone player dreams they can sound like. After the sax solo, the piano comes in with a solo over the changes. You can really notice the bass when the sax isn't playing. The bass plays some walking bass lines over part of the theme, and then plays some droning notes during the kind of flamenco type melody line. Then Trane comes back in with the main theme and they go through these interesting changes again. This one is a special tune for sure. Such interesting rhythms and changes. One for the history books for Jazz 101.
     Then, we have a great jazz standard that pretty much everyone knows, 'Body and Soul'. I really dig Trane's take on it. He plays it a little bit faster than most jazz musicians do it. Usually, because its a ballad, people play it at a slower tempo than this kind of upbeat version. Everyone knows this melody and the changes, it's a great old jazz standard. But what really stands out here is the piano playing by McCoy Tyner. The piano is really clear, and the comping hand with the chords is very strong! They always say McCoy has a strong right hand, well hear you can hear how hard he's hitting the keys. I really like how he colours the changes in his solo with his chord-solo. This tune shows how versatile Trane was. He could do anything; ballads, standards, as well as great original tunes with the influence of bebop.
     Next, is another tune that has become famous with Coltrane's name and stature, 'Equinox'. This one has a bluesy theme that is simple and repeats, but it is soulful and hits you hard after hearing all this fast technical stuff from the beginning cuts. It's slow and brooding, just like how a blues should be. Hear you can also hear how Trane really has his own style. He's playing a blues but he has such a unique style and original licks, that it sounds like something more complicated than just a blues vamp. This is one of those songs that makes you think about how great Coltrane was during this period, this intense musical period for him, probably the point where he reached critical fame as a band leader and recording artist. The critics practically loved him, compared to his later period before his death when he started playing free-jazz, which is almost the opposite of this music, based on melodies and changes. I would say this song is legendary because everyone that knows Coltrane's music knows it, but perhaps that would be going too far. It's just another great straight-ahead song that is still played to this day.
     Lastly, the last song on the album is a tune entitled 'Satellite'. This song starts and sounds like a tune that could have been on the album Giant Steps, which I believe was recorded in 1960 as well. There's no real opening theme or head or anything, it just kind of starts, and doesn't stop. The sax just goes off, playing lots of lines that sound inspired by Charlie Parker, but with the strength and gravitas of John Coltrane. This is where modern bebop was at its peak in my humble opinion. At some point in the song, there's a break that sounds exactly like the melody from 'Giant Steps', I swear he's using the same changes and everything! But it sounds great, and it sounds refreshing that he was using the template for Giant Steps for other tunes as well. He created a series of chord changes in Giant Steps that became known as the Coltrane Matrix, which is really just a fancy term for changes that are a little bit more complicated than the standard jazz II-V's. Anyways, on my remastered CD version there's two extra tunes. One is called '26-2', and the other is another version of Body and Soul. 26-2 takes off from where Satellite left, a kind of bebop piece that lacks a melody and theme, but has lots and lots of variations of many themes. It features a nice piano solo that doesn't sound anything like McCoy, I think its this other guy credited on the album named Steve Davis. After the piano solo, there's more sax stuff but this time on a soprano. Trane loved soprano sax. And the other version of Body and Soul is more relaxed, a kind of slower tempo, and has less melody, more notes if you will. Good version but I liked the other version better. This one is more of a live in the club feel though.
     Anyways, this album is really great! I would recommend this album to anyone who wants to get more into the world of straight-ahead jazz, the old school cutting edge stuff after Miles' Kind of Blue, Dizzy and Charlie Parker, and Monk. Also, listening to this jazz will prepare you for the avant-garde. In my case it did. But I've seen on other occasions where they're people who love this era of John Coltrane but can't stand listening to his free-jazz stuff in like 1964-1965. There are some people who say that jazz ends with this kind of stuff. But for me jazz continued evolving and this was one of the most important developments, especially in John Coltrane's career. The guy was a helluva sax player. And his band (McCoy Tyners, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones) were probably the best Quartet in modern jazz.