Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures: A Fantastic Avant-Garde Jazz Record on Blue Note

Cecil Taylor, you love his music or you hate it.  Fortunately for me, right from the beginning I dug this guys percussive piano attack.

 15 years plus into my modern jazz journey he still is one of the few pianists that I really can stomach in a solo setting.

Keith Jarrett's really the only other one, this guy plays the piano like the drums, heavily percussive and full of ideas.

Taylor's genius is great, if not beyond most peoples perspective.

 Now if you don't subscribe to the Brandford Marsalis theory:  That his music is"self indulgent bull shit" then you are in the know, and likely already dig it. Despite what Ken Burns and the Marsalis family might say, I like it, even if it barely resembles anything you'd think of as traditional jazz.

Unit Structures, released in 1966 on Blue Note Records is part of a pair of mid 60's Blue Note masterpieces by Taylor, the other being Conquistador. Much of Taylor's music is really "chamber jazz", and always feels like avant-garde third stream music to me, classical avant-garde at least.

 Cecil has a solo on the One Night With Blue Note DVD I always marveled at. Probably more marveled that they let him participate, considering how some view him.

Unit Structures demands your attention, sure a few hints of classic jazz show up, especially in Jimmy Lyons alto and Ken McIntyre's Tenor tone.

 The 2 basses of Henry Grimes and Alan Silva add quite a bit of color, not much in the pocket walking for sure, but they play as if they are lead instruments at times, it's an interesting listen.

Pianist Taylor really holds my interest, with his different moods and that percussive attack. The music has a lot of peaks and valleys, plenty of the free wheeling blowing, and seemingly all over the place piano.

 The mood shifts, remind me of some Alfred Hitchcock movie theme at times, the build up, the tension, and then crash it home. These are well composed and performed compositions. Is this Jazz? maybe 2%, but this is 98% something else, and that something is breathtaking to me.

I love the ominous bass clarinet of Ken McIntyre on the title track, "Unit Structures" starts of slow then builds into a free for all, with Taylor going insane, then McIntire is really doing the job.

Lyons over blows to glory on his alto, it's really hard to describe this music, you must hear it for yourself. Be warned, if you are someone who rather prefers safe and swinging jazz, and I like that too, this is not for you, or the faint of heart.

Grachan Moncur III: Some Other Stuff.

Today I received one of the most elusive Blue Note records to add to my collection.

 Not an original pressing, but the 1970 United Artist pressing, it does have stellar sound over it's digitally compressed CD counterparts for sure.

 Wayne Shorter's saxophone tone is so warm I almost want to cuddle up next to the speakers.

Grachan Moncur III, an acquired taste to say the least, and both of his Blue Note sessions, Some Other Stuff and Evolution were very unusual for the label.

 I can only think of a handful of Blue Notes that were this avant-garde, Dolphy's Out to Lunch, Cecil Taylor's Conquistador and Unit Structures come to mind, and a few of Andrew Hill's records perhaps?

I would consider Some Other Stuff to be a sort of chamber jazz, with an unusual pace. The music is very deliberate and well composed.

 It is interesting to note, this recording was made right before Wayne Shorter joined Miles Davis to complete the second great quintet, Though these are all Moncur compositions.

 Wayne really digs into this music, and this music sounds nothing like Art Blakey at all. Also Tony Williams on drums, and Herbie Hancock on Piano, join Cecil McBee on bass.

 Moncur to my count has only released 8 sessions as a leader, all of them Advanced Post Bop with his signature off-kilter composition style.  If you have an open mind, and don't mind some weird time signatures and strange melodies, Moncur is worth a listen.

My first exposure to this artist was through the inaugural Mosaic Select 3 CD Box set series, This session for some reason sonically just seemed to compressed for my tastes on that set, A lot of distortion on the horns as well, I couldn't stand to hear it with headphones.

With this vinyl copy, the sound stage is much more natural, and as mentioned, the horns are definitely warmer and ring truer.

Check out Some Other Stuff for yourself.

Bobbi Humphrey's Blacks and Blues: A Winning Combo of Jazz and R&B

If ever there was an album for driving around with the top down on a hot summer night, Blacks and Blues is it.

 I can see no flaws in the music what so ever. If you take it for what it is, a contemporary jazz funk album. The music just feels urban, it feels like a party in the heart of New York City

It can not be overlooked the contribution of the Brothers Mizell, Larry and Fonce, with all the compositions and arrangements from the pair.

 Bobbi Humphrey has a nice voice on flute too, perhaps nothing groundbreaking, she's not Eric Dolphy, but who is?

Obviously this album is a studio creation, with many session players, but unlike The Donald Byrd Mizell brothers produced albums like Black Byrd, Bobbi gets quite a bit of solo space.

 The album feels more like hers than some of those other albums did, she really stretches out in the R&B setting. Blacks and Blues is not really jazz, and that's OK, it's roots are still in the Blues, and any music that remembers is roots, is OK by me.

 The synth work is quite good, and never gets tasteless as some jazz funk can get, but it's not so safe that I would want to fall asleep either.

 Bobbi also sings 2 ballads "Just a Love Child" and "Baby's Gone", her first on record, you would never confuse her for Aretha Franklin, that's for sure, but her light voice is a nice rest from the harder groovers.

"Harlem River Drive" and "Chicago Damn" are the ringers on Blacks and Blues, they are easily, "stone funk classics", with fantastic stock back ground singing by the Mizell brothers. The overall mood of the album is just so positive and absorbing, I can't find anything wrong with it.

Andrew Hill's Passing Ships: A From the Vaults Must Own for Modern Jazz Collectors

Passing Ships is a slice of modern jazz that belongs In every fans collection. A session from 1969 that sat in the vaults unreleased until 2003.

If memory serves me, producer Michael Cuscuna had heard about this rumored session for years, but Andrew kept saying the production was bad, it wasn't worthy of release.

As it turned out, the problem was, the Session reels were missing a track or 2, but finally the entire session tapes were found, and Cuscuna was blown away by the sound and the performances.

Compositions on Passing Ships: The title track for one, as well as "Noon Tide," the lightly funky "Plantation Bag," and "The Brown Queen" are all killer tunes. Another treat from Passing Ships is the criminally underrated saxophonist Joe Farrell and the equally unappreciated Dizzy Reece on trumpet. Woody Shaw too on trumpet, all three fire off some fantastic solos throughout the session.
Ron Carter also provides a solid elastic foundation on bass, much like his work with the Davis Quintet, a large band on display, with Howard Johnson on Tuba, Julian Priester on Trombone, and Bob Northern on French Horn, many colors throughout Passing Ships.

Sometimes the arrangements feel like a band twice its size. Lenny White also provides solid drum work on the album, only his second ever recording session!

Another interesting thing about passing ships: At the time of its release in 2003, Andrew was just starting to get back into this style again, he had released Dusk in 1999 and A Beautiful Day in 2002. When Passing Ships came out, it was sort of a Rosetta Stone for those great albums.

Those albums, along with Passing Ships, were some of the first real challenging Modern Jazz albums I heard out side the Davis/Coltrane sphere, and remain some of my favorites. All of Hill's other Blue Note's are well worth a listen too.

Passing Ships might be hard to find at a decent price, it was a limited edition in 2003, and now long out of print. I have always wished that they would release Passing Ships On vinyl.

You can check out Passing Ships for yourself.

Wayne Shorter Blue Note 4194 Speak No Evil (1965)

Tenor Saxophonist Wayne Shorter was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz messengers, Miles Davis' second great quintet, and a co founding member of the jazz fusion super group Weather Report.

His influence on modern saxophonists is immeasurable, he was out of the Coltrane tradition, but Wayne developed his own style and has contributed many Jazz standards.

Speak No Evil, a Blue Note Records release from 1965 is one of the best ever recorded from the label, and one of Wayne's most Influential. To generations of jazz musicians, Speak No Evil is a classic recording. I know have enjoyed Dozens of times.

By this time, Wayne's tone had very little John Coltrane influence left to my ears, All the tunes on Speak No Evil have a Contemporary feel as well , with the Modal bass walking, the Gorgeous melodies, keeping the music from stretching to far into avant guard territory, But that doesn't mean that there aren't any fiery solo's, Shorter and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard have more than a few.

Speak No Evil is about well composed music, this is not a typical "blowing session". One thing that I have learned about this recording that was ground breaking, is the use of perfect 4ths, with the quarter note being emphasized on the title track, McCoy Tyner had been doing this slightly earlier with John Coltrane.

Herbie Hancock plays some very tasteful piano on the album, ultimately Speak No Evil deserves its classic status.

The Title track and "Which Hunt" are stone jazz classics, and "Infant Eyes" is a ballad of impeccable taste.

Original Blue Note NY USA vinyl pressings are fetching upwards of $200 in VG+ condition, even generic 20th Century reissues are fetching $20 bucks a copy.

Speak No Evil

Art Blakey Blue Note 4170 Free For All: Powerful 60's Jazz

Grab a vinyl copy of Free For All

Power! That's the best way to describe Free For All.  A fantastic driving hard bop session from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Jazz with a pair of brass balls.

In fact, listening to this music, one can hear a few times where the recording equipment can barely handle what's being played, some slight distortion here and there.

The title track "Free for All" is the hard driving back bone of the album, a track that comes as close as Blakey ever got to free jazz, the nearly 10 minute "The Core" almost captures the same power.

Tenor Saxophonist Wayne Shorter composed the title track, and the second track "Hammer Head", a nice straight ahead blues groove number that evens out the enormous power of the album.

 The sets closer "Pensativa", a Clare Fischer number that brings the session to a mellow close with a rhythmic style reminiscent of Benny Golson's "Whispser Not".

As great as Blakey's drumming and Shorter's compositions are, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard really stands out here.

Free For All is easily one of the best Art Blakey albums, and should be in every jazz collection. Here's 24 more Blue Note albums you need in your collection.

Eric Dolphy Out to Lunch: Classic Chamber Jazz on Blue Note

Out to Lunch (1964) was my first exposure to avant-garde jazz. In fact, I would definitely consider this chamber jazz.

Understand, this is some pretty high-brow jazz, some could consider this pretentious. It certainly has a classical music vibe going on.  Out to Lunch to me comes off as a third stream jazz record for sure.

I remember at the time I first heard it, thinking, this is some crazy stuff; especially "Straight up and Down" with that drunken strut down the avenue blues line?

 With Bobby Hutcherson's icy hot vibes starting out the tune with a few mallet bangs, pretty odd, but grabs you kind of music?

Eric Dolphy is surely an acquired taste if you're new to jazz. Miles Davis once said of Dolphy: "That's got to be Eric Dolphy, nobody else could sound that bad". After a few years, I grew to accept that dissonance in sound and can listen to wide range of avant-garde and free jazz styles.

 Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Hutcherson on vibes, Richard Davis on bass, and an 18 year old Tony Williams on drums. How could a drummer be so original and full of new ideas at the age of 18! By his 25th birthday you could honestly make the case for Williams being the greatest jazz drummer of all time.

One other thing of note about Out to Lunch: Engineer Rudy Van Gelder's production, almost and icy cold sound, sort of reminds of the ECM sound to come by the end of the decade. The production fits the music very well.

Dolphy also shows his expertise on Bass Clarinet on "Something Sweet Something Tender" and the flute on "Gazzelloni".

One of the most out of character releases from Blue Note Records, and easily one of their best during the entire history of the label. You can find original NY USA vinyl copies for between $100 and $200, up to $500. Liberty presses at around $50 and Mid 70's black "b" Liberty pressing for about $25.

Out To Lunch (The Rudy Van Gelder Edition