The Penguin Jazz Guide (102 page)

Laminal
brings together a 1969 performance from Aarhus, Denmark, with Cardew, Gare, Hobbs, Prévost and Rowe; a middle-period recording from the Great Hall at Goldsmiths’ College, London in 1982 which marked the introduction of John Tilbury to the group; and a concluding tour date from the US in 1994. The juxtaposition of the intent, uneffusive music of the later period with the turbulent swirl of the late-’60s group makes for a striking contrast, but one quickly hears continuities, not least from Prévost, and an underlying narrative to one of the most remarkable musical journeys of modern times.

LIFETIME
^&

Also known as The Tony Williams Lifetime; formed 1969

Group

(Turn It Over)

Polygram 539118

Larry Young (org); John McLaughlin (g); Jack Bruce (b, v); Tony Williams (d, v). January 1970.

Tony Williams said (1991):
‘Everyone seemed to be playing something else in that group. John was like another drummer, very rhythmic and percussive. Larry was doing all these John Coltrane things,
and
playing bass until Jack came in a bit later. I was effectively the piano-player … in a group that didn’t have a piano.’

Arguably the greatest fusion group ever, and a forerunner to McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra and perhaps also later groups like Last Exit, Lifetime went through some variable evolutions in its history, and the early recordings are patchy. The first album,
Emergency!
, is an ugly sprawl, Williams’s figure-skating drums lost in a wash of sound.
Ego
isn’t a great
deal better and the title was a too obvious hostage to fortune, underlining a Jimi Hendrix influence that hadn’t yet been legitimized in jazz terms.

The surprise of
(Turn It Over)
was how swinging some of the music was, underneath the electronic wail. Jobim’s ‘Once I Loved’ has a languorous, supper club quality, belied by Williams’s eldritch vocal. Chick Corea’s ‘To Whom It May Concern’ comes in two parts and like most of the album they’re delivered abruptly and with little embellishment. Coltrane’s ‘Big Nick’ is a rarity from his bag of themes. Williams contributed ‘Right On’ and ‘Vuelta Abajo’, ideas which seemed to come straight out of his experience with Miles Davis, mixing hints of modality with the new electronic abstraction. Bruce was a fourth wheel who sometimes sounded like a third wheel, recruited to relieve Young of bass-pedal duties and to contribute some of his high, slightly surreal vocals. He didn’t necessarily dilute the mix, but he always sounds like an extra component. Unlike most records of its era, it passes the test of time.

& See also
TONY WILLIAMS, Life Time
(1964; p. 307)

THAD JONES

Born 28 March 1923, Pontiac, Michigan; died 20 August 1986, Copenhagen, Denmark

Trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, valve trombone

Consummation

Blue Note 38226

Jones; Danny Moore, Al Porcino, Marvin Stamm, Snooky Young (t); Eddie Bert, Cliff Harser, Jimmy Knepper, Benny Powell (tb); Billy Harper, Eddie Daniels, Jerry Dodgion, Jerome Richardson (reeds); Roland Hanna (p); David Spinozza (g); Richard Davis (b); Mel Lewis (d, co-leader). January–May 1970.

Humphrey Lyttelton said (1994):
‘Someone – I think it was Charles Mingus – described Thad Jones as “a Bartók who uses trumpet valves instead of a pencil”: a wonderful description of a wonderful jazz composer.’

The middle Jones brother was consistently underrated as a soloist, and was recognized mainly as a composer and arranger. Not usually considered a small-group player, or even a soloist of any unusual interest, Jones none the less had a subtle and vibrant cornet tone similar to Nat Adderley’s but was able to sustain big transitions of pitch with absolute confidence. He joined Count Basie in 1954 and stayed ten years, then began arranging and composing and formed an orchestra with drummer Mel Lewis in 1965 which lasted until 1978. That experience looped back round when he ran the Basie band for a time after the leader’s death.

The Jones–Lewis band kept big-band jazz to the fore at a time when it seemed not just dead but consigned to the fossil record.
Consummation
is a perfectly crafted record. Jones’s arrangements are as ever spot on and there are enough fine soloists in the orchestra to guarantee a high level of interest. ‘Tiptoe’, the peerless ‘A Child Is Born’ and a long, long version of ‘Fingers’ are among the highlights; the last of these is a conventional enough variation on the ‘I Got Rhythm’ chords, but what an astonishing job Thad makes of it. He plays beautifully on ‘A Child Is Born’ and the first-class recording catches him, as well as the high-quality sections, to best advantage.

HOWARD RILEY
^&

Born 16 February 1943, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England

Piano

The Day Will Come

Columbia 494434-2

Riley; Barry Guy (b); Alan Jackson (d). March–April 1970.

Howard Riley says:
‘The thing was in those days if there was someone at one of the big labels who was interested in you, you would get a recording contract, supposedly an album a year for three years in my case. I got two records out of it, then the guy I knew left and I got a three-line thank you letter.’

Riley played in local clubs before moving south and finding his own way to completely free playing. By the measure of some early survivals, it wasn’t a tortured process, but a quite natural one, though a strong element of composed material remains in place in early days. Like a number of British musicians of the period, Riley briefly enjoyed the sunshine of a major label contract. CBS also got behind Tony Oxley at this period, which means that not only was the ‘avant-garde’ documented, but it is possible to hear it in superior sound.

For Riley himself, the key thing about his Columbia recordings was that they represented a working band. Other improvising musicians of the time were happy to issue what were effectively public rehearsals. By contrast, the two records by the Howard Riley Trio are terse, focused improvisations on written themes. The fully notated flute-and-piano duets, ‘Three Fragments’, on the earlier album,
Angle
, stand somewhat apart, but are unmistakably from the same hand. Riley is the only credited composer on that record, which perhaps accounts for its thoughtful and rather reserved character.

The introduction of Barry Guy as co-composer on the brilliant
The Day Will Come
is the key factor in our very high estimation of this record. It is worth noting that, whatever the public persona Guy has now, in 1969 Chris Wellard thought nothing of describing him in his liner-note to the first record,
Angle
, as ‘rumbustious and violent’. It is he who balances the rather tender and melancholic cast of Riley’s playing. His
arco
solo on ‘Angle’ is astonishing, and he drives the following track, ‘Aftermath’, into territory new in British jazz at the time. On the later album Guy tunes like ‘Sad Was The Song’, ‘Playtime’ and the title-track present genuine improvisational challenges. Of the trio members, Jackson is the one who seems to have been eclipsed by the passing years. He is a drummer of great control and precision, inch-perfect on fast numbers like ‘Angle’ without compromising a robustly swinging presence which recalls Phil Seamen but also has ties right back to the days of Dave Tough. This, as too the preceding
Angle
, is a key recording, now widely acknowledged as such.

& See also
At Lincoln Cathedral
(2001; p. 669)

KARIN KROG

Born 15 May 1937, Oslo, Norway

Voice

Some Other Spring

Meantime MR10

Krog; Dexter Gordon (ts); Kenny Drew (p, org); Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (b); Epsen Rud (d). May 1970.

Karin Krog remembers:
‘The Department of Justice refused Dexter permission to enter Norway because he had a criminal record. In the end, we sent Dexter, Kenny and NHØP their tickets and hoped they’d get through customs. Kenny carried the saxophone and they made it to the studio, which we only had for a day. I’d prepared most of the material but Dexter suggested the lovely ballad “Some Other Spring”. I knew he had worked with Billy Eckstine and asked if he was up to singing a blues and suggested “Jelly Jelly”. He grinned and said he would have a go.’

Krog famously skipped school to see Billie Holiday sing in Oslo and that was that. One of the most astutely musical and expressive of all European jazz singers, and her substantial discography is still too little appreciated. Her recent collaborations with partner John Surman reflect the interests and backgrounds of both. The earlier work finds her working an idiosyncratic swing vein, with strong intimations of bebop.

Though still audibly a young singer, her musical confidence and awareness of history is breathtaking on
Some Other Spring
. Her own ‘Blue Eyes’ isn’t a devastatingly complex line but it moves in an interesting way and Drew’s accompaniment – on organ for this one track – has a unwontedly brooding quality that belies the tune’s, and the session’s, upbeat quality. Gordon plays throughout without the scowling pragmatism one sometimes heard from him at the time. He does, indeed, give ‘Jelly Jelly’ a go and it comes off nicely. Krog’s real skill, though, lies with the ballads and the title-track belongs in any vocal collection. Pedersen and Rud are the equal of many a more celebrated American section.

Krog has shrewdly taken ownership of her own back catalogue, licensing this one from Sonet and steadily reissuing her material. Some of the same session later appeared as
Blues And Ballads
but they’re amalgamated here for the CD.

HARRY BECKETT

Born 30 May 1935, St Michael Parish, Barbados; died 22 July 2010, London

Trumpet, flugelhorn

Flare Up

Jazzprint 124

Beckett; Mike Osborne (as); Alan Skidmore (ts); John Surman (ss, bs); John Taylor (p); Frank Riccotti (vib, perc); Chris Laurence (b); John Webb (d). 1970.

Harry Beckett says:
‘The feel was outstanding, with an enormous amount of team work. There are two ballads I fell in love with: Graham Collier’s “On The Other Side” and John Surman’s “Where Fortune Smiles”, but the other tunes are terrific, too. I’m probably biased, but I love beautiful music. It doesn’t matter where it is coming from or who is playing it.’

Harry Beckett’s trumpet and flugelhorn sound is Caribbean-warm, honeyed and mellow as ripe fruit, but it can conjure up sudden storms as well. He has been a key presence in British improvisation for four decades, ranging easily between free music and the remarkable hip-hop projects of recent years. Beckett has done time in most of the important British big bands (Westbrook, Collier, Surman, Westbrook) and his flugelhorn solos can always be picked out from the first few notes.

Unfortunately, his own discography as leader has a slightly ramshackle air, often appearing on fugitive European labels. This early disc has mercifully come back into the light, as have
Warm Smiles
and
Themes For Fega
. This one comes first, though, and it shows the British jazz of the time from a unique perspective, with compositions by Graham Collier (four of them, but the most effective is ‘Go West’) and John Surman (‘Where Fortune Smiles’) uniquely repositioned by Beckett’s fiery/calm imagination. There are obvious hints of what was happening in American jazz at the time, but, as so often, British improvisers took their own tack on modalism or rhythmic freedom or the use of electricity. John Taylor’s Fender Rhodes washes create a unique shimmer in the background, and the rest of the rhythm section manages to convey a springy, undogmatic beat, even when the music strays out into free air.

Beckett was maybe more daring with
Themes For Fega
two years later, but this debut recording has a character and finish all its own and the leader’s playing and writing (‘Flare Up’ and ‘Flow, Stream, Flow’) are exquisite.

ATTILA ZOLLER

Born 13 June 1927, Visegrad, Hungary; died 25 January 1998, Townshend, Vermont

Guitar

Gypsy Cry

Collectables COL 6178

Zoller; Lew Tabackin (ts, f); Herbie Hancock (p); Reggie Workman, Victor Gaskin (b); Sonny Brown (d). 1970.

Pianist and collaborator Don Friedman says:
‘When Peter Bernstein was a student at Attila’s Vermont jazz school, Peter was practising upstairs and Attila was cooking some food in the kitchen. Attila yelled up to Peter that he was playing something wrong. Attila had a great harmonic sense and his melodic line improvisations were truly unique. I don’t believe his improvising has received the recognition it deserves.’

Zoller came of age in an occupied country. In 1948, though, he escaped Soviet-controlled Hungary and walked through mountain passes to Austria, where he took citizenship before moving to Germany in the early ’50s. There he had the opportunity to meet American musicians, there to entertain another occupying force, and it was they who persuaded him to move to the US. He won a scholarship to the Lenox School of Jazz, where he shared accommodation with Ornette Coleman, an association that had some impact on his future musical development.

He had begun playing jazz in Buda-Pest jazz cellars, blending swing with elements of traditional Hungarian music. Even after he had been exposed to free jazz and formed a group with pianist Don Friedman, those influences never left him. Zoller’s characteristic sound reflects his deep interest in the technology of electronic pick-ups. He favoured a very clean and direct sound, without much or any distortion but with all the string’s natural overtones coming into play. Sometimes Zoller sounds similar to his compatriot Gabor Szabo, but there’s a funkier element and his basic idiom is more boppish. Over the course of his career, he worked with an extraordinary range of American artists and in many different styles. A trio with Ron Carter and Joe Chambers helped consolidate his reputation in America and there were other, later groups with Lee Konitz, Albert Mangelsdorff and Franz Koglmann.