The Penguin Jazz Guide (126 page)

& See also
Sarah Vaughan
(1954; p. 161)

GEORGE RUSSELL
^&

Born 23 June 1923, Cincinnati, Ohio; died 27 July 2009, Boston, Massachusetts

Composer, bandleader, piano

Live In An American Time Spiral

Soul Note 121049

Russell; Stanton Davis, Tom Harrell, Brian Leach, Ron Tooley (t); Ray Anderson, Earl McIntyre (tb); Marty Ehrlich (as, f); Doug Miller (ts, f); Bob Hanlon (bs); Jerome Harris (g); Jack Reilly, Mark Soskin (ky); Ron McClure (b); Victor Lewis (d). July 1982.

George Russell said (1984):
‘Ornette Coleman came to New York and he freed jazz of the Broadway tune for ever, but what comes in its place? The [Lydian Chromatic] Concept offers a way of writing music that will take jazz on, but there’s no one yet writing it and no single, overwhelming figure – even Ornette – who can be its figurehead.’

The late ’70s and early ’80s saw a gradual wakening to Russell’s importance and some important recordings, though anyone interested in his music needs to track back through things like the various versions of
Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature
and
Trip To Prillargui
(the latter even if only for early glimpses of Jan Garbarek and Terje Rypdal; yes, Russell was in European exile). At last, though, he was beginning to see his large-scale work performed.

The main piece on
Live
is a concert performance of ‘Time Spiral’, a work which tries to draw together many aspects of the African-American musical culture and then find a single, consistent line through them. Now that Russell is no more, it is a task for future musicologists to trace the impact of Russell’s theories not just on jazz but on classical and popular music as well: Michael Jackson, Prince, Beyoncé … Concerned again (like
The African Game
) with the larger, almost meta-historical movements of human life, the charts have a slightly dense philosophical feel on the studio album, but they open up considerably in a live setting. The album also includes a fine reading of ‘Ezz-thetic’ and the faintly ironic ‘D.C. Divertimento’, which is also a meditation on Duke Ellington’s city, given force by a (mostly) young and enthusiastic band.

& See also
Jazz Workshop
(1956; p. 183),
Ezz-thetics
(1961; p. 274)

MIROSLAV VITOUS

Born 6 December 1947, Prague, Czechoslovakia

Double bass

Journey’s End

ECM 843171-2

Vitous; John Surman (ss, bcl, bs); John Taylor (p); Jon Christensen (d). July 1982.

Miroslav Vitous said (1985):
‘When I came to America, it troubled me that bass-players were guys who were not able to play some other instrument. I wanted to make the bass an equal player in the group, capable of anything the other instruments were doing.’

Vitous studied classical music in his native Prague before going to Berklee, for a brief and rather unhappy period of study. Leaving without a diploma, he worked with a variety of leaders, including Art Farmer, Miles Davis and Chick Corea, before joining Weather Report as founding bassist. A professor and sometime head of jazz at the New England Conservatory, Vitous has had a quiet career, recording sporadically in later years. He left Weather Report in 1973, having recorded three classic albums (he appears only briefly on
Mysterious Traveller
, their fourth release), and experimented with various ‘lead’ and ‘piccolo’ basses, but he doesn’t seem to have acquired the confidence in their use that made Stanley Clarke and a later Weather Report member, Jaco Pastorius, such charismatic figures.

Journey’s End
is a rich mix of free style and deep grooves. Vitous opens with variations on a Czech folk theme, then dances into Surman’s beautiful waltz ‘Tess’. The next piece, ‘Carry On, No. 1’, is improvised by the group, with Surman providing an extraordinary effect on his saxophone keys. ‘Paragraph Jay’ is another theme by the Englishman, this time a roilingly intense one. ‘Only One’ is dedicated to the bassist’s father and it’s played on an electric fretless instrument, but what one notices is just how prominent the acoustic bass has been on the previous tracks, testimony to Vitous’s technique and to ECM sound. It plays out on Taylor’s waltz ‘Windfall’. Not a showman like Jaco, the Czech none the less displays considerable musical confidence and leadership on this second and best ECM date.

WARNE MARSH
^&

Born 26 October 1927, Los Angeles, California; died 18 December 1987, Hollywood, California

Tenor saxophone

Star Highs

Criss Cross 1002

Marsh; Hank Jones (p); George Mraz (b); Mel Lewis (d). August 1982.

After hearing of Warne Marsh’s death, Anthony Braxton said (1988):
‘He was the most important vertical improviser in jazz, a vibrational philosopher whose harmonics had a mathematical purity but also a very direct communicative quality.’

Gerry Teekens’s label was Marsh’s main berth for the last half-decade of his life and this was probably the best of the Criss Cross records. Listen to the straightened-out ‘Moose The Mooche’, on which Marsh does his patented elongation and simplification of the melody and accompaniment. So entire is it that theme and solos almost sound through-composed. Marsh’s original lines are always intriguing. The CD includes two versions of ‘Switchboard Joe’, ‘Star Highs’ and ‘Sometimes’, new themes which the band obviously took some pains over. There’s nothing lumpy or misconceived about the rejected takes, though one wonders why the release version of the title-track was the first take. There was to be a virtual torrent of music-making from Marsh over the next five years, and there’s scarcely a substandard moment in any of it. Appropriately, he died on the stand, doing the only thing he knew how.

& See also
Music For Prancing
(1957; p. 214),
Ne Plus Ultra
(1969; p. 370)

ANDREW CYRILLE

Born 10 November 1939, Brooklyn, New York

Drums

The Navigator

Soul Note 121062-2

Cyrille; Ted Daniel (t, flhn); Sonelius Smith (p); Nick DiGeronimo (b). September 1982.

Andrew Cyrille said (1984):
‘I’m Scorpio, a water sign. I’m not sure what all that means, but there is something with me and water. I wanted a march thing on
The Navigator
, but maybe there are other elements there, too.’

Cyrille worked with leaders as various as Nellie Lutcher and Roland Kirk before hooking up with Cecil Taylor in the early ’60s and becoming a key member of the pianist’s trio at a crucial phase in his development. An intuitively musical percussionist, Cyrille is one of the few solo performers on his instrument worth listening to. That said, he’s also a formidable group leader, who has an uncanny ability to shape an ensemble to his conception. On
The Navigator
each of the players in the group he calls Maono introduces a section, adding compass bearings to a collective navigation back to the source. As with many of Cyrille’s records, it asserts the jazz tradition by seeming to shed it, layer by layer. These are not celebrated players, outside their own circle. Daniel has an edgy, pungent delivery and Smith seems almost elemental himself. So sure is Cyrille’s awareness of time that a bassist might have seemed unnecessary in this context, as it was in the Taylor trio, but DiGeronimo is given an important structural role and he’s well established in the recording. ‘So That Life Can Endure: P.S. With Love’ is the other key statement, superbly shaped by the drummer.

SAM RIVERS
^&

Born 25 September 1923 (some sources still cite 1930), Reno, Oklahoma

Tenor and soprano saxophones, flute

Colors

Black Saint 120064

Rivers; Marvin Blackman (ts, f, ss); Talib Kibwe (f, cl, ts, ss); Chris Roberts (ss, f); Steve Coleman (as, f); Bobby Watson (as, f); Nat Dixon (ts, cl, f); Eddie Alex (ts, picc); Jimmy Cozier, Patience Higgins (bs, f). September 1982.

Sam Rivers said (1996):
‘Winds of Manhattan was one of those projects you kind of hope will excite promoters and record labels, but it’s difficult to get anyone interested in something that isn’t a basic jazz combo. Jazz people say they like new things and surprise, but they basically want it to be a familiar surprise.’

This spectacular convocation of New York reed-playing talent went under the name Winds Of Manhattan. Playing without a rhythm section, it creates a sound that is absolutely consistent with everything Rivers had been doing over the previous 20 years, but scaled up dramatically. The usual interests in wave-forms, flux and unity, dispersement and integration, come together again in these complex charts. Rivers is unmistakably the leader, in that he determines the basic concepts, but the music as a whole is democratic and very broadly based. Those familiar with Coleman or Watson or even with the distinctive Kibwe (T. K. Blue) may well be able to pick out their voices, but this is not the point of the exercise, and
Colors
is best listened to as an orchestral piece, relatively undifferentiated and a long way removed from conventional theme-and-solos jazz.

& See also
Fuchsia Swing Song
(1964; p. 311),
Portrait
(1995; p. 592)

MICROSCOPIC SEPTET

Formed 1980; Phillip Johnston, born 22 January 1955, Chicago, Illinois

Group

Seven Men In Neckties: History Of The Micros

Cuneiform RUNE 236/237 2CD

Phillip Johnston (ss); Don Davis (as); John Hagen, Danny Nigro, Paul Shapiro (ts); Dave Sewelson (bs); Joel Forrester (p); David Hofstra (b, tba); Richard Dworkin (d). December 1982, January 1983, November 1984.

Phillip Johnston says:
‘For a number of years I worked to rescue the Micros LPs from the scrap heap of media history along with 78s or DIY cassettes that never made the transition to CD. When I finally did, the best accidental result was that when we reunited to promote the release, we found we still liked playing together, and we’ve been doing it again semi-regularly ever since.’

Favourites on the New York downtown scene of the ’80s, purveying surreal modern swing; John Zorn was even a member at one point. Titles like
Take the Z Train
and
Lobster Leaps In
(they come at the beginning and the most recent point in the discographical span) pretty much sums up the Microscopic approach, tightly arranged ensemble swing built round a reeds-and-rhythm personnel, what Johnston (now based in Sydney) describes as a ‘brassless little big band’ or ‘guitarless R&B band’. The effect is either avant-garde or retro, depending on your stance, satirical or respectful depending on your prejudices, but it’s all immaculately and lovingly played with a humour rarely encountered in modern jazz. Johnston also makes reference to ‘legendary bad luck’ in record deals.

We’ve generally avoided including compilations and repackagings in this survey, but for the Micros an exception ought to be made, since much of this music might have been consigned to the dust-heap of music, or more realistically a dustily affectionate corner of folk-memory, had it not been for the estimable Cuneiform. Much of this material has been unavailable for some time, but Cuneiform have come to the rescue with a multi-volume reissue. It’s a terrific documentation, with brilliant cover art by Art Spiegelman, pulling together
Z Train
and the ‘live in Holland’
Let’s Flip!
on this essential first volume.

The writing is tight, mostly fast and highly co-ordinated, with Johnston and Forrester
sharing the credits. The pianist’s titles tend to be the more enigmatic, like ‘Pack The Ermines, Mary’, but it’s Johnston’s delightfully wacky compositions that stand out on the first LP, which ends on a surreal high with ‘A Strange Thought Entered My Head’. The second release is valuable not least for confirming that the Micros were by no means a studio artefact, but a formidable performance band. A Dutch audience, raised on Willem Breuker, might well be expected to appreciate the music on
Let’s Flip
, which opens with ‘The Lobster Parade’ (Louis Jordan meets Salvador Dalí) and ends with a delightful version of Billy Strayhorn’s ‘Johnny Come Lately’. The Mephisto club in Rotterdam seems like the ideal setting for this strange but joyous music. A pity it was ever allowed to slip from view.

DAVID FRISHBERG

Born 23 March 1933, St Paul, Minnesota

Piano, voice

Classics

Concord CCD 4462

Frishberg; Steve Gilmore (b); Bill Goodwin (d). December 1982, March 1983.

Dave Frishberg says:
‘Buy a rhyming dictionary. After that, there’s really nothing to it.’

After a supply sergeant told Dave Frishberg that ‘Jazz is OK, but it ain’t got no words’, he has gone about supplying the lack with unparalleled wit and sophistication, delivering hip songwriting in a form that fits with his individual brand of swing piano. If he’s become best known as a cabaret recitalist, Frishberg nevertheless has a strong keyboard style – heard solo on a number of later recordings – that derives from the swing masters without making him seem like a slavish copyist.